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MeLinda’s Fine Gifts and More: A Success Story

NOTE: The following success story was recently seen on the national main street listserv. We thought we'd share it with our readers.

"Getting this kind of exposure from someone like Jon Schallert is nothing short of amazing.  I am totally impressed with Melinda and also how Reba and Stacy are working so hard to create the kind of environment where businesses like Melinda’s can thrive.  Congratulations to you all!"
- Bob Wilson

I want to share with all of you a success story I just heard from a small business owner in the Picayune Mississippi Main Street District.  Her story is an example of proactive, innovative marketing that must be used by all downtown businesses if they really want to stand out in today's crowded marketplace.  Melinda Vitale  is the owner of MeLinda’s Fine Gifts and More in Picayune, Mississippi (www.melindasgifts.com). 

 

Melinda left our April, 2007  Destination Business BootCamp with an idea: To create a cookbook using her customers’ favorite recipes to commemorate her store’s ten year anniversary.  She sent out letters to her customers at the end of May asking for them to submit their favorite recipes for inclusion in her book.  She also placed ads in the local Picayune Item newspaper asking for readers to do the same thing, giving everyone an August 15^th deadline.  The recipes started rolling in.

 

In addition to managing her store, Melinda explained to me that the process of publishing a cookbook was lengthy and involved:  First, she had to write the copy for the book, which included writing about her store’s history, creating a section of “Helpful Hints”, and adding a section of the book called “Nutrition for the Soul”, with inspirational scriptures related to topics like home, family, and love. On top of the writing, Melinda had to take photographs, categorize the recipes, and lay out the entire project.  Then, she copied the entire manuscript and sent it off to the publisher, who typeset the book and returned it to Melinda for proofing and editing.  She completed this and then, pushed the publisher to finish the book so it could be in her hands and ready to be sold by the beginning of November, when the Picayune Street Fair was occurring.  Her 500+ cookbooks arrived in time and she told me she sold many of them at the Fair. 

 

Do the math and Melinda’s cookbook went from an idea in her head in mid-April to a ready-for-sale product in 6½ months!

 

But the story gets better.  First, many small business owners wouldn’t have taken on a challenge like creating a cookbook, and those who would have created one might have stopped by placing the book in their stores and hoping for sales to occur.  Not Melinda.  With the cookbook in her store, she advertised in the local paper, and then, took a cookbook to the local newspaper editor.  Soon, a local reporter came by to do a feature story on the cookbook.  The story ran, but after that, the local paper started running separate recipes from the book, each time giving her store more free local publicity.

 

Again, the story was a success right there, except that Melinda didn’t stop at that.  When the advertising rep for the regional newspaper, the Sun Herald, showed up to sell Melinda ads, she gave the rep one of her cookbooks and told her to deliver it to their newspaper’s newsroom, thinking that they might like to do a story on the cookbook’s creation.

 

Days later, Melinda received a call from the Sun Herald’s ad rep.  By now, the cookbook had been passed around the newsroom and employees of the company had looked Melinda’s book over.  The ad rep was calling to tell Melinda that they wanted to buy 18 cookbooks. When Melinda delivered them to the newspaper’s offices, she encouraged her rep to tell the newsroom about her cookbook and how 18 Sun Herald employees were now owners of it!

 

Days later, Melinda was surprised when one of her customers walked into the store with a copy of the “Your Life” section of the Sun Herald, with a story about Melinda’s cookbook, along with a full-color photo.  This free press article blanketed the entire southern Mississippi area, including Gulfport, Biloxi, and reaching New Orleans.  You can read the online version of the story at: http://www.sunherald.com/160/story/227836.html 

 

The article in the Sun Herald was titled: “Cookbooks we like to read and give”, and it was written by Jean Prescott.  After hearing this story, I asked Jean why she featured Melinda’s cookbook in her article, when there are literally hundreds of cookbooks before the holiday season to choose from.  Here is her response: 

 

“We expose local cookbooks first, (and by local I mean the six southernmost Mississippi counties where we circulate).  Then regional cookbooks, (hence the slow cooker book from New Orleans in the story) and then national books.  However, know this:  Melinda's book was not featured SIMPLY because it is local…I liked HER story -- about how the book came to be -- and something about it just touched me. There was a genuine quality about it that set it apart from similar collections that appear to have been slapped together just to make money... Anyone who lays hands on her book and really spends even just a few minutes with it should need no further convincing that it's something they would want to have handy.”

 

I hope you picked up on the most important part of Jean’s quote:  Melinda’s story had touched her.  Becoming a Destination means you have to be willing to tell your story, and to be willing to let customers understand the emotional aspects of creating a business!  The emotion sold the story to the reporter.

 

Melinda’s getting low on inventory on her 500+ first-run cookbook, so if you want one, be sure to order it by calling her at (601) 798-9527, or by emailing Melinda at info@melindasgifts.com.  It’s $14.99 plus $3.00 shipping and handling.

 

By the way, Melinda also told me that she is the only store in her Main Street District that stays open on Sundays during the month of December. She's open from 12:00 noon to 4:00 p.m. and the most commonly asked question from customers is:  "Is any other business open?" Sometimes, it's not innovation or out-of-the-box marketing that gets it done; you just have to show up.

 

Hope you enjoy the story.

 

Jon Schallert
President, The Schallert Group, Inc.
2117 Emerald Drive, Suite 100
Longmont, CO  80504
(303) 774-6522
www.JonSchallert.com & www.DestinationBootCamp.com and coming soon: www.DestinationUniversity.com

Grant Awarded to Picayune

From the desk of the Picayune Main Street Manager…  A $2,178,000.00 grant was awarded to Picayune for downtown revitalization. This grant was applied for after our Your Town Workshop funded by the Mississippi Main Street Association here in Picayune last October.  This workshop drew upon such nationally known talents as Norman Mintz from New York City (regarded as the "father of the Main Street concept").  Mayor Greg Mitchell received a letter from Governor Haley Barbour on October 26, 2007 informing him the CDBG grant through MDA was awarded to Picayune, MS.

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