Items tagged “Shoe Stores”

Almost every Web site I visit has an About Us page. It’s a personal touch on a website and one that I visit on almost every site I browse. What most small business owners or marketing directors forget when they create this page is that this page is for a specific, targeted audience. The About Us page is a concise summary for your brand, explaining why you felt compelled to start a business, why your products should get a piece of a consumer’s disposable income and why you should be trusted to deliver on your promise.

At the recent Licensing International Expo 2009 in Las Vegas, Disney Consumer Products announced key character franchises poised for breakout growth at retail over the next several years. Learns what’s coming for these favorites … Handy Manny. Hannah Montana. Toy Story 3. Mickey Mouse. Winnie the Pooh. Disney Princesses. Tinker Bell. Disney Fairies. DCP has plans to keep favorite characters going and growing for new and old generations!

Finding a sales rep—the right rep—isn’t easy. Here are a few suggestions to help make your search a success.

Online resources in your industry are a great way to find reps. In the kid’s industry, the following websites are terrific resources that give vital information about regional sales reps including contact information, the territory that they cover, trade shows that they attend and other lines that they represent:

www.jamesgirone.com
www.earnshaws.com
www.thegiggleguide.com

“A penny saved is a penny earned?” With today’s inflation and recession and depression or whatever else that ends in an “ion” that we’re in together, we all have to pinch greenbacks, not coins! Who is finding ways to save? If your customers are not spending more, better start saving more. Here’s some penny-wise tips from The Giggle Guide™. Help your fellow retailer, and share the wealth of ideas you have tried that make you a “wiser miser”!

Thanks for reading, and for all your answers. Since all answers were essentailly “correct” the winner of the Baby Prize Pack from LJBryn&Co. including: Doctor T’s Super Goop SPF 30 organic sunscreen, Scout Baby Organics bodysuit and an Itzy Ritzy wet bag is… JCB, who responded on May 25th. Congrats JCB and please email me your contact info!

These “intended answers” were:

  1. SBO small business owner
  2. COB close of business
  3. ROI return on investment
  4. NLT no later than
  5. TTYL talk to you later
  6. ABC All Baby & Child

You’ve decided you want a sales rep and you’ve decided you’re ready for one too. The next step is defining what sort of sales rep you should hire. I’m using the word “hire” pretty loosely here… If you want to work with an independent sales rep, both of you create a contractual relationship rather than an employer/employee relationship. You don’t typically pay an independent sales rep benefits or withhold taxes from her commission check. If the relationship ends, the sales rep won’t receive unemployment benefits. These are some of the legal reasons why sales reps are independent.

Just for fun, here’s a list of commonly used acronyms. Many are specific to the kid’s industry. Some are general business terms. A few are just for fun.

Your task? Define all these acronyms correctly, including the bonus questions. Post your answer in The Giggle Guide “Comments” section. The first respondent with a perfect score will receive a Baby Prize Pack from LJBryn&Co. including: Doctor T’s Super Goop SPF 30 organic sunscreen, Scout Baby Organics bodysuit and an Itzy Ritzy wet bag.

The winner, and all correct answers, will be announced next week.

  1. SBO
  2. COB
  3. ROI

I’m going to tell you flat out that if you’ve designed a tee shirt line and have a collection of 6 or 8 tees that have done pretty well when you’ve sold them at your local Mom2Mom or craft show, you’re not ready for a rep—yet. How can you get your line ready for a rep, and the increased sales that go hand in hand?

Visual merchandising. More than an arrangement of signs and products. To increase sales, engage more senses. Create an experience. Satisfy needs, but generate wants. The Giggle Guide™ provides display tips for retailers and manufacturers. In stores, or at trade events, what you see and hear matters. Create attention grabbers Generate buzz. Turn window shopping into increased sales! What customers see, hear and touch influences what they get!

You had a great idea to design and manufacture a line. You’ve sold it to a few stores in your neck of the woods. You’ve even gone to a few regional trade shows, or retail expos, and your line sold pretty well, so you forge ahead with plans to expand.

And now you can hardly keep up… Stores are calling you for re-orders but you’re on the other line and miss the call. You’re so busy dealing with supply, manufacturing and design details, you don’t have time to promote and sell your line anymore, much less follow-up with existing accounts.

I have always heard the advice, “Do what you love!” As a partner in a successful ad agency and marketing director at Earnshaw’s, I often got to do what I maybe kinda liked. At least I knew I was using some of my G-given talents. I have always been drawn to the creative side of marketing, primarily on the word side (since I found out in high school I could not draw well enough to be commercial).

Several years ago, I attended a retail association’s meeting prior to the start of a national trade show. The leaders had gotten the names of every first-time exhibitor at the event. Each buyer picked one name out of a hat. They were asked to go to that exhibitor first thing and thank them for attending the show. The idea that retailers thanked a manufacturer for supporting a trade show struck me as a practice that truly recognizes the time, money and effort that manufacturers expend when they participate in a trade show.

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