What French Bakeries Get Right About Strategy

France’s traditionalist bakers, or boulangeries, should be out of business. Bread prices are competitive, leaving little room for pricing gambits. Ingredients are regulated (by law, the baguette traditionnelle can contain only flour, water, salt, and yeast). If you’re a self-proclaimed “traditionalist” the limitations are even more challenging, as traditionalists don’t permit themselves a variety of time- and cost-saving practices (such as the use of mixes and frozen dough), which are more or less invisible to consumers. Yet despite these disadvantages, traditionalists have maintained a strong majority share of the French bread market despite modernist competitors using more efficient production techniques.