GCU Forum - Holiday Weekend Cheers

Ernestine_131365

Gold Member
artist

Posts: 853

Holiday Weekend Cheers
Jul 6^th, 2008, 9:29pm

I hope you all were out enjoying barbecues, fireworks and hometown celebrations! Grin

As you all know things are changing in our lives, our economy. We are at a pivotal point in history. People are thinking about every penny they spend. I work in a store in an area where people visit on vacation and would like to share some of what I'm seeing in buying patterns this year as opposed to last year. . . for what it's worth.

Travelers want to buy "stuff" that "commemorates" their visits. This equates to buying "on the spot." . . . they see it, they buy it. "Send home a card of our visit to. . . wherever" GCU needs to get it's cards into the "see it - buy it" market. This is where the majority of the card purchases exist. They are NOT going to go home and look online for a card that captures their experience after the fact. Just doesn't happen.

BUT, BUYERS of cards WILL look online to purchase cards that fit the needs of their shoppers. We (GCU) are looking for more BULK sales. I believe this is where many of these bulk sales can come from. How do we do it?

I believe that many store holders at GCU have a particular market where they KNOW their cards will sell, but as it is we don't have a viable way to target these markets, outside of our own individual efforts (web sites, door to door, etc.)

Wouldn't it be great if GCU store owners could market DIRECTLY to these potential buyers? The gift shops, the craft stores, stationery shops? Each of us has "connections" from Maine to the Netherlands, Seattle to Senagal ?

We need better tools to market our specific line of cards to the BIGGER market. A system that utilizes the expertise of the GCU artists: Toms' cards have a different market than Eugenias', my cards have a different market than Tammy's. We can utilize these differences. The bottom line is that bulk sales are going to come from RETAILERS!

I'm ALL for bulk sales. I think that GCU may be overlooking the potential for what individual store holders can do to promote these sales. "Niche" is the thing, and individual stores ARE those niches.

Give us an inch, we will TAKE A MILE! It's a win-win. GCU artists are GCU biggest asset! Individualized widgets, banners, whatever. USE the artists to promote!

The "Reminder Services" are great for the the one or two card sales but is this where a sale of 200 "Holiday Greetings from Wisconsin (or even a particular place in Wisconsin?)" may fall short? But then NOW, one can't profile a card so definitely to come up up in the reminder service.

We are dealing with BULK sales now. Good thing, Cool. But as I've said before, we are NOT given the tools to be able to make the most of these sales.

WE ARE GCU's commodity. Use us. Obviously some of us have lots of marketing ideas. . . we see them everyday in the forum. The individual artists on GCU ARE the best vehicle for bulk sales, given the REAL tools, I believe we can make GCU Number one.

Thanks for listening
Ernestine

Back to top

Ernestine's Easel:
http://artist.greetingcarduniverse.com/ErnestinesEasel

IP Logged

Tom_133317

Gold Member
artist

Posts: 2169

Re: Holiday Weekend Cheers
Reply #1 - Jul 7^th, 2008, 4:11am

Lots of smart thoughts there Ernestine. Thank you for taking the time to share them.

There appear to be several "tiers" at the retail level. The large chains - department stores, pharmacies, and grocery stores, are pretty much controlled by the big card suppliers - American Greetings, Hallmark, ect. I don't see GCU cards along side these anytime soon, sadly.

The question is, who are the buyers at the lower tiers who already have a distribution system, who would be regular bulk buyers of GCU cards? (bulk = 3000+ of one card). I don't see small individual shops as being bulk buyers but there must be brokers in between that cater to these small shops. To answer this question, I went and asked several gift shop owners where they get their inventory. The all said mainly "through the Minneapolis Gift Mart."

Ah ha! Yes, in Minnesota I learned that most small gift shops attend the local Gift Mart, a wholesale showroom with 6 shows/year. Here store owners and smaller chains go to find out what's new on the market and select cards and other gifts to fill their stores. These gift marts are huge and have an enormous selection.

http://www.mplsgiftmart.com/default.htm

I'm sure there are Gift Marts in every major city. Getting involved at this level with a National wholesaler is the break we need.

Sadly, I don't think a National Gift Mart wholsaler would be attracted to just one Artist's cards though, but access to a whole Library of cards would be compelling. This could be the place GCU could establish an affiliate as a wholesale partner for bulk sales.

I have studied the list of National wholesalers who sell cards at the local gift mart and they are essentially existing small Greeting Card companies who have their own cards either developed internally or through traditional methods. I was looking into these before getting involved with GCU, thinking I should approach each of these card companies with my card ideas.

I would think a smart strategy would be GCU to study some of these wholesalers and target several to approach in order to make them aware of the GCU bulk program. The wholesaler might like that they don't need to pay artists up front, which is a capital expense, that likely limits the depth of their offerings today.

Or, GCU could create or find an affiliate to offer GCU cards exclusively through these Gift Marts. A display stand with say 100 sample cards, and a kiosk to demostrate access to the 65,000+ deep card library could be dynamite.

The one part I haven't looked into is do gift shops pick individual cards to buy or do they buy a line of cards that includes a series of seasonal cards that may not even be available yet? Ernestine - any insight here?

These thoughts aren't to discount the idea of utilizing the 1000+ GCU Artists as a global sales force, but just some thoughts on likely bulk buyers that may be out there today, particularly in the USA. Can anyone speak about non-USA wholesale systems?

TOM

Back to top

Comical Captions:
http://www.greetingcarduniverse.com/ComicalCaptions

IP Logged

Sandra_133229

Gold Member
artist

Posts: 787

Re: Holiday Weekend Cheers
Reply #2 - Jul 7^th, 2008, 4:54am

Just like with the Birthday, Big Dates reminders, can GCU look into targeting stores, distributors, wholesalers, etc, as Tom mentioned, with reminders. Many store owners don't want the huge choice of cards, or don't have time to figure out the system. Sending them periodic reminders and links into our system could take care of some of the problem. Maybe artists can contact stores and try and get more shop owners signed up on the list. GCU could have an opening e-mail that we could have sent to stores willing to consider signing up. By signing up, they can get a coupon for a free card.
Good ideas Ernestine and Tom!

Sandra

Back to top

Sandra Rose Designs:
http://www.greetingcarduniverse.com/SandraRoseDesigns

IP Logged

Tom_133317 Gold Member artist Posts: 2169	Re: Holiday Weekend Cheers Reply #3 - Jul 7^th, 2008, 7:28am SAN FRANCISCO GIFT SHOW JULY 26-29 http://www.sfigf.com/ Hint hint
Back to top	Comical Captions: http://www.greetingcarduniverse.com/ComicalCaptions IP Logged

Delores_132508 Gold Member artist Posts: 978	Re: Holiday Weekend Cheers Reply #4 - Jul 7^th, 2008, 7:37am Ernestine and Tom -- Some really fine ideas. Thanks for taking the time to share them.
Back to top	Grandma Dee's Cards: http://www.greetingcarduniverse.com/GrandmaDee IP Logged

Mindy GCU Administrator Community Manager Posts: 6567 Gender:	Re: Holiday Weekend Cheers Reply #5 - Jul 8^th, 2008, 4:57pm Quote from Tom_133317 on Jul 7^th, 2008, 7:28am: SAN FRANCISCO GIFT SHOW JULY 26-29 http://www.sfigf.com/ Hint hint I'll see if I can attend to check things out in SF this month.
Back to top	IP Logged