CEO Theresa Ging’s Sweet Sugar Bliss transformation
Change is inevitable yet we rarely see it coming. And even when we do see it coming, we still sometimes might find ourselves pleasantly surprised by what’s in front of us. Theresa Ging worked in finance, where long days at the office meant consistently navigating complexities inside of New York’s stock exchange, day after day. Until one day, the inspiration for change itself, found Theresa. She looked that change straight in the face and said, “Bring it on.” This is a peek into the successful feat of Theresa Ging, Sugar Bliss CEO, and how she’s turned a once-newfound business idea into a brand promise-keeping machine in order to drive delectable, dependable success as a MWBE for years to come.
Beyond the Logo: Why is keeping your promise so important?
Ging: After 17 years as CEO & Founder of Sugar Bliss, I have several promises—to the staff, the customers, and the legacy of Sugar Bliss.
To the staff, when they see management uphold promises, it creates a positive work culture, loyalty, accountability, and dedication. Many of my staff have worked 3+ years at Sugar Bliss and continue to want to grow in their job roles.
To the customers, when you consistently deliver promises to have great products and customer service, you build long-term relationships and partnerships, leading to repeat business and referrals. I believe a strong reputation for reliability enhances your brand image growing your business, while broken promises can damage your business image and its credibility.
To the legacy of Sugar Bliss, I want to continue to support women and minority entrepreneurs. I have always had support from other business owners and great organizations like WBDC [the Women’s Business Development Center], It’s Not Just Dinner and NMSDC [the National Minority Supplier Development Council]. It’s important that I also give back and support women and minority entrepreneurs and organizations that support the growth of women entrepreneurs, and, an important part of the Sugar Bliss legacy.
Beyond the Logo: Where does vision come into this? How did you find your vision in building Sugar Bliss?
Ging: My vision is to continue to grow the Sugar Bliss brand into a nationwide brand, and hopefully a global brand. I graduated from the University of Chicago with an Economics and Statistics degree and spent six years in finance at various Wall Street firms analyzing packaged food, retail, and food service stocks.
Then after one long day at work, a friend of mine was sifting powdered sugar to make cupcakes and it looked so therapeutic, that I asked her if I could try it. This light bulb turned on, inspiring me to leave the corporate world and enroll in pastry school – at Le Cordon Bleu, Paris. When I returned to Chicago, I saw an opportunity to open the first Sugar Bliss retail store.
In 2009, I opened a brick-and-mortar store in downtown Chicago. I started with just cupcakes, and over the years, continued to add products and flavors. Now we offer more than 200+ products and flavors, including cupcakes, cake pops, French macarons, cookies, and more. During the pandemic a major airline was interested in our brand, but we didn’t have anything shelf stable, so it got me thinking about how to make our delicious bakery cookies shelf stable. I started working with a food scientist and learning how to get a product into retailers; I was in a program called Top Shelf that was put on by the WBDC and sponsored by Walgreens, and it happened that the Walgreens buyer was looking for cookies. In August 2022, we launched our cookies into Walgreens, our first retailer, and have expanded our cookies and other baked goods into department stores including Macy’s, and food service with Compass Group, SodexoMagic, and OVG. We even launched cookies, cake pops, and macarons with the Chicago Bears this fall. #beardown
Jayne Agency Tip: Solidify your brand platform so you have a good handle on your brand’s Position and Promise. Then, build out your vision, mission and values – OUTSIDE of the brand platform. Check out this past article for more on vision, mission and values: https://mbemag.com/articles/how-impact-and-promise-work-together/
Beyond the Logo: What impact has your brand promise had on the world around you?
Ging: When Sugar Bliss launched the packaged cookies for retailers, I wanted to have a powerful social and sustainability mission. Sugar Bliss has partnered with Plastic Bank, a social recycling program. For every one bag of Sugar Bliss cookies purchased, we are removing five equal-weight bags from the ocean, offsetting our brand’s footprint. We have removed 50,000 plastic bottles or 2,000 lbs of plastic and helped 10+ families.
Sugar Bliss has also donated a portion of the proceeds to support women and minority entrepreneurs and in May 2024 launched a Sugar Bliss scholarship to support more women entrepreneurs to get certified—Sugar Bliss has given over 15+ scholarships. We recently were the first donor for the Young Professional’s Board of It’s Not Just Dinner, supporting emerging entrepreneurs learning to leverage certification. I was a past awardee, so when the opportunity arose to contribute back, I jumped on it.
{The link to Sugar Bliss’s Scholarship page is at the bottom of this article.}
Beyond the Logo: How do you contend with the highs and lows of being an entrepreneur? And, being a practitioner AND a business owner?
Ging: There are a lot of highs and lows as an entrepreneur, every day is a rollercoaster. I take each day as a new day and try to focus on the big picture and how to continue growing Sugar Bliss.
Jayne Agency Tip: Use brand barriers within the brand platform to start managing the highs and lows of entrepreneurship. Barriers always lead to the most rich opportunities, to turn weaknesses into our greatest assets.
Beyond the Logo: How might this insight apply to the diverse supplier space as it relates to product development, and as it relates to being an emerging entrepreneur?
Ging: It is great that many companies have Supplier Diversity programs and want to support more women- and minority-certified businesses. It has given Sugar Bliss a lot of opportunities, but it is just an opportunity. Your product or service still needs to compete with other brands and businesses even if you are given an opportunity. I always advise any company to see if you can get women and/or minority certified. The certification has definitely opened a lot of opportunities.
Beyond the Logo: How do you make an impact in your space?
Ging: In the CPG [consumer packaged goods] space, it is highly competitive and how we make an impact is to continue to use premium ingredients and have a powerful social and sustainability mission. Few brands use recyclable or sustainable packaging and what differentiates us is we only use sustainable packaging in our retail packaged cookies and retailers are focusing more on sustainability. As an advocate of giving back, I’m constantly looking for CPG-oriented emerging entrepreneurs that I can mentor, advise, or support.
Beyond the Logo: What happens if you don’t keep your promise? What happens to your business if your business doesn’t keep its promise? What advice do you have for emerging entrepreneurs if they don’t keep their promise?
Ging: When your business doesn’t keep promises, you can lose key staff, lose customers, and lose the direction of your business. As business owners, you have to think about what your purpose is. I truly believe the Sugar Bliss brand has been around for the last 17 years, because we made promises to our customers to strive to have premium baked goods and excellent customer service, that they keep reordering. The culture of your business is important. I believe the promise that I made for the culture and environment of Sugar Bliss has made my staff want to grow in the company and take on additional roles and responsibilities.
Looking for a self-directed path to aligning around a strategic brand platform for you and/or your team? Contact Clarity@jayneagency.com, scan the QR code or visit https://www.jayneagency.com/clarity-university/ and learn how you can leverage brand strategy education, tools, support, and community to start driving an impactful brand presence (and promise) today.
Here’s another article from Beyond the Logo outlining the key differences between what defines a brand platform versus vision, mission, and values: https://mbemag.com/articles/how-impact-and-promise-work-together/
Visit the Sugar Bliss Scholarship page.
