Tip of the Week

Business SMART:	SMART Lessons from CHA Summer
	By: Dennis A. Conforto Chairman & CEO of A-Z Media Group, Inc.

The CHA Summer Show is now behind us. I have to admit it was the best summer show I have ever attended; I spoke with hundreds of retailers and manufacturers who also concurred. I was happy to see that business-oriented classes were packed much more so than in past shows. Seeing that, for me, tells me that retailers and manufacturers are starting to understand that “make and take” styled classes aren’t going to solve the real issues facing the scrapbooking industry today. I was able to speak four times at the show about the SMART Store. I spoke about the what, when, where and why of creating your own SMART Store. Each class ran over because of two factors: first - lots of questions and second I talk too much, which is something I simply can’t help. My vision and excitement for the industry are things I want to share. The real challenge of creating a SMART Store is the fact it takes strong partnerships with manufacturers to make it happen. After each class retailers would come up to me and say something like, “I believe in everything you are staying, but I just don’t know where to start. “ For me it’s been a real struggle to share with a retailer where to start because every retailer is in a different place and as a result, has different needs that create different priorities. However, having had some time now to think about it, I have come to the belief that it all starts with the partnerships between the retailer and the manufacturer. I watched retailers going from booth to booth at the show and learned a lot about the lack of partnership between retailers and manufacturers just from watching that process. There were a few bright spots that I did see at the show that I found encouraging. One was at Quickutz, where they had a wall showing their partnership program for the retailers. I went through it and felt that if I was a retailer, “here is a company that doesn’t want me to just buy products from them. They want a partnership that creates more sales to the consumer.” That is the key; partnerships create and drive sales to the consumer. I feared for years the drive at the trade show was to sell more products to the retailers. But, in the end it’s not about a retailer buying more products from a manufacturer that counts, it’s about how much that partnership can sell to the consumer. I liked the display at Ellison. They created a “Coke vs. Pepsi” type challenge with their products vs. other products in the market place. It was a powerful training tool but what I really liked is that you could see that here again was a manufacturer who is really into product improvement. This was another sign to me that things were changing in the market place. The focus on ease of use is all about the consumer and it will be interesting to see how Ellison goes from having retailers understand that concept to consumers understanding the concept. However they do that, it will require a partnership with the retailer to make it happen. I also liked what I saw at K & Company, with their new “Scrapbooks to Go.” This company went outside the box to create a product in the box. It’s a whole new category which allows the consumer to walk into a store with a problem and walk out the door in five minutes with a solution. Consumers can then take the product home and have, within an hour, a stunning scrapbook - and not have to be a crafter. The non-crafting consumer will flock to this product category by the millions. It will increase the average sale, simplify the selling cycle, and solve the number one issue that non-crafters have with the scrapbooking category which is TIME. In each of these three examples you can see the efforts and changes manufacturers are making to become more consumer focused. So the question is: What are the top three priorities of a retailer interested in creating their very own SMART Store? 1. Find manufacturers who see a partnership program as being something more than a discount or group discount. Anyone can give discounts - that's easy. Partnerships are where the profits are, and it takes work, but it’s worth it if you want to be truly profitable. 2. Do more business with fewer manufacturers who really are interested in partnering with you to grow their business within your business. 3. Have your retail store start to reflect those two changes and slowly but surely sales and turns will start to go up. Just remember being SMART is not an idea - it’s a way of conducting business everyday. It’s working relationships in such a way that the focus is on the person who pays us all… the Consumer… And that is what being business SMART is all about.