Since Mignon Faget Ltd. began donating 10 percent of the proceeds from its fleur de lis collection to help rebuild the company’s home town of New Orleans, the company has raised over $100,000.
And that’s just from orders the company has been able to process. Many items have sold out and back orders take six to eight weeks to fill. With over 20,000 units sold at prices ranging from less than $30 to more than $300, some items have sold out three times.
“It’s been an amazing year,” said executive vice president Virginia Saussy. “We were closed for almost two months and we still made 90% of our projections.”
Almost all of Mignon Faget’s business has been local. A catalog and an e-commerce enabled Web site (http://www.mignonfaget.com) were developed in response to the demand of its out-of-town customers, which made up about 10% of its retail sales. The 65,000 active collectors on her database kept the company open for six weeks following Katrina. Brooches, bracelets and pendants with the fleur de lis were the most popular.
Mignon Faget’s Louisiana Rebirth Fleur de Lis Stud Pin
Aggressively, and perhaps against all business logic, the company began reopening its four boutiques in and around New Orleans in the middle of October. To the company’s surprise, by the start of the holiday season the sales figures soon hit a more normal balance of 90% local and 10% Web and catalog.
“It was local support for local businesses,” Saussy explained, adding that as a result 2005 became the busiest Christmas season the company had ever seen.
The good news doesn’t mean Mignon Faget is going to ignore what the company learned from Katrina.
“We’re going to work on hurricane protection,” Saussy said.
Protection includes expanding retail operations nationally and improving both the catalog and the Web site. Because of owner and jewelry designer Mignon Faget’s commitment to using local New Orleans businesses, her resources are limited, but by the fall she not only hopes to have a new catalog out, but also to start prospecting for new customers. Traditionally, the only way to get a Mignon Faget catalog was to ask the company to send one out.
Limited resources have also contributed to the backlog of orders. Only two-thirds of Mignon Faget’s employees have returned and the company won’t sacrifice quality just to catch up, Saussy explained.
This is especially true with something as iconic as the fleur de lis, which for many encapsulates everything New Orleans means. The fleur de lis, which is either a lily or an iris, was the symbol of the kings of France. New Orleans retained the symbol of a crown colony after the city became American with the Louisiana Purchase in 1803. And the iris, perhaps not coincidentally, is the state flower.
Saussy added that for many, including Faget, there is another layer of meaning to the fleur de lis. According to legend, Eve wept when she was expelled from the Garden of Eden. Where her tears fell, irises grew.
“That’s how we feel,” Saussy said. “We feel we’ve been expelled from our very own Garden of Eden.”
Faget’s own comment is that “the fleur de lis designs carry special sentiment for all of us this year. We wear them as badges of honor.”
This article is part of a weeklong series Direct Newsline is featuring on direct marketing and the economic recovery of New Orleans.
Network
