2,082 Results:
February 9, 2008
February 9, 2008
The research below suggests that there is a better chance of selling tableware and home goods if you show indulgent pictures rather than altruistic ones.
January 21, 2008
New York Times
DRILLING DOWN
See Cookies? Go Watch a Movie
By ALEX MINDLIN
It is well known that people often crave certain things after they see them. For example, a nearby dessert cart can prompt a diner to start hungering for a slice of pie.
But a new study in The Journal of Consumer Research suggests...
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February 5, 2008
February 5, 2008
Cafepress.com wisely asks for e-mail addresses on the confirmation page in exchange for a paltry $5. The cost of acquiring a new customer is often much higher than $5, and when someone buys from them, Cafepress' cost is really $2.50–making this acquisition even more effective. View Post
January 29, 2008
January 29, 2008
Allison Zisko pens an article in this week's HFN about the absence of the green tableware movement. She says that new manufacturing or distribution techniques are NOT in store. Consumers and the industry as whole can largely look forward to: less packaging and nature-inspired themes. Not too inspiring compared to what other industries are doing. But, let's not kill the messenger.
Her article can be found here:
http://hfnmag.com/index.php?id=91&...
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January 14, 2008
January 14, 2008
The Sunday NY Times published this article below about the environmental impact of cellphones on the world. After reading this, I thought, "I need to get in the business of recycling cellphones-each one is worth $1, and people will give them to you for free. There are 300 million sitting in desk drawers. That's $300 million." I then thought, "What is the tableware and home good industry doing about recycling?"
The ...
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January 13, 2008
January 13, 2008
The blog 'Sustainable is Good' has this to report about the kitchenware line:
Recycline has added a new series of products to its popular Preserve line. The new products are called Preserve Kitchen and include two types of cutting boards, food storage containers and a colander. Most of the products will be sold exclusively at Whole Food Market, several are available directly from Recycline.
"The idea behind the line was sparked over a year ago when Whole Foods ...
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January 10, 2008
January 10, 2008
When I shop, I sometimes find an item in a physical store, then go home, find it online and buy it for less. That is often how we think of the web these days: our hidden shopping buddy. (How guilty do you feel taking a camera phone picture in a store knowing that you're going home to track down the item online?)
With that said, I wish there was a way to help level the playing field between physical stores and online stores. (Did you ever think one would...
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January 7, 2008
January 7, 2008
I recently inquired about production capabilities for a mirrored plate design that I'm working on. I was told that none were known to exist, but then I found this Murval design. Some factory knows how to do it.
http://www.southmoonunder.com/bvc/murval-wallpaper-plate-129352.html View Post
January 5, 2008
January 5, 2008
The graphic accompanying this article shows how there are numerous contests with large prizes for solving important problems. How can home goods and tableware companies offer prizes to solve the problems they face? Offering a prize to design a new tableware line may seem funny, but is it? Then a company could have customers vote on the best pattern, and produce that one that receives the most votes.
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December 28, 2007
December 28, 2007
When Domino Magazine announced its top table and flatware picks for 2007, I was excited to check out the websites for the selected brands. Since these brands are the 'top' picks, I thought the websites would be easy to use and smart. Sadly, most of these websites are not. These are my grades for each brand's website:
Kate Spade tabletop website: D
John Derian Company website: F
Michael C. Fina website: B
Nautica website: C-
Nicole Farhi ...
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December 28, 2007
December 28, 2007
When a customer buys a home goods product, we often think about this purchase in terms of the product's novelty and price. This purchase is really part of a larger experience that can be designed and enhanced. RitaSue Siegal writes in a recent issue of Communication Arts that:
Design experience seeks to develop the experience of a product, service or event along any or all of the following dimensions:
- Duration (Initiation, Immersion, Conclusion and Continuation)
- ...
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December 18, 2007
December 18, 2007
James Surowiecki in this week's The New Yorker offers some insights into how buyers shop–thereby helping us serve this audience. He writes:
In an experiment in the early nineteen-nineties, people were first asked whether they preferred a $110 microwave oven made by Emerson or a $180 oven made by Panasonic. Only forty-three per cent chose the Panasonic. But when a higher-priced Panasonic model, costing $200, was introduced into the mix, ...
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December 6, 2007
December 6, 2007
The WSJ reports today that your Internet provider may be preparing to sell you out.
Excerpt:
The newer form of behavioral targeting involves placing gear called "deep-packet inspection boxes" inside an Internet provider's network of pipes and wires. Instead of observing only a select number of Web sites, these boxes can track all of the sites a consumer visits, and deliver far more detailed information to potential advertisers.
Let's look at how a ...
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November 26, 2007
November 26, 2007
According to the article below, a company could unite all the tableware and specialty store websites within one online ad network. This would allow an advertiser to place ads on the all these sites instead of contact each of them. Some may say that a small store may not want to run an ad for another online store, and that surely will be the case. But, would it accept advertising for a product it doesn't sell, like a Channel bag? Maybe. And, if ...
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October 30, 2007
October 30, 2007
This icon approach by Lenox is a smart way to visually convey the benefits of the new Simply Fine tableware line. Please click image for it to enlarge.
Icons include:
- Freezer
- Stove
- Dishwahser
- Microwave
The only benefit they don't have an icon for is the lifetime breakage gaurantee. They might as well add one for that. That gives them 5, and from a graphic design standpoint, there are 5 letters in "simply" and in "lenox." Maybe one could integrate the 5 icons in...
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October 29, 2007
October 29, 2007
When people talk of environmentally friendly production of home goods, this includes not only using production methods that are good for the earth–but for the workers, too. According to today's new reports, GAP Kids clothing was being partially made by enslaved kids in India (who were punished by having oily rags stuffed in their mouth). This should encourage us all to ask how the goods we use are being made. The companies that we work for and ...
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October 23, 2007
October 23, 2007
This blog is usally dedicated to tableware and home goods marketing. An article in today's Times (http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/12/business/media/12adco.html?_r=1&ref=business&oref=slogin) encouraged me to write this response to a quote by Martin Walker, of Walker Communications, about the use of the web:
Dear Mr. Walker,
My name is Jason Solarek, and I met you at the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens this past spring at an antique garden furniture show. I was there with some ...
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October 12, 2007
October 12, 2007
This blog is usally dedicated to tableware and home goods marketing. An article in today's Times (http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/12/business/media/12adco.html?_r=1&ref=business&oref=slogin) encouraged me to write this response to a quote by Martin Walker, of Walker Communications, about the use of the web:
Dear Mr. Walker,
My name is Jason Solarek, and I met you at the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens this past spring at an antique garden furniture show. I was there with some ...
Read More
September 26, 2007
September 26, 2007
Nancy Meyer, HFN's senior editor for furniture and lighting, writes in this week's issue that brick and mortar lighting retailers should better compete with retailers that sell exclusively online. She proposes that brick and mortar retailers compete by offering better service–and hoping manufactures support MSRP policies. I would add to this that the physical retailer can join the online retailer by creating a website. Although ...
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September 11, 2007
September 11, 2007
This past August Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. captured the crown jewel of the publishing word by purchasing
The Wall Street Journal from the Bancroft family for $5 billion. What does this event have to do with us in the tabletop industry? I propose that there is a lot the industry can learn from Murdoch's coup. The main lesson is that investing in technology-and in particular online operations-is ...
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August 30, 2007
August 30, 2007
Reading content on websites is often either very simple (often by scrolling down a page) or made unnecessarily complex (with the use of Flash and little arrows you need to click to scroll down).
This website has a nice alternative:
http://www.1stdibs.com/articles/the_talent/will_wick/index.php
If you click the page, the page 'bounces' to the left, and the next page appears.
Tableware and home goods companies may wish to consider putting their catalogs ...
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