primalmommy on sun 4 dec 05
We had a dissapointing turnout at the Holiday sale this year.
Advertising was weak, lots of other events competing with ours, and
though the glass blowers were doing demos, the lithophane museum was
open and the snow brilliant under a blue sky, we just didn't get the
crowds we've had in years past.
The potter's guild made about half what they did last year, and though
there was no booth fee, and the guild's percent was very small, many
potters left tonight sorry they had bothered. A walk through the
botanical gardens made it clear -- the festive sound of artisans
bitching could be heard in every venue.
Here's the good part: of the money 14 potters made this weekend, a
quarter of it was my sales. It's bewildering. There are better pots than
mine in that guild, better potters, and better displays. I think the
difference was that I sent out postcards! I got on a soapbox about it,
as we stood pondering the low turnout, suggesting that next year the
guild should print a nice picture postcard and each individual potter
should mail a stack to his/her mailing list.
A few thought it sounded like a good idea, but others had no mailing
list. (I'm not being smug -- I didn't either, a year ago.) One very
popular potter only sells in galleries, and has no idea who buys her
pots. I'm going to suggest it at the next meeting, though. And as the
highest seller this year it will be my pleasure to fulfill our annual
tradition by being the one to bring champagne to our January meeting!
I still have not heard about my other sale this weekend, which was
manned by a volunteer. I'll go tomorrow to pack up what's left, and put
unsold pots on my website. Yes, I rearranged the furniture a little so
that the women's stuff is not the first thing you see on the site. Women
who come looking for those pots will certainly be able to find them, but
I don't want to scare off moms signing kids up for my classes or have my
mother embarrassed to give my card to her wealthy friends. Can you tell
I am rethinking my militant stance? A little bit, anyway.
Clayart has given me such good ideas, a sense of business and marketing
and confidence. Thanks to Chris and Chris and others who have helped me
fill in the details and the math. I have all kind of new year's
resolutions and am charting them out bit by bit.
Hope all the potters out there are having a happy and profitable holiday
season so far.
yours
Kelly in Ohio, just bragging a little bit.
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William & Susan Schran User on mon 5 dec 05
On 12/5/05 12:19 AM, "primalmommy" wrote:
> We had a dissapointing turnout at the Holiday sale this year.
> Advertising was weak, lots of other events competing with ours,
Us to.
We have a show & benefit. The students and I donate all of the pottery, all
proceeds go into a foundation account we draw on to purchase pottery
supplies & equipment.
Last couple of years we brought in $3000-$4000.
This year, about $1850.
Disappointing, until you realize our fine art program supply budget for the
entire year is $1900!
-- William "Bill" Schran
Fredericksburg, Virginia
wschran@cox.net
wschran@nvcc.edu
Gail Dapogny on mon 5 dec 05
HI KELLY,
I am happy for you in your apparently great sales, but I do feel for
those who did not do so well. An hour north of you in Ann Arbor, our
guild also had its annual holiday sale this past weekend, and we found
that, despite lots of stuff going on in the area and falling snow, we
had an excellent sale. I say this NOT bragging, but with a few ideas
that you can take or leave.
1) We all go together on a substantial mailing list and send out an
attractive postcard. We include this as a sale expense. (All sale
expenses come out of our collective commission.) At some point in our
past, we asked everyone to contribute 10 - 20 names. In addition to
that we have -- sitting very noticeably at our various cashier set-ups
-- a colorful mailing list. Our new customers add their names and
addresses while we're processing credit cards, etc. Several members
work, during the two-day sale, typing the additions to the old list.
2) Secondly, we have discovered that putting out lots of signs (like
realtors' sale signs, or politicians' signs) at strategic places
throughout the city and area, brings in a LOT of business. We each
take several and put them out the Friday night before the sale. Some
intersections are assigned. The signs read, in large letters on
plasticized two-sided signs, "POTTERS GUILD SALE, SAT AND SUN, 10 - 5".
We pick up our own signs on Sunday following the sale. We used to shy
away from doing this since it is of dubious legality, but finally we
figured that, since the rest of the world-- realtors, politicians,
other craft groups -- does it, we would too. We always lose a few of
the signs, but find that, if we put them up after 5 on Friday and pick
them up before Monday morning, they are usually still there. We took a
poll at two sales, and found that these signs were cited by customers
as the biggest nudge to come to the sale.
Other things: We make sure we're represented on city calendars, etc.,
and usually we can persuade someone from the AA News to come and take a
picture of "a potter at work" during the week before the sale, but the
signs and mailing list really do the most to earn their keep.
One other thing: we do a small amount of advertising in suburban
weeklies, outside of Ann Arbor, even as far as 40 miles.
We don't advertise in the city. The signs take care of that.
Hope this helps in some way.
Gail
Gail Dapogny
Ann Arbor, Michigan
gdapogny@umich.edu
http://www.claygallery.org/
http://www.pottersguild.net/
On Dec 5, 2005, at 12:19 AM, primalmommy wrote:
> We had a dissapointing turnout at the Holiday sale this year.
> Advertising was weak, lots of other events competing with ours, and
> though the glass blowers were doing demos, the lithophane museum was
> open and the snow brilliant under a blue sky, we just didn't get the
> crowds we've had in years past.
>
> The potter's guild made about half what they did last year, and though
> there was no booth fee, and the guild's percent was very small, many
> potters left tonight sorry they had bothered. A walk through the
> botanical gardens made it clear -- the festive sound of artisans
> bitching could be heard in every venue.
>
> Here's the good part: of the money 14 potters made this weekend, a
> quarter of it was my sales. It's bewildering. There are better pots
> than
> mine in that guild, better potters, and better displays. I think the
> difference was that I sent out postcards! I got on a soapbox about it,
> as we stood pondering the low turnout, suggesting that next year the
> guild should print a nice picture postcard and each individual potter
> should mail a stack to his/her mailing list.
>
> A few thought it sounded like a good idea, but others had no mailing
> list. (I'm not being smug -- I didn't either, a year ago.) One very
> popular potter only sells in galleries, and has no idea who buys her
> pots. I'm going to suggest it at the next meeting, though. And as the
> highest seller this year it will be my pleasure to fulfill our annual
> tradition by being the one to bring champagne to our January meeting!
>
> I still have not heard about my other sale this weekend, which was
> manned by a volunteer. I'll go tomorrow to pack up what's left, and put
> unsold pots on my website. Yes, I rearranged the furniture a little so
> that the women's stuff is not the first thing you see on the site.
> Women
> who come looking for those pots will certainly be able to find them,
> but
> I don't want to scare off moms signing kids up for my classes or have
> my
> mother embarrassed to give my card to her wealthy friends. Can you tell
> I am rethinking my militant stance? A little bit, anyway.
>
> Clayart has given me such good ideas, a sense of business and marketing
> and confidence. Thanks to Chris and Chris and others who have helped me
> fill in the details and the math. I have all kind of new year's
> resolutions and am charting them out bit by bit.
>
> Hope all the potters out there are having a happy and profitable
> holiday
> season so far.
>
> yours
> Kelly in Ohio, just bragging a little bit.
>
>
>
>
> > style="font-size:
> 13.5px">_______________________________________________________________
>
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BrendaZ on tue 6 dec 05
Hi Kelly,
One thing that we do at guild sales to build up our mailing list is to offer a free door-prize. On the door prize ballot we have a check-box that says "Please add me to your mailing list". We also add the question "Were did you hear about our sale?" on the ballot with some choices to check. This is really helpful for deciding where to put our advertising efforts.
In our two-story guild, all of our customers are personally greeted with a ballot at the door. The ballot box is downstairs to encourage people to take a look at the rest of our work.
Brenda.
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