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.
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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. |
AuthorAlly Speaks Archives
April 2019
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