Back in the Dough

What’s more, the catalog division was considered an afterthought. “Mrs. Fields’ direct marketing business isn’t its core mission,” Berglund says. “It’s an ancillary business. So the corporate energy was on the franchised retail stores. It was just milked.”

Building a Change
To get the direct marketing business back on track, Mrs. Fields hired Berglund, who was fresh from helping turn around Disney’s catalog and e-commerce operations. “Ownership — the CEO and the executive committee — noticed there was a great opportunity here in the direct marketing business,” Berglund says. “They realized they’d been underinvesting in it and saw a great future if they got behind it.”