we're all in this together {part two}

Hello! I promise that our {hostess of the week} feature is coming back soon, but while we're waiting on our friends' photos and answers to arrive in our inbox, I thought another industry discussion might be in order.

My son Charlie is on a swim team. There are about 500 kids on the team, broken into about 10 different levels. Fees for the team and number of practices per week vary by level. At each level, there are some kids who go to every practice and meet they're eligible for, but showing up for a certain number of practices or meets is not mandatory. The kids who go to every practice and meet obviously get more of the coaches' time, even though they don't pay any more in fees than the other kids do. In this sense, the kids who go less often are underwriting some of the costs associated with the kids who go more often. The brilliance of this set up is that it ensures that whether 3 kids or 30 show up, the lights are on and a coach is present at every practice, and each swimmer can get out of the team as much as they're willing to put into it.

And what does this have to do with the stationery industry, you ask? Well, manufacturers are like the swim team. We need to keep "the lights on and a coach present" so that our retailers have products to sell. Unlike the swim team, however, we can't assess a fee for each retailer we have but instead have to rely upon actual sales. And if retailers across the board are selling less, and sometimes paying later, then how do we keep the proverbial lights on?

We've been talking to a lot of our industry friends as well as entrepreneurs outside of the industry, and the short answer to this question is: get creative. hen and barley press has launched a Trunk Show in A Box concept for the holidays to appeal to retailers who are stepping outside their shops and exhibiting at shopping events like Junior League shows, etc. We've launched virtual albums that allow any retailer to access and sell our personalized products. We've launched a small retail website and partnered with some local not for profits to have them sell our products to help them (and us) raise funds via the site.

All of these things are TOTALLY different from how we would have approached our business just a year ago. None of them are meant to take business from or undermine our retailers in any way. In fact, all of the ideas have one goal: keep the lights on and a coach present so we can continue to sell our products to our retailers. It's that simple. And I would imagine that manufacturers and retailers have this goal in common. For manufacturers and retailers alike to achieve this goal, and come out of this shaky recovery stronger, we all need to get creative. If you're part of this industry, ask yourself how you are addressing the realities (and realities is an important word) of: changing buying habits, both wholesale and retail; changing production methods, both wholesale and retail; changing world?

Clinging to the "rules" as we once knew them seems like such a waste of energy when we must surely all be low on energy...let's face it--things have changed. Period. The realities are: Internet? Here to stay. Online shopping? Here to stay, and yes, even with paper. Printing on demand technology? Here to stay. Stocking less inventory? Here to stay. Selling and buying through mediums other than trade shows? Here to stay.

How about focusing the discourse on how we're going to navigate these changes together? How are you getting creative right now to embrace these realities and still "keep the lights on and a coach present?" Let's hear it!

We've gathered some of our NSS favorites

The National Stationery Show is overwhelming. As you walk the aisles, you see fabulous line upon fabulous line, and as a manufacturer, it leaves us wondering: How do retailers ever choose? We love hen and barley press, obviously, but as paper lovers, we appreciate other manufacturers' creativity, too. As the day goes on, we plan to post some of our favorites, including our favorite item from our own line. Many of these are lines whose look we not only love, but whose owners we are fortunate enough to count as friends and close colleagues. Enjoy!

Let's start with Demby + Solomon. They shared a booth with us, so we got to see their products firsthand. Their Clever Correspondence album is DARLING--take a look at some of the product samples below.


Then there is The Paper Menu. The owner Marie is adorable, as are her products. The Paper Menu booth at NSS reflected the line's style, right down to Marie's great husband Julian sporting seersucker pants like only a Southerner can. After seeing Marie and Julian in their booth, both Carolyn and I came away with: 1) how cute are those products; and 2) a reminder that we love seersucker on men. The Paper Menu's latest addition to their line are personalized aprons, gowns and pillowcases. Check out the cute aprons below:


Fin+Roe is another favorite (and boothmate of ours). Owner Lori is, like me, a Wisconsin girl, and as if her Marzipan line weren't enough, she's rolled out the totally innovative Fin+Roe line. Check out these photo magnet digital cards. Talk about clever...and different (GOOD different)...and stylish. We love 'em!


Our favorite from our own hen and barley press this year are our magnets, especially our new Monogram Magnets and You Said It! Magnets. From our Initial Magnets, our Classic Style are runaway bestsellers.



Stay tuned for updates and favorites throughout the day!

topic du jour: customer appreciation

Good afternoon! Today we had a screw up with one of our retailers, someone who had not ordered from us before. As I was reflecting about how we handled the situation, I was reminded about how important it is to show appreciation to customers, both when you're fixing a mistake and in the course of everyday dealings.

Since we are all in an industry that is driven by sales, it is easy to get caught up in who your largest customers are, and limit specials, incentives and perks to them. But, especially this year, when everyone's sales have been hit hard by this economy, sales may not be the best measure of to whom you should extend whatever customer appreciation programs your company might have. One store's (or customer's) $200 might be another store's (or customer's) $2,000. A store who writes a $2,000 is not, therefore, necessarily a more important or "better" customer than the one who writes $200. How many times have you had a store that orders a lot but is difficult to deal with, meaning that your profit margin dwindles by virtue of the amount of time and attention they require? Which is not to say that a big customer isn't important, because of course they are, but I wonder if dollars spent should be the primary factor in formulating customer appreciation programs and incentives.

All of which is a long way of getting to today's topic du jour: How do you handle customer appreciation? Do you have a program within your company for doing so? Retailers, what are your favorite types of customer appreciation incentives?

At hen and barley press, we send updates to our Completely Custom program at no charge to a large portion of our retailers. Sales aside, we can generally glean where the potential is, and let's face it, an album is essentially a catalog of our products, so why wouldn't why want to give as many retailers as possible the tools to sell our products? We send hand addressed, hand signed holiday photo cards to most of our retailers, whether they've ordered from us recently or not.

Recently, hen and barley press donated a bunch of our invitation and note card overstocks to the Chicago branch of a national not-for-profit called AmericaSCORES. It was not a huge donation by any stretch of the imagination. Today, we received a packet with a copy of their most recent publication, as well as a handwritten note from the executive director, thanking us for our donation. Let me tell you, we were impressed! It made us think we should really do the same thing for our customers all the time, not just at the holidays, or after the National Stationery Show. Food for thought!

We'd love to hear from you all on this topic!

topic du jour: stay tuned

Good morning, everyone! My youngest is home sick with a fever, so I may or may not get to today's post. I promise I will try.

Tomorrow I'd like to wrap up this extremely positive, thought-provoking week by gathering our thoughts on our National Stationery Show favorites. This is something Carolyn and I had planned on doing post-show anyway, and it seems like a fitting way to celebrate the amazing people in this industry, many of whom have been great about offering their thoughts publicly (and privately) this week.

What were your show favorites? If you have one you'd like to share, please e-mail me details.

topic du jour: tooting your own horn

Good morning! Thanks to all who have commented on previous days' posts. It is great to hear from all sides of the industry. A couple of retailer comments about how they find new lines made me think about how much thought and efforts promotions take. And I don't mean just promoting a special, I mean getting your name, your line, your store out there and at the forefront of people's minds. Since so much pre-qualifying gets done via the internet these days, it has become more important than ever to make your business stand out from the masses so that a retailer will visit your booth at a trade show like NSS, or a customer will go into your shop to buy what they're looking for.

So today's topic is: tooting your own horn. How do you do it? What works for you? And retailers, how DO you decide which trade show booths to stop by? Do you prefer e-mails containing lots of info, or more general e-mails that direct you elsewhere for info? And is consistency (e.g., 1x per month) more important than timing (hitting a store during their primary buying season)? What about those direct mail pieces? And manufacturers: as consumers, what gets you into a shop?

At hen and barley press we use e-mail marketing (as you all now know!) often. This form of marketing has generated more results--both in sales and traffic at trade shows--than any other form of marketing we've ever done (and we've done them all--postcards, ads, etc.). We find the e-mails that describe a need created by a trend or current buying habit, and then position our products as filling that need, work best. We also try to include lots of photos of finished products in our e-mails and on our website--photos of actual product seem to have more of an impact than a PDF of a design turned into a Jpeg. We've also found our association with A Fresh Bunch and the ISA to be a huge benefit. The "one-stop shopping" that these group sites provide seems to be a help to retailers, and has really helped promote our brand.

As a consumer, I do love getting e-newsletters from our retailers as well as local shops I frequent. Sometimes I've signed up for these, sometimes I haven't, but as someone whose company depends upon staying abreast of the retail indsutry for survival, the more of these I read, the more insight I have. One of our retailers, Papers & Presents in MA, does a DARLING weekly picks e-mail. Short, to the point, and always with a few eye-catching photos, it hits the spot. If I lived in MA, you can bet I'd be there shopping for camp goodies (the subject of this week's pick).

Let's hear it: how do you toot your own horn?

Topic du jour: What works in this economy?

Good morning, all. I woke up this morning to several e-mails from reps asking about some of hen and barley's current specials, and then noted that some of my daily blog reading was covering specials & promotions being run by both manufacturers and retailers in our industry.

With that in mind, it made me wonder: What works in this economy? Retailers, what things are you doing for your customers that help generate sales, and how can manufacturers support these efforts? Manufacturers, what are you doing to generate sales? What's working for you? Would our industry gain anything if as many manufacturers as possible banded together and offered similar promotions?

I am not asking anyone to reveal deep dark trade secrets, so I so hope that we'll get some comments on this one. In our offices, we try to talk to retailers, really listen to what their needs are and then develop promotions accordingly, but since we can't talk to everyone, even then it can feel like throwing darts at a board. And to properly develop and promote your promotions it takes time and lots of communication to get the word out, so wouldn't it be lovely if we all knew what retailers really want? And retailers, wouldn't it be lovely if the promotions arriving in your...ahem...e-mail inboxes were just what you were looking for?

What have we done (that has seemed to work)?

- At NSS the 6 manufacturers in the A Fresh Bunch booth standardized their opening order minimums and waived minimums if a retailer wrote with everyone in the booth.
- Outisde of NSS, hen and barley press has waived minimums on orders and re-orders since it seems that our retailers want to minimize inventory on their shelves and order less product more often.
- hen and barley press has focused on products that are less expensive for retailers & customers to purchase, as well as programs that don't require the retailers to carry inventory.

So, let's hear it: What works in this economy?

topic du jour: Trade Shows

Okay, everyone, it's time to gather your thoughts. There's been so much interest in the last blog post that it seems that perhaps retailers and manufacturers alike are clamoring for an opportunity to hear more from each other on some of the hot topics and issues in our industry.

With that in mind, we'd like to devote each day this week to a new topic. We're going to start with one that our company has thought about, struggled with and thought about some more, but we're hopeful that you'll all give us some suggestions on questions you have. The questions can be issues our industry as a whole faces, or they can be things retailers would like to hear from a broad spectrum of manufacturers (or vise versa).

The discussions won't be meaningful without comments from all of you, and we're going to start out not moderating comments so that everyone who comments is heard. That said, we're trusting everyone to play nice: no naming names, please. Points can certainly be made by speaking in general terms, and remember we're all in this together.

Here goes: the topic du jour is Trade Shows. Let us start by saying that we loved attending the National Stationery Show and have met many fabulous people there and at other markets, some of whom have become dear friends and trusted colleagues. But, our experience has been that trade shows have changed in recent years from sales vehicles to marketing vehicles, and this fundamental shift makes the cost of attending prohibitive sometimes. And while we worry that we're missing our retailers and they us when we don't attend, the majority of our current customers don't seem to attend any shows regularly.

So, a few questions:
- If you attended any trade shows this year, as a retailer or a manufacturer, we ask you: Why?
- If you didn't, why didn't you?
- Retailers, manufacturers so often hear that not attending a trade show, particularly NSS, will instantly make you a pariah in the industry. Is this really a dealbreaker for retailers?
- Retailers, if you use sources other than trade shows for placing orders and finding new lines, what are those sources? Sales reps? Internet search? Sites like Etsy?

For our part, we attended both the Atlanta Gift Market and NSS this year. This was feasible this year because we were part of collective booths that significantly reduced our show costs, thereby enabling us to focus on the marketing opportunities aspects of the shows rather than stressing about covering our booth expenses via sales. In years past, before these group booth opportunities presented themselves, we did skip some shows, deciding to use the money not spent on trade shows on developing new products. Our business still grew during this time, primarily with the help of sales reps, and our experience was that retailers understood our having a limited budget as long as we were still developing new products. All that said, we plan to return to both Atlanta and NSS next year, definitely part of collective booths. The group booths allow us to be there, have a presence, and connect face to face with retailers and new reps. Even if we don't write one order, it's still money well spent. We would not, however, have the luxury of having that attitude if we had our own booths at the shows.

What about all of you? Tell us what your thoughts on trade shows are.

We're all in this together

Since the National Stationery Show ended, there has been a lot of online chatter about who was there and who wasn't, who sells to whom and how, and even which manufacturers are on the "good" list vs. the "naughty" list. Some of this chatter has resulted in some very positive discussions about what retailers want, and how they view manufacturers who license their designs elsewhere or sell direct to consumers online. This is an important discussion, especially in this economy, as manufacturers like hen and barley press rely upon retailers for sales. Similarly, retailers rely upon manufacturers like us for the products that stock their shelves and generate revenue.

It is an interdependent relationship, and for retailers and manufacturers to survive and thrive, we must realize that we are all in this together.



Here's what I learned from retailers and other manufacturers as a result of these discussions:

- Retailers are okay with manufacturers selling direct to consumer or licensing designs to places like Shutterfly or Tiny Prints as long as pricing and shipping terms are the same as those offered to retailers. Translation: don't undercut your retailers.

- Licensing to giants like Target under the same brand name, or worse, using the same designs you sell to the smaller brick & mortar retailers, can tarnish the "specialness" of your brand. Translation: most retailers like lines that are known but not too well known.

- Some retailers have hired design staff to create custom work in-house and therefore capture more margin than they would by simply re-selling products designed by manufacturers like hen and barley press. Translation: fewer sales for manufacturers, which results in more manufacturers trying to find alternative streams of revenue like selling direct or licensing.

The consistent theme that I see upon typing all of this is how intertwined our fates are in this business. Unfortunately, these discussions came only after several manufacturers and online retailers had been bad-mouthed quite publicly, and given how dependent we all are on one another, where does that negativity get us?

Today a new issue popped up. We and several of our boothmates sent out marketing e-mails yesterday advertising post-show specials. Included on these e-mail lists were new contacts collected at the show. As a manufacturer, the one thing you hear from retailers over and over after shows is to be sure to follow up with everyone who stopped in your booth. Like many of our retailers, we've found that e-mail is a great, effective and cheap way to accomplish this, so off went the e-mail, which unwittingly created a firestorm on this blog. hen and barley press, you will note, was publicly chastised for sending our e-mail. Again, the negativity...rather than focusing on the real issue of what one should do with contacts gathered at a trade show, or what exactly ARE the laws governing the sending of marketing e-mails, information retailers and manufacturers alike could really use.

So, the questions of the day are: What should one do with contacts gathered at a trade show? Retailers, how do you want manufacturers to follow up with you after a trade show? If you leave your contact info in a booth at a trade show, what does that mean? Should you reasonably expect to receive information via e-mail, phone or snail mail? Translation: let's have a real exchange of useful information to help us all thrive.

Finally, for those of you who regularly send marketing e-mail, here are the Federal Trade Commission laws on the subject.

Gather: The National Stationery Show Way

The National Stationery Show, described by someone on Twitter as "Fashion Week for paper people" was held from May 17-21 at the Javits Center in New York. Stationery companies from Crane & Co. to hen and barley press to companies you've never or not yet heard of have booths of varying sizes and complexity. It is a very creative atmosphere, a lot of fun, and a great networking, marketing and sales opportunity.

This year, we and a few other companies from A Fresh Bunch got creative and gathered together to have a group presence at the show. Done very last minute, our booth did not have the polish or presentation that it would have normally, but we pooled our resources, got ourselves and our products there, and made a splash at the show. Retailers loved the one stop shopping for 6 lines in one booth, and we each loved having sales help that allowed us to devote time to networking, trend-spotting and socializing with our paper friends. We're going to do it again next year, and are already making plans for improving upon a good thing.

Here are some highlights from the booth:


hen and barley press: our new magnets (shown at left) were a big hit, as was our new combined Completely Custom & Semi-Custom program. With over 14,000 design options, and 15+ stationery & gift products, this program defines one-stop shopping! As one of our retailers said upon seeing the Semi-Custom designs, "Oh, I will sell a ton of this." You can't beat that reaction (or the show special price tag of $150).

marzipan inc./fin+roe: marzipan inc. has launched a new custom album called fin+roe that had retailers all abuzz. Their photo magnet announcement cards drew quite a crowd and we love them, too!

evy jacob: we love evy's tagline of celebrate everything, everyday and her designs reflect that love of celebrations small and large. Her personalized albums were a huge hit and we loved their bar/bat mitzvah designs in particular.

Artful Sentiments: there is something about Molly's handblocked prints, they are simple and yet vibrant at the same time. Her coasters had us drooling with their fabulous prints.

Demby & Solomon: Lysa of Demby & Solomon donates her time & design talent to A Fresh Bunch, designing all of our group's logos and visual communications. Her new line of imprintables is fantastic, and we also loved her clever correspondence album.

Lucky Star Press: Sarah of Lucky Star Press recently had a new baby and still managed to pull together a fabulous collection for the show. Her amazing letterpress designs are subtle and sophisticated with the right dose of good cheer. We loved the mix-n-match initial sets.

None of us had ever done anything like this before, and felt like we were rolling the dice by having "the competition" in the same booth. But gathering together, pooling resources and really exchanging information with each another was such a positive experience, and we think retailers liked it as much as we did. If you visited our booth during the show, THANK YOU! If you weren't there but want more information, please visit each of our sites.

Here's to gathering together!

National Stationery Show

Carolyn and I just returned from the National Stationery Show. For you readers who are not a retailer or manufacturer of paper, the Stationery Show, or NSS, is held every May in New York City. It's where most paper and gift retailers go to do much of their buying and sourcing for the year. If you've ever been to a trade show, you probably have dim memories of being cooped up all day in a dark building in a not so nice part of some town. NSS is different. Not because the Jacob Javits Center is glamourous or anything like that, but because stationery and paper is a creative industry, so the creativity demonstrated in product display, booth construction and overall feel of the show is amazing. Seeing all that paper in one place helps you spot trends and develop ideas, not to mention hear directly from retailers and sales reps what they're looking for.

There are so many highlights we want to share, and we are each working on our lists of top trends to share with you over the rest of the week, but the first highlight we want to share relate to hen and barley press. Our initial magnets are shown above because they and our newest magnets were a huge hit at the show. Sam Flax stores bought them, and they were a definite draw in the booth. Paper accessories like our initial magnets were everywhere--magnets, file folders, clipboards, pencil holders, etc. At the end of the day, bad economy or not, people still need to stay organized and a small purchase like a cute magnet or file folder is both utilitarian and stylish, making it feel like a justifiable indulgence. They also make great gifts.

As we were leaving the show, we had an exciting celebrity sighting--Phoebe Cates was walking the show buying for her boutique on NY's Upper East Side. She is every bit as cute as she was when she was on the cover of 17 magazine, and stylish and classy without screaming "celebrity". After that and 2 days of networking and sales, we left the Javits Center feeling quite satisfied!

Stay tuned for more trends and info about the show.

How we gathered together...an insurance story

How often do you hear insurance stories? Probably not often. Or, I hope not too often. And you are probably wondering what insurance has to do with giving, inviting, gathering, or for that matter, stationery. Well, the beginnings of hen and barley press were in insurance--it's how Carolyn and I first got together, or gathered, if you will.

Back in 1995 both Carolyn and I worked as commercial underwriters for the Chubb Group of Insurance Companies. Chubb is one of those big companies you've never heard of, unless you have a lot of antiques or a major jewelry schedule, and then you've definitely heard of them because they are the last word in insuring all those kinds of goodies. Anyway, both of us were new to the Chicago office and we met there over production meetings, budgets and client calls. Fast forward a few years to motherhood, and we'd sort of lost touch. We'd both left the company to stay home with our kids, but in an odd twist of fate, wound up living around the block from each other in our North Shore suburb.

While we loved being moms to our young raucous boys, we both craved a little mental stimulation beyond debating the merits of preschool or various toilet training methods, and neither of us wanted to go back to insurance. Insurance is, in fact, generally boring, and beyond that, neither of us wanted to work in a big company atmosphere again. One thing insurance had given us, however, was insight into one another's work habits and personalities, so we knew we could work together.

I'd long had an obsession with stationery, and had foregone art school for studying Japanese, so starting a stationery company would allow me to indulge my obsession and my natural creativity. Soon it became too much for me to manage on my own, and that's where Carolyn came in. Her knack for numbers, marketing meant she could take over those tasks and direct our team in those areas, allowing me to focus on design and product development. She also has a great eye and classically good taste, so she can chime in on design decisions, too. It's a great match, and, I think, proof that you don't have to have only one profession in life.

More importantly, our company philosophy of give, invite, gather is more than a convenient branding tool. We really do believe in giving, inviting and gathering more. We really do love a good party, a great dinner, or a simple gift. We really do believe in giving back. And we love how stationery helps us to do all those things that are near and dear to our hearts.

On the eve of our departure for NYC and the National Stationery Show, here's what we're doing to give, invite and gather: Carolyn will be gathering with friends on the baseball fields for an evening of 4th grade baseball. I will be gathering with some friends over beer and pizza to celebrate the end of a long work week. What will you be doing?

Check back next week for our National Stationery Show posts. We'll be featuring our top 5 lists: top 5 trends, top 5 retailers, top 5 favorite products (and not just our own). Have a great weekend!

Jenny

Completely Custom

Hey retailers! Looking for a way to turn your store into a custom design studio? We've got a great program that can help you do just that.

Completely Custom is the hot, new must-have program that turns your store into a custom design studio.

It's more than just personalization, it's Completely Custom!

- No inventory to manage
- Small footprint - 8.5" square x 14" tall acrylic easel holds all the pages
- Over 14 products offered, something for every occasion: note cards, labels, invitations, gifts, calendars and more
- Hundreds of designs + different color combinations = 1,000s of design options (our everyday math calculations tell us over 14,000, to be exact)
- Reasonable price points and everything offered in low quantities for gift giving
- Brilliantly simple order form the customer can fill out themselves

Bottom line? Custom design that anyone can do, on products customers love, all at non-custom prices.

Just in time for the National Stationery Show, our newest addition to Completely Custom is ready! Meet Semi-Custom, 36 patterns, including our most popular imprintables patterns, for use on 6 different products with personalization. It's less decision-making than Completely Custom, but still a wee bit custom...it's Semi-Custom! And all of this from one easel!

See it in person in Booth #2547. We'll be there along with members of A Fresh Bunch.

On our desk this week...

Counting down the days until the National Stationery Show next week!

Retailers, come on over to booth #2547 to see all of our fabulous products in person. We'll be joined there by several other must-see, must-have manufacturers, so be sure to stop by for fresh ideas and awesome products we're sure your customers will love!

We'll be blogging from the show, so come back each day next week for eyewitness reports from the country's premiere market for social stationery and all the fun stuff that comes with it.

On our desk this week...

Monday, May 4

What's new!

As we count down the days to the National Stationery Show May 20 to May 23, we'll be posting sneak peeks of our newest products on our website. Check back often, and most importantly, be sure to stop by our booth #2547.

{Sneak Peek #1}

Like so many retailers, you probably have a gazillion albums in your store. Well, what if you could buy JUST ONE album, with thousands of design choices for every occasion or event? And what if you could order more than 20 different products from it? And train your staff just once? And have it take up no more than 8.5" square on your shelves? And nothing ever gets discontinued? Sounds dreamy, no?

Introducing...the Completely Custom+Semi-Custom album! This one album has it all, in the form of one compact acrylic easel--Completely Custom designs & products on one side, and our NEW Semi-Custom designs & products on the other.
That's thousands of design choices plus 20 products for every occasion--and in ONE album? That's DREAMY!