Create Your Own Recession, and Stuff It in This Small Box
At least it’s good for my diet
The Girl Scouts of the USA, believe it or not, are pretty Big Boys. Their organization will sell approximately 200 million boxes of cookies in the United States this year (at an average price of $3.50), accounting for roughly half of their annual revenues. It’s time to see what one of the Big Boys can tell us about looking the recession square in the eye, and standing side-by-side with your customers.
Part One: Wherein Kelly Wanders the Mall
At the mall Saturday, my daughter and I bought a box of Girl Scout cookies from a stand. When we walked over to the food court to get a slice of pizza, the manager of the pizza place spotted the Samoas sticking out of my bag.
“I heard their business is down pretty bad this year. The recession is even hitting cookies. Might have something to do with the smaller boxes, though.”
Smaller boxes?
“Less in every box, they told me. Seems like a rip-off.”
I sat down to my slice and The Kid pipes up. “I heard that from Jane and Brenda. Fewer in some boxes. And the cookies are smaller.”
“The box looks about the same to me,” I said.
“Mama, every Girl Scout I know told me it. They said you’re not supposed to notice. But if you do, they’re supposed to tell the truth.”
Later on, we saw the Scouts walking out with boxes and boxes of unsold boxes.
Are they making their own recession, I wondered?
It’s not the first time I’ve wondered this. What if “Where have all the good times gone?” can be answered by looking under your desk where you kicked them?
Isn’t it about time to laissez les bon temps rouler, instead of giving in to gloom?
Part Two: Late at Night, Kelly Wanders the www
I wouldn’t run this post about a strategy of the venerable Girl Scouts without doing a little sleuthing. I saw little difference in our package of cookies, and the secondhand opinion of one Delaware pizza manager and the discussion of a few fourth-graders seemed like slender evidence.
So I searched for “girl scout cookies” +smaller, and bingo. Discussions in media from large to small, talking points from one of the official Scout bakers, and a lot of recession talk. I did my research and checked my facts. The Girl Scouts are selling less (up to an ounce less per box, depending on the variety) for the same price. Spokespeople discuss cost increases for ingredients and for transportation. Talking points carefully insist that Girl Scouts who are asked should tell the truth.
“Here’s a great way you might respond: ‘Yes, the packages are a little smaller. That’s because the cost of baking cookies has gone up along with food and gas prices. Of course, the delicious taste of your favorite Girl Scout cookie is just the same!’”
Bottom line:
Giving money to the Girl Scouts at cookie-time long ago ceased to feel like pure charitable giving to many people. It’s buying special, limited-availability items (ooh! scarcity marketing!), with a little make-a-kid-happy and a little charity thrown in to make us feel good about overindulging.
People don’t buy from you (or from the Girl Scouts) to make you money. They buy to get something for themselves.
I tried, I really did, to see this strategy as wise, or benefitting the kids, but it’s not. It’s crazy, from end to end. It’s a shot in the foot.
1. “Tell the truth if you’re asked” is NOT transparency. It’s evasiveness. It means most folks won’t find out from you, but when they do find out, oh, boy are they going to form a negative opinion.
2. Selling less for the same amount of my hard-earned dough is never going to win you any fans, no matter what your rationalization. What did that manager say? “Seems like a rip-off.” People don’t care why just because you wish they’d care, and they aren’t waiting to hear why before judging.
3. Sending kids out to explain the rationale? I know, I know, its for the kids. Can I send mine out when I raise my prices, because I feed her with a portion of the profits? It’s for The Kid…
There shouldn’t be a convoluted rationale for kids to deal with. The bottom line is suck it up and raise prices if you have to. Better to figure out a way not to raise prices through efficiencies if at all possible. If not? Look the problem square in the eye. This tangled web of explanations and excuses—offered in detail only to those confused or upset enough to search for it—would be damaging to any business. Rather than standing with the customer, this sets a shadowy “marketer-speak” between the Scouts and their hungry public.
Never give less than is expected of your product or service.
Be honest. The real kind of honest!
According to various estimates on the web, cookie sales this year are off by as much as 18–20%.
What will the long term fallout be—and will they recognize MINIMUM Customer Experience’s role in it?
Grow and be well,
Kelly Erickson
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24 February 2009, 8:13 am
Wow, pretty stupid of them… but then Hostess/Lays do this with their potato chips all the time. The bag size is bigger/smaller. They cost more/less. The big bags are almost as cheap as the small, etc… Their strategy seems to be keep people guess and no one will know enough to complain.
Alex Fayle | Someday Syndrome’s last blog post…Deciding to live: Joely Black interview
24 February 2009, 8:25 am
Alex,
“… no one will know enough to complain.”
Death to small business, of course. Far more folks walk away than will ever complain. A hollow Experience crushes our chances for repeat customers and (good) word-of-mouth. No matter the size of the biz.
I think one of the greatest (and worst) things that’s coming of these tough times is increased skepticism on the part of the consumer. Maybe it’s about time that big businesses who practice deception (or come really close and sugar-coat it) take a hit when they’re playing games we little businesses know enough to avoid, eh?
Regards,
Kelly
24 February 2009, 1:57 pm
Wow – evasiveness 101 in the Girl Scouts. But isn’t it all about teaching important life lessons? Isn’t that an ILL?
It’s a tough marketing choice. Brutal honesty might have worked, but it’s as sketchy as this is. Put a big bright label on the box “We’ve reduced the size slightly to lower costs and thereby be able to keep more money to fund important programs!” – at least that reminds me why we buy them (and as they go straight to the trash bucket after the li’l darlings leave, so what that they are smaller?).
Tony Lawrence’s last blog post…Programming Principles and Practice Using C++
24 February 2009, 3:00 pm
Tony,
Yep! Yucky life lessons at tender ages. Eeew.
Okay, from now on, send your unwanted cookies to my kid. She thinks I’m stingy for buying one box. I think I just don’t want to have them talking to me in the middle of the night. “Kelly… come find us, hidden in the pantry!!!”
(Alex—it isn’t just you. Food calls to me, too.)
Until later,
Kelly
24 February 2009, 3:05 pm
Actually, I forgot. We stopped doing that. We give them the money and tell them to give a free box to someone they are having a hard time with.
I do the same thing with kids selling stuff to support their Little League team, when they are selling shamrocks at DD’s.. I don’t want the swag..
Tony Lawrence’s last blog post…When it comes to bashing Microsoft
24 February 2009, 3:41 pm
Yeah, I’ve seen this trick before and I always feel cheated. It makes the thing I’m buying seem like it has a lesser value (I’m getting less for the same price). When prices are raised, I can often accept it as inflation, etc.
In fact, higher prices can sometimes increase the perceived value of the product.
I agree – brute honesty will go a long way to keep customers loyal. If Girl Scouts had raised their prices, they could have spent their energy thinking hard about what they could give for free (no cost to them) which would make the higher price seem more worth it to their customers.
Todd Smith’s last blog post…A visit to the Stone Carver’s Yard
24 February 2009, 4:12 pm
@Kelly
The really big companies unfortunately won’t learn anything because they’re “too big to fail” *cough banks cough car companies cough*
Alex Fayle | Someday Syndrome’s last blog post…Deciding to live: Joely Black interview
24 February 2009, 4:32 pm
Tony,
Oh, I like that idea a lot.
‘Spose my kid would think I was even more stingy if I did that…
Todd,
And with an item like this, with only seasonal availability, I think raising the prices to cover their increased costs would work perfectly both in terms of honesty and in terms of the perceived value of the cookies.
Alex,
I think an 18% drop in sales might be enough to get someone at this big company thinking about whether there’s more at work than just the recession. (There definitely is!)
After all, legend has it that “little luxuries” like this should be the last things to feel the pinch.
Not to get too political, but I really hope if we must consider some Big Boys too big to fail, that we don’t also consider them too big to go back to (business) school and relearn some of the basics. It’s major retooling or else, IMO.
Later,
Kelly
24 February 2009, 4:39 pm
I dunno. I like to think it taught our kids that they don’t have to get to give.
I mean really: do the Girl Scouts have to GIVE me anything? Show up at my door with a smile – that’s enough.
I do the same thing when I donate to our local public radio station. I want nothing. It never seems to surprise the volunteers so I can’t be the only one doing it.
Tony Lawrence’s last blog post…When it comes to bashing Microsoft
24 February 2009, 4:41 pm
ROFL—she’s nine. Charity’s great, but that’s for the MS Read-a-Thon, to her. That’s hard work and giving money for a cause.
The Girl Scouts? She just likes the cookies.
24 February 2009, 4:49 pm
Then you should buy her enough boxes to permanently change her mind
Tony Lawrence’s last blog post…When it comes to bashing Microsoft
24 February 2009, 5:30 pm
LOL, LOL…
P.S. The box—all fifteen (smaller) cookies—was gone before this post was published this morning.
And now we return to Mama’s boring homemade cookies for another year.
25 February 2009, 8:38 pm
As mentioned above, the Scouts aren’t the only ones doing it. When was the last time you bought a pound of ground coffee from Folgers or Maxwell House?
I only bought GS cookies once this year. And that was only after the Scout told me I could have the box sent to the troops overseas.
Ahhh, Thin mints, my fatal weakness.-)
Glenn’s last blog post…Is There Two-Way Communication Between Your Customers And You?
25 February 2009, 9:21 pm
Kelly, I was aware of the “cookie scandal.” Funny, I read about it and the rationale – shrink the box or raise the price and I too thought it was stupid to just not tell people or raise the price. Reading it did make me want a cookie so I emailed my local girl scout council to find out where I could get cookies. Still waiting for a response… Food manufacturers have been doing this for years so the practice is widespread but this IS the Girl Scouts and it should have been made transparent. Actually, I hate it when food manufacturers do it too but I have come to expect them to be slimy.
25 February 2009, 9:32 pm
Glenn, Karen,
Yes, I’m afraid the Incredible Shrinking Box is not an invention of the Girl Scouts. But, sending children to deal with (and, they hope, head off) a potential firestorm, well, that’s rather special.
I think Karen nailed the worst of it: “I have come to expect [food manufacturers] to be slimy.”
There’s a lot of damage to be repaired there. You wouldn’t think the Girl Scouts (the group, or the individuals) would want any part of that messy reputation, would you?
Until later,
Kelly
26 February 2009, 11:35 am
Great post. I love it when the GG come to sell cookies. I’m one of the lucky ones with an Uber metabolism. I burn through calories just being awake.
However, the box sure “looks” good this year. How much did they spend on that?
What if they put it in a plain brown box and told use they kept the cost down by saving on packaging and design? I usually buy anything that has no plastic wrapper or coating on it when it is sitting next to one that does.
Love those cookies though. They are smaller than they used to be and fewer. Kinda like all the good companies.
Eyeteaguy
Eyeteaguy’s last blog post…I’m tired
26 February 2009, 1:03 pm
Francis,
I love the idea of saving the money on the box. That would have been maximizing the experience. But they’ve already gone the sneaky route…
Next year, they’ll have smaller cookies and a simplified box (‘cuz you know they’re monitoring this blog), saving them bundles… and we’ll still pay the same.
(I inhale calories just by being awake. Total opposite. You’re a lucky dog on that.)
Later,
Kelly
26 February 2009, 3:19 pm
Y’know, honesty goes a long way. I am adamant that my children tell the truth. If they lie, they get in trouble and then they get punished for what they lied about. If they tell the truth, I praise them, then they get a much reduced punishment for what they did wrong, or no punishment at all if what they did was minor. Its amazing what they will lie about. Things that they would never get in trouble for. I wonder where that comes from? TV? Most sit-coms are based on lying. Just watch for it. Joey did something dumb and spends the rest of the show covering it up. Once once he is exposed, nothing happens, no consequences. Yet another reason not to watch TV. But I digress.
If the GG said to me, there are fewer cookies and they cost more this year, would you like a box? I would still say yes. I know where the money goes, I was a happy recipient of such funds as a boy. Be honest, people will understand. And you’ll sell more cookies, I promise, no lies.
Eyeteaguy
Eyeteaguy’s last blog post…I’m tired