Passage 2
Famous Amos
Today, most of us recognize Wally "Famous" Amos, the man who gave his name to the original gourmet cookie. The company founded by Amos has achieved nationwide distribution of several flavors of its cookies in stores and has scattered retail stores world-wide, with franchises in Japan, Australia, and Canada, as well as the United States.
In 1988, Wally Amos was just another talent agent trying to succeed in Hollywood. However, he soon developed another calling. Friends told him that the cookies he made were so good that he should sell them, and eventually Amos took their advice. Some of these friends backed up their advice by investing 000 in his venture, the Famous Amos Chocolate Chip Cookie Company, and the world's first gourmet cookie shop opened in 1988. It was an instant success.
News of Famous Amos spread by word of mouth, and in classic example of great demand, consumers would walk into stores and ask the owners why they did not stock Famous Amos cookies. The company relied solely on this informal sort of marketing for its first five years.
When Amos started his company he had made no plans for such growth. His first retail "hot bake" shop appeared to be earning a profit and, after all, in his words, "All I wanted to do was make a living. "Consumer demand grew and requests began to pour in from other areas, but Amos did not have the funds to expand his cookie shop concept into a chain. He also wanted to avoid the risk of expanding through borrowing funds. Then the idea struck him just as it had McDonald' s Ray Kroc 30 years earlier: franchising. The firm distributed its frozen dough directly to the franchised "hot bake" shops located in suburban shopping centers and downtown walk-in locations.
Amos also used other distribution alternatives to set the cookies into supermarkets, convenience outlets, "mom-and-pop" stores, and gift shops that make up the Famous Amos market, by contracting with an independent wholesale distributor. This distribution channel saved the company the cost of starting its own network, while giving it access to an already established distribution system, without which the young company might have failed. Even though many store owners were unhappy about doing business with products offering such a low markup, consumer demand was so strong that retailer complaints soon fell to a trickle and distribution became more widespread.
Famous Amos tailored its cookies to its markets. Frozen dough was shipped directly to the firm's franchised "hot bake" shops. For supermarkets, it offered several different sizes of cookies, and set up racks for the packages in the fresh baked goods section, rather than on the cookie shelf. For convenience stores, one-and-two-ounce bags were created to save and to encourage impulse sales. It now makes several flavors of cookies(oatmeal-ba- cookies are the nations best sellers).
Demand was created in part by the cookie's taste. The gourmet cookie shop concept was entirely novel, and to outlast the novelty, Famous Amos cookies had to be good. But while consumers like the taste of the cookies( recent Consumer Reports’ test rated famous Amos's' chocolate chip cookies one of the best-tasting brands available), much of the success of Famous Amos is based on effective person marketing. Wally Amos's winning grin gleams from each package of Famous Amos cookies, and his presence seems to give the cookies an identity that its competitors lack.
John Rosica, a public relations executive with the company, called Wally "a perpetual promotion". In recognition of his role in the company's success, the Smithsonian's collection of Advertising History includes his Panama hat and brightly patterned Indian gauze shirt. By the late I 990s, interest in the gourmet cookie had waned so that only a few locations could support bake shops devoted exclusively to cookies. Famous Amos decided to change its placement from gourmet cookie to high-quality family cookie. Package sizes were changed from 21/2-, 7-, and 16- ounce packages to 12-ounce size for wholesale distribution to grocery store outlets and a 30-ounce size for food-club stores. A 2-ounce package was also developed to be sold through vending machines. As of 2002, there were only a few bake shop franchises operating 15 stores, and Famous Amos was restricting itself to making finished cookies.
Even though Amos sold his ownership interest in the firm in 1998, Famous Amos continued to rely solely on promotions that feature Wally. Among the most successful promotions have been its efforts at cause marketing. The company worked in con junction with literacy councils in several American cities, having stores contribute a percentage of profits to literacy programs. Such promotions resulted in greatly increased sales, including a 38 percent sales jump in Philadelphia.
Wally Amos is ____
A、the man who once a successful figure in Hollywood
B、the man who originated the idea of gourmet cookie
C、the man who had a cookie store in the United States
D、the man who originated the idea of franchise operation
【正确答案】：b
【名师解析】:Wally Amos 是一个在好莱坞作为人才代理尝试成功的人物，但他后来发展了另一个职业。他的朋友们告诉他，他制作的饼干非常好，以至于他应该出售它们。最终，Amos 接受了他们的建议，并以他的名字命名，创立了最初的美食饼干公司——Famous Amos Chocolate Chip Cookie Company。因此，选项B是正确的，他是美食饼干概念的创始人。选项A不正确，因为虽然他曾在好莱坞工作，但题目中并没有提到他是一个成功的人物。选项C不正确，因为虽然他在美国有饼干店，但这并不是他的主要贡献。选项D也不正确，因为虽然他采用了特许经营的方式来扩展业务，但特许经营的概念并不是由他首创的。
