Small cookie to catch a bigger market

Press, 2 December 1985, Page 7

Small cookie to catch a bigger market

Cookie Time will give away way small cookies in the hope of making big bikkies.

Starting today, the Christchurch biscuit maker will more than double its staff for a door-to-door promotion of a new product, Christmas Cookies. Sales people, dressed in red and white, will offer people at each house free samples of the new cookie. Two-litre buckets of the cookies will be offered for sale — $9.50 for about 90 cookies. The managing director of Cookie Time, Mr Michael Mayell, said the promotion was an alternative to television advertising, which his company could not afford. The door-to-door ap-

proach would help to promote the biscuits personally in every household in Christchurch and be more effective than television advertising, he said. People would be able to try the product before they bought. Cash could be paid on the spot for a bucket of cookies, they could be ordered for later, or they could be charged to either Visa or Bankcard. Several trial runs in some areas of Christchurch had proved the idea to be worth while. The costs of the venture should be offset by sales made at the door, said Mr Mayell.

The cookies are much smaller than the traditional large variety marketed by Cookie Time. Mr Mayell said they were the latest

craze in the United States, being crunchy on the out-: side but soft and chewy inside.

The promotion will continue until Christmas Day. From January each house in Christchurch will be visited by Cookie Time representatives once every three months. The company plans to release one or two new products every three months. People would again be able to sample before buying. Mr Mayell said the new type of promotion was not designed to reduce sales through retail outlets but to increase them.

“People will be more likely to buy the cookies if they have already tried them, ” he said.