I’m writing an article that you’ll see here in the next few weeks about Stories and how they play a role in your branding. I recently had a great story created for me by Our House, an AIDS Hospice Non-profit I was doing some pro-bono work for.
As with most non-profits, they have very little “spare” money. I didn’t expect much from them in return for my work. I worked with the events director communicating by phone and e-mail up to this point, and there was a day when he wanted to meet in person at my office. To my surprise, he came with a gift in tow: a box of a dozen Saint Cupcake mini cupcakes.
Saint Cupcake is a bakery that opened here a couple of years ago, once the gourmet cupcake trend hit the West coast. 
Now – I’m a big design geek and a glutton for sugar so, their decision to make this gesture hit all sorts of right buttons within me. I have the photos posted here so you get the visual aspect of this.
Saint Cupcake does it’s branding right. Great logo, great service, the box for the to go orders is pretty close (here in Portland anyway) to the Tiffany box in recognition and wow… Emotional connections galore!
It brings back so many wondrous memories of childhood: The familiar colors of a retro local bakery that was a rare treat visit, scrumptious cupcakes we all 
loved as kids, but kicked up several notches for the adults to enjoy just as much as kids do. It’s like a Pixar movie, in a sense. they hit all the right notes.
The story? The non-profit is great to work with and I most certainly will do it again next year. That one small gesture sealed the deal even more solidly. Check out Our House and their Dinner Series, Dinner at My House for Our House, go visit and see how you can help. Our House has helped those with advanced HIV, provides room for 14 residents where they receive around the clock medical care, occupational therapy and also assists them to be healthy enough to be discharged.