When Adele Malley got into the chocolate business, she noticed an unusual trend among other members of her industry.
Most focused intensely on the creation of their candies in the kitchen, only to scoop the chocolates into dull white paper boxes, stack them on a table and wait for customers to buy.
“The more I got around, the more I saw that everybody had the same idea,” says Malley, who with her husband, Bill, has built an impressive chain of 12 Malley’s Chocolates stores scattered across the Greater Cleveland area. “They thought the chocolates they made were the best. Because they were so kettle oriented, they thought people were simply going to come buy their chocolates because they were so great.”
The chocolate industry would seem a natural fit for impressive retail displays, but Malley says for a long time, the focus was on quality more than salesmanship. She knew that was a bad decision, especially for younger companies that did not yet have a solid customer base. So, Malley set off to devise an industry-wide educational program to help those in the chocolate business become more successful.
After much industry wrangling, she started an annual six-day educational program herself. Today, nearly 20 years later, her school is still going strong.
Along the way, Malley helped a business escape bankruptcy by honing the owner’s retail skills. She was even named a beneficiary in the will of a chocolate store proprietor who felt indebted to her for the success of his store. Her students have come from all over the United States, as well as Canada, South America and Europe.
Over the years, the school has not only brought the Cleveland-based business additional revenue, but more important, branded Malley as a recognized industry expert.
“I thought that somebody ought to help them see that they should take their life’s work and reach out to people in fun, beautiful ways,” recalls Malley, who routinely fields phone calls from chocolate makers looking for sales advice. “You should be able to say, ‘Here’s the presentation, and I can back it up with my product.’”
Getting the idea off the ground, however, presented its own set of troubles. Although Malley knew many small businesses not so different from her own needed help with their merchandising efforts, she first searched the industry for others who were willing to help her make the school a reality.
“I believed we needed to show people how to get chocolates from their kitchens and the bubbling kettles out to the customers, and how to make the stores look inviting,” she explains. “I said I would be very happy to lead the school and get it all together. But, I would need other companies to send in their best store merchandisers.”
At the time, Malley’s call for help went largely unanswered. The board of directors of Retail Confectioners International agreed there was a need for such a school. When it failed to find anyone within its own organizations who could help, Malley realized her proposal was fading fast.
Even with the initial mediocre reception, she charged ahead, discussing the idea with her husband, Bill, who ultimately suggested she set up her school at the company’s Brookpark Road headquarters.
“He said, ‘The whole project is yours, and it needs a home,’” she recalls. “I wrote to the board again and suggested I would take full responsibility and make it a Malley’s school. They wrote me back and said, ‘We wish you the best of luck.’”
The Malley School of Merchandising is more boot camp than educational seminar. No more than 20 people usually fly in to Cleveland for the six-day course that is packed from morning to night with Malley’s own brand of instruction, practice and inspiration.
But it’s not limited to how to design window displays and set up a store. It’s also about gaining confidence and having the guts to make changes.
During the course of each seminar, Malley keeps a close eye on those who make the trip to Cleveland to see who is catching on to the principles and who may need a little more instruction. It is not uncommon that after the day’s slate of events is complete, she will provide additional help to those who need it.
“Some people just don’t get it, and they need to be taught a different way,” she says. “I can attack it from a different viewpoint than the one presented in class, so that person knows I am truly interested in their welfare and that they leave here with the confidence and the know-how.”
Malley believes her school continues to be seen as a valuable experience for those in the chocolate business because of the diverse field of experts she pulls together. When it comes time to discuss lighting, she takes her visitors to General Electric’s Nela Park for a demonstration from senior lighting specialist Mary Beth Giotti.
Meanwhile, Dick Blake, a service trainer who works with large corporations like McDonald’s and Ritz-Carlton hotels, on the final evening of the seminar lightheartedly tackles the topic of how a little customer courtesy can pay big dividends. Over the years, Malley believes she’s perfected the formula.
“I used to have a motivator come and continue on about motivating, but I could hardly keep my eyes open at the end,” says Malley, who routinely makes changes in the line-up of the seminar if her school starts feeling flat. “You have all these ideas in your head and you’re so overwhelmed, I decided to have Dick Blake come and take a completely different twist on what we’d been talking about.”
Word of mouth has been the strongest marketing tool for the Malley’s Merchandising School. In fact, Malley once fielded more than a dozen calls from a Turkish bubble gum manufacturer who wanted to attend the seminar, even though he did not sell chocolates and did not own a single retail store.
On a separate occasion, she had to enlist the help of her daughter, who was visiting Europe at the time, after the Chocolate House of Dublin called with questions about its retail display strategy.
A steady round of speaking engagements at industry conferences and success stories from students have generated a great deal of buzz for the small school Malley founded in 1981. And, it is not uncommon for those who attend to phone her looking for a little guidance when they hit a snag in their retail strategies.
For those who have never learned from her first hand, she suggests a trip to Cleveland, where she can teach them what they need to know to survive in the industry.
“It’s just overwhelming when you get into the business,” she explains. “I try to make sure that everybody who leaves the school has enough confidence that, when they look me in the eye on the last day, they smile and say, ‘I can’t wait to get back to my store.’”
How to reach: Malley’s Chocolates, (216) 362-8700
Jim Vickers ([email protected]) is an associate editor at SBN.
