With part 2 of our 3 part National Stationery Show series we’re going to discuss today how some of the designers felt the show went and how they changed their game plan each day. You might be asking yourself, change your game plan? Yes, it’s vital to be flexible during a trade or craft show, especially if you are exhibiting for more than one day. It’s also beneficial because you can take note of what didn’t work well the first day and turn the end of the show a major success. This is what Nancy of Hazel and Violet did during her stint at the show. Let’s hear what she had to say:
“From a sales standpoint we were also pleased. Things went very slowly at first and we were a little disappointed – but after the first day we saw an improvement. We made several changes midstream – we changed our display as we noticed more interest in different cards and we changed up the ‘patter’ somewhat as time went on. I feel that because of all the time we spent researching, the collective wisdom of our group and some advice from veterans – that we were pretty well prepared. No big surprises.”
As a rookie to the trade show scene, they obviously know their stuff and were wise enough to recognize what was working and make that the forefront of their sales pitch.
Katie, from Kelp Designs, came in with a different angle than Nancy and her team. This was Katie’s second year exhibiting at the show and after some learning curves she finally nailed down what was working and had her goals set to highlight them.
“The show went really well for us this year. We had significantly more orders than last year, had consistent traffic in the booth, lots of people stopping by because they received our pre-show postcards, and of course, met lots of twitter friends.
I felt a lot more confident going into this year’s show. I had a better sense of my product, my wholesale pricing and my overall goals for the show. And, it seemed that there were more people walking the show this year, which was reassuring. My goal each day was to talk to as many people as possible and use our time at the show to network with retailers, other designers and vendors on the supply side. Its rare to get so many talented, collaborative people together under one roof! I didn’t get around to visit with other designers as much as I would have liked, but I was fortunate to meet a lot of folks that came by for Twitter pins. Next year I will definitely make more time to walk the show and see the other booths.
We received a very strong response to our new line of accessories (bookplates, luggage tags, and magnets). It was exciting and overwhelming. People really liked that the accessories corresponded with the flat and folded cards and could be paired as gift sets.”
I think it’s extremely important to know your product well in order to make any show a success. And Katie is a fine example of this.
Stay tuned for part 3: After The Show.
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Bridgett, I was wondering about your posts on the craft show. Do these people spend time discussing these issues with you when you are present there ? Do they email their 2 cents about the show to you ? How do you get them interested in discussing their experience with you ?
Just curious, because there seem to be many people at the show, and it is probably difficult for anyone to keep a track of all the interviews and people they meet, etc.
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