February 2, 2006

Moms’ Magic Touch Takes Taggies to the Top

Where ‘Happily Ever After’ Means Millions in Annual Sales

Fairy tales can come true
It can happen to you
If you’re young at heart …(J. Richards & C. Leigh, 1953)

Here’s the fairy tale many a mom dreams of: Quit the job, invent a kid-friendly product that sells like mad, and enjoy the children while reaping astonishing material and psychological success.

Every now and then, the fairy tale comes true. Just ask Julie Dix and Danielle Ayotte, the young moms behind TAGGIES™ – colorful fleece blankets edged all around with the small, satiny tags that little ones love to rub – and winners of Dr. Toy’s “Smart Play/Smart Toys 2005,” 2004 and 2005 Parent to Parent  “Adding Wisdom” awards, four 2005 Creative Child  Magazine “Top Creative Toy” awards, a 2005 Family Review Center Seal of Approval Award, and 2004, 2005, and 2006 iParenting Media Awards.

Six years after their creation, TAGGIES have doubled earnings every year while providing countless hours of comfort for children. The patented TAGGIES product line has expanded to include plush toys, travel toys, pillows, wrist rattles, and several sizes of blankets. Books also have joined the TAGGIES family, with the runaway success of Scholastic Publications’ soft-cover "My First TAGGIES® Book: Sweet Dreams" leading to Scholastic’s soft-cover sensation, “My First TAGGIES® Book: I Love You” and the newly released third title, “My First TAGGIES® Book: Princess.”

All of which leaves Dix and Ayotte giddily grateful at their luck in meeting – which, as this fairy tale would have it, happened at their children’s playgroup.

Dix, an early-childhood educator by training, noticed after the birth of one of her children that the smooth tags or labels attached to toys or clothing often held more tactile fascination than the items themselves. A deft seamstress, Dix improved on a soft baby-size blanket by sewing brightly colored and textured loops of ribbon all around its edges. Her toddler loved her blanket’s new "TAGGIES" – and when the mothers in her playgroup saw her creation, they loved it, too.

"I was making TAGGIES late into the night when Danielle joined the playgroup – thank heaven!" Dix recalls, laughing. Ayotte, who before motherhood had worked in banking and healthcare administration, brought an entrepreneurial bent to Dix’s concept. She immediately saw the potential in TAGGIES – and thus was born the Taggies partnership.

"We got along so well, right from the start," Ayotte says. "We have complementary expertise, but just as important, we really like each other and so do our families."

In classic entrepreneurial fashion, the pair worked from their homes, stacking boxes of product in their garages and praying the babies wouldn't cry during an important conference call. Today, with six children between them and a Taggies staff of 23 working from a real office, Ayotte and Dix still stagger their work hours to make sure they're available when the children need their moms.

"We've always been clear about arranging the work around our families, and because there are two of us, we can do it," Ayotte says. "Right now, for example, we each have three grade school children, and that means arranging for after-school care and juggling their extra-curricular activities and homework. Having the flexibility to work from home enables us to continue being moms while still keeping up with the business."

Their children were still in arms when the manufacturing demands of the Taggies enterprise outgrew Dix’s sewing machine. Keeping operations close to home, the partners contracted with Massachusetts factories that continue to produce much of the product line. Today, even after some expansion to overseas plants, Dix says firmly, "we’re absolutely fanatical about quality control, especially anything that affects safety. You’ve never seen such well-sewn fabric products. Increasing sales and growing our product line are nowhere near as important to us as keeping standards high."

"These are products for babies and young children," Ayotte adds, "and there’s no bigger responsibility than that."

Like all small-business owners, the Taggies partners have encountered their share of bumps. There was their first big order of ribbons, which arrived COD. "We had no idea how much we’d ordered," Dix confesses, "and we had to call our husbands at work and ask them to pull together $500 right away to pay the UPS guy. They hadn’t really realized what we were getting into – well, neither did we! But they were incredibly supportive, then and now, and they came up with the cash without a moment’s hesitation.”

Then there was the night of Dix’s hospital epiphany. "Julie took her son to the emergency room, and there were so many sick, crying children,"Ayotte recalls. "Her little boy was OK, but she felt so bad for all those other children that she went out to her car, brought inall the TAGGIES she had, and gave them out to the kids. It was so touching – but it was also our entire stock of TAGGIES!"

The inventory recovered, and the incident led to the company’s Random Acts of Kindness program, which invites customers to contribute to a fund designated for donating TAGGIES to ill or impoverished children. Taggies matches every donation, and in the past four years the program has reached out to needy children through more than 35 different hospitals, charitable organizations, and philanthropic foundations. In 2005 Taggies expanded its charitable activities through a partnership with The Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fund, as the only baby products manufacturer presently licensed by the Fund in the U.S.

Today, as the Taggies partners oversee expansion into the European market, the fairy-tale feeling abides. "To tell the truth, we’re still pinching ourselves over all this," Dix says. "We call it 'tag-mania' because there's something magical about the simplicity and lovability of TAGGIES. Kids can't resist them, and parents appreciate their comforting, sleep-inducing qualities."

All TAGGIES® products are completely safety tested and meet or exceed all applicable safety standards as set forth by the regulatory bodies in the United States,Canada, and in the parts of Europe and other territories where TAGGIES are sold.

For more information about TAGGIES, or to schedule an interview with Julie Dix and Danielle Ayotte, please contact Elizabeth Waldman Frazier at WALDMANIA! Public Relations, 415.334.2787 or waldmania@comcast.net.

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