By Tom Polanski, EVP, eBrand Media and eBrand Interactive

Folks, we’re really tickled to be able to spend some time with Dennis Consorte, Director of e-Commerce at David’s Cookies. When you get a chance, check out the site.  A lot of really scrumptious cookies and deserts. I know the eBrand Group will be using David’s over the holidays. They offer much, much more than the usual “cookie tin” suspects. (smile)

Tom Polanski: Hi, Dennis. How are you doing today?

Dennis Consorte: Hey Tom, I’m doing great, thanks. I’m very excited to speak with you! How are you?

Tom Polanski: I couldn’t be doing better. Dennis, would you mind giving us a little bit of background as to how you ended up at David’s?

Dennis Consorte: Sure. Long story short, I was a computer geek as a kid, heavy on the software side. I fell out of it around senior year of high school, got my Bachelor’s Degree in psychology and eventually ended up working on the management team at an architectural firm. Four years later, I decided that administration wasn’t the path I wanted to take, and rejuvenated my love for computers, but more on the online marketing side. I got into a bunch of things including some large consulting gigs and 5 years later I found myself in a fulltime position at David’s Cookies. Here I manage much of the site development, online strategy, the affiliate program, SEO, PPC advertising and of course just growing our Internet presence and online business.

Tom Polanski: It’s always interesting to me the journey people take to find their passion, their niche.  Do you apply any of the principles you learned earning a degree in psychology towards your marketing?

Dennis Consorte: It’s been a long time since I got my degree, so I’m not sure how much of that book knowledge applies to what I do today. Sure there are some basic fundamentals that apply, but most of those can be found on the internet. For example, they say that warm colors like red, yellow and brown - colors that can be commonly found in nature - trigger a hunger response that may help with conversions. We don’t adhere too closely to stuff like this, but I think it’s important to keep it in mind. There’s other stuff that can be considered psychological, but I think most of it is based on A/B testing. For example, people like big red buttons. Or, sometimes a “try it now” link or button in a newsletter will produce a better click-thru ratio than a “buy” button. I think a lot of psychology in this regard is just common sense.

Tom Polanski: David Liederman opened the first store back in 1979. He’s a pretty renowned chef. Is he still associated with the company?

Dennis Consorte: He is not, though his top secret recipes are forever in the archives of this company. Chef David built the company into a huge organization with over 250 stores. However like many brick and mortar storefronts, operating costs became too much and the New York based company was sold to Fairfield Gourmet Foods in New Jersey. They shifted the focus of David’s Cookies more into the food service and co-branding industries and grew it into the $50MM company it is today.

Tom Polanski: What was that about top secret recipes?

Dennis Consorte: (laughs) Our cookie dough recipes are what make David’s Cookies stand out from the competition. We keep them close to the vest and continually work to improve the formulas and create new products and recipes.

Tom Polanski: I’m curious are the cookies baked in house?

Dennis Consorte: They are. We’ve got about 70,000 square feet of warehouse space, hundreds of employees and are looking to expand.

Tom Polanski: Dennis, I see that David’s is going to be offering nutritional information which I think is admirable but I wonder if that might be too much info. Are you prepared to test how that information will affect conversion rates and average order value?

Dennis Consorte: That’s a good question and I’m not sure of the answer. It really boils down to whether people want great tasting cookies that taste just like homemade, or if they want to watch their waistlines. I can tell you that most of our cookies are sent as gifts, where quality outweighs calories – no pun intended. (laughs) Besides that, we offer a number of reduced calorie products such as our sugar free chocolate chip cookies and our no-sugar-added cheesecakes and truffle cakes. So, I’m not too worried, although that project is a long time in the making.

Tom Polanski: It could well prove true that the nutritional transparency you’ll offer will add value to the brand by positioning David’s as one of the “white hat” guys. And it could be that, even though people may have a hiccup or two when the see the number of calories in a desert that they’ll just go on eating it any ways because they like it.  

Dennis Consorte: Yep, that’s the idea. We’re a very transparent company as a whole, and I agree, people appreciate that. The bottom line is that even in this tough economy, everybody loves cookies and sometimes it’s ok to indulge or to give a delicious gift to a family member or client.

Tom Polanski: Do you think that your business is recession proof even though it may not seem like it on first thought?  My thinking is that in a down economy most people will still want their comfort food.  What do you think?

Dennis Consorte: I don’t think that any business is recession-proof. To be honest, with the price of eggs, flour and oil being as high as they are, I’m amazed that we’re still growing! The way I see it, most people that buy cookies from us have them sent as gifts. Even though we’ve had to adjust our pricing due to increased costs, cookies are still a lot cheaper than many of the alternatives out there. Plus, we currently offer free shipping on all orders, which encourages people to make a purchase now rather than lateer. Cookies are definitely a comfort food, and maybe they help people get their minds off of the not-so-fun things they spend their money on.

Tom Polanski: David’s is involved in charitable work. Can you explain what it’s doing to give back to the community?

Dennis Consorte: With our online division, we like to keep things fun. Some of the more recent sponsorships we’ve done included providing 200 kids with cookies during a special Christmas edition of the Maury Povich Show where the world famous Jack Hanna brought a bunch of wild animals like flamingos, zebras and monkeys. We’ve also sponsored close to 50 local PBS stations in their auctions and most recently, a screening of Kung Fu Panda at a local Imax where I believe 100 kids came to watch the show.

Tom Polanski: Do you mind if we talk a little bit about marketing?

Dennis Consorte: Not at all, it’s what I love.

Tom Polanski: I saw your interview on You Tube. Very nice. Who came up with the idea to have a Presidential Primary Cookie Poll? I really like the idea, by the way.

Dennis Consorte: Our online team came up with the idea for the cookies together as something light and fun to keep up with current events. To add the newsworthy marketing hook, I transformed this into the Cookie Poll that you saw on CBC. I really enjoyed this project.

Tom Polanski: Have you seen an increase in sales?

Dennis Consorte: We sold quite a number of political cookie cakes, but more importantly it got us some press and showed that we’re not just cookies, but a dynamic organization that keeps up with the times and gives our customers something special. Overall, our online sales for the past twelve months are more than double the previous 12 months, so I’d say whatever we’re doing is working.

Tom Polanski: Will you have a Presidential Election cookie poll?

Dennis Consorte: I’m pushing for it. We’ve got so many projects in the queue, so we’ll have to see where this fits in. But, I’d love to do a repeat of the last one and compare it to the results of more serious polls.

Tom Polanski: Most companies don’t understand that branding will generate a return on influence and that it typically takes 6 exposures to a brand in order for it to become part of the accepted consciousness of a shopper. The first 5 times are filtered out along with everything else that’s not deemed necessary by the consciousness. Otherwise we’d be overwhelmed. Paid search is a great branding tool. They see a company’s name and logo but that company only pays if they click. If they don’t click they’re still one step closer to being branded.

Dennis Consorte: I agree, it’s not just the measurable ROI from click-to-sales, but also the brand awareness that keeps us at the top of our game.

Tom Polanski: David’s is working with affiliate networks?

Dennis Consorte: We are. We’ve been with Linkshare for quite a few years and they’ve been great. I’ve got so many contacts in the industry that I see at trade shows such as the upcoming Affiliate Summit in Boston. We’ve got close ties with our online publishers and cookies are an easy sell. We’re also working with some great companies like TrialPay and OnCard Marketing on a CPA basis that doesn’t conflict with our standard affiliate program. I’ve dabbled in the mobile space but I’d say that’s a few years out before we start to see some real volume.

Tom Polanski: Have you had much of a challenge with charge backs, bogus credit card information and other problems with affiliates?

Dennis Consorte: There are one or two incentive programs that had a bit more rejected orders than the average website but for the most part, we’ve been pretty lucky in the affiliate space.

Tom Polanski: I noticed that David’s has placed its credibility indicators on the right side of the home page just above the fold instead of the left side where the eye naturally falls. Why is that?

Dennis Consorte: HackerSafe – now McAfee SECURE, was one of the first things I integrated into Davids Cookies. Not only does it provide a better, more secure service to our customers but it’s a great marketing tool. In my experience with online marketing, I’ve found that tying our brand to well known, respected companies in the industry makes customers who may not have heard of us before their latest Google search more inclined to make a purchase. We’ve certainly seen an increase in our conversion ratio because of this. Another great idea that came from the food service side of our business was to associate many of our cookies to the branded ingredients that they contain. For example, we’ve got a new product on the site called a Deep Dish Cookie Pie, and each flavor has ingredients like real Hershey’s Kisses and Reese’s Pieces. Adding their logos to the respective products’ images has also increased conversions significantly.

Tom Polanski: Petco did a test where they moved their confidence building symbols around the homepage and each movement resulted in a change in the conversion rates. Have you folks tested that?

Dennis Consorte: We have not. I feel that our online campaign is still in its beginning stages. There are so many improvements to the model that have happened over the past one to two years, and so many more yet to come. A/B testing and multiple landing pages is a project that I’d love to push through as a powerful marketing tool, but it all boils down to the budget I get next year and the delicate balance between operations and marketing.

Tom Polanski: One more question, if I may, Dennis. David’s is sort of an old-school company in the way that it marketed its products and drove revenue prior to your arrival, right?

Dennis Consorte: I better be careful how I answer this! (laugh). The baking industry and David’s Cookies have focused more on the B&M side of the business. While some of the offline strategies certainly transfer to the online space, there are so many concepts that apply strictly to the Internet. They had a good site until I came on board, with respectable growth. Now that they’ve got an Internet guy like me on board, there are so many possibilities. I will say that sometimes it can be difficult to push through some concepts that seem alien to the online space. But, the numbers don’t lie and as our bottom line has been increasing at an exponential rate, so does their trust in new techniques to grow the business.

Tom Polanski: Well I guess that’s about all I have. Is there anything you’d like to add, Dennis?

Dennis Consorte: Just that we’ve got a fantastic team here and I’m very proud of their dedication to growing this business and improving our service to our customers. Each group within our Internet Department – from customer service to fulfillment and marketing – has taken great strides to make things happen and I’m very excited about the future.

Tom Polanski: Dennis, thank you so much for your time. What a delight.

Dennis Consorte: Thank you, Tom. The pleasure was all mine.

Tom Polanski: Folks, visit David’s Cookies to see a really top notch e-commerce site offering a wide and rich array of dessert products.