We were lucky to catch up with Melinda McKee recently and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Melinda, thanks for joining us today. To kick things off, we’d love to hear about things you or your brand do that diverge from the industry standard.
In my industry of corporate gifting, it’s really common for business folks to hop on Google or Amazon and order branded swag, jumbo tins of snacks, factory-packed gift sets stuffed with mass-produced items, and other quickly accessible products that often focus on quantity over quality…and often put the ego of the purchasing company’s brand at the forefront of the gifting experience, rather than considering the perspective the receiver.
And truthfully I think there’s a place for all that to some extent…I have a big sweet tooth and sometimes I just want a Blizzard from Dairy Queen, you know? But given the opportunity, an exquisite bonbon crafted by a skilled independent chocolatier is probably going to be a lot more exciting. There’s a place and a purpose for both…but when it comes to making an unforgettable impression, which is more likely to make a lasting memory, if that’s what you’re going for?
That’s the gap in the corporate gifting landscape that Memento & Muse has been trying to address for about 9 years now: genuinely meaningful gifts that feel like they came from a real person, and not from a faceless corporate entity.
Several years ago we started a relationship with a new client, a well-known financial institution, who landed on our doorstep because they had essentially been scolded by one of their own clients. It was an elderly woman who clearly had no problem sharing her truth: for the holidays this institution had sent her a box of sweets from a very familiar national catalogue-type brand, but to her at it was all too familiar! She had already received multiple sweets by the same big brand from other companies who were also vying for her goodwill…and she let our client know it.
Her feedback was enough for them to realize that their marketing/client relationship budget earmarked for gifting was failing to have a meaningful, useful impact, so the next year they came to us.
To help our clients’ gifting dollars have a memorable impact, at Memento & Muse we specialize in 3 things: custom design, a focus on artisanal goods, and impeccable presentation.
We’re by no means the only gifting company that does custom curation, but I have yet to come across anyone else who only does custom gift design. We don’t keep an inventory of products that we’re trying to convince our clients to purchase; I (as Memento & Muse’s creative director) source everything going into and onto their gift boxes “from scratch” so that they reflect each client’s brand identity, their company values, their intended audience, and the specific occasion.
This does mean that unlike a lot of our industry fellows, we have to have minimum order requirements, and have a turnaround time of 5-6 weeks for design/production/delivery…which also means we’re not always going to be the right fit for every company looking to invest in business gifts…but I’m ok with that, because it’s how I’ve been able to build a reputation for truly original gift collections the recipient isn’t going to see anywhere else.
Sourcing goods from artisan entrepreneurs and small-batch brands whenever possible is another way we help our clients’ gift designs stand out…people tend to perceive small business- made products as more memorable and more meaningful than ubiquitous big-box brands. Plus, the fact that our corporate clients are helping us support the small business community through their buying is a good look for them! So it’s really a win- win for everybody. Recently I’ve even been brainstorming about how to intentionally connect corporate folks here in Nashville (where Memento & Muse is based) with local makers and artisans, something that creates an opportunity for folks at the “opposite” ends of the business spectrum to learn from each other in a fun way.
And when it comes to impeccable presentation, I’m certainly biased but I don’t think Memento & Muse can be beat! I’m in an industry where fast production is prized, often at the expense of aesthetics…but I personally believe that a beautifully packaged gift, both outside AND inside, elevates the entire experience for the recipient (whether they consciously realize it or not). It calls to mind the Maya Angelou quote, “People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel”…my goal at the M+M studio is always for each recipient to see, to feel, the thoughtfulness and attention to detail that went into the gift we created for them.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
I think I probably covered most of this in the first question, but as far as how I got into this work: very circuitously! :-)
My first career was in marketing/brand management. My husband is the drummer for the folk-rock band Delta Rae, and during a period when I was commuting 2 hours a day, he still had to keep “rock ‘n’ roll hours” as I call them (not so much a luxury as a necessity of touring life)…and we basically never saw each other.
I decided it was time to close out my marketing career in favor of something with a more flexible daily schedule, and originally quit my dayjob to pursue a very niche creative field in the entertainment industry…but after eventually realizing it would require moving to New York or LA (something neither my husband nor I were interested in), I had to switch gears yet again.
Ironically, because I doubt I ever would have quit my job for this, I ended up turning the gift wrapping side hustle I’d had for a couple years into gift box-curating service, initially as one-offs for friends and family. Once I figured out the only way to make a real profit (and a fulltime living) was through bigger order volumes and access to wholesale accounts, that led to the version of Memento & Muse that exists today.
As a pretty late-blooming entrepreneur, I’m quite proud of the fact that I’ve now worked for myself far longer than I’ve ever worked for anybody else!
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
To be frank, I feel like I’m in that story right now!
In the early days of my company, I was absolutely determined not to be among the 45% (?) of businesses who fail within 5 years. I figured if I could make it that far, there was a good chance I’d be able to keep it going beyond that. I don’t think I’m a terribly stubborn person in general, but I couldn’t bear the thought of having to start over with another new career…I really, really wanted, and needed, this business to work.
That tenacity has served me in good stead, now that Memento & Muse is approaching its 10th year. I’m not what I would call a natural business person, so it hasn’t always been the smoothest ride, and I still have to ignore the little voice piping up to suggest that a better businessperson would’ve had greater success a lot sooner. That may be true, but Memento & Muse is mine, it’s how I make my living and craft the life that I want, so I’m constantly pursuing ways to improve my entrepreneurial skills and capacity.
And I’ve probably never pursued that more than I am right now, as a new mom. While I was able to prepare my company for my being out on maternity leave last year, I was less prepared for that maternity leave to start early (my son was six weeks premature), or for it to take more than seven months to get into a single daycare (working fulltime while caring for a newborn is basically impossible, in my opinion).
During that period I was completely maxed out with fulfilling Memento & Muse’s existing client obligations and tending to my family; my business development hat got dusty on the shelf. Fast forward through our sales cycle of 6-12 months, and I find myself navigating a slow season remisincient of 2020-2021, but without those very helpful economic recovery grants and SBA loans.
So I’m doubling down on the basics. I’m redesigning my workday to squeeze as much out of it as possible; I’m listening to the Atomic Habits audiobook while I drive; I’m tapping into the Type A part of my brain to make lists and research automation possibilities. And I’m remembering the words I had written across my office whiteboard on a rare good day back in 2020, to encourage my future self on bad days: “It’s going to happen. You know it will, because it always does.”
Alright – let’s talk about marketing or sales – do you have any fun stories about a risk you’ve taken or something else exciting on the sales and marketing side?
One of my favorite marketing stories is not about a major risk or intense odds, but about something very simple and, literally, very small.
Because I believe the gifts I design shouldn’t be about my company but about our clients and their recipients, we put their branding at the forefront. We do, however, include a little business card-size insert at the bottom of every gift box telling the recipient that it was curated by Memento & Muse, plus the number of small businesses supported by the creation of that specific gift design.
We can’t know how many people actually pay attention to that tiny insert, but I can tell you one person who did: the wife of a gift recipient who was so impressed with the gift her husband had received that she plucked that card to take back to her own company, a major financial institution. That company went on to become our biggest client, then and now…all from a small piece of cardstock that cost a few cents.
Don Draper was a complicated character on Mad Men, but he for sure got one thing right when he said “make it simple, but significant.” It’s a principle I return to all the time to ground me in both design and strategy.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.mementoandmuse.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/mementoandmuse
- Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/melindamckee
Image Credits
Ligia Gathright Photography, Tausha Dickinson, Vanessa Alexandra Photography