Company Markets Upscale Care Packages

Cheryl Scordato wanted to send a care package to her daughter in college. But, all of the companies that put together such kits usually filled them with thing like run-of-the-mill snack food and candy you could find in a vending machine. Boring.

“Nobody had any cool stuff,” she says. “So I thought that some point we would get to do it ourselves.”

In 2004, she pitched the idea to her husband and then recently graduated daughter and they thought it would be a good idea to market college care packages that were a little bit more upscale. The result was the Web site from-mom.com (www.from-mom.com).

To differentiate itself from other companies in the field, the company decided to offer what Scordato describes as products with more value and an upscale feel. Instead of a can of Coke, for example, the site offers some specialty sodas. And in place of well-known mass-market snacks, popcorn baked without trans fats are available.

One of its specialties is home-baked cookies, says Scordato, proprietor of the Kingston, IL firm.

Since the family already had a business of manufacturing and selling outdoor gazebos on the Web, they felt that would be good place to launch their new venture.

Scordato’s next move was to attend some food trade shows to see what products they could source. “And we started putting together packages,” she says.

Scordato then embarked on a pay-per-click advertising campaign on Google for From-mom.com, using the words “college care packages.” She knew from experience with her family’s other Web site that it would take awhile to get up in the standings organically.

“We figured the only way people would notice us online is if we paid for advertising,” she says.

This week, the site was the first one listed on the paid rankings on Google but also at number 8 on the organic listings under the keywords “college care packages.”

So far, from-mom.com has captured about 5,000 customers who tend to be the parents and family members of college kids.

The company tends to do most of its business at the beginning of school terms, Halloween, Valentines Day and during final exam periods, Scordato says.

Without revealing revenue figures, Scordato says that from-mom.com has doubled its sales every year since it has been in been in business.

Looking ahead, Scordato is eyeing making contracts with organizations that sell directly to colleges and reducing the firm’s dependency on pay-per-click advertising.

“You don’t want to pay for advertising if you don’t have to so our goal is to get it as low as possible,” Scordato says. ” Our Web site has moved up quite a bit in the organic listings.”