Many business owners were puzzled about what to do during the Great Recession.
But Waukesha-based puzzle manufacturer Serendipity Puzzle Co. doubled its annual revenue in 2009 and is on track to do so again in 2010.
The Marek Group, parent company of Serendipity Puzzle Co. Inc. in Waukesha, has attempted to transform its puzzles into a more contemporary product for all generations, and is using innovation and social media to do it.
“My brother Fuzzy and I decided three years ago that if we were going to make it as a company we were really going to make a go of it,” said Tami Marek-Loper, president and chief information and marketing officer of Serendipity Puzzle Co. “We hired an internal graphic designer and began brainstorming ways to make the puzzle more unique.”
The Marek Group specializes in commercial printing, asset management, creative services, and display creation. The company has its own manufacturing facility in-house, which made some of their puzzle projects easier to execute, Marek-Loper said.
In its newest line, the company has integrated traditional purchasing with an online component.
“Through innovation we’ve established the personalized jigsaw puzzle,” Marek-Loper said. “What’s different about our personalized jigsaw puzzle is that we are taking the kit to the store floors and offering a unique opportunity for retailers.”
The personalized puzzle kit works a lot like the gift card system, Marek-Loper said.
“Consumers are essentially buying a coupon and a tin, and then logging on to the website to upload a personalized image that we then create into a puzzle and send back to them in ten days or so,” she said.
The Marek Group has created an entirely paperless system that embeds a barcode directly from the website onto the personalized puzzle. Shippers can then scan the barcode for all the information that was entered on site.
“It’s extremely innovative, nobody else is doing it,” Merek-Loper said. “We are really blending real life with the virtual and using platforms like Twitter and Facebook to get the word out about this product.”
According to Marek-Loper, the Pieces of Me puzzle is a great way to not only attract a younger demographic to the world of puzzles, but also bridge the gap between a younger generation and the older one by producing puzzles of children or grandchildren as gifts.
Barnes and Noble Inc., has agreed to license and sell Serendipity’s newest Paint Jam product line with artist Dan Dunn. Dunn is well known for his speed portrait paintings, done to music. He has appeared on network and cable televisions shows for his work, but is most known by his original You Tube video, which received more than 13 million views.
The Paint Jam product line features a series of three puzzles inspired by paintings of Dunn’s. The user won’t know which puzzle they are putting together until they watch the DVD of Dunn’s performance included in the kit, Merek-Loper said.
“We are really excited about the line with Dan,” she said. “Again it’s just a new way to blend different multimedia elements with the traditional concept of a puzzle.”
In addition to the expanded product lines, Serendipity is also experimenting with piece counts, puzzle sizes, and piece sizes to find the best fit for today’s busy lifestyles.
“Our goal is to know our audience, tap in to different generations, and adapt to our consumer’s lifestyle today,” Merek-Loper said.
Serendipity puzzles is working on developing an iPhone application centered on puzzles and gaming, and is also looking at different projects in digital reading, and trying to further develop its relationship with Barnes and Nobel.
“We have a great group of creative individuals here, and a facility that uniquely positions us in the market,” Merek Loper said. “We are looking forward to finding more opportunities in the future.”
