From Treasure Craft
Dateline: 11/04/07Dear Cookie Jar fans,
First and foremost, I want to thank each and every one of you for the overwhelming response to the Treasure Craft contest. I’m SO impressed - with quantity as well as quality! I know everyone is anxiously awaiting results and we promise to do everything we can to get the news to you as quickly as humanly possible. It’s going to take a little longer that we originally thought due to the huge number of responses. We had no way of anticipating your overwhelming enthusiasm!
Here are some of the intriguing statistics:
- The total number of entries = 406**
- The number of individuals who submitted ideas = 48
- There was an almost even split between Original and Licensed ideas.
- A small, but ultra-interested group of 7 people sent in over 20
entries each!
- Multiple-entries made up over half of the total responses.
- 90 ideas involved logos or characters - Trix Rabbit, Energizer Bunny,
etc.
- 60 of the ideas involved jars shaped like food - muffins, candy,
commercial brands, etc.
- 35 of the ideas involved portraits of a famous person - Movie/TV
stars, Comedians, etc.
The response was SO enthusiastic that we feel more of you should be recognized for your genuine interest in Treasure Craft and collectible cookie jars. We have just decided to award some additional prizes! We are going to increase our prize categories from two to four:
Best LICENSED idea
Most CREATIVE idea
Most HUMOROUS idea
Each winner will be notified by email - we’ll need to hear from you about where to mail your prize. Each of the four winners will receive a COOKIE JAR from us. The jars will be unusual, in limited supply and will be a nice addition to your collection - a souvenir from us for participating!
Many of you submitted a variety of Disney ideas (Lady & the Tramp, Sleeping Beauty, Bambi, Cruella, etc.) and although the ideas are excellent, we can only produce what Disney will allow. The licenses are complex and some are just not possible for many of Disney’s internal marketing reasons. Be patient, their times will come.
A special note of thanks for the enthusiasm and perseverance shown by a "hard core" of die-hards that deserve to be singled out. I’m speaking of the 4 or 5 people who sent in entries nearly every day! These folks need special recognition - they came up with dozens and dozens of ideas - Thomas, Leighanne, Jerome, Terry, Colleene, Cheryl, Andrea and many others - thank you so very much!
Most importantly, we need to tell all of you collectively about something we learned as a result of this experiment. Manufacturers and wholesalers around the country carefully study and research their respective markets continuously trying to second guess what the public wants and on what they might be willing to spend their hard-earned money. Sometimes they get it right and sometimes they shoot right over your heads. This kind of contest shines a very bright light onto this mystery, for us anyway. We learned more in the past month that we could have learned in a zillion trips to trade shows, shopping malls and independent retailers. Now, you’ll have to be patient for a while and wait for us to respond. We at Treasure Craft will do our level best to make what you want us to make. You’re in the driver’s seat - you cast your vote on our products by buying them. We’re so glad we were able to hear from you in this innovative and interactive way!
Curt Blanchard
Director of Marketing
11/4/97
**editor's note: Actually many more than this as quite a few folks submitted
the same idea on multiple days and I did not forward all of them to Curt.
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