Below you will find a video talking about my amazing experience at Cheryl's Cookies.
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Thursday April 11th Today I met with 2 different people and was able to learn and accomplish two of my goals. I first met with Jymme from the merchandising department. One of my goals was to learn how to present the collection of merchandise to a team. Cheryls is getting ready for the Fathers Day and Summer Merchandise Style Out. I was able to help be a part of getting this ready. The Style Out is a time for all employees from Cheryls to view the collection and become familiar with the products prior to selling them. It gives employees a chance to ask questions to the merchandise team about key items, taste new flavors, learn about the sale promotions, and see size and dimensions of the containers etc. I was able to pull samples of all the products that will be featured in these summer catalogs. We display them on cabinets in our merchandising area. Photos below. I also met with Annalisa who is the Senior Merchandise Planner. She is in charge of working on the assortment plan of items for a specific collection and putting projection forecast for units they plan to sell of each item. One of my goals was to learn how to put an assortment plan together. She showed me a Christmas assortment plan she is currently working on. She starts by looking at best sellers from last year and what items are necessary to sell again this year. She also leaves room for new products and “test” products as part of the assortment but projects those at a lower qty. The entire assortment plan totals up the sales plan that they are given from finance department. Monday March 25th Today I was at Cheryl’s from 8 to 5 because I was on Spring Break so I was able to work a full day. My main focus today was to work on achieving my goal number three. This goal was to learn and help work on a catalog layout, which identifies which items from the assortment plan that will be featured on each specific page in the catalog. Today I was able to help work on the Holiday 2019 catalog layout. We started by making sure we had a sample represented of each item that will be sold during the Holiday campaign. Some items were pulled from the sample room, some were sent in from venders and others we “mocked up”. The Holiday catalog will be 44 pages, I was taught to look at the entire book and chunk it up by collection (Traditional, Metallic, Snowman, Santa etc). We first identified how many pages are needed by collection, some collections are larger volume than others. We then placed five to six items per page. We made sure there was one “key” item on each page, and then surrounded it by other supporting items. All samples were placed on a rack by catalog page so that the team can visually see the pagination (pictures below). The next step is to turn this over to Marketing with photoshoot style direction. Another project they had me work on was pulling together design concepts for Easter and Spring 2020. They haven't developed that season yet so they had me start looking for design ideas for packaging, containers and new flavors to incorporate into the line for next year. They explained that it was important to competitive shop other retailers to see what's out there and stay a step ahead with innovation. Some online places I check out were Pottery Barn, Paper Source and William Sonoma. I was also able to taste test new flavor profiles for Fall/Halloween 2019. These are flavors that the test kitchen developed in partnership with merchandising. They include Frosted Marshmallow S’more, Brown Sugar Shortbread Pumpkin, Peanut Butter Oatmeal Chocolate Chip and new Chocolate Chip. These were really yummy but my favorites were the Frosted Marshmallow S'more and Brown Sugar Shortbread Pumpkin. One of the perks of mentoring here is getting to taste new flavors before they're for sale. Tuesday March 19th Today at Cheryl’s I got to help with the floor set at the Westerville store. I got to work with Karla who is the Store Manager. Karla and I began clearing the tables on the floor and started from scratch with our floor set designs. We started with the front table which we put Easter tins, cookies and bags on. After we had to decide which merchandise were going on the floorset, we started moving things around to see what would look best and try to make the customers want to buy. After that we moved on to the second table which is where all the Thank You boxes, pails and cookies go. We didn't have as much merchandise as we wanted to fill the table like the other ones but it looks clean. After we finished customers came in and bought eight 12 count boxes because Cheryl’s had a deal of buy one get one free. I got to wrap and put stickers on all of them and got to be a Cheryl’s employee for today. In all the Cheryl’s stores you’re able to get free cookies for A’s, you just show the employees your report card and allowed up to three free cookies. When I was on my way out of Cheryl’s I stopped and got my three free cookies. Thursday March 21st Today at Cheryl’s I did competitive shopping. I created a powerpoint with pictures of Cake Pops, CupCakes, Petit Fours, Bundt Cakes and Brownies. This powerpoint will give Cheryl’s inspiration and ideas for upcoming desserts they want to sell for Holiday 2019. Before After
Wednesday March 13th
Today at when I got to Cheryl’s I met with employees at the Cheryl’s store which is in the corporate office. We talked about when they will be redoing their next floor set, because that is one of my learning goals. Some things I shared with them about my goals was learning how you decide what goes in the front of the store and what is in the back of the store, feature tables etc. I also was curious to learn about the design part and how to make the floor set look perfect for customers to want to buy. I will be learning more about this next week when I meet with the Store Director. After that I met with Katie who is a graphic designer at Cheryl’s. Katie was finding inspiration and research for some new ideas they have for Holiday 2019. Things Katie shared with me was how she gets inspiration, she usually creates several ideas and narrows them down. She also looks at competitors to see what they're doing and try to make it better. On Wednesdays in the Cheryl’s store they have "Story Time", kids come in and get to do puzzles, crafts, play with toys and listen to books. Story time is a great way for a community outreach event that goes on every Wednesday from 11-12 only at the flag ship store in Westerville. It gets customers in the doors and there is always a special deal for cookies that the parents can purchase afterwards. The idea is that it brings people through the doors and generate sales. It also introduces the young kids to Cheryl's at an early age and they will be future customers as they get older. Kelly who is an employee at Cheryl’s reads to the kids at this event. It was interesting to see a cookie store to do something different and engaging. This event is advertised in mom blogs across the city. Wednesday March 6th, 2019
Today when I got to Cheryl’s they had me measure the length width and height of there new gift tower. Cheryl’s is finding a way to make the boxes a little smaller but give the same amount of cookies and brownies etc. The Cheryl’s team found a way to make it cheaper for them to make but cost the same for customers. After I finished measuring them to see how much the new box changed, I went to a meeting where we got to taste all the new Valentine’s Day and Spring 2020 flavors. This was my first cookie tasting meeting and of course it was the best one yet. We got to try a new shortbread lavender cookie, blood orange cookie and many more but my favorite has to be the new unicorn cookie because it was mixed with birthday cake and cotton candy. Thursday March 7th, 2019 Today I worked with my mentor Lindy, we worked on creating all of the deals for Holiday 2019, Black Friday, Christmas and New Years. Some of the great deals were 20 for $20, buy 24 cookies get a dozen free etc. After we finished with that we worked on the Snowman, Santa and Reindeer gift towers for 2019 holiday. Yesterday I picked out inspiration for all three gift towers and today we decided how we wanted to design them. Below is the picture I found on pinterest and the inspiration for Holiday 2019. Below is a link where Cheryl's is selling Gift Towers for any occasion. https://www.cheryls.com/cookie-gift-towers Tuesday February 26, 2019 Today when I got to Cheryl’s I sat down with Lindy and Michelle and we started sorting all the boxes they have in inventory. Cheryl’s has a big warehouse they keep the stuff to package gifts. At Cheryl’s corporate office they have one of every box to see what they have and how much of it. Right now Michelle and Lindy are sorting all the boxes at the corporate office. We sorted boxes by size and by pattern. These are all boxes from last year and goes to like 10 years ago. After sorting a few we went up to the sample room and that's where they keep other boxes and tins and jars etc. They keep those things in the room for size and to see if it can be reused. Thursday January 28, 2019 Today at Cheryl’s I helped Jimmy and with putting together all the new rough cut items for a presentation. All the new tins and towers Cheryl’s will be selling in there new catalog. I wrapped tins and boxes just basically just showing rough cuts of what the new items will look like. I also got to learn how to wrap like Cheryl’s wrapping because they have a specific wrapping and bow tying style, which was something new. Tuesday January 29th
Today I began my first day of Mentoring for Career Mentorship 2. This semester i’m Mentoring at Cheryl's Cookies, doing Merchandising. Last semester I Mentored at Kreber which is a Marketing Agency, so I'm excited to try something new. Today when I got to Cheryl's I met with my mentor Lindy Deal she is a Senior Merchandiser. Lindy and my mom Michelle took me on a tour to meet all of the employees and who I would be working with during this semester. After the tour I got to taste test one of the competitors cookies and review it. After that Lindy and Michelle had to send back reviews for the halloween collection for 2019 and I got to see what that was like. At the end of my time at Cheryls for my first day my mom and I went around and looked at all the new cookie, containers and bins etc they have planned for the holidays in 2019. While I’m reflecting back on my first day at cheryl's I'm so excited to see what I can learn and accomplish with all the cheryls employees and can't wait to have a great semester. Thursday January 31st Today I'm spending my day at cheryl's from 8am to 5pm. When I got to Cheryl's I sat with Michelle and helped her with cost sheets for halloween 2019. After that I went back in the kitchen and packaged new brownie edges Cheryl's is selling. Since Cheryl's throws away the brownie edges of their regular brownies they danced some people like them so why not sell them. So I went and cut all of the brownies into little pieces and measured the bag to be 1lb, stickered them, labeled them and tied the ribbo As I'm starting my second semester for Career Mentorship I am mentoring at Cheryl’s Cookies. I am mentoring at their corporate office in Westerville OH. I am shadowing Lindy Deal who is a Senior Merchandiser. Last semester I mentored at Kreber Marketing Agency and Photography Studio, Kreber is Marketing Agency and this semester I’m at Cheryl’s for Merchandising. I am hoping to learn more about the design part of it. Some of my goals for this semester is putting together a product assortment for a specific season. I helped assist and prepare with the merchandising team for the annual Cheryl’s Bake Sale. The Cheryl's Bake Sale was on February 16th 2019 from 8-2pm. It is held every year at the Lausche building at the Ohio State Fairgrounds. The Bake Sale was so much fun. Being able to work with employees at Cheryl's and selling all the items was really cool. This link shows more details about the Cheryl's Bake Sale. I will also help the merchandising team putting together and presenting the seasonal “style out” for Spring etc. I started my mentorship at Cheryl’s a month ago and so far I love it. The thing that strikes me most about the workplace at Cheryl’s is that the energy is so fun and there's so many fun things going on. A few days ago I got to help put together a powerpoint presentation that they are presenting to QVC. I got to help by taking the pictures of all the items they wanted in the powerpoint, like the cookies they were including in the presentation. One of the things I'm most excited about during my experience is the Cheryl’s Bake Sale.
Myers Briggs Theory Indicator acts as a useful reference to help you understand your unique personality. There are 16 different personality types in Myers Briggs. The four main pairs of your personality type are Introverted and Extroverted, Sensing and Intuitive, Thinking and Feeling and Judgment and Perception. After completing my test, my responses indicated I am an: ISTJ which is Introverted, Sensing, Thinking and Judgement.
The best way to communicate with an Introvert is giving them time to reflect, as extroverts like to talk it out with other people introverts like to think before speaking. Introverts are usually hard to get to know because they don’t like to tell you everything the first day they meet you, they will gradually open up. People who are Sensing like to have a clear topic with step-by-step instructions. Thinkers are always organized and logical, thinkers also don’t like to talk about their feelings, they usually get mad if people ask “how do you feel” because it’s very hard for them to show emotion because they always screen it out. People with Judging types are always on time and prepared and get mad when other people aren’t, they love agendas because their life is always scheduled and don’t do good with flexible schedules. Some of the conflicts or miscommunications I’ve had with people who aren’t the same personality types as me are usually people with Feeling instead of Thinking. People who show emotion and put all of your emotion on you usually stress me out and makes me want to leave the situation. Since I’m a Thinker I always push away emotion. I don’t do well with other people showing me emotion. When people I’m around show emotion it can sometimes cause conflict because I don’t do good in those situations. I could respond differently to people with Feeling by trying to get myself to feel the emotion they are feeling. Below is a picture of all the traits ISTJ has and also a link that shows the most effective communication strategies for different personality types. I have had many “aha” moments learning about Myers Briggs because I find these things very interesting in learning about my personality and how I act and why I make the choices I do. ISTJ is exactly me and I think that’s the coolest part about this. I will be using this information about the 16 personality types when mentoring this semester because I will be working with a lot of different people who have different personality types and learning and understanding why people think and act accordingly. |
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April 2019
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