Yesterday we celebrated the 10-year employment anniversary for a number of our team members. When you order brownies from Fairytale Brownies, remember that there is a dedicated and professional team behind the scenes.
There were three team members celebrating anniversaries in August. Kim Brandimarte is our Shipping Team Leader who makes sure that when we ship brownies around the world, everything is packed to perfection. Chris Corn runs our retail store here in Phoenix and provides gourmet brownies with a warm and welcome smile to our walk-in customers. Donna Baker is our Controller and she ensures that every time we send brownies, all of the financial accounting is complete and accurate. We also honored Jen O'Flynn with a belated recognition plaque. Jen oversees the customization of packaging for our corporate gifts. She has been a team member for over 10 years.
Fairytale Brownies would not be the success it is today without the hard work and dedication of these incredible team members! Eileen and I learned early in business that we cannot succeed alone. We have spent many years building an empowered workplace filled with dedicated, hard working and, most importantly, happy people. Thank you to all of our Fairytale Team Members!!
Kim, Chris and Donna celebrating 10 Fairytale years!
Eileen, Jen, Kim, Chris, Donna & David with 10-year recognition plaques
I've mentioned before that I volunteer for the American Cancer Society on the Phoenix DetermiNation program in my free time. I tend to bring our fudgy chocolate brownies for our volunteers, runners and walkers to enjoy at our meetings and events. As a result, we have discovered that gourmet Fairytale Brownies make a great pre or post-run snack. Who knew Belgian chocolate brownies could be the secret to a great run?! It turns out the nutritional content of a Fairytale Sprite snack-size brownie is pretty similar to most energy/protein bars on the market, and our all-natural ingredients provide some of the best fuel available. So next time you need a snack before you head out to run, bike, swim or whatever workout you prefer, try one of these fudgy chocolate brownies and see if it works for you!
Last year, Fairytale Brownies was a featured item on QVC's segment of luxurious chocolate gifts. Various customers who ordered our special assortment of gourmet brownies from QVC left great feedback on the product and their experience with our company. Below are some of the fantastic reviews left by those customers. Also, if you follow the link below, you can see the special QVC assortment we featured on the segment!
OMG - JUST OUT OF THIS WORLD ****** (5 stars) "At first I said how can they be worth the money for brownies, but boy was I wrong. With every bite, you can taste the high quality of the recipe and there are many flavors for everyone. They can each have their favorite. I guess it is true, you get what you pay for. I will wait for easy pay to buy again, but I will buy again and again and again!" ~ Posted by maroc 02-13-10
BEST KEPT SECRET ***** (5 stars) "I sent these to a friend for Christmas. Took a chance, had never heard of this company. My friend called all of his friends to tell them that these were the best brownies he had ever eaten. What a great purchase. Highly recommend this item!" ~ Posted by beckee on 05-05-10
MOST DECADENT BY A CHOCOLATE LOVER ***** (5 stars) "I have ordered brownies online for years, and they are the best I've ever had. Decadent chocolate brownies! Love love love them! Order them for everyone you know who loves chocolate!" ~ Posted by cstog on 09-21-09
HAVE A FAIRYTALE DAY! ***** (5 stars) "I have purchased these brownies for many years for my family, friends, co-workers, and customers. I also gave a box of Sprites to my child's teachers. These have always been of terrific quality and we have enjoyed all of the flavors. One tip... if you can't eat them all at once, put them in the freezer and take out as needed. Great warm with a little ice-cream!" ~ Posted by neani on 02-27-09
Erin, David and I are back at Rick Gayle Studio taking photos for our holiday gourmet brownie gift catalogs, and I thought I would share a few behind-the-scenes photos. We've been taking pictures of new towers and tins that will be full of fudgy brownies for the holidays, and they all look delicious. Today is the first day we've taken photos of our new Fairytale Cookies, and we are excited to offer customers the opportunity of getting cookies delivered along with our brownies. They are looking and tasting good!
Here's Erin with a plate of cosmetic sponges that our food stylist, Kim, uses to prop up our brownies.
And here I am tying ribbon around our monstrous new 6-box Fairytale Tower. It's 20 inches tall, and full of Fairytale Brownies and Cookies and other goodies!
And here's Kim working on our new Christmas Tower set.
As I mentioned last week, we had a summer kickoff party here at Fairytale Brownies last Wednesday. All 33 of us took a break from baking gourmet brownies, packing and shipping brownie gifts and figuring out what makes people want to buy brownies for a couple hours of fun in the sun. David put together a fun video of the party, and I thought it would be fun to give you a little behind-the-scenes peek at our party at the Fairytale Bakery. You might notice that we also got to sample some of our forthcoming Fairytale Cookies. They are coming right along, and each batch is more delicious than the last. I can't wait to add them to our food gift product line this fall!
Erin and I are spending this week at a gourmet brownie photo shoot to prepare our brownie gifts catalog for the fall and winter of 2010. We've been working the team at Rick Gayle Studio for several years, and we love the work they do for us. And they sure know how to have a good time doing it! :) We're shooting a little differently than we have in the past to freshen up the catalog, so I thought I'd give you a little behind-the-scenes peek at how we shoot our fudgy brownies in the photo studio.
Here's a wide shot of the whole studio:
Jill in the background finding and prepping the best brownies of the bunch while Kim and I look at cut Fairytale Truffles (chocolate-covered brownies) to choose which one to feature:
Rick fine tuning the layout of a shot of a Christmas brownie gift:
And finally, a shot-in-progress of the pure, premium ingredients that make Fairytale Brownies the best mail order brownies around:
Our graphic designer, Erin, and I are deeply entrenched in the process of creating our gourmet Belgian chocolate brownie gifts catalog for the upcoming holiday season. I know, most of you won't even think about ordering brownies for the holidays for at least another six or seven months, but we have a gourmet brownie photo shoot in two short weeks!
Erin is working on a new layout for the catalogs beginning in September that I think you will all love. It's still in progress, but it is beautiful, and I think will make our fudgy brownies look even more decadent. Meanwhile, I'm working on the final new product and photo shoot details so we can have the best selection of brownie gifts available when you are ready to send brownies to your friends, loved ones, colleagues and clients this fall. I can't wait to show you a behind-the-scenes look at the photo shoot, so keep your eyes peeled in a couple of weeks for that!
Today, I'm working on some gourmet brownie gift towers we're going to debut in our Fall 2010 catalogs, and I wanted to give you a behind-the-scenes look at a new product in development. We've packed these white sample boxes full of delicious fudge brownies, cookies (can you spot them?), coffee, cocoa and cashews to see what fits in the towers.
Next, we'll analyze the cost of each gourmet brownie flavor that we hope to include, so we can make sure the gifts fit into the right price range for our customers who order brownies in these kinds of gifts.
On the design front, our graphic designer Erin is working on how the boxes should look so that we create the most enchanting gift we can. There will be plenty of our signature Fairytale purple and brown in one set of towers, but a couple of others will be designed as part of our Christmas and Holiday gift collections.
On Thursday, March 25th Fairytale Brownies hosted a group from the Arizona Society of Certified Public Accountants. The event was organized by our Controller Donna, our Bookkeeper Michelle, and Alyssa in Public Relations. The group of 30 CPA's had a behind-the-scenes tour of our brownie bakery and learned how we create the best brownies in the world.
After a quick introduction, we all donned hairnets and headed into the kitchen. We watched our Shipping and Baking Teams in action and then went upstairs to observe customers buy brownies over the phone with the Customer Service Team. We took a quick look at the Sales, Marketing, IT, and Accounting Teams and then went into the conference room for a presentation.
The CPA's all earned continuing education credits for attending the tour and presentation. At the end of the tour we went downstairs where they could all buy brownies at a special discount. Everyone had a great time!
Here I am explaining how we wrap our handcrafted fudge brownies.
Each CPA received a goodie bag filled with gourmet brownies!
This coming season we are planning to introduce NEW Fairytale Brownie Cookies! We are deep in the process of working on various recipes for these products, which can be easier said than done. . . .especially since this is not another gourmet brownie flavor, but a different baked good all together.
Many people don't realize that it can take up to a year or more to introduce a new product as there are numerous factors to consider when developing and testing new items. We must first come up with the idea of what we want to introduce - this is mostly based on customer feedback and current industry trends, but it must also fit our brand. Once we have figured out what we want to introduce, we then have to source the ingredients; making sure they are natural, kosher, readily available and meet our overall cost objectives. We must also take into consideration whether or not the product can be easily and efficiently produced using existing equipment.
Once we have figured out the actual item, recipe development can finally begin. We have a test kitchen on site at Fairytale Brownies Bakery in Phoenix and we utilize the services of Stephanie Green from Nutrition Studio, she is an R&D specialist in the baked goods industry. We'll go back and forth tasting, testing and tweaking the recipes until we come up with the perfect item. At this point the next phase of testing begins, which involves shelf-life, storage and ship-ability of the product. Ship-ability is important because we are in the mail order business, so if the item is not going to arrive in perfect condition, we can't introduce it. This could very well send us back to the kitchen for more recipe tweaking.
During the time the actual product itself is being finalized, our design team is working on packaging and the marketing team is working on how it will be sold and configured into our gift line.
All of this must take place prior to our Fall catalog photo shoot, which occurs annually in May. If we miss this deadline, the product will likely be delayed until the following Spring. As you can tell, the deadline for the coming 2010 Fall season is fast approaching so I must rush back to the test kitchen, a batch of chocolate brownie cookies is hot out of the oven and needs some tasting!
My daughter started high school this year and needless to say, Fairytale Brownies is very supportive. Below is a photo of a banner we purchased to help support the school basketball team. Having a Dad who owns a brownie company is always a fun bonus for my kids. We send brownies to school with them every day and they regularly make new friends in the cafeteria. My son and daughter both "order brownies" from me on a regular basis by putting a post-it note on my briefcase before I go to work. Their friends put in special flavor requests so these orders can be very detailed. I'm secretly hoping that all these students will grow up with a love for Fairytale Brownies and one day they'll buy brownies from us! :)
I am sad to say this will be my final blog as a team member of Fairytale Brownies. Although I won't be here physically I will forever spread the brownie love, obviously I have become a huge fan of our gourmet brownies over the years. While I am excited to explore new ventures I will miss the smell of a fresh baked fudge brownies when I come to work each morning. I will be frequently reading the brownie blog to stay updated on the behind the scenes happenings at the Fairytale bakery. It has been a great 5 years, Fairytale Brownies is not only the best brownie company but an awesome company to work for. Thank you to all of my customers, co-workers and the many friends I have made over the years. It's been a very sweet experience but now it's time to go... Goodbye!
Hello, Hello, Hello...... to all of the wonderful readers of the Fairytale Brownies Blog. I know it has been a while since you have heard from your happy customer service team member and reading about the glorious stories from customers ordering brownies online. Well your resident "Brownie Gift Giving tour guide is here!" I love reading all the wonderful comments and raves from all of our customers, so since I love them so much I anounce them to all of the staff at FTB on Thursdays, we call it the Rave Wave. We get all kinds a letters from customers that have ordered brownies or recieved brownies as gifts and say they are the best brownies in all Fairytale land....I Love it!
One letter that made me smile was from a customer that purchased birthday brownies for her Aunt Ann birthday who turned 100 year old. She said that her aunt looks forward to the brownies. That just brings a smile to your face and applauds all around that we are apart of such a glorious day. Happy 100th Birthday Ann, enjoy the fudgy brownie treat.
Thank you very much to everyone who takes the time to read the Fairytale Brownies blog! We recently had a meeting to discuss how we can make our blog more interesting and draw more readers to it. We have a team of 9 bloggers and I think we came up with some pretty good ideas. After our meeting I got to thinking and realized what better way to find out what you want to read but to ask you! So, what is it you like to hear about? Obviously our gourmet brownies, but what else? Would you like to see more behind the scenes posts from the Fairytale bakery? Would you like more ideas on what to buy brownies for? More brownie recipes? We would love to hear any ideas you might have!
Bringing the right dessert to a Super Bowl party will determine whether you get to lounge on the cushy couch in front of the big screen, or have to weave your body from side to side in a folding chair behind a 6'5" guy named "Buck" who won't sit still.
You know there will be plenty of football-shaped cakes and chocolate chip cookies at the party and they'll be quite tasty. But what if you brought fudge brownies from Fairytale Brownies instead? That spot on the couch will have your name on it!
I'm trying to decide what form my gourmet brownie dessert will take.
I might buy a couple of cut-and-serve 1 lb. Brownie Trays (sold at all AJ's Fine Foods in Arizona) and frost one of them with fudge frosting or maybe cream cheese frosting. The other brownie tray will be for the purists who just like their brownies naked, thank you.
If I decide to spend a little time in the kitchen, I might layer some brownies, pudding, fruit and whipped cream to create a delicious trifle. Maybe I'll use Toffee Crunch brownies, and instead of fruit, I'll throw some chocolate chips in between the layers. Would it still be called a trifle? Whatever. If the fruit is that important, I'll decorate with it on the trifle top... and add some chocolate sauce and chopped nuts, too!
Getting people to talk about and eat your dessert is key. While they're "oohing" and "aahing," you'll be lounging ON THE COUCH where you deserve to be because you brought Fairytale Brownies.
Today is Kristie's birthday! She is our Corporate Sales Assistant. Unfortunately since her birthday falls during our busiest time we aren't able to take her to lunch today like we usually do. Instead we decorated her desk! :) She will enjoying a delicious fudge Fairytale Brownie in place of a cake. Yummy!
Here is a behind the scenes peak at Kristie's crazy birthday decorations
This morning the Marketing Team here at Fairytale Brownies exchanged names for our Secret Santa gift exchange. We all wrote down three things we like on a piece of paper, put them in a hat and took turns picking. It's so exciting to start thinking about what special gift you are going to pick out for the person you chose. We set the spending limit at $20 so I am very excited to see what I can find! This got me thinking what an awesome Secret Santa gift Fairytale Brownies would make! Under $20 we have at least 7 different gifts to choose from! My favorite gift under $20 is our Magic Morsel Dozen. This gift is one dozen of our perfectly portioned bite-size Magic Morsels. It includes 3 each of Original, Caramel, Chocolate Chip and Walnut flavors in a beautiful purple box with silver lining. I think a box of fudge brownies would make someone very happy!
Today is Cyber Monday, the busiest day of the year for online shopping. Jay Reynolds of ABC 15 stopped by the bakery to discuss web shopping with David Kravetz, Fairytale's Co-Founder and Catalog & Web Team Leader.
David and Jay reviewed web order stats from 2008 and compared last year's Cyber Monday's orders with this year. At 10:30 a.m., Fairytale received 50% more web orders than last year!
Today's Fairytale Brownies sale of 20% on select items is doing well.
Jay toured the bakery to familiarize himself - and photograph - the brownie baking and shipping processes.
Get the scoop on purchasing fudge brownies online during Jay's interview with David at 6 p.m. today on KNXV-TV Channel 15.
Pictured above, David Kravetz talks about online shopping for Fairytale Brownies holiday gifts.
A couple of us at the Fairytale bakery decided to be festive and dress up a day early for Halloween. We thought you all might like a behind the scenes peek at the craziness that can go on here!
This is Kim, our Operations Team Leader. She has gone a little batty! :)
Here is Ellie, our Customer Service Team Leader, as the Ultimate Steelers fan! Lisa, one of our seasonal Customer Service Team Members, as a fairy. And Miriam, another one of our seasonal Customer Service Team Members, as a Thundercat!
This is David, Co-founder and our Catalog and Web Team Leader, in his silly disguise. We almost didn't recognize him! ;)
And this is me and Kristie, both Corporate Sales Team Members. I am a beer wench, with fake beer while at work of course, and Kristie is a Countess.
We love the Halloween season around here. It gives us a reason to act totally silly - and we love that! So, for the past 3 years, we've held a company pumpkin carving contest to see who has the best pumpkin carving skills! This year we are doing it a little different. We're letting you pick the winner. So, we need your help! Help us choose a winner in Fairytale Brownies 3rd Annual Pumpkin Carving Contest!
Visit our Facebook Page www.facebook.com/fairytalebrownies and vote for your favorite pumpkin! Please leave a comment under your favorite; we'll choose a winner tomorrow afternoon (Friday, October 30th). Here are the entries below, but remember, please visit our Fairytale Brownies Facebook page to vote =).
#1 - First time pumpkin carver (or so he says) decided to test his skills by carving a skull with flames behind it. Turned out to be pretty "hot!"
#2 - Went with a sexy carving of a girl battling with her good and evil side.
#3 - The moon gone batty. It's kind of tricky on the eyes at first, but the design is pretty cool!
#4 - Inspired by our Fairytale Brownies logo, here is our Brownie Guy dazzling you in 3-D! He may be cooking up something spookily delicious for Halloween!
#5 - "I'll get you my pretty!" Her inspiration was from the movie "The Wizard of Oz." (She may be reaching for a Fairytale Brownie!!)
I've mentioned before that I volunteer for the 
Whew! We've had a very busy start to 2010 here at 
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