Living
Girl Scouts update packaging, add buying tool
Monday, 18 February 2013 by Keith Bahlmann
The famous Thin Mints remain, but Girl Scouts are giving their cookie boxes an overhaul to highlight the real purpose of the $790-million cookie program, which is to teach girls five essential life skills: goal setting, decision making, money management, business ethics, and people skills.
To celebrate such a monumental program, this year Girl Scouts has named February 8 National Girl Scout Cookie Day. Girls will be asking 50 million cookie fans across the nation to buy or order more boxes in honor of their success in running the largest girl-led business enterprise in the world.
"Everyone has their favorite Girl Scout cookie, but very few people realize how much is behind that purchase," says Interim CEO for the Girl Scouts of Central Texas, Donna Logan. "When you buy a box of cookies you are in fact helping a girl develop business and communication skills that will help her throughout her life. You are also investing in an organization that is dedicated to raising the next generation of business and community leaders."
When it comes to skill building, statistics show the Girl Scout Cookie Program works. According to a survey from the Girl Scout Research Institute, 85 percent of Girl Scout "cookie entrepreneurs" learn money management by developing budgets, taking cookie orders, and handling customers' money.
Eighty-three percent build business ethics; 80 percent learn goal setting; 77 percent improve decision making; and 75 percent develop people skills.
All the revenue earned from cookie activities—every penny after paying the baker—stays with the local Girl Scout council that sponsors the sale.
Councils use cookie revenue to supply essential services to troops, groups, and individual girls, such as providing program resources and communication support, training adult volunteers, and conducting events.
As part of their experience in any Girl Scout product activity, girls can earn official Girl Scout awards at every level of Girl Scouting, including cookie and financial literacy badges and the annual Cookie Activity Pin.
In the first package design update since 1999, the 200 million Girl Scout cookie boxes sold annually now feature a new look that highlights the skills girls learn through the program.
A new GSUSA marketing campaign reinforces this more contemporary message with the theme, "This Is What a Girl Can Do."
And, for ease of purchase, customers can now find their Girl Scout Cookies using a free app available for iPhone or Android, or by visiting the newly refreshed official Girl Scout Cookie Finder at www.girlscoutcookies.org.
