Business SMART:

Industry-wide Trend Report Coming Soon
 

By: Dennis A. Conforto
Chairman & CEO of A-Z Media Group, Inc.

For years now the scrapbooking industry has been lacking good solid data about business and product trends which are occurring within the marketplace. Without good, solid information from the industry and for the industry, the industry is left to run itself more on feeling than on fact. There has been plenty of misinformation within the industry that has been harmful to retailers, manufacturers and investors.

Finally, the industry-wide trend report is nearing completion and will be available to all within the industry. The report was commissioned by The SMART Group and is just the first in a series of reports to be issued to the industry in a joint venture between Scrapbooking.com Magazine and The SMART Group.

Each question asked had to have at least 1,250 respondents (plus or minus 5%) for the answers to be considered accurate nationally. The report is full of graphs, charts and dialogs that illustrate the changes and trends of the industry over the past few years into 2006. The two hundred page report will be available on DVD and is free for members of the SMART Group and to key advertisers in Scrapbooking.com Magazine. For other members of the industry the report is only $249 per copy.

The report helps debunk the myth that one in every four households in North America is a scrapbooker. It also reveals for the first time the six different kinds of consumers that have or will shortly emerge with force into the market place.

The report discusses price points, products, brands, sizes and views the consumers have about shopping for products. It is clear that the consumer base is becoming more and more educated about the scrapbooking category. In some cases, the consumer is becoming more educated than those who work and serve within the industry. This requires the industry to step up the pace of its own learning to keep up with the consumer base that is pushing for more and more information.

The industry trend report is important at many different levels. One, it gives a clearer picture to the industry at large what the consumer is thinking, doing and reacting to within the marketplace. Two, it helps manufacturers re-think issues like, “Where should my price point be?” or, “How do I focus my product line-up to be more representative of the primary niche of the marketplace.” Three, for retailers it helps them re-think issues like signage, sales’ events, product placement and retail price points that will help them gain more market share.

The industry trending report is from the perspective of the consumer. They are the drivers in the marketplace and the rest of us simply have businesses that are here to serve them. The trending report reveals that there are more questions to ask, and much more to learn from the consumers. However, the report is an impressive start to an ongoing and never ending journey of knowledge that we must embark on if we want to remain successful.

Now that the bases of the reporting structure are complete, THE SMART Group along with Scrapbooking.com Magazine will be gathering input from members and advertisers on how to improve the reports. Those improvements might be slight changes to a single question, or they may lead to deleting some questions and asking entirely new ones. As new product categories emerge within the marketplace, whole new charts will have to be created to track the trends of those emerging products.

While the trending reports gather the views of the consumer, The SMART Group and Scrapbooking.com Magazine will also be conducting surveys from retailers and manufacturers so that an even greater view of the industry starts to emerge as well. It will be interesting to see the results and differences in the answers to the same questions being posed to a consumer, retailer and manufacturer. Of course, the hope of an industry would be that the answers to the questions will be the same. However, the learning will occur when they are not the same and we dig into the reasons why that might be the case.

The industry-wide trending report will be a powerful tool for your business. It will help you fill in the blanks where you have questions or lack the information and knowledge. It can help guide you and prevent you from making costly mistakes. However, having said that, the report is a national report and there are regional, state and city-wide differences. Future reports will start to feature the regional differences so we have in place for you a blended approach to the information you need to run a more successful business. As a retailer it can be a great guide to changes and improvements you can make in your inventory selection. For manufacturers, it can help you understand if you are in the right niche in terms of price point, color and size.

One of the rules to success is to know more about your business than those around you know about their business. The more you know, the more successful you will be. That is what being business SMART is all about.

To order your very own copy of the Industry-wide Trending Report, visit: http://thesmartgroup.biz/sales/trending-report-order-form.htm