Comments on: Girl Scout Cookie Marketing Ideas

By: therealjosh

therealjosh — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 20:46:27 +0000

@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.

By: Jennifer Dytmire

Jennifer Dytmire — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 20:36:56 +0000

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.

By: therealjosh

therealjosh — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 19:23:41 +0000

@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.

By: monkeypup

monkeypup — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 10:13:27 +0000

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.

By: Josh

Josh — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 14:41:33 +0000

@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.

By: sahil beauty

sahil beauty — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 14:37:02 +0000

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.

By: Rose

Rose — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 19:44:47 +0000

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!

By: Laurel Santiago

Laurel Santiago — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 13:39:37 +0000

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.

By: scrabble777

scrabble777 — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 18:15:27 +0000

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

By: Josh

Josh — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 13:50:01 +0000

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.