"You can't build a reputation on what you're going to do."

-- Henry Ford

by Jami Petersen

The question for any business is how to attract new customers. This week's guest writer, Judi Kauffman, has some great ideas for every scrapbook store. She's got a strategy for anyone who is ready to broaden their customer base. Read more in today's business article. And don't forget to take this week's survey for anyone in the industry who has an opinion about trade shows, click here to have your voice heard.

Jami Petersen
newsletters@a-z.com

Scrap Rack

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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.
 

 

Kodomo, Inc. Closes Its Doors. In an email to Scrapbooking.com Magazine, Vice President Angela Shu, said "It is with much regret that we will be closing our rubber stamp business in the US. This will be in effect as of September 30, 2009. Due to the current economy, we at Kodomo find it very difficult to operate. We have been very fortunate to have brought authentic Japanese designs to the American public."

Scenic Route Paper Co. closes. "With a landslide of conflicting emotions we have decided to close the doors at Scenic Route. Our last 6 years doing business in the scrapbook industry have been both fun and challenging. Through the years I have learned so much, I know that we can do anything we set our hearts on with a little creativity and a lot of hard work. With that, I am looking forward my next creative adventure."

Monotype Imaging Debuts NicePrice Font Collection and Font Deal of the Day on Fonts.com. New Options Cater to Non-Professional, Creative Markets such as Home Users and Scrapbook Enthusiasts. Monotype Imaging Holdings Inc., a leading global provider of text imaging solutions, has introduced low-cost font options available from the company’s www.fonts.com e-commerce site. The NicePrice Font Collection and Font Deal of the Day program target home users, scrapbook enthusiasts, arts and crafts aficionados, school teachers, students, church volunteers, non-professional designers, small businesses and individuals seeking high-quality, low-cost fonts to meet any typographic need.

The Memory Tradeshow

The Memory Tradeshow is the premiere market for scrapbooking and related products, family history and digital imaging.

It is the most important gathering of this industry regionally, and it’s attracting executives from all sectors: manufacturers, retailers, distributors, suppliers, sales reps, designers and press. The show’s goal is to provide the highest ROI show within the industry with a greater focus on the business of the memory industry, education and best business practices.

Learn more and save >>

by Judi Kauffman

New customers are out there. They may not yet know that they want to make a scrapbook. They may be the polar opposite of your current audience, eschewing traditional albums for digital hybrids. They might not attend weekly crops or dedicate a room in their home to the preservation of memories, but they’re out there - waiting for you to give them reasons to come through your door.

WHO ARE THEY?

They are the kids who got digital cameras for their birthday or Christmas, scout troops, firefighters, single fathers, bereavement groups, new moms and grandmothers. They are the recent grads who have moved into their first apartment, neighbors who have decided to bake and swap cookies, photography club at the local high school, senior citizens who are taking classes in how to write a memoir. They are the newly divorced for whom a journal could be the bridge between the rough spots and the smooth road ahead. They are the newly engaged who are about to plan a wedding, the recently wed who are starting their life together, retirees who live in a motor home, teens whose photos have largely lived in their cell phones.

Your new customers are everywhere and there are lots of them. To put it simply, anyone who is not already your customer could be one - and soon - if you are able to figure out how to reach them.

AIM FOR YOUR TARGET MARKET

If there are active adult communities nearby, make sure that older men and women have lots of reasons to shop. Hire a writing instructor to teach a class in how to chronicle memories for their children and grandchildren and include sessions on how to make books, decorate journals, or fill memory albums. Invite the grandchildren to tape interviews, help them decorate albums in which to keep the CDs on which grandparents’ voices are recorded. Scrapbooking spans and connects the generations.

If your store is in a city visited often by tourists, network with small hotels, bed and breakfasts, tour guides, and nearby businesses. Offer travel journals, stickers and other small items that make good souvenirs and are easy to pack. Use the Internet to invite scrapbookers to come discover you and offer guest discounts to those who come from afar. Tourists enjoy shopping.

Get to know the local art and photography teachers. They and their students can explore ways they can organize and showcase what they create. Let them exhibit their work on your walls. They’ll bring family and friends with them to see the display. Events can include learning how to make an illustrated journal, altered book, or shadow box. If some simply buy albums to fill with photo prints, that’s fine, too.

Encourage your regular customers to give scrapbook supplies as graduation and birthday gifts. No one makes a better ambassador for scrapbooking than someone who is already passionate about it! Make it official: Give Ambassador Status ID cards and special discounts to those who bring in new customers, with the largest discount given to anyone who signs up ten or more students for a class.

PRODUCTS THAT MEET THE MARKET

Manufacturers understand the kinds of markets you want to reach. Choose those products that directly relate to your target customers. For mothers of small children, tooth fairy, vacation, school and birthday themes make sense. Licensed lines are available for scouts and the military. For seniors, keep archival pens and task lights on hand, in addition to blank journals and voice recording devices. And so on.

THE CAUTION FLAG

Beginners can feel overwhelmed and confused; they don’t know the terminology or own a collection of scissors and a stash of stickers and papers. Structure classes so your new customers can use the store’s tools to complete their first projects. Keep classes short, projects easy. This strategy ensures repeat visits, which in turn ensures repeat purchases.

A CASE STUDY

Let’s explore one new target audience as a case study. It’s a large one: People who like to cook and eat. The same strategies apply to any new audience you want to reach. Identify what the group likes best, connect it to the products you sell.

Food is such a big part of celebrations, holidays, birthdays, and everyday life. Even those who have never gotten near a scrapbook have memories that are related to food, a stack of recipes clipped from magazines and newspapers, family favorites hand-written by friends and relatives. With food shows on television gaining in popularity by the day and cooking magazines neck in neck with publications that focus on fitness, it’s time for all scrapbooking stores to invite an enormous new audience to come see what we’re all about! Don’t wait for them to find you by accident. Put some pots and pans and cooking mitts in the window with a big sign that says, “Cookbooks Start Here” or “Come See What We’re Cooking.” Hire a teen, put him in a chef’s hat and apron to stand at the front door with cookies on a Saturday afternoon and entice the passers-by. Make sure the light bulb turns on over people’s heads: This is a scrapbook store, but there’s way more going on!

Start with current customers, but make sure to branch out as fast as possible. Organize recipe swaps that take place on a monthly basis to keep people coming back again and again. Make sure that participants get a discount if they bring a friend. If the group gets too large, divide it into several. Consider a cookie recipe swap at the holidays, an appetizer recipe swap for prom and graduation time, a main dish, soup or salad recipe swap during the winter doldrums, a pie swap when seasonal fruit is at its peak - there’s no end to the categories and topics.

Keep things easy so beginners won’t think they have to create complicated layouts to participate. Projects need not be scrapbooks at all. Lure in the non-scrapbookers, spouses who cook, teens who are budding chefs. Get in touch with the local cooking teachers and schools. Bring in a group who share a health issue (they can create and share cookbooks for diabetics, those with high blood pressure, etc.).

PUBLICITY

Grab the local press by promoting events that are worthy of attention. Reporters will often cover seasonal and charity events and those that involve education, children, recycling and the environment but they need advance notice in the form of a well written press release.

Create a network that includes real estate agents and relocation specialists. Invite recent retirees to see what’s up in your store. Why does Starbucks have such an allure? Their stores encourage lingering and serve up fun and a sense of community along with the caffeine.

Whether you’re inviting the photography club or the local bowling league, it all goes back to having the right products on hand. Whatever they want to organize, categorize, decorate, or remember, you’re there to make it happen.    

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Trade Show Input

Occasionally Scrapbooking.com Magazine would like your opinions on different topics that are relevant to the craft industry. We would appreciate your valuable feedback about the 2010 Utah Trade Show:

Click here to participate. . .
 

from me and my BIG ideas

Re-introducing the A Kid Like Me products earlier this year has been so successful that you all have asked for more! Therefore, me & my BIG ideas is introducing a new Kids Christmas collection available exclusively at Michael’s. This collection is full of holiday colors, whimsy, lots of Christmas cheer and a whole lot of kids!

Included in this new collection your will find specialty paper pads and specialty mini album kits along with new, fun holiday rhinestones, chipboard embellishments and, of course, our ever-popular soft spoken embellishments for all your holiday paper crafting needs. Oops and I don’t want to forget our new make-it-yourself paper chains. Enjoy!