The Gospel Truth
03 Sep 2008
The Cookie Store
Americans love cookies. The average American eats 35,000 cookies in his or her lifetime. If every Oreo cookie ever made were stacked on top of each other the stack would reach to the moon and back more than five times. We owe a debt of gratitude to Ruth Wakefield, owner of the Toll House Inn, because one day in 1933 while baking her butter drop cookies for the guests, she decided to throw some chocolate bits into the mix. She is credited with inventing the chocolate chip cookie. As a result, Americans purchase about 100 million bags of chocolate chip cookies every year and Nabisco’s Chips Ahoy were the biggest selling packaged chocolate chip cookie in 2006.
Here is one obvious fact that I don’t need to find in a reference book:
We eat cookies because they taste good.
Being the proud American that I am, to me, there is nothing like sitting down in my recliner with a hot cup of tea and a big batch of cookies and watching baseball. Man oh man! That’s living.
Cookies 4 U
Since we’re talking about cookies, I’d like to tell you a story about a young man named Tom who loved cookies as much as anyone. Tom had two best friends, Joe and Bill, who also loved cookies. Tom, Joe and Bill went where the cookies were. They were often seen at cookouts, bake sales, baking contests, covered dish meetings at church and anywhere else they could partake of their favorite delicacy…cookies. They even traveled to the National Cookie Convention where they were in cookie heaven. They were cookie connoisseurs.
One day while returning from one of their cookie excursions they decided that since they loved cookies so much, it was only natural for them to be in the cookie business. They formed a cookie group and came up with a very clever name for their cookie venture, “COOKIES 4 U”, and their family and friends applauded the clever name and offered all the encouragement they could.
Cookies P U
With much zeal they began making cookies. When they had the first batch done they invited their families and friends for a tasting party. The cookies tasted awful. Their families and friends were so proud of the boys they didn’t have the heart to tell them the truth. They made statements like… “We’re so proud of you boys”… “We’re so glad you love cookies so much”… “These cookies are such a blessing.”
And so, armed with this false sense of accomplishment, the boys borrowed some money they really couldn’t afford to borrow and rented a small store and purchased some ovens and cooking utensils.
The first few months they had some customers, mostly out of curiosity, but no customers ever returned for more cookies because the cookies tasted so awful. It soon became apparent to the boys that something was wrong, but they couldn’t determine what the problem was because no one had the heart to tell the boys the truth…THEY DIDN”T KNOW HOW TO BAKE COOKIES! By all outward appearances they looked like a cookie business except for one simple truth…people buy cookies because they taste good.
Cookies Boo Hoo
One day a cookie promoter came into the store. He could sense that these men were disheartened about the lack of success of their business. Without tasting one cookie, he offered them a solution. He suggested that they needed to promote their cookies nationally…that was the way to get their name out there, just like the big cookie stores. If people simply KNEW about their cookies, their cookie business would prosper. Even though the cookie promoter knew that people would not buy cookies that don’t taste good, he convinced the men he was leading them on the pathway to success
So the boys, now struggling financially, borrowed some more money from family and friends, took second mortgages on their homes, and signed on with the promoter to promote their cookies nationally.
After 3 months of promotion the boys were discouraged to learn that no one in other parts of the country wanted their cookies either. They still were no further ahead and still had no clue why no one wanted their cookies. However they did know that they were further in debt and the only one who seemed to benefit from their efforts at national promotion was the cookie promoter.
Cookies “How To”
Still searching for answers, the trio learned of a man, Mr. Brown, who had helped lots of other cookie stores succeed. Mr. Brown had a long history in the cookie business and was renowned for his common sense approach to succeeding in the cookie business. So they set an appointment with Mr. Brown to come and help them.
Of course the first thing Mr. Brown did was taste the cookies. He told them something no one else had, “Boys, your cookies taste terrible.” Then he sat the boys down and explained to them that the first order of business would be for the boys to learn how to bake cookies that tasted good. He explained to them that it didn’t matter how far afield they promoted their cookies, people will not buy cookies that don’t taste good.
Then Mr. Brown rolled up his shirtsleeves, put on an apron, and began teaching the trio exactly how to bake cookies…one cookie at a time. “Let’s start with Chocolate chip”, said Mr. Brown, “Tom, get me 2 ½ cups of all-purpose flour, Joe, you get 2 sticks of butter, Bill, you get a package of semisweet chocolate chips”, and so on, until they had all the ingredients together. Then Mr. Brown taught them simple cooking techniques, mixing and temperatures and things like that, simple things, the boys could understand.
The first batch of cookies was not perfect. Some were not exactly round, and so on, but they tasted pretty good and at least now the boys understood what they had to do. For the first time someone was telling them the truth and actually helping them to help themselves. And Mr. Brown also began teaching them other things like managing their money, and purchasing materials at the right price, and marketing and advertising techniques, and building a client base.
Needless to say the trio was thrilled to finally have someone like Mr. Brown to help them succeed. He explained to the boys that since they were just starting there was still much they needed to learn, and that they could count on him to be there every step of the way.
The boys learned some valuable lessons from Mr. Brown
The most important thing they learned was that cookies have to taste good for people to buy them. No matter how much you promote them…no matter how many ads you take out…the very first order of business is to make absolutely, positively, certain, beyond the shadow of any doubt…THAT YOUR COOKIES TASTE GOOD.
NOTHING…NOTHING…IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN THAT.
People buy cookies because the cookies taste good.
They also learned that people will lie to you…good people, decent people, would sometimes rather lie to you about your cookies than to risk hurting your feelings by telling you the truth.
And finally they learned the truth about companies like the cookie promoter, who knew in advance that promoting the boys’ cookies would not succeed but still took their money.
My friends I truly hope you learned something from this story.
As Always, I Welcome Your Comments.
God Bless You
Nick Brown Bruno
http://www.nickbruno.com
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[11] Comments
Has Mr. Brown ever been bold enough to tell a cookie trio that they shouldn't be making cookies?
Great analogy.
Written: 09/03/2008 
Author: Nick Bruno
Category:
The Gospel Truth
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