When you are a brand owner, sometimes things just go wrong. It could be an ingredient shortage, a miscalculation on your part, a production error, or a simple act of God. These are the times that test the resiliency and ingenuity of an entrepreneur, and offer valuable lessons moving forward.
Molly Blakeley, Founder of Molly Bz Cookies, is no stranger to shit hitting the fan. In fact, her entire life story before launching her brand was a series of overcoming one challenge after another. She even documented it in her book which will be published October 27, Bake it Till You Make It: The Story of a Risk-Taking Cookie Queen.
Fortunately, most of the risks she has taken with Molly Bz have paid off, and via RangeMe Immediate Opportunities & ECRM Food & Beverage Sessions, she has landed deals with Walmart, Target, Kroger, 7-Eleven, and most recently, Desert Diamond Casinos (see story here). But in one particular instance, a new product she was developing, the Straight Fire cookie, ran into so many roadbumps it almost never made it our of production.
Fortunately, some quick pivoting and scrappy problem-solving on the part of Blakeley turned what couple have been a potential catastrophe into the brand’s top-selling product
Creating the Straight Fire cookie
The straight fire cookie is Molly Bz’s s’mores cookie. It was one of the first cookies that the brand brought to market and is still its top seller. It is a chocolate chip cookie with graham cracker crumbs and cinnamon extract, and a huge roasted marshmallow on top.
When initially creating the cookie at home several years ago, Blakeley loaded dough with Cinnamon Toast Crunch and mini marshmallows. The initial test ended in disaster. “All of the marshmallows had slid off and the cinnamon toast crunch pieces had burnt on some of the ends,” she says. “The next round I went through and I used my fingers and made holes, then I shoved the marshmallows inside each one of those.”
While manually poking holes into each dough ball worked in small batches, commercial production presented a harsh reality check. The factory reported that the labor was too intense and industrial mixers were disintegrating the cereal into dust.
Back to the drawing board. Blakeley swapped the cereal for graham cracker crumbs, introduced hot cinnamon extract, and tested single large marshmallows placed sideways to ensure an even melt. That worked and they were ready to go.
Or so it seemed.
The Walmart launch crisis
Just when the recipe seemed perfected, scaling up for a massive order with Walmart triggered an even bigger emergency. To cut costs, the team at the factory secured a bulk deal on marshmallows. It proved to be a costly mistake.
“The factory called me and they said, ‘Molly, the marshmallows are not melting,’ says Blakeley. “And we just made all 5,000 cookies. None of the marshmallows look like they’re roasted and none of them melted. They’re still standing and now they’re just hard.”
Frustrated that the factory ran thousands of ruined cookies before alerting her, Blakeley took charge from thousands of miles away in Alaska. She dispatched multiple Instacart shoppers across Charlotte, N.C., clearing out store shelves for Kraft Jet-Puffed marshmallows – the only brand that melted correctly.
“I had to get a whole bunch of Instacart people, paying out-of-pocket, to get thousands of marshmallows from all around Charlotte, N.C. to deliver to the factory so that we could remake the batch,” she says. “I had to get more chocolate chips. I had to get more butter, more sugar, more everything, including eggs – because we use all real ingredients with Molly Bz. I had to buy it all again so that they could do it all again. And they did it and it finally worked.”
The out-of-pocket cost ran to five figures, as this was the period of time where many of the ingredients tripled in price.
Packaging issues: ‘I’m not a good speller’
Production hurdles weren’t limited to the oven. When transitioning from clear labels to official retail packaging, Blakeley faced another embarrassing blunder. This one was her own.
“I spelled the word ‘straight’ wrong on the packaging,” says Blakeley. “I had it spelled, STRAIT. I’m not a good speller. Everyone’s got their thing. Someone messaged me about it, and I got so upset I blocked them like it was their fault. We had to redo the packaging again because I’m a moron and everyone thought I was spelling it that way on purpose. That actually was a major bummer deal.”
Despite ingredient failures, factory miscommunications, and packaging typos, she eventually made it through the experience, and the Straight Fire cookie emerged as a massive success.
Hard lessons learned
While this was a tough lesson to learn, the production debacle did force Blakeley to reframe how she engages with co-packers:
- All ingredients must now be approved by Blakeley and must be an exact brand every time.
- She uses checklists for everything, and will only work with co-packers that want to be a partner with her brand and have integrity.
- Co-packers must be willing to grow with her and see the opportunity in giving and taking to get homeruns and re-orders long-term.
“Too many times they start with us on super reasonable MOQ’s and then raise their MOQ’s when they think we are making more money,” says Blakeley. “I want someone who wants to work WITH us, not against us for a payday. Do you want to be with my brand for 1 year or 20? That’s the big difference.”
One other lesson she took away from the experience: The importance of proofreading your packaging.
For fans looking to experience the cookie at its absolute best, Blakeley shares her personal preparation secret: “I want you to take that little straight fire cookie and I want you to stick it in your air fryer. I want you to put it to 400 and roast that marshmallow for two minutes… that makes such a difference. Or the microwave for 20 seconds, but that’s a game changer.”
Watch Molly Blakeley’s video about the experience below!