Gift Giving and Marketing 101

I have a degree in Finance, but having been in sales and marketing for as long as I can remember. I always love it when someone else has a really great marketing idea. Last December I had asked for suggestions on gluten-free gift giving, but when I went into the office I saw that Stephanie Robbins, the marketing director for Pamela’s Products, had sent a holiday gift that was a really fun idea.

I parted the golden tissue paper of the box to find a captivating card with iced gingerbread men. The card had holiday wishes and a recipe for gingerbread using Pamela’s Products….but underneath that card were the ingredients wrapped with a vibrant green and blue polka dot bow. The piece d’ resistance was the gingerbread man cookie cutter tied up in the bow.

In subsequent conversations I told Stephanie that her idea was terrific and I never would have guessed that gingerbread cookies could be made from Pamela’s Bread Mix. What Stephanie doesn’t know is how they got made in my household!

We had a rare day without basketball games a few weeks ago, but it was just frigid and the kids were cooped up with cabin fever. After several “leave your brother/sister alone” left my mouth at a high pitched shriek, I started looking for distractions. I handed one daughter the recipe and the Pamela’s Bread Mix and asked her to make them.

As I did some paperwork, I fielded questions from the kitchen. “Do we have a heavy duty mixer?” Yes. “Why does molasses smell so bad?” I don’t know. “Where is the baking soda?” Top shelf of the pantry cupboard, red can.

She followed the recipe, chilled her dough and then rolled them out. I got involved a bit with the rolling by giving her some advice on technique. As an aside, I am last person who should be giving advice on using a rolling pin since I had to rip my kitchen apart to actually find it.

These little guys baked up beautifully and our house smelled like cinnamon and ginger. We all wanted to taste one before the frosting so we sacrificed a mutant looking gingerbread man who had been free-formed from dough scraps for tasting. My husband summed it up best, “These are good, are they really gluten-free?”

So, Stephanie’s gift was actually an afternoon without bickering…and yes, we also had some fresh gingerbread cookies! If you are thinking ahead to Valentine’s Day and sugar cookies…you could box up a baking mix, frosting, a heart cookie cutter with pink and red tissue and ribbon…here is a recipe courtesy of Pamela’s Products.
Kendall Egan