April 16, 2007
There's A New Cupcake in Town for Mother's Day from Baker to the Stars Mrs. Beasley's
Los Angeles, CA - "Treat" your mother like a star. Mrs. Beasley's, known for their exceptional hand-made fresh baked goods and legions of fans including celebrity clients Tom Hanks, Reese Witherspoon, Hillary Swank and Rosie O'Donnell, has launched an irresistible new line of gourmet cupcakes to rave reviews... and just in time for Mother's Day!
The decadent new hand-made cupcake, which KABC-TV has rated the "Best in Los Angeles," is baked fresh daily and flavored with the finest of ingredients including Ghirardelli chocolate, freshly squeezed California oranges, Hawaiian coconuts and premium fruit extract, then lavished with an extraordinary three inches of butter cream frosting and topped with tasty morsels of candy, sprinkles and other delicious treats. No guilt no apologies, no excuses...just frosting!
A mouth-watering, modern twist on the nostalgic cupcake from your childhood, Mrs. Beasley's cupcakes are the ideal Mother's Day gift and a unique and convenient alternative to flower or candy.
Unlike its competitors, Mrs. Beasley's cupcakes can be custom made to order in any one of nine retail stores in Southern California. Customers can customize their cupcake to match their mom's taste and personality or choose from a selection of favorites including Decadent Chocolate Ganache, Outrageous Orange Sherbet, Bold Banana, Sweet Succulent Strawberry and Magnificent Mocha.
For Mother's Day, Mrs. Beasley's has created an delightful three-tiered tower containing six hand decorated cupcakes in keepsake boxes, the only gourmet cupcake that can be shipped anywhere in the country. If you mom has an address, Mrs. Beasley's has a cupcake with her name on it.
Mrs. Beasley's cupcakes can be purchased at retail stores in Beverly Hills, Brentwood/Santa Monica, Costa Mesa, South Coast Plaza, Encino, Downtown LA, Manhattan Beach, Tarzana and Pasadena (all stores offer convenient curbside pickup), online at www.mrsbeasleys.com, by phone at 1-800-710-7742, or at Gelson's Markets.
Contact:
David Beckwith
The Beckwith Company
(323) 845-9836
david@thebeckwithcompany.com
November 2, 2006
There's A New Cupcake Store in Town and South Coast Plaza in OC is the Place to Be
The famed Mrs. Beasley's gourmet bakery is treating Orange County yuletide shoppers to a fabulous selection of holiday baked goods, not to mention special convenience, when Mrs. Beasley's opens its first Gourmet Cupcake store in South Coast Plaza (3333 Bristol St., located on the Bloomingdales side, next to Banana Republic in #2830). As of Friday, November 17, busy shoppers can stop by and pick up 12 delectable flavors of cupcakes, recognized as the latest trend in dessert sensations, with varieties such as Chocolate Ganache, Peanut Butter, Cherry, Mint, Coconut, and Lemon, as well as Holiday themed toppings for Christmas and Chanukah. Each is piled high with Mrs. Beasley's three inches of scrumptious frostings, which like their famous mini-muffins, contain real, premium quality flavorings such as Ghirardelli® chocolate, Skippy® peanut butter, fresh squeezed lemon juice, hand-grated orange and lemon zest and more, depending on the flavor of the cupcake, of course! The store will also feature an array of Mrs. Beasley's delicious fresh-baked cookies (including its new hand-dipped chocolate cookies) a festive snowman cookie Canister, as well as brownies and its renowned Miss Grace Lemon Cake®.
If you're looking for the ultimate shop and go experience, OC residents should also remember Mrs. Beasley's permanent store located across the street from South Coast Plaza (next to the Westin Hotel) in The Shops at Plaza Tower, 650 Anton, Costa Mesa, CA 92626 which also sells cupcakes and the full line of Mrs. Beasley's baked goods and gift baskets. If you call the Costa Mesa/Westin store ahead of time (714.662.6988) or email: costamesa@mrsbeasleys.com they can have a dozen fresh-baked cupcakes waiting for you, curbside. Just call them from your cell phone as you approach the Westin at Anton and Bristol, and they will meet you by the curb with your order . . . Now that's Customer Service!
Additional Background
When Mrs. Beasley opened her first shop over 35 years ago, her delicious baked goods quickly became a hit with Hollywood stars and their studios. Now, these same "gifts from the bakery" are available to stars (and their fans) across the country through eight retail stores, the internet (www.mrsbeasleys.com), and a toll free number, 1-800-710-7742.
The Mrs. Beasley's collection includes the famous Miss Grace Lemon Cakes® - a cake savored by 5 Presidents and 27 Academy Award® Winners - as well as gourmet cookies, muffins, brownies, fudge, sugar-free cookies, nuts, gift baskets, and more. Mrs. Beasley's also carries a selection of Gourmet Baskets featuring fine wines and snacks. The specialty gift baskets appeal to a wide range of tastes, available with assortments of fresh baked treasures, Ghirardelli® chocolates, Beringer, Mondavi, and Fetzer wines, Moet Champagne -- even spa baskets filled with bath products, chocolate body frosting, tea, lotions, luxury soaps and bubble bath.
Deborah Brown
November 2, 2006
November 15, 2000
Mrs. Beasley's Delicious Business Has Grown Richer, Thanks to A New Ingredient: A Shrewd E-commerce Strategy
Charles Brownson knew exactly what to give his friends for Christmas one year: picnic baskets filled with cookies, cakes, and breads. And the veteran tough guy actor knew exactly where to get them: Mrs. Beasley's, the Los Angeles bakery whose impeccably presented pastries are widely considered just the ticket for Hollywood wrap parties, opening nightsm and Oscar galas. At the time, Mrs. Beasley's didn't actually carry picnic baskets. But what Bronson wants, Bronson gets. So the company found some suitable straw hampers, filled them with goodies, and sent them off to everybody on Bronson's gift list. Celebrity customer delighted.
Case closed? Almost.
The incident got company CEO Ken Harris to thinking. If Charlie Bronson would buy picnic baskets, others might too. So Harris looked around for high-quality, low-cost picnic baskets. He found them in China for $12 a piece. He bought thousands, stocked them with baked goods, priced them at $100 to $150 each, and watched as they sold briskly in the company's eight retail stores and on it's website. "I;ve got Charlie to thank for that," says Harris.
That's just one example of how the CEO thinks up new ways to sell an old traditional in the form of Mrs. Beasley's handmade, attractively packaged baked goods. But he and his team go beyond simply satisfying the stars. They've created a stellar blueprint for integrating "bricks" and "clicks" businesses through dozens of strategic partnerships, superior logistics, and some surprisingly simple marketing techniques.
Over the past 20 years, Mrs. Beasley's has whipped up a loyal following as rich as the company's brownie bars. Started as a home business by two sisters in Tarzana, CA, Mrs. Beasley's grew from a neighborhood bakeshop into a chain of stores where ordinary folk and such Los Angeles luminaries as Jodie Foster, Cher, and Earvin "Magic" Johnson spend $30 to $200 on gift baskets packed with gourmet goodies.
But even as Mrs. Beasley's expanded into upscale communities like Beverly Hills, its own fortunes remained decidedly modest. In 1990 the original owners sold the unprofitable company to a Los Angeles investment management company. "When we bought Mrs. Beasley's, it was a $2.5 million company," Harris recalls, noting that it had taken the owners 10 years to reach that figure. "We thought we could make it a real business."
Today things are a lot sweeter for Mrs. Beasley's, which turned profitable in 1997 and reached nearly $11 million in sales in 1999. Harris expects the company to hit $17 million this year (but he's got his bakers making enough muffins and lemon cakes for $18 million -- just in case). The CEO credits much of the company's growth to its aggressive, and highly successful, expansion into E-commerce. Mrs. Beasley's Website, launched just before the 1999 holiday shopping season, hit $2.1 million in sales in its first 60 days, almost 20% of the pastry peddler's total sales for the year.
Harris attributes those tasty results largely to Mrs. Beasley's vigorous marketing strategy, which relies heavily on innovative affiliations -- including promotions on corporate intranets and lucrative revenue-sharing partnerships with brand-name websites. Now Mrs. Beasley's online business is profitable enough that Harris finds himself beginning to wish he could unload the brick-and-mortar bakeshop where the business began.
The company processes all its own orders, rather than adding a third-party fulfillment company to the mix. Its website can handle $7 million a month in sales. It also keeps a private online address book for each customer that includes a gift-giving history. (Harris own address book includes entries like "Crystal, Bill" and "Ryan, Megan.")
Harris, 57, whose deep, southern California tan contrasts with his tough, native New York accent, is a numbers guy, easily / citing gorss margin (70%) or the average cost of acquiring a new customer ($28). He readily admits that Mrs. Beasley's recipe for success hasn't come without lumps: wasted expenditures, sour deals. Even so, Mrs. Beasley's offers vaulable lessons for any company that's looking to do business in multiple channels -- even those who can't count Oscar winners among their clientele.
Going into the 2000 holiday season, Harris has two wishes. First, he wants to make Mrs. Beasley's "the leading online retailer for shared gift products." The operative word: shared. Mrs. Beasley's banks on the idea that customers -- primarily business people -- send gifts to their own customers who then share the bounty. "You order a gift basket, it goes around the conference table during a meeting, people try the cookies, and they're hooked," says Harris.
His other goal: making Mrs. Beasley's a year round habit. Currently the company does 65% of its business in October, November, and December. (In fact, Mrs. Beasley's employees tend to talk about the Christmas season the way other people talk about natural disasters: the Quake of 89.)
For the Full Story visit Inc. Magazine here
