The Junior League of Olympia, Inc., (JLO) released their first cookbook, Northwest Traditions: Flavors of South Puget Sound, in October 2008. They reaped the benefits of a strategic pre-holiday release and have consistently carried out their marketing plan to garner strong early sales. We wanted to tap into their sales and marketing plan details in order to share their success strategies with other FRP publishers. Cookbook Committee Chair Michelle Green and Committee Member Joanna West were so kind as to oblige.
1. You MUST have a detailed marketing plan.
The Junior League of Olympia’s marketing plan includes the following:
- Sales goals
- Detailed sales avenues (retail, wholesale, distribution) and their respective accounts
- Nontraditional sales ideas
- Plans for special events
- Media/publicity goals
- Committee structure
“Our marketing plan is a great tool…I look at it quite often,” says Green. “We are about to re-visit the plan to re-tool it for the next JLO year. Our goal is to sell all 7,500 books by October 2010, so we will always be revising the plan to meet this goal.”
2. Set the date.
The JL of Olympia’s release date of October was an ideal time to release their book. They considered this and planned for it from the very beginning of the creative process.
“We definitely planned for a fall launch date, not only to coincide with the beginning of our JL year and first meetings, but to take advantage of the upcoming holiday season,” say Green and West.
This preholiday launch date allowed the League to promote the book at numerous holiday festivals and even at their own personal holiday parties. “We tried to take advantage of every opportunity to promote our cookbook before the holidays,” say Green and West.
- The League held a launch party for the book on October 30.
- In early November the League hosted a cooking class at a local cooking school. The class featured recipes from Northwest Inspirations.
- Local media featured an article about the book.
- Tastings and promotional events were held at local high-end gift stores during high-traffic, holiday weekends.
- League members worked booths that promoted the book at popular holiday bazaars.
- League members offered gift-wrapping for donations and simultaneously promoted the book at a local Barnes & Noble throughout November and December.
- Members conducted cooking demonstrations and promoted Northwest Inspirations at high-end grocery stores throughout the greater Puget Sound region.
- The Committee offered awards and incentives to JL members who sold the greatest number of cookbooks.
3. Make sure your book is available anywhere and everywhere.
“We contacted most [of our accounts] ourselves with phone calls. We plan to add a lot more accounts in the next six months,” say Green and West.
Northwest Inspirations is available in diverse locations throughout the greater Puget Sound region, from Olympia to Seattle to Lynnwood, Washington. Aside from getting the book in Barnes & Noble stores and high-end gift shops throughout the region, committee members considered the demographic they were trying to sell to, and got Northwest Inspirations in locations like wine stores, hair salons, and businesses owned by Sustainers or friends of the League—all places where their target demographic frequently spends money.
The Cookbook Committee capitalized on Olympia as the capital city and got the book in the Oregon State Capitol gift shop.
Committee members got really creative when they created 200 gifts that included Northwest Inspirations and mulled spices from the book’s Hot Mulled Cider recipe. They partnered with the local chamber of commerce to distribute these attractive gift-packs to state legislators when this year’s legislative session began—Brilliant!
4. Your League (or organization) is the greatest resource!
A Junior League’s greatest asset in achieving best-selling cookbooks is their League members.
“We have trained the membership on how to sell the book,” say Green and West. “We encourage members to cook the recipes themselves, bring the food to potlucks, meetings, and parties, and tell people where the recipe is from.”
5. The secret ingredient: Passion.
“Olympia is such a beautiful and unique place, and Northwest Inspirations really reflects its character,” say Green and West. “The recipes are amazing. We have received a lot of great feedback about the food. But the cookbook also has great photos and blurbs about the area and information about what JLO does in our community.”
Having a strong plan to sell a product you are passionate about, capitalizing on your closest resources, and then stepping outside the box to share this product with as many people as possible are some proven first steps for achieving a community cookbook of best-selling status.