The Ad Age article below talks about Sears and the U.S. Army's partnership to sell Army approved clothing. Read: "U.S. Army 1st Infantry Division" on t-shirts, etc. Regardless of your personal view about war and/or the U.S. Army, this initiative says that the Army is being creative in marketing. How does the army relate to the tableware or home goods industry? I'm not referring to camouflage plates. What the Army sees and fine tableware doesn't is the need to: 1) ...
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September 8, 2008
September 8, 2008
Designers-like Consumers-Use Online Resources
The article below from today's Times explains how fashion designers are using the Web to design new collections. I imagine the same could be said of home goods and tableware designers. When more and more people spend time online instead of in front of a television or reading, how could the Net not be an increasing influence? This same trend extends to pre-shopping habits. When people plan to pay $300 for a tabletop setting, they go online first and ...
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September 2, 2008
September 2, 2008
List of Top 15 Tableware Retailers in 2007
A tableware and home goods brand would ideally have a product that can sell in most of these 15 stores. Note: sorry about writing over some of these store names. I was actually crossing off which ones would not sell fine porcelain tableware.
This article below from the today's NYT echoes a conversation I had this week with a major tableware brand. The head of the company said that he can see a day when the traveling home goods salesperson will not travel. Instead, the person will do his or her sales presentations over the phone and web. Samples will be shipped via UPS or FedEx. Otherwise, sales reps have to drive to and from meetings, and this gas money may eat up 25% of their commission. Oddly, ...
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June 9, 2008
June 9, 2008
Teroforma.com
This new home goods website Teroforma means well, but the navigation is horrible. They should've minded everyone's warnings about sites done entirely in Flash.
The article below is what HFN's Allison Zisko had to say about it. If Ms. Zisko or anyone at Teroforma has any thoughts, I'm happy to take posts on this. Thank you.
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New Site Promotes the Customized Table
05/19/08 By Allison Zisko
NEW YORKβA newly launched Web site, βdesigned by consumers ...
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April 3, 2008
April 3, 2008
Amazon.com Offers In-Store Home Goods Spying Tool
This should be of interest to retailers:
AMAZON TAPS TEXTERS IN STORE-SPY SERVICE from AP April 3, 2008 -- SEATTLE - Amazon.com's brick-and-mortar competitors have yet another reason to fear the Web: a new service that lets shoppers compare prices and buy things with a few quick taps on their cellphones. Amazon TextBuyIt lets people text the name of a product, its description or its UPC or ISBN to 262966 (that's "Amazon" on the keypad) from anywhere ...
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February 25, 2008
February 25, 2008
What Home Goods Can Learn from Network Solutions
I attempted to buy a domain from Network Solutions, and these are their check out pages. They are mercilessly marketing add-ons. They are the cablemen of domains.
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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January 30, 2008
January 30, 2008
Louis Vuitton to Advertise on Television
Louis Vutitton will start advertising on televion and in movie theaters according to an article in today's New York Times. The upscale home goods industry should realize that it's time to adopt the moving image for promotion. Production of video has come down in price, and upscale consumers increasingly expect moving image. Brands used to see the moving image as 'common,' but Vuitton's strategy shows this view may soon be as outdated formal-use only china....
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January 14, 2008
January 14, 2008
If We Should Recycle Paper, Shouldn't We Seek To Recycle Tableware and Home Goods?
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 retailer LCR Collection called me today and expressed its concern that many customers request discounts. This discount is often 10%, and the store offered an idea to protect the retailer's margin: instead of retailers charging 100% of wholesale, they should charge 120%. In other words, a $50 wholesale product would not retail for $100 but instead be $110. This would allow the retailer 'space' to discount the item by 10%, and keep their margin.
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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January 1, 2008
January 1, 2008
Tableware Communication
These bowls provide information in a universal and aesthetically pleasing manner. Each graphic tells the user how many cups the bowl holds. This leads us to ask: how can visuals be used to better convey information for tableware and home goods? For example, Lenox Simply Fine's icons let customers easily know that the product is dishwasher and microwave safe.
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December 28, 2007
December 28, 2007
Design the Customer Experience
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 3, 2007
December 3, 2007
New York Times: Small Merchants Gain Large Presence on Web
The following article from today's New York Times shares how a few small home goods companies are promoting themselves online.
Cyber Monday, the Monday after Thanksgiving that is the online equivalent of Black Friday, is discussed in today's NY Post and New York Times (links to both are below). Just as online sales will rise in other industries, this day/week should be give our industry a bump.
New York Times: Online Holiday Shopping ...
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November 26, 2007
November 26, 2007
Join a Tableware and Home Goods Advertising Network
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 29, 2007
October 29, 2007
Gap: Report of kids' sweatshop 'deeply disturbing'
When people talk of environmentally friendly production of home goods, this includes not only using production methods that are good for the earthβbut 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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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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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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