Volume 7, Issue 43
October 28, 2009

In This Issue:

Quick Links:

1. Editor's Welcome

2. In The News
3. Two Scrapbooking Worlds

4. Press Release

 5. Article Archives
 6. Book Club

 7. Retail Store Directory
 8. Premier Store Coupons
 9. Online Shopping Links

"What you lack in talent can be made up with desire, hustle and giving 110% all the time."

-- Don Zimmer
 
Welcome from the Editor

by Jami Petersen

Jami picture

 

In this week’s issue, Dennis Conforto answers the question: Is traditional or digital scrapbooking a larger source of revenue? The answer comes just in time to consider new avenues and partnerships within the expanding industry.


Jami Petersen
newsletters@a-z.com

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In The News

Press Releases

News you can use about the latest media coverage of hot trends, noteworthy events and dynamic industry leaders. Learn more about the current headlines in arts and crafts by clicking on the title of each article segment.
 


 

Corel Showcases New Windows 7 Capabilities with Corel® Paint it!™ touch. Corel Corporation introduced Corel® Paint it!™ touch, a new digital art studio built explicitly for the Windows 7 platform. Corel Paint it! touch is the latest addition to Corel’s new portfolio of creative consumer products that are designed to give users an all-new, hands-on experience built on the power of Windows Touch technology.

 

A.C. Moore Arts & Crafts Introduces Crafting a Better World -- a way for Crafters to Impact their Local Community. A.C. Moore Arts & Crafts announced the introduction of Crafting a Better World, an initiative designed to give crafters a way to give back to their community by doing what they enjoy most – crafting. The initiative is in honor of A.C. Moore Arts & Crafts’ 24th anniversary, with a partnership with Boys & Girls Clubs of America, a national network of 4,300 neighborhood-based Boys & Girls Clubs serving more than 4.5 million young people annually through membership and community outreach.

 

It can be argued that scrapbooking is predominantly a hobby adopted by women. ArchivaLife provides an alternative for men! ArchivaLife combines a patent pending timeline tool and a rugged, leather textured exterior with top stitching to create a welcomed and long-lasting addition to any home library, office or family room. It makes a perfect gift for men. ArchivaLife is unlike other products because of its unique, patent-pending timeline that allows people to document their lives decade-by-decade. These details are often missed with scrapbooking, simple memory books, genealogy charts, or photo albums alone.
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Two Scrapbooking Worlds

by Dennis A. Conforto, A-Z Media Group, Inc.

dennisWhat is bigger today, traditional craft scrapbooking or digital scrapbooking? The answer may surprise you.

Scrapbooking as an industry really started to get notice in 1996. In that year it was estimated that the industry did $200 million in sales. For the next several years the industry’s sales took off by doubling every year. Millions flocked to it and thousands started up new businesses to support it.

For years the industry grew just by the power of word-of-mouth. Many of the traditional business models where not applied to the industry because they were not needed in order to succeed. If word-of-mouth could double a business category year after year why would anyone want to consider the typical retail and manufacturers partnerships and advertising models? Other industries had to develop partnerships and advertising models to sustain growth because they didn’t have the word-of-mouth that the scrapbooking industry enjoyed for years.

For nearly a decade, word-of-mouth was the single greatest business asset of our industry. However today word-of-mouth alone doesn’t have the power to drive and sustain the sales of an industry doing more than $2 billion a year in annual collective sales.

While the industry was looking at growing the craft-only aspect of scrapbooking, there were other forces in play. That is technology coming from every sector.

Cameras went from film to digital at the speed light, PC’s and the software that ran them became more powerful and more user-friendly. Printers got less expensive with more features for printing photos. Of course, the internet was expanding with more powerful search engines and open social networks became the rage. Cell phones got smaller and more powerful but also had cameras built in.

Without anyone really understanding it or leading it, the combination of these technologies started to influence the scrapbooking industry. Take a company like Facebook. Facebook is an internet company. It is a company that is about photos, journaling and music shared within common communities known as an open social network.

Microsoft invested $250 million to own only 1% of the company making the company worth tens of billions overnight. Microsoft made the investment because of the growth of Facebook. What is interesting about Facebook is that it is based on three guiding principles found within the scrapbooking industry, which are photos, journaling and community. In fact you could say that Facebook is nothing more than an online scrapbook.

Now which industry is larger, traditional craft scrapbooking or digital scrapbooking?

For the craft side of the scrapbooking, there are about 4.5 million very active to less active scrapbookers who makeup the $2+ billion dollar business category. That represents about 4.5% of women between the ages of 16 to 64. On the digital side, Facebook alone is growing at a rate of 250,000 new subscribers per day. This means every twenty days the are matching what took the scrapbooking industry over a decade to build. This is just Facebook, there is MySpace which is currently 4 times bigger than Facebook. Of course there is Shutterfly with its alliance program with HP and countless others that are making up the digital photobook market place.

Now marry that data with the National Scrapbookers Trends Report wherein 70% of today’s most active craft scrapbookers are using digital to assist them in the creation of their scrapbooks.

There is another data point that is worth talking about which is the popular notion that the world is going green. Meaning that over the next few years digital will be viewed as more green than paper. Digital already has trumped craft in size and scope. What we need quickly to do is to think how these two parts of the same industry can work together to the common benefit of the whole industry.

Scrapbook retailers are now starving for more retail traffic; digital is looking for more ways for its consumers to be creative. Manufacturers would love to have new products that lasted for more than a few months and everyone wants higher revenues.

The time is here and now for the scrapbooking industry to move and move quickly if it truly wants to grow and expand. By joining forces with digital, we will grow the crafting part of scrapbooking. To do nothing is to create competition in an area we have clearly already lost.

The scrapbooking industry should be about scrapbooking in all of its many formats. What I fear is that by stalling or waiting, we will be like the person looking into the light that is getting bigger and brighter only to find out it’s a train and we are on the track. By both worlds coming together we create more synergy, which creates more opportunity to grow everything scrapbooking. Because our two worlds of digital and craft are better as one and that, my friends, is what being SMART is all about!    

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Press Release: Michaels® Opens First Manhattan Store  

Arts & crafts leader redefines category with innovative urban store

Michaels, North America’s largest arts and crafts specialty retailer, sets a new standard in the category with its first Manhattan store featuring a unique new urban store design that focuses on providing creative inspiration with more than 30,000 products.

The Manhattan store is located in the new Columbus Square development at 808 Columbus Avenue at 97th Street. A weeklong grand opening celebration begins October 25, 2009 and includes free craft workshops, product demos, giveaways and a special appearance by Martha Stewart.

“Michaels’ customers have been asking us for a Manhattan location for years, and we think they’ll love having the breadth and depth of thousands of creative products under one roof,” said Michaels CEO John Menzer. “The Manhattan store brings something completely new to New Yorkers with everything they need for jewelry making, scrapbooking, fine art, custom framing, children’s art, seasonal décor and much more.”

Michaels’ new Manhattan store is 14,700 square feet and features an open, modern design with wide aisles, warm colors, ‘inspiration kiosks’ for project ideas and work spaces for customers to lay out their designs before purchasing.
The store is tailored to the Manhattan urban shopper and is the first Michaels to offer a delivery service. Key departments, like fine arts, custom framing, jewelry, scrapbooking and kids, are organized in a convenient, easy-to-navigate, store-within-a-store layout.

The Michaels Manhattan store grand opening week continues through Saturday, October 31, with special savings on select products, and free events that include a book signing with Martha Stewart, demos and workshops with Michaels’ creative expert Jo Pearson, an American Girl® Make-It Take-It workshop, a Wilton® Cake Decorating demo and a Halloween Event with a free trick-or-treat pail, balloon, candy and a Make-It Take-It Halloween frame (while supplies last).

About Michaels
Irving, Texas-based Michaels Stores, Inc. is North America’s largest specialty retailer of arts, crafts, framing, floral, wall décor, and seasonal merchandise for the hobbyist and do-it-yourself home decorator. The company currently owns and operates over 1000 Michaels stores in 49 states and Canada and over 150 Aaron Brothers stores.