Monthly Archives: March 2011

More on marketing than you really want to hear

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So, I read a blog by a lovely English collager/cardmaker/jewelry designer who, in another life, might be my much younger sister.  She, in turn, had read a blog about marketing and was inspired to proceed through a long questionnaire that helps you define your marketing needs/ideas/agenda.  And I’ve decided to do the same thing.  So bear with me–there are lots of questions and this is the second part.
11.  What do you plan to offer?
Just cards for now.  I made some tags for a Christmas market but it was almost as much work as the cards for less money.  Some ideas:  bigger cards, maybe with frames included; smaller cards (redesigned; not complicated like the tags); postcards.  Possibly jewelry, with my beading friends, but boy, is there a LOT of jewelry out there.

12.  What makes you unique?
Well, I’m not trying to reinvent stationery, but I am trying to offer something for those few people out there who appreciate the written word.  I’m less cutesy and more artsy than a lot of the things I see on Etsy and at the cardmaking supply shop.  I do have some skills left over from my architectural career, including fabulous penmanship and a steady hand with the Xacto knife.

13.  What hobbies or interests do you have?
The main thing is the two ridiculous Labradoodles, Henry and Baxter, with whom I spend many hours each day.  (Maybe I should do some dog-related cards?  Or is that too cutesy?)  I do yoga a lot (yoga cards??) and take piano lessons (and would like to include some chopped-up music in the collages).  Doesn’t everybody love gardening and cooking?  And of course, living in Colorado, I’m obliged to love the outdoors–hiking especially.

I find Baxter completely irresistible, but there’s not a good reason for this
14.  What are your core beliefs?
I believe in making the world a more beautiful place, even in tiny ways.  I believe in joy.  I believe in the importance of laughter.  I believe in the meaning of sorrow.  I believe in the value of quiet.  I believe it’s important to take advantage of each day.

15.  What makes you uncomfortable?
Being front and center.  I’d much rather watch other people do that.  A part of that is that I’m a terrible salesperson, which just isn’t a good attribute for someone who’s out there trying to sell stuff.  I have to really pump myself up for that.  Also, conflict.  I’m a terrible arguer.

16.  If money were no object, and you could do anything you wanted for “work,” would you still do what you’re doing now?
Absolutely.  Luckily I have a very supportive spouse.  I’m not driven by the need to earn an income.

17.  What are your favorite colors?
All of them.  My choices are very seasonal.  Right now I’m very much in the mood for daffodil yellows.

18.  Is there a specific design style that you really like?
I like looking at a lot of styles and am always amazed at some of the things people can pull off.  Personally, I’m not much into frilliness; I’m much more drawn to sleek, modern styles.  When I’m drawing or creating things, I sometimes try to push myself in some new direction but generally get back to a style that’s ordered, architectural. 

19.  What emotion(s) do people associate with you?
Maybe I’m just a superficial person, but people do generally remark on how upbeat I usually am.   I’m the person people call when they want to be cheered up.  On the other hand, I’m a real softie–I sometimes burst into tears at the oddest moments.

20.  What brands/designs from other companies make you jealous?
Aah.  Part of what makes marketing difficult for me is that I really just don’t like to shop, so I’m not out there checking out the competition.  My friend Nancy believes in the meditative value of shopping, and I agree with her but don’t ever seem to get out there to browse.  I’ve been cruising around in Etsy a lot lately, just looking at things and making a couple of treasuries, which is fun.  Specific companies don’t come to mind, but the ones I’m probably most jealous of are those that have a clear identity and mission.  You can see that in their products.   I guess that’s one of the things this exercise is all about.

21.  How do you describe what you do?
Sometimes someone will glance at one of my cards and say, “Wow, where do you get that printed?”  It’s all I can do to not to pull myself up to my full height, grab their lapels, give one stiff shake, and say, “WHAT!?  They’re not PRINTED, you idiot; can’t you see that all those little pieces are cut and pasted and drawn???”  I try to stay calm in such situations.  But If someone actually asked me what I do, I’d say I gather ideas and scraps of things from the world around me and, with my own two hands, make them into a coherent picture.  It’s very physical and I like that.

The next batch of questions gets into more abstract stuff, so I’m going to leave it for now.  This is a great exercise; I’d love to see how some of my favorite other Etsy sellers would answer these questions.  I could learn a lot.
But meanwhile, the sun is out and my friend Martha is bringing lunch over shortly. 

Really?

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I keep thinking it’s going to be spring, but it keeps snowing.  I’m getting a little grumpy, in fact, but I just know that when it comes I’ll appreciate it all the more for all this cold.

Am I being just a bit premature here, or is it really going to be sunny and beautiful soon? And does anybody remember this song anyway??

So I’ve found a new blog by a lovely young woman in the UK who has been going through an extensive branding exercise, involving the answering of many questions, and I’ve decided to do it too.  I think the idea is to think through who you are and why you’re doing whatever it is you’re doing, and that’s always a good exercise and one I haven’t done in some time.  It can be a little tedious, and so I’ve decided to do it in chunks. I’m posting the first ten questions here; after I’ve had a few glasses of wine and gathered my strength, I’ll move on to the next batch. 

1.  What drives you?
I don’t know, I just have this urge to make stuff.  I’ve always been more comfortable in the background than in the foreground, and I like to put the things I make out there and let them have the limelight instead of me.  Also, I feel that the world has enough anger and ugliness in it, and small patches of beauty here and there can lighten the load for all of use, if there are enough of them.

2.  What are you passionate about?
Of course I’m passionate about my family and close friends.  I’m passionate about good design.  I’m a lover of the unexpected.  I love lots of kinds of music, but I also love silence.  I love physical challenges.  When I go places, the thing that often interests me the most is the form of the land and how it affects people.  I believe strongly that we should each ask ourselves every single day what we’ve done that day to make the world a better place.

3.  What are your strengths?
I have a good eye and an easy laugh.  I can focus well and I can work really hard.

4.  What are your weaknesses?
I hate conflict and will do anything to avoid situations that are uncomfortable to me.  I’m not good at asserting myself, and am a terrible salesperson.


Here’s one of my early cards.  I just love type.

5.  What is your personality type?
That seems like sort of a silly question.  Charming?  Hilarious?  OK, I’ve taken the Myers-Briggs personality test a couple of times and here’s what I remember:  I’m very much an introvert, which is to say that I get my energy from within rather than from other people.  I’m very much a list-maker and love getting things done.  I perceive the world much more intuitively than concretely, which is to say, I’m pretty much of a big-picture type of person.  When it comes to forming judgments on things, I prefer the visceral over the objective–I act much more on the basis of my heart than my head.

6.  What is your story?
I haven’t had a day job in quite some time, and have come to cherish my freedom.  (And, frankly, to be extremely grateful for the fabulous and adorable spouse who makes it possible for me to act like a princess.)  For years I’ve been making cards and other things for friends and family, and for years they’ve been saying I ought to sell this stuff.  It kind of puts your ego on the line, doesn’t it, but I just love throwing it out there and seeing what happens.

7.  What is your background?
How did I get here?  It’s a long, circuitous path.  Growing up I was never the one who ran for student council president but always the go-to girl for campaign posters.  Tried to major in art history in college but Mother won out and I got a degree in theoretical math and became a computer programmer.  Wore out on communicating with machines and got a teaching credential; taught grades 4-8 in various schools, loving the spontaneity of kids and hating the bureaucracy.  Back to school for a Master of Architecture degree.  Great combination of geeky math stuff and crazy design.  Remember in #5 above when I said I’m more of a big-picture person?  I got into planning and urban design and loved that until the job market got pulled out from under me; relocation and motherhood combined to turn me into a fruit farmer, mom, and designer and maker of knitwear.  Now my Etsy shop is satisfying the creative instinct as well as the computer decoding instinct, though the technology certainly has changed in the zillion years since I did that.

8.  What are you most talented at?
Getting people to get along (actually, I got a medal for that in grad school).  Seeing the bright side.   Laughing.  Visual expression rather than verbal expression.  And I do a pretty mean headstand.

9.  What do you have the most experience doing?
I’m pretty much of a generalist, rather than a specialist.  I’m good at organizing and at seeing a path forward.  That’s been a big component of all the jobs I’ve had.   I’ve been making cards, calendars, and other ephemera for 30 years or so.  What I’ve done a lot of in many different ways is visually articulate what other people are thinking, whether it’s by creating a newsletter, designing a sweater, or developing a little graphic piece. 

10.  Why did you choose your career/niche/topic/market?
I’ve never had so much control over the process as I do now.  I love that, even though it means I have to figure out a lot of things on my own and I make a lot of mistakes.  The particular paper card niche I’m in currently, I feel, is an important place to plant a flag in the ground–I see articles here and there worrying about the potential for snail mail to disappear altogether.  That would be a loss because it’s a lovely way to stay connected with those who are important to us.  You can do that through the internet, of course, but you lose the aspect of touch and texture and I think those are important too.  I love that I have some snippets of paper with each of my parents’ handwriting on them.  It brings them forward in my mind in a way that nothing else can.