Jennifer Plotts is a Swiss Army Knife
She’s led ERP installations. She’s run a warehouse, showing up to work for three weeks straight in jeans and t-shirts because, wow, did that warehouse need a deep clean. (This wasn’t one of our warehouses, but one from a previous career stop. At Capacity, we’re obsessed with warehouse cleanliness.)
Across her career, Jennifer has run HR, accounting, payroll. She’s installed warehouse management systems. She still teaches the MBA program at William Paterson University.
Since 2021, she’s stood up a variety of strategic initiatives at Capacity that make it easier for our brands to build their movements.
Interestingly enough, a lot of Jennifer’s work is influenced by her past mission-driven work in a corporate role at the Girl Scouts of the USA.
How to Get 1,300 Girl Scouts Excited About Governance
Flash back to early Covid times. Jennifer was charged with getting 1,300 delegate Girl Scouts as young as 14 excited about the triennial governance meeting, the National Council Session.
Doesn’t “triennial governance meeting” just ooze excitement?!?!
But wait. It gets worse.
The national convention – to which the triennial governance meeting was attached – was planned as an on-site event at… Disney World. At least that would get the girls excited for governance! What can beat Disney?!?!
Well… Covid had other ideas. The national convention was canceled, forcing the governance meeting to go virtual.
The challenge just got more challenging.
But guess who was up to it? Actually, guess who kind of relished it with a zealous sense of “WE GOT THIS!”?
Jennifer and her team sought out a way to galvanize their community; to get them to rally around a mission and want to participate. She wanted them to feel inspired, a part of the movement and important.
So before the convention, the team shipped boxes to the delegates.These boxes contained t-shirts, beads, crafts, trinkets and lots of other swag. (“They were Girl Scouted up to the wazoo!” according to Jennifer. That’s a direct quote.)
The boxes were packaged thoughtfully. Their exteriors were vibrant and exciting. Unexpected, even.
Supporting these little shipments of delight: an unboxing campaign.
Delegates were asked to record themselves as they opened up their boxes and pulled out their treasure. Then they uploaded their videos to participate in a friendly “best unboxing” competition.
What happened next was incredible – and only Jennifer’s words can do it justice:
“You had all these girls from all over the country that were meeting other delegates and they were pumped. They had this new understanding that they were a part of something bigger. That joy spilled right into governance. They were excited to cast their votes on what were actually six highly contested proposals, raising membership dues being one of them. But by inviting these delegates to be an active part of the movement, we won hearts.”
From the Girl Scouts to Fulfillment
It’s not hard to see how this experience translates to what we do for the brands we represent here at Capacity. Our brands – which are often influencer founded – aren’t just selling skin cream or lipstick or mascara. They’re building movements. Colorescience? Your best skin within. r.e.m. beauty? Add a touch of magic to your everyday. Rare Beauty? Embrace your own uniqueness.
“It’s about how you make people feel. We know that’s the biggest part of what we do for our brands. Yes, it’s about meeting SLAs and inventory management and integrating data into systems – all things we are absolute pros at. But those are table stakes. I’d like to hope that any fulfillment provider can do those things. I think what’s different for us is that we understand that there’s a bigger picture.
The founders at the brands we support are literally entrusting us to deliver this carefully curated, very specific feeling they want their customers to have.
We’re really good at fitting our work into everything that precedes it – from the Instagram ads to the custom Shopify experience to the delivery confirmation and update emails. We have to be an extension of our brands and I think we do that really well.”