Ace of Birthdays

Have you heard about Ace of Cakes? Chase, our youngest daughter, is a huge fan. She loves the cooking channels and found this show to be one of the coolest. Chef Duff is the creative genius behind a unique cake shop, Charm City Cakes in Baltimore, Maryland. The show, Ace of Cakes, is a 30 minute recap of the concoctions made during a week. They've created cakes that are replicas of baseball and football stadiums.  My personal favorite is a cake made for the touring Broadway cast of Avenue Q but the life-size guitars are awesome too.

Scott's 40th Birthday was in October and as a special treat, the girls and I had a cake made by Charm City Cakes. Scott is our Willy Wonka so he is sitting on a throne on top of the cake. Of course, we had to have wrapped Hershey's bars so we sent a list of Scott's favorite things--eBay, Starbucks, our cats Coco and Mocha, etc--and those became the wrappers. Scott was speechless, literally. The creativity was inspiring.

The Birthday Boy himself wrote a wonderful article about this event from his point of view. For his full account, please see "Charm City Surprise". 

A Smiling Face

What's better than putting a smile on a child's face? As a special holiday gift for her student's, my friend Sara added her picture on our Blue Snowman design. The wrapper has always been cute but with Sara's smiling face on it, I couldn't help but imagine what the students would do when they received them. I asked Sara if she could capture the moment for me.

Sara e-mailed, "I just gave the kids the chocolates today at the end of the day, and they LOVED them! They were EXCITED!"

Luckily, I am surrounded by creativity everyday. That makes me smile.

By Sharon Frederick 

The Perfect Catalog Cover

If you're like me, you come home everyday during the holiday season to a pile of catalogs in your mailbox. You quickly glance to see who is sending it. You might see a beautiful product on the cover or back page. You could read Free Shipping.

Usually, I look through the catalogs I receive and make two piles. One pile is for the companies I know and trust. If I've had a positive shopping experience with a company, I tend to give their catalog a chance to sell me something new. However, if I don't know the company, the picture or offer must motivate me to open it. So begins the process of creating the perfect catalog.

At CARSON wrappedhersheys.com, we began working on our Holiday catalog cover almost 10 months ago. You see even Santa loves wrapped Hershey's chocolates!

Online Shopping Rebuild

Several months ago the creative team started developing a new on-line shopping experience for our customers. We started reworking the homepage layout then moved through both the main category and subcategory pages. While we are very excited about these page enhancements, it’s the product page changes that we think our customers will appreciate the most.

We started with a wish list of ideas, gathering information from various sources and researching ideas. However, our best suggestions came directly from our customers. One of our team members answers customer emails and phone calls, and that gave us a lot of insight into what our customers' needs and concerns were. When we began looking at the product page one of the first things our customers wanted to understand better was the blue box in the middle of the page. 
The information in this blue box is extremely important. It contains the Item #, the name of the item, with or without chocolate, the size selection, the minimum order quantities and pricing. Needless to say, that’s a lot to pack into one table. But not only is it a table, it’s where the customer must make their selection to purchase.

Our rebuilt page is more like the dialogue you would get with a customer service associate on the phone. The customer actually builds the item through a series of fluid selections. We believe the on-line shopping experience should be easy for our customers and we will continue to listen to what our customers want. Next up:  the personalization page…

Celebrate Your Employee

From our blog you might be able to tell that we celebrate our employees. At CARSON wrappedhersheys.com, we want our employees to feel appreciated everyday through our actions, but we also like to recognize individuals. For birthdays, we decorate the person's workspace. Each month, on monitors located throughout our office, we post pictures of employee's celebrating an anniversary of employment. All companies should recognize their employees on these special days.

To make it easy for our corporate customers, we've created two new collections now available on-line. Our Employee Birthday and Employee Anniversary designs give you the opportunity to hand something sweet to your associate. With a special birthday or anniversary message and your company name, it's clear...you really want them to have a great day!

Bring it on!

Last year, Scott and I took the girls on a weekend trip for New Year's Eve.  The hotel staff kept telling us they were so busy as an excuse for their less than stellar service.  What the staff didn't realize was that telling us how busy they were, did not make us feel any better about our experience.  In fact, it made us feel like we had put them out.  I'm sure that was not their intention.  However, it reinforced an extremely important business mantra.  Treat your customer as if they are the ONLY customer. 

April and May are the busiest months of the year for CARSON wrappedhersheys.com.  And we love it!  We work extra hours on both evenings and weekends to make sure each order is processed and shipped when promised.  Associates in the phone center will not only answer calls, they will help production by counting foil sheets, wrapping 5oz bars and helping pack orders.  The marketing group will help enter customer information on the wrapper designs, proof and print wrappers. We really work as a team so our customer is happy with their purchase from us.

Even with all that is going on, the graphic designers are still working to enhance our wrapper collection.  We've recently completed designs for our Safety Campaign category as June is National Safety Month.  We are also creating wrappers for our Employee Anniversary and Employee Birthday categories.  Our customers keep giving us more to do and we are thrilled about it!

Election Fever & More

Over the past few months I've been interested in the Primary Elections taking place throughout our country.  I'm not sure if it's my age (I've just hit the big 4-0) or if I am looking at the current landscape wanting change.  Regardless, it's exciting to see people so compelled to vote.

Almost 4 years ago, we created a Bush/Cheney wrapper and a Kerry/Edwards wrapper.  We kept a tally of the "votes" or most purchases.  Our unofficial poll actually did predict the eventual winner.  We received a lot of good feedback about our fun political wrappers.

Two months ago, we started working on designs that we could sell online for elections.  The design team researched political signs, buttons, posters and blogs.  But our election collection doesn't stop with Politics...we also included high school offices, homecoming courts and more.  Check out our new category hitting our website in March!

 

New Trends for the New Year

You have probably noticed that times are changing. In virtually every venue, from technology to family dynamics, alterations are seen—sometimes subtle and sometimes profound—but life is always on the move.
These changes show up in countless ways, but for Carson the focus is on how people arrange and recognize life’s important moments. Like other successful businesses, Carson understands it must keep up with the demands of the ever changing times and the ways special occasions are celebrated. With these changes in mind, the designers at Carson have recently undergone a major project to update wrapper designs in three special occasion categories: BabyShower, First Communion and Graduation.    
Sharon Frederick, President of Marketing & Sales at Carson states, “It’s a curious group of three, but here is how they got together. The Baby Shower category accounts for a large portion of our Special Occasion sales. The product development team created new designs for this category about 3 years ago. So, it was time for an update. As for First Communion and Graduation, these are two of our largest categories each spring. Working on new designs now ensures that they will be available online before the rush.”

BABY SHOWER
Let’s start from the beginning of life, before one makes the initial appearance. Most people are first welcomed by friends and family at a baby shower. With today’s technology, many parents choose to discover the gender ofthe baby ahead of time. Carson offers baby shower wrappers in pink or blue for such parents, and in other colors for those who have opted to keep it a surprise. 
Carson gives new parents the opportunity to share ultrasound images with baby shower  wrappers designed specifically for this purpose. Graphic designer Sylvia Thornburg created such a  wrapper for her friend Laurie’s baby shower. Laurie later said, “The candy bars were a huge, huge success! Everybody loved them. They were great. I'm going to put one in the baby’s scrapbook.”
The modern couple frequently falls along non-traditional lines. Fathers are included at baby showers more than ever before. At Carson, you can find an assortment of shower wrappers that include both parents. In trendy colors and patterns, the latest designs show that Carson understands who the modern mother is.

FIRST COMMUNION
Life goes on and religious events often follow. Carson remains on the cutting edge for changes in this arena as well. Of particular note are the new First Communion wrappers, geared toward celebrating this important step in a child’s faith. Included in this group are designs that feature stylized symbols, a  class photo and a elegant monogram design in many color options.
Sunrise, sunset …

GRADUATION
We’re now at graduation time and Carson has kept its finger on the pulse of the nation. A resurgence of patriotism is the driving force behind the beautiful new Patriotic Grad design. Angelic assistance is hailed on some designs, while others are more formal, in silver and gold and appropriate for the most upscale events. For the younger grads, Carson has added new designs featuring colorful shapes and classroom supplies geared toward children. Whatever you are looking for, Carson has the perfect favor to complement your school colors or graduation party theme.
Check out Carson’s website and you will be amazed at the innovative designs. In the way of personalized chocolate party favors, you will find the newest updates to the oldest traditions.

Opportunity Galore

As we head into December, the Marketing department has started reviewing our data to determine our plans for 2008.  We try to start each year with a complete calendar in place.  It’s a wonderful guideline for everyone to see just what needs to be accomplished.  We sometimes have to deviate from what we thought was important to what becomes more important at the time. 

For 2008, we are excited about delving into our corporate wrapper designs and gift items.  We have created a large number of new categories for this market so now the fun begins.  We will probably spend almost 6 months of the year developing new wrappers for Accountants, Safety Managers, Company Anniversary Celebrations, Employee Birthday and much more.  If you have an idea to share, leave a comment and check back each month to see what has been added to our collections.

Baby Showers, 1st Communions & Graduations

It’s a curious group of three.  But here is how they got together.  The baby shower category accounts for a large portion of our Special Occasion sales. The product development team created new designs for this category about 3 years ago.  So it was time for an update.  As for 1st Communions and Graduations, these are two of our largest categories each Spring.  Working on new designs now ensures that they will be available online before the rush.

Last night the designers handed me a packet containing their rough drafts for these collections.  Seeing the designs for the first time is one of the best parts of my job.  I love how the artist takes an idea and turns it into a fantastic wrapper.  So when I opened the envelope and saw the fruits of the labors, I was very happy.  But then I started going through the collection and was just blown away.  Many of the roughs were so good they looked ready to purchase.

The designers got together a few times before turning in their work and taking the time to critique and get feedback from each other really paid off.  The best part of my job is seeing the sales rise for a particular design or category after the hard work is put forth.  I know that you will enjoy the new wrappers too!