I Can't Be the Only Traditional Turned Digital Scrapper Who Wants This

I'll admit that much of my scrapping is now digital. I make cards and once in a while, I'll scrap an actual page to frame or put in an older album.

But, I still love to go into scrapbook stores and I still love the pretty papers there. Unfortunately, when I see something, I don't buy it because I know I likely won't ever use it.

I am sure I'm not the only one who finds traditional products delicious but scraps digitally due to lack of time. I can't tell you how many times I have seen a paper in a scrapbook store that I wanted but in digital form.

I don't know why - wait, actually I do know why and I'll address that in a minute - that traditional scrapbook manufacturers don't capitalize on people like me who started out with the hands-on approach, still goes into scrapbook stores, but scraps mostly digitally now. I know very few of the digital scrapbook "brands". I love Shabby Princess and will look at Scrap Girls or A Cherry On Top when I need something specific. But, I still love Bo-Bunny (Shabby Princess look!), Karen Foster, Little Yellow Bicycle, Flair Designs, etc. I want those - in digital form.

It would so very easy for the traditional manufacturers to offer their traditional paper designs on CD for digital scrappers. And, it would be a brilliant idea to sell those CD's ONLY through traditional retailers who also sold the traditional papers (that's the KEY here - don't cut the traditional retailer out by selling the download at your own site). I would be all over those to get the look of my favorite traditional companies that I have loved for years in my digital scrapbooks!

Now, I'm sure someone has thought about this. I even have a friend who talked to some companies at CHA a few years ago about digitizing their older discontinued lines. Most of them were interested in doing that but it didn't go any farther than that. Why hasn't anyone actually done it, though?

Fear.

The fear of digital scrapping.
The fear that customers will print off your designs at home and never buy the traditional paper
The fear that your designs will end up shared with other users.
The fear of all things digital... period.

It's totally irrational. You are either digital or you aren't. You either have a way to print digital pages or you don't. Like anything - some might abuse the CD. But, most will buy it because they want that traditional brand look in their digital scrapbooks.

I can find "Bo-Bunny-esque" stuff (Shabby Princess). I can find Karen Foster-esque stuff or any other "similar" products. But, I keep shopping the traditional stores and coming out empty handed. Wouldn't this be a good way to make sure I didn't?

I see the pretties. I want the pretties. Sell me the pretties in a format I will use them in and I will cease to leave empty handed.

Basic Customer Service: LISTEN!

I'll admit right now that I'm not a chiropractor person. After a couple of run-ins early in my adulthood with Chiropractors who made some unsolicited claims that they could fix some very odd issues I had internally as well as a couple who told me I was evil to get my children immunized, I pretty much decided they were not for me.

Well, I have been experiencing severe pain in a tendon in my lower back for nearly a year now coupled with clicking in my tailbone. So, after consulting with my podiatrist (I have on leg shorter than the other and this is my short-leg side), I decided to try a chiropractor to see if they could get rid of the clicking and pain. It felt like something was out of whack.

So, I found one that claimed to do "Sports Medicine" and "Physical therapy", too. After talking to a cousin-in-law who's a Chiropractor in CT, he suggested I find someone who did a mix of stuff like that so there was a more mainstream approach to my pain.

Well, that was a mistake...

Okay, I'll admit that my neck feels pretty darn good. I can turn it better than I could before and my left knee - which had been clicking, catching and feeling like it was going to collapse feels really great! So, I give them an A+ on that. But, the original problem I went in for is a big fat F. I'm still not sleeping at night and the pain hasn't gone away. It seems at times like they work on every area BUT that one I came in for. I get the feeling they aren't working on it so I will keep coming back. They want me to come in 5 days a week at $45 per visit. Do the math - that's $1000 a month. Not gonna happen due to money and the fact that by the time I visit all their stations (physical therapy, massage, adjustments) and drive over there, I am looking at nearly 2 hours per day. I pointed all that out and got the response I totally expected, "What's the price of your health?" Came straight out of a chiro marketing book somewhere, I'm sure.

What if I took my car into the repair shop and said, "The engine dies when I stop at lights" and they sent it back and said, "Hey, we noticed the tires were low so we filled them. Then we washed and vacuumed it. Then we noticed your headlight was out so we changed it. Oh, and there was a couple of old hoses that we swapped out and we also changed the oil." Thank you, that's great that you took care of all those other things but the car is still dying when I stop at a stop light. "Oh, we'll work on that over time and fix it eventually."

Would I as a customer be satisfied with that answer? Nope.

I feel like they aren't listening to me and that frustrates me. They plop me on a line of tables and poke at my chart and then ping, pop and plop me for a few minutes and then send me out the door while they slap another face sheet on the table and another patient lays down. No one has asked me specifically about the pain in my back and no one really addresses it. They just fix what they can feel is wrong - but while those things might be wrong - they aren't the reason I came to them in the first place.

So, as of today - I'm done. I tried, I really did. But, when I get back from my trip later this week, I'm going into my regular doctor because I know she'll do something about the pain in my back and send me off to physical therapy.

Listening to customers is SO important in any business. I appreciate the way my knee feels, but I really need my back to feel good. It's been a month of 2-3 times a week visits - you'd think there would be at least some progress. There is, but in the wrong place - there's been absolutely no change in the thing I came in for in the first place. That's not good customer service.

CHA Networking Event!

The biggest value of ScrapBiz is the networking between like-minded industry retailers. There is lots of synergy that comes out of our group as well as quite a few real friendships! Being able to discuss the scrapbook and craft industry with people who understand it is invaluable to retailers.

I think one of the best things we can do to help scrapbooking is to get to know each other personally and attend events where we can talk. I loved the scrapbook retailer lunch at PMA - it was a room full of energy!


Kizer and Bender are sponsoring such an event at CHA Summer. If you are going to CHA, don't miss this!

Retailer Connect: a CHA Networking Event

Monday, July 27th

3:15 - 4:30pm

Room # W303B

Orlando Convention Center, West Building, 3rd Floor

Have you ever wanted to get to know other craft and scrapbook retailers but weren’t sure how to do it? Problem solved! Join Rich Kizer & Georganne Bender and CHA’s Member Connect Committee for the FIRST EVER “Retailer Connect” – a special “Let’s get to know each other” Meet and Greet at the CHA Summer Tradeshow & Convention.

“Retailer Connect” will follow KIZER & BENDER’s presentation of “4th Quarter Calendar: EVERYTHING You Need to Run In-Store Events that Build Sales! (Business Seminar S103). You don’t need a ticket or seminar pass, just a pile of smiles. And business cards so we can all keep in touch.

It doesn’t matter if you’re a retailer, vendor, service supplier or designer. Whatever your title, EVERYONE is WELCOME. Let’s build the lasting friendships and camaraderie we all need to grow our businesses and stay the course!

Learning From Donut Wars!

Recently, a new shop was opening near me. They had painted a website on the paper-covered windows intended to create an air of mystery. They had a big contest at their site about "what are we?" To me, the website totally sounded like a cupcake shop. They had a Facebook page with the same contest and to many others, it sounded like a cupcake shop. In fact, the hints they were giving made it sound like it was a cupcake shop where you could go in, choose your cupcake flavor and have it custom-frosted for you. It would have been a FABULOUS idea for two reasons:

1. There are no cupcake shops in this whole area. Cupcakes are HOT right now, but few places are selling them here beyond what you can get in a plastic clamshell with nasty Crisco frosting.
   
2. This is an upscale upper-middle class shopping area and people would have totally bought into the upscale idea of serving cupcakes at Birthday parties, showers, etc.
   

But, alas, the place turned out to be a DONUT shop. Which, did not fit the website name in my opinion. The URL sounded like more cake than donut.

So, my kids and I decided to check it out and see if the donuts lived up to the hype so we wandered over there the first day of their Grand Opening. We showed up in the afternoon - wondering if there would be any donuts left. But, given the fact that they stay open until 10pm, I assumed they would be making donuts all day long. There was not much of a line if you don't count the busload of elderly people who arrived just 30 second before us and took most of the afternoon to order.

I bought 4 donuts - two chocolate frosted custard filled, one german chocolate with coconut-pecan frosting and one Maple Bar. My total for 4 very average donuts was over $8. They put them in a brown box with a cutesty label on it that was sort of meant to be "signature" packaging since pink and brown are their signature colors. I think I paid $4 just for the packaging alone because what we got was 4 donuts I could have bought across the street at the grocery store for less than $4. And, to top it all off, my kids didn't get any custard in their donuts until the last 2 bites. They had skimped on the filling.

The next day was the annual 5K Race and festival in this area. We happened to park near this donut shop when we arrived about 7:45 am for the race. This was the second day of this shop being open and I kept an eye on the foot traffic as I sat in the car waiting about 90 minutes for the race to start. I didn't notice a lot of people going in and out. It was surprising given all the hype.

My husband went to warm up for the race and came back with a postcard he handed to me. Apparently, the book store at the other end of the parking lot just opened a branch of a very famous donut shop from Seattle where they had previously had a coffee shop. They were handing out postcards for free donuts. So, after the race, we went and got 4 donuts. We didn't use our postcard and paid $6 for 4 donuts. Still too high in my opinion, but they were much better than the other place and they had the "brand name" behind them as well as features on the Travel Channel and the Food Network. I immediately thought, DONUT WAR!!! You can't tell me that the legendary donut shop isn't going to throw their name and reputation around against this upstart across the parking lot. It will be interesting to watch.

So, what's the lesson here? First, if I was doing a big "what are we?" promotion and everyone kept guessing I was a cupcake shop and they were EXCITED about the fact that a cupcake shop MIGHT be opening in our area - I honestly might have taken a step back and thought about changing my plans. Listen to your customers! People were THRILLED with the idea that it might be a cupcake shop. How many, including myself, were disappointed to find out it wasn't?

Second, I can get donuts at 5 grocery stores and this other new "legendary" Seattle-based donut place all within about a 10-15 minute walk from this donut shop. And, none of them are going to charge me $2 for a custard filled donut. Actually, this new shop sits in the middle of a parking lot between the high-end (similar to Whole Foods) market with lots of donut and pastry choices and the legendary donut place in the bookstore. So, it's literally one of three choices from one parking lot.

How many places can I get cupcakes? ZERO. Okay, I can get them at the grocery store, but they are prepackaged - nothing custom. How many times will I pay over $2 for a donut? Never again. I can't believe that I'm alone in that thought, either. The donuts weren't bad, but they weren't the best I've ever had, either. Perhaps they will develop their donut menu over time to include outrageous things like a bacon-maple bar you can get at VooDoo Donuts in Portland. But for now, they are just a cute donut place selling donuts and I hope they can stand out in the crowd enough to make people want to pay the high price of their donuts.

The scrapbook industry lesson is similar. You need to really evaluate how many other places around you are selling what you sell and try to figure out something of value to the customer that sets you apart from the others. Cute packaging isn't enough anymore. People want VALUE and UNIQUENESS. If you find yourself among lots of others doing the same as you, find that thing that makes you unique! Do you provide better customer service? Have unusually themed crops? Have custom papers for the local area? Stay open later? Can provide lots of "fan comments" about your store that will make others want to come check it out? What's your "hook" that will make people choose you over someone else? It's got to be more than cute colors and decent donuts - especially decent donuts that are higher priced than other decent donuts in the area.

Scrapbook Fever - A 21st Century Scrapbook Retailer

I told Shelly Izen, the owner of Scrapbook Fever in Salem, OR that I was going to blog about how smart she and her husband, Bud, are.

They are a scrapbook retailer who "gets it" when it comes to thinking outside the box and looking for opportunities outside the normal "make and take" or technique classes for their store.

Scrapbooking without photos is really just a paper craft. And, GREAT photos inspire us to scrap. I can't tell you how many "so-so" photos don't get scrapped at my house. It's only the great ones that make me feel like scrapping.

Could scrapbookers use digital photography tips? You bet they could! And Scrapbook Fever has responded to that need and is now offering digital photography classes in their store.

Read their class description - makes me want to drive to Salem:

Digital Photography Class 101 series with Canon Rep – Our fabulously successful Digital Photography 101 series is brought to you by Canon! This is a course for beginners who need some assistance in understanding their digital camera and its functions! If you take the majority of your pictures using the Auto function on your camera, this course is for you!

This is a series of four (4) two-hour classes designed to help you understand the functions on your digital camera, show you some cool Canon products to print your pictures on, and finish up completing a project using the pictures taken and printed during these classes! Everyone will complete a very cool 8x8 mini album (designed by us of course)

Now, if they added custom photo books and gifts (also a great series of classes to offer) with something like our PhotoBookBiz option, they will have propelled themselves completely into the 21st Century of Scrapbooking.

I applaud their willingness to offer a class like this and think they are very smart scrapbook retailers!

Digital Scrapbook Artist by Serif

I got a copy of Digital Scrapbook Artist a couple of months ago. I'm the first to admit that I'm a Photoshop Loser - I simply can't enjoy using it and can't seem to make it work for me. I think it's because while I'm not normally technically challenged, that I think like a "traditional scrapper" too much. I want all the tools and techniques of traditional scrapping right there and very obvious for me.

I have used a much simpler program to do my digi pages but was starting to feel limited by it. Then I discovered Digital Scrapbook Artist. I love it because it's "traditional scrapping" in a digital form. I can crop my photos in cool shapes and there are deco scissors to edge my papers with. The program is specifically built for digital scrapping unlike PhotoShop Elements which is USED for digital scrapping but not specifically built for it.

Digital Scrapbook Artist has a site where you can download some very nice kits that work with the program. The site is called Daisy Trail and they're still getting it up and going.

What's really exciting is the update to the program coming later this summer. You can read about it HERE. I love that it looks like the upgrade will help me organize the kits I already have - it's a mess and I can't find anything. I haven't found a solution that I like to organize yet despite many suggestions.

If you're like me and haven't found a program that you're completely comfy with - I'd recommend Digital Scrapbook Artist! You can check it out at their YouTube Channel HERE. There are lots of videos about using the program as well as a video tour to help you decide if it's right for you!