Froyo’s age has faded. Fancy cupcakes are passed. The cronut craze is now a distant fever dream. Dessert trends can grow quickly, and today we’re in the age of elaborate cookies — kind of.
When Crumble first burst onto the scene, the innovation was that the company turned a relatively simple, low-fuss dessert into a huge, over-the-top main attraction of your meal order. A single crumble cookie can be about 5 inches in diameter, and unusual flavors in the past have included cornbread, churro, Biscoff lava, maple bacon, and more. They are colorful and photogenic, packaged in a baby-pink box, instantly recognizable even from a distance. Since 2017, the brand has grown rapidly, opening more than 1,000 locations and becoming perhaps the most accessible cookie chain in the country. But whether the crumble actually good A lot depends on who you ask, and that unanswered question helps fuel its continued popularity and relevance online.
Rather than offering a fixed menu of reliably beloved cookies delivered door-to-door to customers, Crumble online virality — whether positive or not — with a revolving door of new desserts each week. Increasingly, they don’t just make cookies, but pies, cakes, ice cream, puddings and more. The brand’s official TikTok account has more than 9.6 million followers, but the real juice is among the many influencers Regularly posting about Crumble Its decadent construction on the platform, sometimes surprisingly unrealistic in appearance, arouses curiosity: what sweet invention will it try this time? Open TikTok on Monday to see a new batch of Crumble review videos, countless creators eagerly biting into a new dessert.
“It’s an Internet brand,” said Stephen Jagger, an associate business professor at Columbia University Crumble, as a company, is making “all the right marketing moves.” The company did not respond to a request for comment.
There’s no denying that Crumble has harnessed the power of social media — and so far, will hold — people’s precious attention. The question is whether it’s sustainable to be a dessert chain that’s all about pushing new trends and offering something ephemeral. If you’re a content creator of any kind, perpetual freshness is a boon. But if you’re here to enjoy some dessert and stumble upon a flavor you love, good luck. it could be It takes months To see it back, if it ever is.
How Crumble grew and grew and grew
In the Ghost Kitchen era, no other cookie chain has such a large physical presence as the current Crumble: Insomnia launched in 2003 and currently has only 300 stores, like Mrs. Fields in the United States. Levine’s, representing the fancier end of baked goods, opened in the 90s and is not franchised, with just a few locations scattered across the country. Other new competitors such as Dirty Dough and Crave also have much lower positions than Crumble.
The founders of Crumble, Jason McGowan and Sawyer Hemsley, are two cousins from Utah. Before launching Crumble in 2017, they “knew nothing about baking,” McGowan said in an interview. CEO Magazine. They had a background in technology and marketing but thought they could offer cookies; Company start Franchising is the new location Fast, hundreds open every year.
“I’ve seen very few brands grow at that rate, especially brick and mortar,” says Kathleen Gosser, a professor of franchise management practices at the University of Louisville. But unlike Subway, which famously employed a strategy of opening too many stores, Gosser says Crumble seems to be more strategic about spacing out their locations. “There’s not one on every corner,” Gosser says. For example, there are still none in New York, Brooklyn or Queens, and one in Staten Island, and a handful in Manhattan – ground zero for the dessert craze, from cupcakes to cronuts, including one in the West Village, where I tried my first crushed cookie.
According to mobile apps insights firm Sensor Tower, the Crumble app has been downloaded 6.4 million times in the U.S. this year and ranks 15th overall in the U.S. food and beverage category, impressive for a chain that sells only sweets. Coffey, Mormons as Founders).
The internet just can’t stop talking about Crumble
Most brands today rely on social media for at least some marketing. What sets Crumble apart is that its products don’t just become a trend for influencers when particularly quirky limited-edition flavors drop, such as recent collaborations. Oreos and Coke. Although sometimes there are Celebrity endorsement And with tie-ins — an Olivia Rodrigo-themed cookie was released over the summer — most ads apparently happen organically, too. Dedicated content creators focus on weekly drops, using popular (and sometimes polarizing) desserts as vehicles for their own fame.
Crumble’s business model has built a sustainable hype machine thanks to a constant carousel of new flavors, which serve as fodder for seemingly endless discourse as Crumble has a constantly refreshing feed of content. Some influencers hate the crumble; Others can’t get enough. Taste tests are often titled something along the lines of “My honest thoughts on crumbles,” as if they suggest cutting through all the noise to make a definitive judgment about the cookies. The fact that the flavors are only available for one week ensures a sense of urgency in the way luxury streetwear drops do. Online, people post “crumble spoilers” — leaked information about what flavors are coming in the next few weeks — though Gold level reward member The loyalty program gives you early access to its “Weekly Drop Videos”.
Built-in shortages mean “people have to run to get there” when a new menu is released, Jagor said.
Online mentions of Crumble have grown in the past year — up 29 percent from 2023, according to consumer insight company BrandWatch — but news of Crumble’s “pop-up” a few months ago hit the hardest. Sydney, Australia spread on social media. People queuing to pay $17.50 Australian (about $12 US) for a cookie, double its price in the US to turn out to be an unauthorized resale pop-up. For those posting about it online Virality single day event The highlight was — blink and you might have missed it — and not so much the anticipation of how good the day-old imported cookies could taste (though many commented immobility) Crumble, for its part, chose not to take any legal action. In fact, the scandal revived the brand’s plans Open his first store Outside North America in Australia.
Food marketing on social media platforms like TikTok, YouTube and Instagram is especially appealing to young people because of how interactive it is, said Jennifer Harris, senior research adviser on marketing at the UConn Rudd Center for Food Policy and Health. “You’re not just sitting around watching television and passively watching anymore,” she tells Vox. “The flavors that change every week are also really interesting for kids who don’t want to miss out. [It’s] The FOMO factor.”
Can Crumble keep up the excitement?
It’s unlikely that people clamoring for crumbles don’t know that these huge desserts are probably not healthy (a cookie can be upwards of 900 caloriesBut when it comes to digital content about brands, the literal nutritional content of desserts is irrelevant. The key is knowing and keeping up with consumer trends, be it cookies or skin care products. In a recent video, YouTuber Edvasian made the comparison Crumble event For cookies being “fast fashion”. This is another manifestation of fuel hyper-consumption by a conveyor belt of micro-trends coming and going at an ever-increasing pace. Brands need content creators for marketing and content creators need brands as a jumping off point for audience building Behind every new Crumble Week lies the potential for viral fame.
This relationship between fast fashion and influencers is nothing new, but the combination is a little unfamiliar when we’re talking about food—specifically, a type of food that’s often a pleasant, nostalgic comfort. Dessert is a tough segment for companies to succeed in. “You’re constantly being measured against grandma’s cookies and the cookies from the local bakery,” Jagor says. Crumble offers adventure, but not familiarity, and not necessarily loyalty.
Despite Crumble’s momentum of success, there are some worrying signs in its recent performance. Its profit per store in 2023 fell to approx 58 percent compared to the previous year. It begs the question of whether its popularity can be sustained, or if it is just an unbridled cookie trend. Go the way of the froyo. Some customers complain about D price Compared to the quality of a single cookie that can vary from week to week and store to store. (A single cookie costs $4.99 at my nearest Crumble; it’s $5.77 at Levine’s, and most Insomnia cookies are $2.95.) The company has also been fairly aggressive about defending its perch as a cookie chain known for offering a weekly menu of innovative flavors. In 2022, it is case Two much smaller competitors that offer new flavors every week — Crave Cookies and Dirty Dough — are accused of copying its techniques, trademarks and packaging, even Dirty Dough’s argument. Many of Crumble’s recipes have been stolen. Crumble has since agreed to resolve both lawsuits through a settlement.
The challenge is to maintain his momentum “in a world where everything is virtual and everything disappears with light — it’s so easy for someone else to come in and take the spotlight away from them,” Jagor says.
My personal experience with Crumble is that its dessert tastes just right. They are not inedible – I enjoyed my little one get rid of sin — but none of it is memorable or something I’d crave or reach for when in the mood for something sweet. “It has as much air as matter,” Jagor explains. “It’s what you see, and what you hear, and what you read, and what color the box is.” The real flavor of the thing, in the face of so much other fluff, can’t help receding into the background.
