Hi there, and welcome to my cube! My name is Kari and I am the Fairytale Brownies Marketing Coordinator, which around here means I do a little bit of everything. My main duties are planning and coordinating marketing efforts, especially catalogs, e-mail specials and Web promotions.
There is a lot going on at Fairytale Brownies these days! Not only are we unveiling quite a few new brownie gifts, packaging and our new Cream Cheese flavor next week, but operations are also ramping up for the holiday season. That's right, we're already working hard to make sure we're ready to deliver more than 2 million brownies in time for the upcoming fall and winter holidays.
In marketing, we're launching the new and improved brownies.com next week and working on our spring and summer Fairytale Brownies catalogs (with new gifts for Valentine's Day, Mother's Day, Father's Day and more!). There is much to do in the catalog arena, including a 7-day brownie photo shoot in September. I'll be blogging about the catalog creation process and will try to post some behind-the-scenes Fairytale Brownies photo shoot pictures.
That's all for now, but I look forward to blogging more soon!
Posted Monday, December 15, 2008 by
Kari Gayes
Today's Daily Brownie Deal is the Winter Wonderland, and it is 10% off plus free shipping today only at brownies.com. The gift includes 8 brownies in 4 flavors packed in a red and white snowflake box. It's a festive wintry gift that is sure to warm the holidays.
~Kari
~Kari
Posted Friday, December 12, 2008 by
Kari Gayes
Today's Daily Brownie Deal is the Holiday Cocoa Duo, and it is 10% off plus free shipping today only at brownies.com. The gift includes our 6 top-selling brownie flavors and an 8 oz. tin of rich, dark chocolate Fairytale Cocoa. Chocoholics will love this gift!
Posted Thursday, December 11, 2008 by
Kari Gayes
Today's Daily Brownie Deal is the Christmas Coffee Sprite Duo, and it is 10% off plus free shipping at brownies.com. The gift includes all 12 of our delicious chocolate Sprite flavors and a half-pound of custom-roasted Fairytale Coffee. This gift is perfect to send to any coffee and chocolate lovers on your list.
~Kari
~Kari
Posted Wednesday, December 10, 2008 by
Kari Gayes
We've started a Daily Brownie Deal at brownies.com, and I wanted to share it with our blog readers.
Today's Daily Brownie Deal is the Christmas Tower, and it is 10% off plus Free Shipping today (12/10) only. This is a great gift that includes all 12 of our fudgy chocolate brownie flavors in an assortment of 3 Fairytale sizes (Brownies, Sprites and Magic Morsels) in a red and white Christmas tower. It's perfect if you want to send brownies to a group, as there's something for everyone inside. 
Stay tuned for future Daily Brownie Deals! Only 15 days till Christmas!
~Kari
Posted Friday, November 21, 2008 by
Kari Gayes
Being in the food business, we love the Food Network here at Fairytale Brownies. We especially love Unwrapped, and are very lucky to have their camera crew here today filming for an upcoming episode. It is very cool to be here and see how the process works and how one of my favorite shows is made, so I wanted to share a behind the scenes look at our Unwrapped segment.
Here's Fairytale Brownies Co-Founder Eileen Spitalny answering questions on camera. Notice the monitor that shows the cameraman how the shot looks? So cool!
And from the other angle. Here you can see the interviewer.
And some custom boxes we made especially for Unwrapped!
Stay tuned for an airdate for our episode, entitled "Get Comfy"! In the meantime, keep coming back to the blog for more behind the scenes action.
~Kari
Here's Fairytale Brownies Co-Founder Eileen Spitalny answering questions on camera. Notice the monitor that shows the cameraman how the shot looks? So cool!
And from the other angle. Here you can see the interviewer.
And some custom boxes we made especially for Unwrapped!
Stay tuned for an airdate for our episode, entitled "Get Comfy"! In the meantime, keep coming back to the blog for more behind the scenes action.
~Kari
Posted Thursday, November 20, 2008 by
Kari Gayes
We love getting feedback from our customers here at Fairytale Brownies. Every time you order brownies, you and your recipient get an opportunity to tell us what you love and if you have any suggestions for us. If you haven't ever responded to our online survey or via the postcard in your brownie box, please do so the next time you order. Or send an email to service@brownies.com. You just might be featured on our blog! We got some emails today about two things that are near and dear to our hearts, soldier care packages and our partnership with KaBOOM!, so I thought I would share them.
"Hey, I just want to say thank you so much for supporting the troops. One of the girls I know said she was trying to order brownies and you sent some to her deployed soldier at your expense. Although I am lucky enough to have my husband home this holiday season, I just want to say thanks again, because little things like this mean the world to deployed soldiers who are happy to have anything that reminds them of home. Next deployment I will be sure to pass along the word that you guys are great! I hope your business continues to be prosperous." -Rebekah S.
"Hello Fairytale Brownies. My wife and I have been using your services to send client gifts for 10+ years. We were recently visiting my grandparents in
Thanks Rebekah and Ryan for your kind words, we really appreciate it!
~Kari
Posted Monday, November 10, 2008 by
Kari Gayes
Veterans' Day is upon us, and I thought I would take a minute to thank all of our veterans, past and present, on behalf of everyone here at Fairytale Brownies. We love our troops, so much so that we even have a bulletin board in our office overflowing with all the notes and photos we've received over the years from the soldiers we support. 
Not only do we offer free shipping on any gourmet brownie gifts sent to an APO/FPO military address, but we are also part of the Soldiers' Angels Bakers Group, sending delicious Belgian chocolate brownies to our deployed troops each and every month. Our Customer Service Team also writes letters and sends care packages to soldiers to remind them someone is thinking of them.
If you're looking for the perfect gift for your favorite veteran, try sending one of our Patriotic brownie gifts to show your appreciation for their service to our country.
Thank you veterans, for being our heroes!
~Kari
Posted Tuesday, November 4, 2008 by
Kari Gayes
Ever wonder how we get all those 2 million catalogs mailed every year? Well, here's a behind the scenes look at how we address catalogs for our mailings. This photo is from a local mail house that is sending a 50,000 piece mailing for us this week:
That machine is inkjetting addresses onto the catalogs from a list that has been presorted to get us the best possible postage rate. Pretty cool to see it in action, huh?
Look for a Fairytale Brownies catalog in your mailbox next week, and if you're not on our mailing list click the request a catalog link on the right to sign up!
~Kari
That machine is inkjetting addresses onto the catalogs from a list that has been presorted to get us the best possible postage rate. Pretty cool to see it in action, huh?
Look for a Fairytale Brownies catalog in your mailbox next week, and if you're not on our mailing list click the request a catalog link on the right to sign up!
~Kari
Posted Friday, October 24, 2008 by
Kari Gayes
We received the following email from a customer who recently discovered that our gourmet brownies make excellent thank you gifts.
Dear Friends at Fairytale Brownies,
One of the University's "sweetest donors" sent your products our way a few weeks ago to cheer us and the quality and presentation of the product knocked our socks off in Alumni Relations.
When it was time for us to order some "brownie point" thank you items, Fairytale Brownies came immediately to mind. Now, not only are we delighted with your product, we are incredibly impressed with how easy and fast the ordering process is (we just ordered yesterday and the treats will arrive Tuesday without excessive shipping charges). Wow!
We will most assuredly order from you again in the future AND I have a big mouth :) and will tell others in my network. THANK YOU for being such a deliciously customer-centric business!
Warm personal regards,
Ms Chris LeDuc
Alumni Relations Director, Interim
St. Cloud State University
Thanks for your comments Chris! We pride ourselves on providing an extraordinary product and customer experience, and are glad to know we are succeeding.
~Kari
Posted Thursday, October 9, 2008 by
Kari Gayes
Fairytale Brownies is in the news this week, in a feature article on brandchannel.com. The story profiles owners Eileen and David, tells the Fairytale story and talks about how we have built and revamped our brand over the last 16 years. It includes great food start-up advice and brand-building tips.
Check it out here: http://brandchannel.com/careers_profile.asp?cr_id=96.
There are many other exciting and newsworthy things coming soon at Fairytale Brownies, so keep checking back for updates.
~Kari
Check it out here: http://brandchannel.com/careers_profile.asp?cr_id=96.
There are many other exciting and newsworthy things coming soon at Fairytale Brownies, so keep checking back for updates.
~Kari
Posted Monday, October 6, 2008 by
Kari Gayes
As Alyssa mentioned, Fairytale Brownies participated in the 12th Annual Phoenix Walk for Hope to Cure Breast Cancer yesterday. Our team of 24 employees and family members walked 3.1 miles through the Phoenix Zoo and raised over $1,000 for City of Hope to use in its breast cancer research. We all had a great time walking with thousands of other participants and giving back to our community. Congratulations team, and thanks for participating!
~Kari
~Kari
Posted Monday, September 29, 2008 by
Kari Gayes
We've been hard at work over here at Rick Gayle Studio taking photos for our Spring and Summer 2009 Fairytale Brownies catalogs, and we wanted to share a few behind the scenes photos of what we do here during our photo shoots. We brought about 1200 Brownies, Sprites and Magic Morsels to take all the pictures you'll see in our catalogs and on brownies.com next Spring. When we finish shooting tomorrow, we will have taken over 60 product photos and 6 catalog cover photos in 7 days. It's a lot of work, but we have a really good time shooting with Rick (our photographer), Kim (our food stylist), and their assistants Ken and Jill. They make our gourmet brownies look so good you can almost taste them!
The set for the Spring catalog cover:
Rick & Kim working on the Summer catalog cover shot:
Kim using her dental pick to make the brownies look beautiful:
The set for the Spring catalog cover:
Rick & Kim working on the Summer catalog cover shot:
Kim using her dental pick to make the brownies look beautiful:
