Fairytale Brownies New Product Testing - A Look Behind The Scenes!

Friday, March 12, 2010 by Kim Silva
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!


Oscar gourmet brownie success!

Tuesday, March 9, 2010 by Kari Gayes
As I posted last week, I used our delicious brownies to make the desserts for my Oscar-watching party on Sunday. I promised a follow-up, so here it is. Unfortunately, my plan for mini cheesecakes with crushed gourmet brownies for a crust did not go as well as I'd hoped (I couldn't get them out of the pan without crushing them!), so I scrapped that plan.

The mini brownie sandwiches, however, were a BIG hit! I started with our Original brownies, cut them into smaller squares, and then cut them in half so I had a top and bottom brownie "crust" for the sandwiches. *Note: because Fairytale Brownies are such fudgy brownies, the best way to cut them is to freeze them first. I filled them with a modification of Alyssa's peanut butter topping from her peanut buster brownies. I wanted it to be a little thinner than hers, so I added whipping cream and some powdered sugar to the peanut butter, cream cheese and brown sugar. Here's what they looked like (that's a veggie/cheese tray in the background if you're wondering):



They were delicious, and our guests loved them. I even heard someone say they were the best brownies they had ever tasted!


Gourmet Brownies and Eye glasses..what a match!

Friday, March 5, 2010 by Tanika Richards

This week I had to get new glasses, due to always getting a headache when I wore my current prescription (this went on for a full year, not recommended). Well I went to a new eye doctor, who was very personable, funny and figured out my issue. My current glasses were to strong of a prescription. While he was doing the examination, he noticed the sweater I was wearing displaying the Fairytale Brownies logo. He inquired of the business and said he would visit our website brownies.com. The next day I took him an 8-Sprite Favor ($15.95) to try. This gift delights any and all recipients. It contains 8 of our most popular flavors in the snack size portions. Needless to say days later I received a thank you card in the mail. Chocolate brownies are always a hit!


~Happy Reading

Free Shipping From Fairytale Brownies + Contest!

Thursday, March 4, 2010 by Hilary Lee
We recently asked our Fairytale Brownies Facebook fans what kind of Spring offers they would like to see. Most of the responses from our fans were to run more contests/giveaways in addition to more Free Shipping offers... You asked for it - and we listened!

Currently, we are running a new contest to win a Congratulations Morsel 24 if you correctly predict the top 4 Oscar winners for this Sundays Oscar Awards Show! For your chance to enter/win this contest please visit Fairytale Brownies Blog at blog.brownies.com or click this direct link http://blog.brownies.com/blog/ask-alyssa-all-things-prmarketing/0/0/predict-oscar-winners-and-receive-fairytale-brownies. Good Luck!

Also, if you order brownies online by Friday March 5th, receive FREE STANDARD SHIPPING on your order of $50 or more! Simply use priority code FACEBOOK at checkout to receive your shipping discount. Fairytale Brownies has a large selection of gourmet chocolate brownie gifts to choose from including Special Occasion packaging such as Happy Birthday Gifts, Thank You Gifts, Welcome New Baby Gifts, Congratulations Gifts, Easter Gifts, Thinking of You Gifts, and St. Patrick's Day Gifts! Send brownies to your friends and loved ones this Spring, it's a gift they won't forget! I promise! Visit brownies.com for more information.

Gourmet Brownie Oscar Desserts!

Tuesday, March 2, 2010 by Kari Gayes
As you may know, the Academy Awards are this Sunday, honoring all the best films of 2009. As self-professed movie dorks, my husband and I host an Oscar viewing party each year where we dress up, eat hors d'oeuvres and desserts, drink champagne, and see who can guess the most winners correctly. This year, I'm planning to make all my desserts with our delicious gourmet Fairytale Brownies. I have a couple of great brownie recipes that I thought I would share.

Mini brownie cheesecakes: For these, I will run some of our dark chocolate brownies through a food processor until they become delicious brownie crumbs and press them into a mini muffin tin. I'll just use my favorite cheesecake recipe, bake and top with some brownie pieces or fruit.

Mini brownie sandwiches: For this, I'll use our bite-sized Magic Morsels, which are already the perfect mini brownie size. I'll cut them in half so they're half the thickness as usual and make a delicious creamy filling. Or maybe I'll try brownie ice cream sandwiches...

Do you have a great brownie recipe for a bite-sized dessert? Share it in the comments below, and I just might use it this weekend. I'll also post pictures of my gourmet brownie creations next week so you can see how they turn out! 


Mint Brownie Recipe - St. Patrick's Day Brownie Idea

Monday, March 1, 2010 by Hilary Lee
March has arrived, and I started thinking about creative ways to use Fairytale Brownies in a St. Patrick's Day recipe. I scoured the internet for ideas and found this really great recipe from About.com's BusyCooks. The recipe is called Irish Mint Brownies - but I made a few small adjustments. Instead of baking the Mint Brownies from scratch, I've substituted them for our individually wrapped gourmet Mint Chocolate Brownies - which are to die for (and my personal favorite). I thought they would be perfect in this great brownie recipe! Imagine hand drizzled chocolate mint spread over our rich 3" x 3" Belgian Chocolate brownie. Yum!

Ingredients:
12 Mint Chocolate Fairytale Brownies

Green Frosting:
1 tub vanilla ready to spread frosting
1/2 tsp peppermint extract
Few drops of green food coloring

Top Frosting:
1 cup powdered sugar
2 tbsp cocoa
1 1/2 tbsp water
2 tbsp butter
1/2 tsp vanilla

Preparation:
Unwrap all 12 Fairytale Brownies. Arrange them on a serving plate, or line them in a pan. In a small bowl combine frosting, green food coloring and mint extract and beat will until frosting is evenly colored. Spread the mixture over the Fairytale Brownies. 

In a medium bowl, mix with a wire wisk the powdered sugar and cocoa. In a microwave safe bowl, combine the butter, water and microwave for 30-45 seconds until the butter melts. Add the powdered sugar and wisk until smooth. Stir in the vanilla until smooth. You may need to add more water to reach a pouring consistency. Then carefully poor this frosting over the green frosting and gently spread to cover. Don't worry if some of the chocolate frosting mixes with the green frosting - that just looks pretty!

I've included a picture of the recipe, however keep in mind yours will look different if you use Fairytale Brownies. They will be square and not in a pie shape. 

    
Here is the original recipe pic    Here is our Mint Chocolate Fairytale Brownie

You can visit our website brownies.com to order brownies online, or you can call our customer service line at 800.324.7982 to reach our 24-hour customer service number. I've included the link to our Fairytale Dozen (here) but don't forget, if you are ordering brownies for this recipe, you'll want to order all Mint Chocolate Brownies so click the Choose Your Own Flavors button! I hope you find this brownie recipe delicious and useful. 

Recipe courtesy of Busy Cooks (About.com http://busycooks.about.com/od/barcookierecipes/r/mintbrownies.htm)

Random March Holidays

Friday, February 26, 2010 by Brandie Davenport
In March we have the traditional holidays such as, St. Patrick's Day, Palm Sunday and Passover. Well there are some really fun holidays that you might not even know existed!

March is Employee Spirit Month
- Sometimes keeping your employee's spirit positive can be a challenge. A great way to boost their mood, spirit and maybe even production is to buy brownies for your office. Imagine the surprise when a delivery arrives and it's for your employee's. They open it and inside is a gourmet chocolate gift from the best brownie company! That would definitely improve my spirit! 

March 15th - 21st is American Chocolate Week
- I never knew there was an entire week dedicated to chocolate!

March 19th is National Chocolate Caramel Day - Our gourmet brownies come in 12 different flavors and caramel happens to be one of my favorites. Last year when we introduced our version of a truffle, a dark chocolate enrobed fudge brownie in caramel I was in awe. Celebrating this day will be a very easy and enjoyable thing for me to do! I am going to place my order now! 




March 25th is Pecan Day - Another flavor that our delicious brownies come in is Pecan. Since Pecans have their very own holiday this brownie is pretty special. My Grandfather is a big fan of this brownie so I think I will send brownies, all pecan, to arrive around the 25th. It's a very random holiday but I think it will put a smile on his face! 

Hope everyone has a happy March!

Kids create masterpieces with gourmet brownies

Wednesday, February 24, 2010 by Alyssa Andrews
This past weekend's downpour may have affected attendance at Old Town Scottsdale's Farmer Market, but those who wandered the booths last Saturday received a fudgy treat from Fairytale Brownies.

My co-worker, Kari, and I brought gourmet brownies to the Kids Korner for the children to decorate while their parents shopped the market. The children frosted their Fairytale Brownies and then added sprinkles, toffee pieces, chocolate chips, and/or white chocolate chips to create the perfect masterpiece.












Then they got to eat their creations! Some of the artists took their brownie creations home. Sharing was optional. We hope to come back to the farmer's market again this spring.






Decorating Gourmet Brownies at the Farmers Market!

Tuesday, February 23, 2010 by Kari Gayes
A few months ago, the person who coordinates the Kids Korner at the Old Town Farmers Market (OTFM ) in Scottsdale invited us to put together an activity with our gourmet Belgian chocolate brownies for the kids who come to the market with their parents. After getting rained out in January, we packed up trays of big fudgy brownies, icing and decorations to take to the market last Saturday. Here we are setting up:



It rained for an hour or so while we were there, but we still had a great time with all the kids who braved the rain to make their own brownie creation. Here's one who was a little too young to decorate, but old enough to enjoy a delicious brownie sample:



If you didn't know, before selling mail order brownies David and Eileen sold Fairytale Brownies at local farmers markets just like OTFM, so it is always nice to get back and see what it happening at the wonderful markets around the Phoenix area. We hope to come back to the Kids Korner again sometime!

Fudge Brownies Enrobed = Fairytale Truffles!

Monday, February 22, 2010 by Hilary Lee
Our delicious fudge brownies are great alone, but even better when we enrobe them in 60% dark Callebaut Belgian chocolate, an indulgence that we lovingly call Fairytale Truffles! Fairytale Truffles are rich, fudgy Morsels (1.5" x 1.5" mini brownies)  that are enrobed in velvety dark belgian chocolate. Our Truffles gifts contains 9 purely decadent truffles in Caramel, Raspberry Swirl and Walnut flavors nestled in an elegant brown box with a purple or red satin bow.

View our Fairytale Brownie Truffle Gifts here

What are people saying about Fairytale Brownies? This review that came to our service department raving about Fairytale Brownies gourmet brownie gifts: "Fairytale Brownies are absolutely delicious, and the prices are very reasonable considering the care in gift wrapping and delivery. I would recommend this product to any chocolate lover. ~ Candace C., Clarksville, AR"

Order brownies and Fairytale Truffle gifts online at brownies.com or by calling our customer service number at 800.324.7982. Thank you for making the world a sweeter place! 

  

Eat brownies on Sundays during Lent

Wednesday, February 17, 2010 by Alyssa Andrews
Today is Ash Wednesday, a day of fasting, and the first day of the 40 days of Lent. Some Christians traditionally give up a habit or food during this time. For those who have given up dessert, chocolate or sugar for their Lenten tradition, don't forget that Sundays are your "free" days.

That's when you can have some gourmet brownies from Fairytale Brownies. I would suggest the Magic Morsels. They are bite-sized and will satisfy your dark chocolate craving without totally blowing the whole purpose of sacrifice during this season.

When I was growing up, I never was told about Sundays not being a part of Lent. Imagine my doubt when I learned about it as an adult! This is how it was explained to me: There are 40 days of Lent to reminds us of Jesus' 40 days in the desert and the 40 years that the Israelites spent in the desert before getting to the promised land. Six weeks of Monday - Saturday makes 36 days. Add Ash Wednesday and the 3 days after it and you get 40 days. Sundays don't count.

So stock up on fudge brownies. Sunday's coming...

Get a Sweet Deal in time for a "Fairytale" Valentine's Day!

Wednesday, February 10, 2010 by Hilary Lee
Source: ABC15 Smart Shopper

Want a Fairytale of a deal? Head over to Fairytale Brownies retail store Wednesday, February 10th with your Smart Shopper Card!

Fairytale Brownies have been around for over 15 years serving their gourmet chocolate brownies. You may even see them at the store.

Get something for your sweetheart for Valentine's Day, without breaking the bank! Their Fairytale Truffles gift box comes with nine pieces of fudgy chocolate brownies enrobed in velvety dark Belgian chocolate. Nine truffles in Caramel, Raspberry Swirl and Walnut flavors are nestled in an elegant brownie gift box with a purple satin bow. Normally you would pay $24.95, but with the "Deal of the Day" you will get it for just $9.95!

The deal is good only on Wednesday, February 10th at their retail store in Phoenix. The retail store is open from 8am - 5pm. Just flash your Smart Shopper card and get an early start on buying that Valentine's present. By the way, the fudge brownies will stay fresh well after Valentine's Day.

Fairytale Brownies Bakery & Retail Store
4610 E Cotton Center Blvd. Suite #100
Phoenix, AZ 85040
800.FAIRYTALE or 800.324.7982
brownies.com

Wacky February Holidays

Tuesday, February 2, 2010 by Brandie Davenport

February has a lot more happenings than just Valentine's Day! 

February is Bake for Family Fun Month - If baking just isn't your thing, order a dozen original brownies online and decorate them with your family. If baking is your thing we have a ton of brownie recipes!
February is National Cherry Month - Yummm, a cherry Fairytale Brownie would be delicious!

February 8th - 14th is International Flirting Week - Sending your love interest a box of fudgy chocolate brownies would be quite a nice way to flirt with them!
February 12th - 15th is Random Acts of Kindness - A gourmet chocolate gift would be an awesome random act of kindness!

February 5th is World Nutella Day - I am not a Nutella fan but for those that are try spreading it on one of our yummy brownies!
February 19th is Chocolate Mint Day - Our delicious mint brownie has a day all to itself!
 

Hope everyone has a wonderful February!

 



 


Sweet Giving From The Heart With Fairytale Brownies

Friday, January 15, 2010 by Hilary Lee
Begin a new Valentine's Day tradition this year by sending that special someone a chocolate indulgence from Fairytale Brownies. New this year is the Valentine Keepsake Dozen. The handcrafted wooden box is filled with one each of every Fairytale Brownies flavor (Original, Caramel, Chocolate Chip, Cream Cheese, Espresso Nib, Mint Chocolate, Peanut Butter, Pecan, Raspberry Swirl, Toffee Crunch, Walnut and White Chocolate). Once the brownies are eaten, the box can be used to keep treasured mementos for years to come. Shoppers can take advantage of special pricing on the Valentine's Keepsake Dozen, regularly $45.95, sale price $38.90.


Other select Valentine's Day brownie gifts will be specially priced as well. The Valentine Truffles box includes 9 fudgy bite-sized brownies enrobed in 60% dark chocolate, regularly priced at $24.95, sale price $19.95. The Valentine Truffles gift box includes three each of Caramel, Raspberry Swirl and Walnut flavors nestled in an elegant brown box with red satin bow. 

The Valentine Sprite 24 ($36.90), Valentine Dozen ($33.90) and Valentine Morsel 24 ($26.90) are also specially priced for the holiday. Baking since 1992, Fairytale Brownies is known for its rich Callebaut gourmet chocolate brownies. Every batch of chocolate brownies is baked by hand using a 50-year-old family recipe and natural ingredients including pure creamery butter and farm fresh eggs. Fairytale Brownies are Certified Kosher. Order brownies today at brownies.com.

Fairytale Brownies Returns To Fancy Food Show With Expanded Line

Thursday, January 14, 2010 by Hilary Lee
Fairytale Brownies will return to San Francisco for the NASFT's 35th Winter Fancy Food Show with products for foodservice, retailers and catalogers. Fairytale Brownies will display and sample the wholesale brownie and truffle flavors at the Fancy Food Show from January 17th - 9th at Booth #1364 in the North Hall of the Moscone Center.

"We're listening to the particular needs of foodservice providers and retail outlets," Eileen Spitaly, Fairytale Brownies co-founder said. "Our goal is to simplify dessert preparation while preserving the integrity of our gourmet brand." Our new Fairytale Half-Sheets arrive ready to serve and can be cut to a preferred size or shape as needed. The Fairytale Half-Sheets (4 lbs.) are baked in Original, Chocolate Chip and Walnut flavors and are sold by the case (5/4 lb.).

New retail ready packaging for Fairytale's individually wrapped brownies is being introduced at the show. Brownies, Sprites or Magic Morsels now will arrive in a 4-color display box with a pop-up lid for maximum consumer visibility. "These boxes should work very well in the frozen section as an entire unit for sale because they are shrink wrapped," Spitalny said.

Other Fairytale Brownie products available for wholesale include a 1 lb. Brownie Tray (Original and Walnut flavors), 2 lb. Occasion Walnut Tray, Fairytale Truffles (Original, Caramel, Raspberry Swirl, Walnut and Candy Cane flavors), Special Occasion Assortments, Fairytale Sprites and Magic Morsels.

The 3" x 3" individually wrapped brownies and 1 lb. brownie trays are currently sold at all AJ's Fine Foods and Whole Foods grocers in Arizona, as well as Gelson's Markets in Southern California and other gourmet retailers. Fairytale Brownies also are ideal for gift basket companies who work with perishable items because each brownie is individually wrapped. See a list of all retail locations here.

Fairytale offers a great drop-ship program for catalog companies, floral shops and other online retailers. We ship UPS worldwide, and USPS to P.O. Boxes and APO/FPO addresses.

Fairytale Brownies began its successful mail order brownie business in 1992. Fairytale Brownies are baked with imported Callebaut Belgian dark chocolate and other natural ingredients and all brownies are Certified Kosher. 

Find more information on NASFT's 35th Winter Fancy Food Show.

For more information on Fairytale Brownies Wholesale Division, send an email to wholesale@brownies.com.

New Arizona retailers now selling Fairytale Brownies

Tuesday, January 12, 2010 by Eileen Spitalny

Happy New Year - which means New Year resolutions, i.e. watch the diet.

I know, I know as I have some myself. But we all need to indulge a little, too.

So, I’m so excited to share the many new retailers that now have Fairytale Brownies, Sprites or Morsels.

Add Fairytale Brownies to your “must buy” list while shopping at the new Scottsdale Oakville Grocery. Just moved into Scottsdale Quarter by H & M. Fairytale’s Sprites and Magic Morsels are available to purchase and can be found near the registers at the front of the store. Foodies like us just wrote a blog:

http://www.foodieslikeusblog.com/culinary-adventures/oakville-grocery-local-international-and-napa-valley-specialties-for-every-foodie/

Our delicious Belgian dark chocolate treats can also be found at Phoenix Urban Grocery and Wine Bar downtown, Tempe Farmer’s Market in the freezer case and Luci’s Healthy Marketplace and Coffee Bar in central Phoenix.

Shoppers can choose from a variety of flavors – Original, Caramel, Chocolate Chip, Cream Cheese, Peanut Butter, Toffee Crunch and Walnut.

Other retail locations in the Phoenix area include all of AJ’s Fine Foods, Duck & Decanter and Whole Foods. – Click here for our complete retail list

Welcome 2010!

Thursday, January 7, 2010 by Brandie Davenport

It's a new year so I figured I better get back into the habit of blogging again! December was a crazy busy month for us so I got a little distracted. I am back now to blog about anything and everything to do with Fairytale Brownies!

It's already the 7th of January but there are still lots of wacky ways to celebrate the month!

January is Celebration of Life Month
- I like this one. Every month should be a celebration of life!
January is Hot Tea Month - We have been told on several occasions that our fudge brownies go every well with a hot steamy cup of tea.

January 17th - 23rd is Hunt for Happiness Week - You came to the right place! Since you are on our website you have to hunt no more, order brownies and your happiness will arrive in about 3 business days!

January 19th is Rid the World of Fad Diets and Gimmicks Day - I like this one a lot too. Even if it's just for the day I am going to celebrate this one by having a chocolate brownie for breakfast, lunch and dinner!
January 29th is Fun at Work Day - Everyday is a fun day at the Fairytale Bakery. If your office needs some fun having a box of gourmet brownies delivered will do the trick!

Hope everyone's year is off to a great start! I have a very good feeling that 2010 is going to be a Fairytale year!

Fairytale Brownies Review! Yum Yum!

Thursday, December 31, 2009 by Customer Brownie Stories
I have to tell you about some wonderful gourmet brownies we received around Christmas! These are top on the list for my family. They are Fairytale Brownies. To begin with, they come in a lovely holiday box and each brownie is individually packaged for presentation and freshness. We received an assorted box and it came with the following flavors: Pecan, Peanut Butter, Caramel, Chocolate Chip, Original and White Chocolate. I can say I sampled every one of them except the White Chocolate, which my daughter devoured Christmas morning, and they are simply ...aahhhhh, delicious! My favorite was the Caramel, but all of them are super. These taste like they were fresh and cooked just for us. My granddaughter summer Leigh Anne enjoyed half of one and as you can see that was not enough. The chocolate on the mouth gives her away as she is trying to get more! Which she did! Grandson Kolby quickly took his and moved to the corner of the couch, he got comfortable and enjoyed the Pecan brownie. Looks like he liked it! What do you think? Now I would like to add. I do not typically have lots of sweets lying around but these are not really sweet. You can enjoy these and not feel like you have cheated yourself. These almost taste like, naturally sweet, not a lot of added nonsense. These brownies can be ordered online and they will quickly arrive. So easy!! They ship any gift for only $6.95 per address and Delivery in 3 business days guaranteed! The only negative thing I could say is that the Peanut Butter one fell apart easily into several pieces. It was soft and crumbly and they are a little pricey, around $3 each but for gourmet brownies they are reasonable. So do I recommend these?? YES! I will be ordering again and this time will try and get a few extras for other family members. Yes these are definitely for sharing. For birthdays, holidays, or maybe a special thank you food gift. I did not receive anything free for this review, and is my honest opinion of this product. Have a blessed and safe new year! Betty

Name: Betty R. - Blog Starting Again
City:
State:

Peanut Buster Brownies make deliciously easy treat

Monday, December 14, 2009 by Alyssa Andrews

Because I'm considered the "brownie lady" to my friends, when I go to a party, it's expected that I bring brownies. Yesterday was one of those times. I went to a "dessert" theater holiday performance. The audience sips coffee and samples various desserts while the performers do their thing. 

I decided to modify an old dessert pizza recipe to make individual treats. Here is my recipe for PEANUT BUSTER BROWNIES...



PEANUT BUSTER BROWNIES

18 Fairytale Brownies
(I used 6 Original, 6 Peanut Butter and 6 Chocolate Chip)
1 cup creamy peanut butter
1 8 oz. package of cream cheese
1 cup brown sugar
2 packages of Reese's Peanut Butter Cups (1.6 oz. size - 2 cups in a package)
chopped peanuts
Fairytale Endings Chocolate Sauce

Mix peanut butter, cream cheese and brown sugar until smooth. Spread over individual brownies.

Chop the peanut butter cups and sprinkle on top of brownies. Sprinkle peanuts on top of brownies as well (I just eyeballed it).

Melt 3 heaping tablespoons of Fairytale Endings Chocolate Sauce in microwave and drizzle over brownies.

You can either serve right away or cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until ready to serve.

If you are serving more than one dessert, you might want to cut the brownies in half because they're quite rich. Here is a picture of a "Sprites" version.



This is such an easy recipe to make. Not having to bake the brownies saves you lots of time, too!

Lessons Learned - Food Start Ups Advice

Wednesday, December 9, 2009 by Hilary Lee
In a recent article by Practical Commerce, David Kravetz, Fairytale Brownies co-owner talks about his experiences and advice while trying to grow the business. Read the complete article below:


"
Lessons Learned" is a series where we ask ecommerce business executives to share their experiences and advice. For this installment, we interviewed David Kravetz, the catalog and web team leader of Fairytale Brownies, an online brownie gift store based in Phoenix, Ariz.

Fairytale Brownies was launched in 1992 when Kravetz joined forces with childhood friend, Eileen Spitalny, to sell gourmet Belgian chocolate brownies online. Today, Fairytale Brownies' online sales are primarily powered by printed catalogs mailed to approximately 1.8 million households annually. Fairytale Brownies expects to gross roughly $8 million in 2009, with around 60 percent of its revenue from online sales. Kravetz offers the benefit of his experience in e-commerce below.

More About the Printed Catalog

"The brownie gift catalog really drives a large portion of our business. Although we do most of our revenue through online sales, a lot of those customers find us through receiving our catalog, so I think there is still a big role for the printed catalog and direct mail pieces in the ecommerce business.

 

"We did a total of six mail drops this year, and we printed multiple versions of the catalog that are mostly cover change-outs, like the September drop had the first few pages in a Fall theme and Halloween gifts; and the next drop featured Thanksgiving; and the next drop featured Christmas. But the core of the product pages remains the same because it's less expensive to change out just a few of the outer pages.
 

"A lot of the traditional mailing strategies still work very well for us, such as renting mailing lists and prospecting names. The more catalogs you mail, the more revenue you get, but it's at a lower and lower response rate, so you have to be very careful to mail to targeted lists that are producing positive results, or you can over-mail and end up losing money on every piece you mail."
 

Shopping Cart Software and Web Hosting

"Our cart is a combination of a customized cart and an off-the-shelf cart. We use a system called Ecometry Commerce Suite by Escalate Retail. We were originally with Mail Order Manager for many years but we had just outgrown them. We wanted to make a jump to a more integrated system, and so we upgraded to Ecometry about five years ago. They helped us build our web shopping-cart so that it would communicate directly with the back-end, and then we modified the front-end to customize it to our business. "Ecometry runs everything except the accounting. It is fully integrated with our shipping, credit card processing, printing all the orders, maintaining the customer database, and all the inventory transactions.

"Our servers are hosted on Rackspace. We've stayed with them over the years because they are able to scale up and down very easily, so we can order additional servers in the months before the busy holiday season and turn them off in January."

Credit Card Payments

"We use First Data as our gateway. We have a frame relay connection for all the credit card processing, and we are in the process of becoming PCI compliant by July 2010. The first thing we're doing is taking an upgrade on the Ecometry system in February, so the system will be compliant as far as the encryption side of it; and then we will work on credit card security and auditing our internal processes so that we have that side of it as secure as the software side."

Order Management

"About 60 percent of our orders happen in the last three weeks of December, and when the orders come in it is all pretty much automated through Ecometry. The brownies are frozen when they come out of the oven and the gifts are pre-assembled. During the off-season we process orders about twice a day, but during the holidays we are shipping from 3,000 to 15,000 packages a day so we are processing almost continuously."

Employees

"Year-round we have about 30 employees. Around August we start ramping up for shipping, baking, customer service and data entry. At our peak, just after Thanksgiving, we get up to about 120 people. "We really try to encourage empowerment. Everyone who works here is required to read Empowerment Takes More Than a Minute by Ken Blanchard, who also wrote The One-Minute Manager. One of the things that came out of that was our $100 empowerment policy that says any team member has the authority to spend up to $100 of the company's money to make the customer happy. "Also, we try to use terms like 'team member' and 'team leader' instead of 'manager' and 'employee.'"

Search Engine Optimization

"Right now our blog is the primary driver for search engine optimization. We've been using a company called Compendium Blogware for the past two years. We do a lot of keyword-rich blogging, and we've had very good success. Search terms like 'mail order brownies' and 'gourmet brownies' will point to our blog, and that's been very effective for us.  "We've also got a few traditional things going on, like in the footer of our home page you'll find a lot of keywords in small gray print. We've also taken a lot of seminars on SEO, and there's still more that we want to do, like we want to customize all our URLs to contain relevant keywords for every product detail page."

Social Media

"We have about 1,400 Facebook fans and about 2,000 Twitter followers, and we usually post something every day. We also have about 20 videos on YouTube."

Email

"This is something exciting we just started yesterday: We discovered through some comments that a large number of our customers who had opted out of emails were wondering why they never heard from us about specials. As part of spam compliance you're allowed to contact your customers by email if it is for informational purposes only, and so we sent out a non-promotional email that said, 'We're just reminding you that you are currently unsubscribed from our promotional emails. If you choose to subscribe just click this button.' If it was clicked, we sent an offer immediately. Out of the first 18,000 emails sent, we had more than 800 opt in and we got around 50 orders the first day."

Pay-Per-Click Advertising

"We've scaled back on our PPC advertising because we've found there is a very limited number of keywords working for us there. A while back, we hired two different pay-per-click consultants, and they overbought PPC to an extreme. They tried a 'shotgun' approach and we were buying thousands of minor keywords that were all over the map. We were losing money every month and it was tens of thousands of dollars down the drain. Finally, we put an end to it, brought the whole thing in-house and now we only buy, maybe, 50 keywords. Most of them have the name of the company, or the misspelling of the name, in them."

Shipping 

"We just changed our shipping prices to a flat rate of $6.95 for any gift, any quantity, and our customers really like that. Also, we have address validation software that checks addresses before the gifts go out, because customers are not always sure of the address they are sending a gift to. "We use UPS for most packages, and we use U.S. Postal Service for P.O. Boxes and military addresses. A lot of our competitors won't send to P.O. boxes, but we've never had a problem with it. Also, we have been offering free shipping to APO/FPO military addresses for a couple years now and we get really good feedback on that. The Post Office ships the brownies to Iraq and Afghanistan in three or four days sometimes, and we are always amazed."

Expense Control

"Negotiate. We've learned time and time again if you don't ask you don't get the best price. We had to go back to all our vendors this past year and they were all able to work with us and give us better pricing. We've learned there is a lot of money you could be leaving on the table if you don't regularly negotiate the best deal."

Accounting Software

"All the sales happen in Ecometry and then we just transfer the sales into an accounting package that is a very old, entry level system. (We were going to upgrade this past year but we decided to postpone it.) It is basically an equivalent of QuickBooks called MYOB for Mind Your Own Business. We also pay bills out of it. It's pretty basic but it works for us."

Customer Service

"For seven years in a row we have been a gold honoree in customer service from bizrate [online shopping comparison site], and I attribute a lot of that to our empowerment policy. We do whatever it takes, and we believe in first-call resolution. Our guarantee truly is 100 percent satisfaction. We've been known to refund very large orders for something as small as misspelling a name on a gift message."

"A couple years ago a consultant we were working with had us over-circulate our catalog. He had us renting lists that had nothing to do with food and we just trusted his judgment. If we had mailed 200,000 fewer catalogs, we would have made $200,000 more profit. We learned to be very specific with the lists we rent, how often we mail, and how many years we continue to mail to a [non-producing customer] before we let the name go."

Biggest Success

"Two years ago we did a major upgrade to the website, in great part to address customer complaints about the difficulty of ordering multiple shipments. We built a system that could handle the complexity of multiple brownie gifts going to multiple different addresses, and by [eliminating a major checkout problem] we improved customer satisfaction and increased sales."

Best Advice

"I always caution people to temper their expectations when starting an ecommerce business. A lot of people think they can just launch a site and people will come flocking to it, but you need to go out and get the people, either through social media or a print catalog or a direct mail piece or pay-per-click. You've got to be constantly working to get people to come to your site."