Business Spotlight: Personalized cookie arrangements make tasteful gift

It looks like an oddly shaped sugar cookie. Then the cookie artist begins to work her magic. Within minutes, the sugar cookie becomes a shaggy dog. Another oddly shaped cookie becomes a Dalmatian.

These cookies, along with several others, are attached to thin wooden sticks and arranged in a gift basket to form a festive bouquet that will be delivered to a local veterinarian.

"Everybody says the cookies look too good to eat," said JoAnn Dapp, owner of Cookies by Design. "Then someone will taste one, and by the end of the day, the entire cookie arrangement will be gone."

Dapp first got the idea to open Cookies by Design in 1993 after she visited one of the franchise's stores in Dallas.

At the time, Dapp co-owned En'Core Resale Boutique, but she was intrigued by the idea of opening a gourmet cookie franchise.

By 1999, Dapp said she believed the Springfield market had grown to the point where it could support the franchise, so she sold her interest in the boutique to her partner and started the cookie enterprise.

The franchise, which has its headquarters in Plano, Texas, has been in business since 1983, and there are 218 Cookies by Design stores nationwide.

Missouri has three stores in St. Louis, one in Kansas City, one in Columbia and one in Springfield.

More than 225 cookie cutters are used to make the custom cookie arrangements. Many of the arrangements are geared toward particular holidays or special occasions. The cookies themselves are made from scratch, decorated and delivered the same day to ensure freshness.

"A lot of salespeople order arrangements from us because it gets them through the door," Dapp said. "A cookie arrangement is different and original, and you can personalize it. Cookies really are the perfect gift. You can give them to anyone of any age."

Although Cookies by Design does sell and deliver gourmet cookies, Dapp said there's a lot more to the business than just baking and selling cookies. Before opening the store, Dapp attended a school run by the franchise, which stressed the importance of working on the business not in it.

In fact, Dapp spends the majority of her time promoting and marketing the business and its services while five part-time employees take customers' orders and do the baking and decorating. A subcontractor handles all deliveries.

The majority of the store's customers are corporate, and many deliveries are made each day to hospitals, law offices, doctors' offices and large and small businesses located in Springfield and several nearby communities. In addition, Cookies by Design also caters to individuals, particularly those who are looking for a gift that can be personalized.

To increase awareness and demand, Dapp often faxes flyers to area businesses or runs ads on TV that promote Cookies by Design right before a holiday. Dapp's business also does centerpieces for special events, banquets, business meetings and other occasions.

According to Dapp, 70 percent of the orders received at the store are placed by phone. Approximately 80 percent of these phone orders come from customers who live out-of-state.

"It's the power of the franchise," Dapp said. "Cookies By Design is very popular in other areas of the country. I own the Springfield territory, so if someone from another region of the United States wants to send cookies to a friend or colleague in Springfield, their order gets routed through this store. We've only begun to penetrate the local market, which is exciting because that means there's a lot of potential for growth."

Part of that growth will come via the Internet. The company recently revamped its Web site www.coookiesbydesign.com so customers could place their orders online, and the Springfield store began receiving orders via the Internet March 1.

In the coming months, Dapp plans to work on increasing customer awareness and demand. To date, her marketing efforts have paid off. Thanks to a successful Valentine's Day promotion, she said, business at Cookies by Design increased by more than 30 percent compared to the same period last year.