How Cinnabon Moved From the Food Court to Everywhere Else

If you were among the millions of devotees of AMC’s much-missed Breaking Bad, odds are you recall the climactic Season 5 episode “Granite State.” Bedeviled by the collapse of his meth empire, Walter White attempted to coerce his sketchy lawyer, Saul Goodman, to come with him on the lam—but Goodman did not want any part of it. “From here on out, I’m Mr. Low Profile,” Goodman said. “If I’m lucky, a month from now—best-case scenario—I’m managing a Cinnabon in Omaha.” That jab was the work of the episode's writer/director Peter Gould, and Cinnabon corporate had no idea it was coming. But minutes after the episode aired, the chain tweeted an invitation to actor Bob Odenkirk to check out its careers page. Roll Call Legendary restaurateur and baker Jerilyn Brusseau (1) is today a flour tester for Cairnspring Mills, but back in 1985 she created the secret recipe that allowed Cinnabon’s first location (2) to open. While the AMC show Better Call Saul meant great publicity (3), Cinnabon has stayed relevant through nontraditional locations and product partnerships like limited-time treats for Pizza Hut (4) and, more recently, Ghost protein powder (5) and Kellogg’s (6). It’s not lost on Cinnabon vp and marketing chief Michael Alberici that his brand had been the butt of a joke in that scene, but corporate played it to its own advantage. “We’re OK making fun of ourselves,” Alberici told Adweek. So OK, in fact, that Cinnabon wound up working with AMC on the spinoff series Better Call Saul. On the show, co-created by Gould, Goodman does indeed wind up managing a Cinnabon in Omaha, Neb.—a scenario that the show revisited frequently throughout its six-season run. Hollywood aside, there’s a larger branding lesson here: Adapt or perish. In 1985, entrepreneur Rich Komen inked a franchise deal to open a bakery called T.J. Cinnamons at Washington's SeaTac Mall. When the deal unexpectedly fell through, Komen had not only a space to fill but also a lease that required him to run a cinnamon roll concept. Komen knew that Seattle restaurant Brusseau’s was already renowned for its cinnamon rolls, so he convinced owner Jerilyn Brusseau to develop a proprietary roll for him. The pair cycled through 200 recipes before settling on one that could be baked in a convection oven and emit the enticing aroma that’s become Cinnabon’s signature hook. Home Sweet Home Companies talk a lot about pivoting these days, but Cinnabon is a test case in how crucial moving fast can be. When Covid-19 made shut-ins out of shoppers—hardly good news for the country’s already struggling malls—Cinnabon had to implement delivery in virtually no time. First, the brand got itself onto the major food delivery services, including Grubhub and DoorDash. By September 2021, it had also launched its first app and a corresponding rewards program, allowing consumers to tap their smartphones to get four- and six-roll CinnaPacks dropped off at their doors. “We launched that app less than two years ago, [and now] we have over 500,000 loyalty rewards members,” Alberici said. “It’s definitely been game-changing for us.” Since that start, the brand has opened 1,800 locations in 51 countries. But with malls disappearing at a steady rate, Cinnabon has switched things up. Using smaller prototype stores, the brand now operates at truck stops, college campuses and even hospitals. (“If you have the square feet,” Alberici likes to say, “we have your treat.”) Since 2018, when it created Mini Rolls for Pizza Hut, Cinnabon has also gone all-in on co-branded products—everything from Pinnacle Cinnabon vodka to Cinnabon-flavored protein powder for Ghost. Meanwhile, the Covid-19 pandemic nudged Cinnabon into home delivery. Alas, even that ubiquity probably won’t give the brand the exposure it enjoyed in Better Call Saul, which aired its series finale last August. “It was a bittersweet end,” Alberici said. The series “inspired the brand team, the marketing team and the PR team,” he added. “And it made our team members feel like rock stars.”

Perspective

How Cinnabon Moved From the Food Court to Pretty Much Everywhere—Including TV

This '80s bakery chain has tweaked its recipe for growth, with a little help from Breaking Bad

Robert Klara

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Robert Klara