Who Else Wants To Improve Girl Scout Cookie Season?

Applying some of the latest business models and trends 

This weekend marks the the dreaded kickoff of Girl Scout Cookie sales. Don’t get me wrong I’m a big fan of the program and do my fair share to support the efforts. And by support I mean buy way too many boxes.

Why do I say dreaded? Because the temptation is outside nearly every Starbucks and grocery store pushing their sweet cookie crack. And the timing… right after people set new years resolutions they’ll never keep. Tasty Thin Mints, seducing Samoas, and don’t get me started on the perfect Peanut Butter Patties.

This year I was ecstatic to learn that the Girl Scouts have added not only the ability to pay with a credit card but also a cookie locator app. Side note: I wonder if there will be a marijuana locator app in Colorado? Who am I kidding, probably already is. Again another addicting substance or so I’ve read.

According to the Girl Scout website:

Selling cookies teaches goal setting, decision making, money management, people skills, and business ethics—aspects essential to leadership, to success, and to life.

These are in fact great goals and I’m glad to see they are adding eCommerce exposure and an app. I guarantee some Girl Scouts will be getting a new iPhone 5s as a result. But the fact is cash is a dead currency so this was somewhat long overdue. I’m waiting for the retinal scanner to just ring up my purchase.

I anticipate much better sales due to the simplicity of a credit card swipe. And when they need that Thin Mint fix they can easily locate the next cookie pusher around the corner. Not sure why they would need it since I’ve already been hit up by two friends asking for early orders.

But we also need to teach Girl Scouts about software technology, business models and online marketing. So I thought I’d offer some suggestions on how to improve cookie sales, develop new skills and provide some new badges. Yes, they need these stinkin’ badges. Of course, I’d test each one of these to determine market demand, profitability and scalability. Your typical customer development process.

5 Strategies to Improve Sales, Consumer Experience and Girl Scout Learning

1. Offer a Cookie of the Month Subscription: With the growth of subscription offerings, why not offer a a few varieties a month delivered to your door with a monthly charge of say $19.99 and all credited to the girl scout who convinces the buyer to opt-in. If I can buy razor blades, startup T-shirts and beef jerky on a monthly subscription surely I’d consider cookies.
2. Leverage Email Marketing
   With an eCommerce app I hope they are offering to send receipts by email to build their database. Imagine each girl scout having an email list developed with programatic emails from corporate could enable:
   “Hi Mike,
   Thanks for buying cookies from me last year. I hope you liked the Samoas and Thin Mints. It’s that time again. Cookie sales start on January 11th and I’ll be at Starbuck at Coit/Legacy on Saturday the 11th. Hope to see you there! Or if you just want to order online here’s the link to my eCommerce store.
   — Chloe”
3. Provide Delivery via Lyft, TaskRabbit or Uber
   Instead of the girl scout notifying their advance buyers that the cookies are now in, what if you provided a way to have them delivered eliminating the need to coordinate parents having to drop these off all over the neighborhood. If Walgreens can ink a deal with TaskRabbit for cold medicine delivery why not cookies. A cookie locator app is great but many may pay the premium to have delivered.
4. Host a Structured and Mentored Girls Hackathon
   This clearly falls into the skills development area but with the launch into the app space and eCommerce they should embrace their own to develop the next up and coming apps. Imagine what a group of dedicated and interested girl scouts could imagine. Why not show recent instagram photos in the app of folks tagging #CookieBoss. I’m sure AT&T, Facebook, Google and Amazon would jump at the chance to persuade more girls to code.
5. Embrace Hacker Scouts
   With the growth of 3D printing, consumer electronics and more physical goods Kickstarter projects the Girl Scouts should learn to embrace the skills necessary in the physical world. Developing spacial abilities and engineering skills will go far in preparing these girls for rigors of college and encourage more to pursuing engineering.

What other ways could we leverage the latest in technology to improve the girl scouts experience for scouts and consumers. What new ways could we help them develop the skills necessary in this new market place?

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