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!

Lots and Lots of Holiday Ideas

Our creative staff met Friday last week to discuss ideas for our new Holiday collections. The group discussed Thanksgiving, Christmas, Kwanzaa, Hanukkah and New Year’s.   Over 300 ideas were generated in just 2 hours.  With that many creative thoughts floating around, you can bet that a fabulous new collection will be ready for the festive season.

Today, our office hosted a special Beach day (read more about that in Under the Wrapper) and it was fun to see the Hawaiian-shirt-wearing designers working on Snowflakes, Candy Canes and Santa Claus.  Rough drafts are due Monday.  I can’t wait…I want to pick out my Christmas cards early this year.

Christmas in July

Over the past two months, the graphic artists have been extremely busy.  Final drafts for the Anniversary, Sweetest Day and Halloween collections were due Friday, June 22.  Now comes the data part so these fabulous new items can be sold.  The new Anniversary collection should be available in 1 week!

So begins the next collection…Holiday.  We have started reviewing our data from last Christmas and bringing in new containers.  Next week, with July 4 being on a Wednesday, I will take the product development team on a field trip.  We will travel to The Christmas Shop. we will begin our research and look for inspiration to start the brainstorming sessions that will become our new Holiday collection. 

Please add comments if you have any suggestions on new Holiday product ideas.  We would love to hear from you!

Upcoming Releases

A couple of weeks ago, the Product Development team got together for a fun-filled brainstorming session.  On our agenda for this month…Anniversaries, Halloween and Sweetest Day.

One of our best selling categories in the Special Occasion market is Anniversary.  We’ve added to this collection in bits and pieces over the last 4 years but now we are really going to give it a lift.  The designers have been doing their research and have come up with an impression list of ideas that we had to narrow down. 

The collection everyone is now anxious and excited to get started on is Halloween!  Who doesn’t love Halloween?  The brainstorming session brought together many cute ideas with several clever quotes.  We will be adding a Baby’s 1st Halloween design.  We plan on having a frightfully good time on this group.

Lastly, we have a short list for Sweetest Day.  Although Sweetest Day is a natural holiday for chocolate buying, it’s never been a big holiday for us.  We’ll see if an infusion of some new designs might change that.  It has worked well to boost other markets such as Valentine’s, First Communion, Teacher Appreciation and Graduation so it’s worth a try.

We try to create what our customers tell us they want, not what we think they should have.  If you have any suggestions for a great design or product concept for us, email me at sales@carsonbars.com.  I would love to hear from you.

Can You Do This? Can You Do That?

Our answer is always YES!  But not everyone wants to pay an extra design fee for changes or custom artwork.  Our solution…continuously look for ways to expand our product offerings. 

For the last 4 years, Carson’s Graphic Art Department has been working nonstop to bring new options to you, our customers.  We started with a total revamp of our Birth Announcement collection.  Then we moved onto the Wedding Favors.  Along the way, many other categories were lightly touched upon as well..  And last year, in 2006, we spent over 6 months creating new wrapper designs for the Birthday collection. 

Last December, time was spent altering many of the Birthday designs for new Fill-in-the-Blank Valentines.  What a hit!  Over the last two months, we shipped more Valentine orders than ever before.  (Someday I would love to have a Valentine cover for our catalog – but that’s another topic.)

In 2007, we are trying to do a new category or group every month.  Here’s a look at our current design process, while working on a recent collection..  The artists and marketing associates went on a field trip to research for the Baptism/Christening section.  After gathering lots of great ideas, we had a brainstorming session to share directions we could go,  so the marketing department reviewed the list and narrowed it down to a manageable number of ideas.  After selecting ideas to work on, the graphic department created rough drafts for management’s review.  If the rough draft is in line with what we think you, our customers, are telling us you want, the artist finishes the work on the design.  The designs are proofed, printed and tested.  Then it becomes a NEW product on the website. 

Right now we are working on the Thank You gift collection.  If you ask, can you do this or that on my wrapper, the answer is almost always …YES.