All marketers strive to have a product recognized by everyone and their mother like Coke Cola or McDonald’s. I heard once that Ronald McDonald is more recognizable to young children than Jesus. I guess that speaks volumes to where more people go on a weekly basis. Anyways, the other day my girlfriend told me that she saw a sign for Girl Scout Cookies in front of a house advertising that people could go there to buy their annual stockpile of Girl Scout Cookies.
The reason you have to stockpile the cookies is because they are available for a limited time once a year. Once you run out (in about 1 week) you have to wait 50 more weeks to get more. This helps to maintain the exorbitant price they sell these cookies for. I know they sell them to help raise money to do fun things like camping and helping elderly cross the street, but seriously do you need to charge $6 for a few mint wafers? Never mind all of that.
Did you catch the part that they have a sign in front of their house?
I remember helping to raise money as a kid. I had to travel the neighborhood asking my (mostly) polite neighbors if they would buy my overpriced goods to raise money for a good cause. Most the time they declined but nevertheless I was usually in the top fundraiser group at school. I didn’t cheat by having my family buy all my wares to win the competition, but I did go out and pound the pavement. Wow have times changed.
Now these lazy kids get to put a sign in their front yard and probably sell all their cookies because kids like me helped build the brand a long time ago. How long do you think people will keep lining up in front of a house with a sign in the yard to buy cookies before the brand suffers? Sooner or later people won’t care as much about the cookies as they once did because all of the kids quit patrolling the neighborhood trying to sell them. Eventually, the out of sight, out of mind will take hold.
I am not knocking the Girl Scouts for having such a powerful brand as to be able to put a sign in their yard and sell cookies. But I question how sustainable that model of promotion is. I don’t think it would take long before those kids have to go out door to door again to sell their supplies.
I have made a conscious decision to support any entrepreneurial kid that comes my way (including lemonade stands). But if they expect me to go out of my way to buy overpriced anything without effort on their part, they are sadly mistaken. If they came to my house and said I could buy all the cookies I want by going to the house with the sign in the yard, I would probably go and do so.
I guess the biggest lesson here is to understand how much brand equity you and your product have and then how much of that equity you are willing to spend. Brand equity is a continual balance that must always be replenished at some point and is a very important thing to monitor.
Has anyone else seen these Girl Scout Cookie signs around? How does that make you feel about the brand image they are trying to project?
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Tags: Brand, Brand Equity, Girl Scout, Marketing Ideas
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I am a long time girl scout, girl scout leader, and service unit manager for my town. I actually have a sign on my yard and on my car which was my choice, not that of my children. In my area, cookies are $3.50 per box, which is cheaper than many of the varieties found at the grocery store, but of course, I can't speak for those being sold in other areas. My own children still hit the pavement, but there are other children that are no longer allowed to do so because of the child molesters, kidnappers and other evils that plague us nowadays. It's unfortunate that these children have to be kept indoors, and then are called "lazy", not just by you. I have heard this from others as well. If this country would stop trying to harm the children that are trying their best to learn how to become good citizens, then we might see more Girl Scouts out knocking on doors. Even so, this year marks the best cookie sale that my little town has had in a very long time, and I am very grateful to those that continue to support our nation's little girls.
Have a Great Day!
Laurel Santiago
I was a girl scout for many years. I would probably pay $15 for a box of thin mints right now.
"The world is too dangerous" is a pretty weak excuse for not allowing kids to sell door to door. That's lazy parenting, not lazy kids. When I sold cookies I was accompanied by a parent. The world was no safer 15 years ago than it is now. Responsible parents are not going to let young children go door to door alone.
Also, individual girl scout troops only receive about 50 cents profit per box of cookies they sell. The rest of the money goes to bakers, Girl Scout headquarters and to general funding of Girl Scout programs.
I refuse to support any type of school/kid organization fundraiser, because I really feel that they exploit children in a negative way. No matter how you look at it, what sugar coating you put on it, or what "good cause" its for, it's a sales job.
Sales is a high pressure field that most adults can't handle. These fundraisers brainwash kids into thinking they have to perform or they won't be accepted by their peers or if they don't meet the quota they won't get xyz incentive.
When my 5 year old comes home crying because of some stupid fundraiser from his school…that REALLY floors me.
Back to the cookies though, according to the official girl scout cookie FAQ, troops keep 12-17% of sales… so they only keep a whopping 72 cents from every $6 box they sell.
You'll get a kick out of this maybe too: It is against Girl Scout Policy to do any business online:
http://www.girlscouts.org/program/gs_cookies/faqs...
Surely the internet is "far more too dangerous" than having complete strangers know where you live and identifying that you have young girls in your home.
I can honestly say that I have never had one of their cookies…and if they expect me to go up to a scary strangers door to buy their cookies they are mistaken. Get out there and knock on some doors, unless you simply want the same old business from people you call grandma or grandpa. (they are coming over regardless so you don't need a sign.) I suspect most parents buy most the product themselves, it is easier than actually going out and working, oh and it deprives children of a great lesson too. Great post!
Maybe it's the entire internet-hype that destroyed the values implanted by the girl scout thrust.I am a girl scout once and I deeply enjoyed the camaraderie. I won't mind my daughter doing the same thing later on when she's ready. Good girl scout cookie.
Hey, but you can buy Girl Scout Cookies on eBay. I won't link to it, but there are tons of cookies up for bidding. I don't know about you, but I'm tempted … those thin mints are worth it.
@Laurel, I wanted more than any to talk about the use of a brand and how far that brand's reputation can propel it before it needs to have it's equity replaced. I deeply wish that kids could patrol the streets without the worry of bad things happening, but that isn't always the case anymore. It's a shame.
Chelle, I think you raise probably one of the best questions to this whole discussion, "Is it right for kids to be doing this type of work?"
Although I do think I was taken advantage of like all other kids participating, I think I learned a lot about myself and more about the things I was able to accomplish. I also learned a lot about how to talk to strangers and engage in conversation to determine if we were a fit to do business. It all adds up I guess.
I think there are very valuable lessons that these girls learn. sitting at a stand for hours on end pandering strangers for sales, sheds a bright light on how business works and can inspire kids who normally would never see that side of life until much later time.
how many entrepreneurs will this create for our county's future !?
Ps the chocolate mint cookies are awesome
This type of work is hard on some children, and it often depends on the child. I know that our local school has the children do an annual fund raiser, and as far as anybody knows, the children get no benefit from those sales. The Girl Scouts, on the other hand, have a wide range of lessons that go along with the cookie sale. For example, a teen girl scout has to learn about food service practices, food manufacturing, budgeting, and the obvious safety issues. Younger girl scouts help set goals for the use of their profits. I had a troop that opted to use their money to purchase their uniforms and badges so that they wouldn't have to continuously ask their parents for money. In that way, they learned how to work and be self sufficient. Like I said, my OWN children do still knock on doors, and they are most often the top sellers in our unit, but there are so many more that aren't allowed to go door to door. My council asks us not to sell online, but there are many other councils that either have different rules, or else the parents ignore the rules. There was a little girl last year in another town that sold several thousand boxes and everybody made a big deal about it, but I discovered that she and her mother had broken some rules to make those sales. My children will continue to be honest and sell a few hundred every year, because that's what makes a good person. Anyway, I'm glad that this discussion was launched, because there are lot of misconceptions about Girl Scouts, and people should note that any changes made by the program are not the fault of the little girls. They don't make the rules, or the signs, or even the cookie marketing program.
Let me tell you that my daughter is a Girl Scout and I'm looking to put a sign in my front yard to sell cookies because both of us have sold them to everyone we know and as of right now we are trying to get her to the 1000 box mark and if a sign in a front yard is going to help that-so be it. Right now she has sold her little heart out with the help of myself and a few caring people. But in this day and age when you live out in the country and there are so many kids in the same area trying to sell-I think the sign in the front yard would be of great help to us!
I would suggest making interesting looking wrappers for one cookie and then passing out some free samples to get your name out there. Just make sure that your name and contact information are with the free samples you give out. If people like the cookies enough, they will eventually call or contact you wanting more, and you can move on from there. Small companies like that grow simply by word of mouth really.
@Shail, That is a very good idea and point in order to grow any company. If people weren't so afraid of hard work most of their marketing problems would be solved just buy doing little things like that, one at a time.
the signs are for Cookie Mom's( the ones in charge of the cookie sales) in troops. all scouts come to their home to pick up their presold cookies. It's a easy way to locate the cookie Mom's house and a little advertising. i have never had anyone knocking on my door for them. the troop normally meets @ a diffrent location (ie- a church or at school). so they don't know the house there going to.
@monkeypup, thanks for the info from the inside. I just had to admit I was taken back by that and find it hard to believe that would be the only way they would be selling cookies. I am still waiting for my Mint Chocolate Cookies, mmmm.
My daughter is a Brownie, and as a Girl Scout leader mt=yself, I believe in tradition. While I may help her by asking people at school, she does most of the work herself. We go from neighborhood to neighborhood, knocking on doors, and selling cookies. At least half of her cookie sales came from her own hard work.Most of the laziness or lack of door to door sales doesn't come from the girls lack of interest in doing just that. It comes from the parents not wanting to take the time to walk/drive them around, when they can just take a form to work, and leave it on the table to be filled out by anyone who is interested.So before you start preaching on how tradition has changed, maybe you should look at who's behind the change….the girls or the parents.
@Jennifer, thanks for stopping by. I have to completely agree with you in that kids can't control the way their parents think things should be done. Perhaps I should have focused this more towards parents than the kids. Of course this is all from one perspective in one little corner of the world. Keep up the good work. I learned a lot of things going door-to-door that still carry with me today.