PLACEMENT, PRODUCT, PERAMBULATIONS

Yesterday was a day full of advice for me. 

 

First, the wonderful women of Columbus Team Etsy gave me some good feedback and encouragement on my All-in-one Purse Experiment.  Lenny made a great point about how difficult the transition between the Conjoined and the Separate forms might be.  A couple people mentioned that it might be a good design for mothers.  Initially I thought that they were thinking of the Momma bag as a diaper bag, but I now realize that you can be a busy mother long after the diaper phase of childhood.  Doh!

 

Then I stumbled on a Shop Critique lab on the Etsy site.  The admin was HeyMichelle, who is an Etsy employee that helps with site and business issues.  Over three hours she reviewed about eight shops in great detail.  (the technology was very cool.. with streaming video and audio)  There were some fine shops and some really simple shops.  It was a very interesting lab.  HeyMichelle didn't get to ArtsiBitsi until about 11:30 pm, which is about an hour after I usually go to bed at night.  I was still awake and alert, so that's a good indicator of how interesting the discussion was. 

 

Anyway, she said a lot of very nice things about my banner, my writing, my products, my photographs... I was beginning to think that there wasn't going to be anything for me to fix!  Finally she said that I might want to think about focusing my product line a little more.  She suggested that I find a theme and stick with it.

 

Oh lordy.. talk about the story of my life.  I said, 'heymichelle, it would be easier if you would just tell me what my theme is'.  Apparently finding my life's purpose was not going to be a part of the lab though.

 

So, I now have some ideas of things to do.  I want to make a completely new All-in-one bag system, with pretty ties instead of clips.  With an improved docking system for Baby.  With more ways to configure Momma, as a slouch bag and as a portfolio!  I want to find my theme too.

 

But for now, I've got to go pack for Hubby's and my long weekend to the Smoky Mountains.  (I'll be field testing the all-in-one.)  We're staying in a cute little B&B, without internet access.  So all things Etsy must go on a shelf for now.  I'll pick up the sewing again on Wednesday, Sept 3rd!

 

See you then.

:-)

5 P'S - PRODUCT

I'm experimenting with a new purse concept. For the time being, it's just a personal project, because I'm not sure anyone else would be interested.

I'll give the rationale first and then show my prototype. I have a bunch of trips coming up over the next few months and I just find traveling so challenging these days. I just want to make my travel time a little bit easier. I also want my transition from traveling to vacationing to be easier too.

Here are my demands. I want to get through security with the least amount of unpacking and repacking. I want everything to be handy and accessible. I don't want to carry a bunch of extraneous stuff, but I also need a lot of things with me on my flight (toiletries, medicines, clean underwear :-). I don't want my arms to be half-pulled out of the socket and anyway I want my hands to be free. Finally, I like everything to look nice and coordinated. Even if I'm dressed like a punk geek, I want my bags to reflect whatever persona I'm wearing that day.


Is that too much to ask? I need a system. I need a collection that embodies the best features of all sorts of bags.

So here's my solution. Tell me what you think the strengths and weaknesses are.

Here are all the elements of the system. The fabric is 'nubuck', a type of microfiber, with a sueded finish. All the pieces are lined with polyester fleece. There is one big bag (Momma), one small bag (Baby), one long strap, and five clips.





With one strap and the Baby, you can have an ordinary day purse.










You can fold over the top, run a strap through the D-rings, and carry Momma as a shoulder bag. Momma snaps closed. (don't they all?)





When Momma is fully open, she is large enough for a 15" laptop, or a bunch of magazines and toiletries and stuff.



By changing the strap configuration, you can convert Momma into a backpack.

By clipping Baby to the front of Momma, you can carry everything as one self contained unit.


No tangled up straps!



Possible future enhancements might include a detachable wristlet, and water bottle pocket.



Please let me know your thoughts. Would you use something like this? Would it get your attention if you saw someone in the airport wearing one?

Thanks!

THE FIVE P'S - PLACEMENT

In yesterday's blog post, I introduced the idea of the 'five p's of marketing' (product, price, promotion, placement, package).

Today I want to talk a little about PLACEMENT. This has to do with where you sell your product. The distribution channel should be appropriate to the customer's perception of its type and quality. Another way to think about this is to look at the product's position and then find the best place to sell.

So I'm going to try to find the best PLACEMENT for my little original watercolor paintings.

First I'll look at my market position.


1) Who are my buyers? People who buy original art might be collectors or investors. If they're collectors, then they might be collectors of a particular subject matter (cats or flowers or landscapes), or medium (watercolor), or artist (me), or style (impressionism). People might even be interested in certain colors or sizes for decorating purposes. Buyers of original art tend to think of themselves as individuals, with taste and style.


2) What's the product space? The art market ranges from the very high end (original Picassos) to the mundane (ACEOs, wall murals). You can buy original paintings in galleries or street fairs. You can also buy art online through sites like eBay and Etsy. Reproductions of original art are available as posters everywhere from Walmart to Spencers to posters.com and Cafepress.com


2a) Where are my paintings within the product space? Small, watercolors by unknown artists are pretty close to the mundane end of the spectrum, I'm afraid.


3) What is the public impression of my product? Well-known and popular artists in the public mind include Georgia O'Keeffe, VanGogh, Monet, DaVinci, Picasso, Klimt, etc. Original art evokes an impression of culture and refinement. Reproductions are culture and refinement, once removed.


4) What is the public's 'ideal vector', or preferred combination of attributes? The average art buyer is looking for an original piece that is visually interesting and emotionally compelling, at a "reasonable" price. The value of the piece is favorably affected by its context, such as the reputation of the artist or backstory.


4a) How does my product match the ideal vector? Some of my compositions are interesting, and my use of color is "creative". My prices are low for original art, but my medium is mundane and I'm an unknown artist.


Okay, now I indulge in a bit of personal reflection.

In fact, I am exactly the kind of person who would buy a small piece from an artist like me. I am an art buyer, and I come from a family of art buyers. I love ethnic art, bright colors, landscapes and impressionism. The story of the piece is more important to me than the fame of the artist, or the possiblity of resale. So, I usually buy directly from the artist -- at art fairs or street markets. I'm really hesitant to buy an original piece online... unless, I had already seen a lot of the artist's pieces. Or, maybe if the piece was at a very modest price and I could think of it as an introduction to the artist's work.

I think that a lot of these considerations apply to anything sold online. Potential buyers may hesitate to buy a purse from me because they don't know how well constructed they are, and can't tell from my pictures. It's really hard to judge the color of something online too. Even a different monitor can make a big difference.

Consequently, I've decided to try to sell prints of my watercolors through an alternate channel to see how that goes. Check this out: http://www.cafepress.com/ArtsiBitsi. Right now I'm using the free store model, so I can only have one print per piece, but I'm thinking of paying the extra money so that I can sell t-shirts and calendars and posters in every print. What do you think?

If you are selling handcrafts online, do you find that most of your customers got to know your work offline first?

THE FIVE P'S

Once upon a time, I was a business major. I took classes in economics (micro and macro), finance, accounting and marketing. It all sounds rather impressive, huh? Like I should really know something? Yep. Heck, I even got an MBA.

Wow, look at me, all knowledgeable and stuff. Ha.

What they never teach you in business school however, is what to do when reality stubbornly refuses to conform to the formula. And hoo boy, do they love to teach you formulas in business school. There are formulas for everything: when to buy, when to sell, how to set prices and how to do advertising. It all looks so smooth and neat on paper.

And you get very confident about your ability to make a killing when you're getting good grades on all the important business topics. Double ha. (ha and ha)

So here, I will tell you about an important lesson in marketing that I paid many thousands of dollars to learn in business school. I'll give it to you for free. I'll introduce it in this blog post, and then I'll develop it over time. We'll see how well practice matches theory.

THE FIVE P'S OF MARKETING.

There are five elements of a good marketing strategy. They are Product, Price, Placement, Promotion, and Packaging.

• Product - what you are selling needs to be appealing to your target market.


• Price - your price needs to be aligned with your product's perceived value.


• Placement - where you sell your product should be appropriate.


• Promotion - how you sell your product, the advertising. Which amounts to another product in itself.


• Packaging - your product needs to be appealing "on the shelf".

So I'll stop here for now. What do you think of this list? Which of the "five Ps" are you managing right now?

A Spirit of Adventure

So here I am doing the blog. Seems like the thing to do. I still don't understand why, but I'm game. So far it hardly hurts at all. :-)

I'm trying to decode this craft business formula. Which has been surprisingly impenetrable.

I'm surprised, because arts and crafts have always been a part of my life and a part of my family. My mother worked in the public art gallery for many years, and then launched her own designer craftsman gallery. My father, an accountant, wrote a book for craftsmen (crafts people?) to help them manage their finances.

So, I have the pedigree -- what am I missing.

Here's an example. One school of thought says, if you have too much variety in your store, it looks like you aren't spending enough energy on any one thing (the Walmart Syndrome).

But how to know what will sell, if you don't experiment a bit? This week I have added several items to my Etsy store (http://artsibitsi.etsy.com/). Now I have at least three distinct product lines: purses, jewelry and paintings.

Now I'm watching the views and the 'hearts' on my listings. What's going to be my signature item? It looks like the purses get a lot more views. But some of the paintings get more hearts.

The Monster Bags definitely get attention. I like working with the higher quality material on the other bags, but I don't think that, in the Etsy market, they are distinctive enough to attract buyers.

The other consideration is volume of inventory. I wish that I could just make that personal connection with each buyer, so that I could make them an item that is completely custom to their heart's desire. However, buyers can't trust you with their heart's desire unless they see several examples of your work and know that you can satisfy them.

So watch for me to continue to fill up my store with purses and paintings (and less jewelry) for the next few weeks. Hopefully I'll hit the perfect balance of variety, novelty and volume soon.

:-)
Artsi Bitsi