The Stationers Guild

This week at the National Stationery Show (“NSS”) a colleague of mine told me that the Editor of Get Married, an online wedding website, was going to visit a bricks-and-mortar stationery store and find out what actually goes on when someone seeks advice on wedding invitations.  I was intrigued:  gosh, will a “real world” experience get in the way of shamelessly promoting the same monotonous and tedious designs from online resellers?  Sceptical, but willing to give Get Married the benefit of the doubt, I trekked over to their booth at the back of Javits Center to see if they had made any relevant  improvements to their website.

I came across an enthusiastic young woman explaining the benefits of advertising on Get Married to two stationers.  As they were wrapping up, I jumped in and asked:  Will I be able to find a “real” stationery store on your website?    Using Connecticut as an example (my home state), I asked to see if they had any stores listed under invitations?

As I suspected, the only “local” stores you can find are “national” online resellers.    I think most people are savvy enough to know the difference between a business that sells “nationally” online and a local store, why can’t Get Married see the difference?    Despite the fact that wedding sites like The Knot, Martha Stewart Wedding and Get Married like to hype the local shopping experience, local relevance is determined solely by how much advertising dollars you are prepared to spend to “buy” local space. 

I explained to the young salesperson, that I considered this to be a deceptive promotion and it was causing people searching for local resources to move away from wedding portals.  She promised to bring this to the attention of her superiors.   Fortunately, I believe that mobile search will eventually kill these relics of self-promotion and deceptive claims whose primary interests are selling advertising and generating affiliate income.  Information from these websites is little more than promtional hype.  Let the buyer beware.

If you are an independent stationer thinking you will benefit from these websites, think again.  The money you spend on online marketing is far better spent promoting your own website and engaging in local search optimization. 

Richard W. May
Thérèse Saint Clair

I was drawn to a recent article in Stationery Trends Magazine by editor Sarah Schwartz soliciting ideas from magazine subscribers on ideas to keep stationery relevant.   This is a topic that has preoccupied me for several years and I have written about it extensively on the Stationers Guild Blog.   While many fine suggestions and ideas surfaced in the article, I consider most of the suggestions to be wishful thinking with little coherent basis for taking collective action to save the stationery industry.  This may seem a bit harsh, but stationery will continue to fade into oblivion until we honestly face the enemy and take action. 

The enemy is apathy, indifference, getting mad rather than taking action, and the widespread belief that somehow people will eventually see the benefit of written correspondence.   I am reminded by that bumper sticker, “Don’t get mad, get even!”  To do so, each and everyone of us who has a stake in the stationery industry should step up to the plate and take action (sorry for the baseball analogy).  The time for wringing our hands is over.  The time for celebrating bad taste and shoddy designs is over.  The time for tolerating bad etiquette is over.   It’s in our hands to change the industry if we act responsibly and take decisive action.  Waiting for someone else to take the lead is simply wishful thinking.

When I say that the enemy is apathy, what do I mean?  Apathy is a storefront owner  who does not have a website, a Facebook and a Twitter account and does not post blog articles at least three times a week.  Apathy is a storefront owner who still advertises in the Yellow Pages.  Apathy is a storefront owner who has not claimed their business on Google, Yahoo and Bing.  Apathy is a storefront owner with a website who has not asked for advice on how to optimize their site for local search.  Apathy is a storefront owner who does not insist that all vendors whose lines they represent should have an affiliate program.   I could go on, but unless store owners are willing to quickly engage in Internet marketing, the battle is largely lost. 

Vendors too are running scared and, indeed, the stakes couldn’t be higher.  The Stationers Guild has long argued that once the “experienced” storefront stationer disappears there will be no one left to explain their products and the ultimate battle for brand awareness will be determined by price.  Brand awareness on the Internet is determined by advertising – not the slick ad in Martha Stewart Weddings, but by thousands of independent bloggers, social media experts and affiliate websites that have been created solely for the purpose of earning “click revenue”  for directing uninformed consumers to an online website.  How ironic is it that Wedding Paper Divas is “Numero Uno” for “wedding invitations” and they don’t even print a scrap of paper.  Not only that, many of our own vendors sell to Wedding Paper Divas and FineStationery.com simply out of fear that they may be missing market share.   There is one sure economic fact:  Unlimited supply of product distributed through unlimited distribution channels will certainly destroy the industry.

Unless leaders in the industry take clear and compelling action on how they intend to distribute their product, the battle is lost.  This is one case where you can’t “have your cake and eat it too.”  Similarly, storefront dealers must engage the Internet and develop an alternative voice to the insipid sales pitches from online retailers and their parasitic mouth-pieces.  All is not lost, but it soon will be unless we decide to make this battle personal. 

Richard W. May
Founding Member Stationers Guild

As reported earlier, Google is aggressively reaching out to local businesses to improve search results for people who place a local qualifier in a search.  Google Places is certain to overhaul the search dynamics and improve search results for those seeking “wedding invitations Greenwich, CT” or “wedding invitations 06830″.  The natural or organic search results will return a stationery store -hopefully yours – in local search results for “wedding invitations” in your town or zip code.

Clearly, mobile search has been driving Google’s effort to improve the search experience for a growing number of consumers using mobile devices.  This is a tremendous opportunity for mom and pop stores and smaller businesses to effectively position their store for mobile search.  To determine how effective your online marketing is working for you, visit getlisted.org to see how well your store stacks up for local search in the four key search engines. 

Twitter is also beginning to make “big” noise on the local search front.  While I have reluctant to recommend Twitter and other social media tools, the local search component has caused me to reassess my position.  With technology, it is difficult to forecast what is coming next, but clearly the time of Twitter and Facebook has arrived.  If you value your business and want to help tech savvy consumers find your business, it is about time to reallocate your Yellow Pages advertising budget to online search.  You will be glad you did and so will your new customers.

This is also the death knell for wedding portals who have so corrupted the local search component.  If you are paying for advertising on The Knot, Martha Stewart Wedding or other wedding portals, this money should now be reallocated to local search.  It’s a heck of a lot cheaper and far more effective.  Why pay for advertising to compete with the likes of weddingpaperdivas.com who are paying close to $50 for each sale in your local space?  Makes no sense.

Richard W. May
Therese Saint Clair

The first quarter of 2010 will determine wedding invitation trends for the year.   In fact, I suspect that wedding invitation designs have pretty much been defined long before the “Will you marry me?” question was asked this holiday season.  I have it on very good authority that this is so:  Google.

Google Trends tracks the number of web daily searches for a particular term (in this case “wedding invitations”) over the course of a year.  As the chart above demonstrates, searches for “wedding invitations” peak toward the end of the year and early January and then begin to tail-off rather significantly after the first quarter.  The chart above also compares the search term “online wedding invitations” (shown in red) to “wedding invitations” (shown in blue).   As suggested by the chart, prospective bridal couples do not feel the need to distinguish between wedding invitations sold online and those that are offered exclusively through storefront stationers.

The New York Times (December 29, 2009) reports that bridal magazine ad pages are down significantly in December, 2009.   Quoting sources the Nielsen Company and Mediaweek, bridal magazine ads for December, 2009 were down 8.4% in Brides magazine, 25.5% in Bridal Guide and 23.9% in Martha Stewart Weddings.   While ad pages are booked far in advance and certainly reflect the rather depressed economy, the battlefield for wedding invitations has shifted to the Internet and the public is indeed poorer as a result.    As I have written on numerous occasions, low image resolutions, limited customization options and the inability of the online client to compare different papers and printing processes greatly diminishes a company’s ability to distinguish their brand.

It is interesting to note, that of the top 10 companies listed on the first page of Google for the search term “wedding invitations,” only one is a credible printing company:  Crane & Co.  Not surprisingly, Wedding Paper Divas, remains in the top position.    It does so because it has the most aggressive and intelligent application of paid search and Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strategies of any company in the business.   In a revealing New York Times article, Tiny Prints (a sister company of Wedding Paper Divas), describes how it competes for holiday greeting cards and photo cards by paying up to $50 to acquire a client.   I would suspect that they will pay that and possibly more to acquire a client willing to purchase a wedding invitation online.

While Wedding Paper Divas has certainly upgraded its line in recent years with companies such as William Arthur merchandizing their line through them, one wonders whether this business model is sustainable.    In fact, William Arthur now sells directly online and other companies such as Minted offer a wider range of quality invitations from craftspeople who do not generally market their equisite designs online.

For those seeking quality wedding invitations coupled with superior customer service, I strongly recommend that you visit a stationer in your neighborhood.    Most of these stores carry a far wider range of wedding invitation samples than any online dealer.  Customization options are limitless and you can actually feel the paper samples and see how ink colors change depending on the printing process.  In 2010, do yourself a favor and see why choosing your invitation in person makes all the difference in the world.

Over the last week or so, local search pundits have been debating the impact of Google’s launch of Google Place Pages.  Andrew Shotland who publishes the Local SEO Guide Blog recently wrote an article on the impact of Google Place Pages on the local search market.    As described on the Google Blog, a Place Page is  “a webpage for every place in the world, organizing all the relevant information about it. By every place, we really mean ‘every’ place — there are Place Pages for businesses, points of interest, transit stations, neighborhoods, landmarks and cities all over the world.”  Indeed, this is pretty heady stuff.  One might ask: “Who needs Big Brother?” 

If you are a local business owner, you definitely need to take control of your business listing on Google.  Simply log on to the Google Local Business Center and add your business or update your existing one.   One can debate the merits of Google’s strategy, but I certainly am not going to tangle with the 800 pound gorilla of internet marketing. 

Personally, I think this is very good news for local businesses and very bad news for the many so-called local search engines and search portals that have sacrificed the integrity of their local search function to pursue advertising revenue.   As I commented on Mr. Shotland’s Blog, ” Local.com, the YellowPages.com (including the many YP varietals) and most search category portals (i.e. The Knot for weddings) have compromised local search by ’selling’ zip codes and towns/cities to online marketers under the premise that ‘they are serving local markets.’  It’s not the same! In fact, it is deceptive and comprises ‘real’ search results.”

While I doubt very seriously that these deceptive advertising strategies will soon disappear, I encourage anyone who owns a small business to take control of their business and the way it is represented on the Internet.  While I do not have any particular insights into Google’s long-term business strategy, I do know that Google’s Local Business Center is packed full of useful tools for local storefronts.  These tools are free!  While you are at it, also claim your business on Yahoo and Microsoft. 

Before spending a penny on advertising  in Local.com, Martha Stewart Weddings, The Knot, or the online Yellow Pages or any other portal make sure you take a look at competitor advertisers in your search space.  If online dealers occupy that space, save your advertising dollar for something more worthwhile.

Richard W. May
Founding Member Stationers Guild

A recent Blog article called my attention to some advice given by Talley Sue Hohlfeld, Etiquette Expert for Martha Stewart, on whether bridal couples should send E-Vites for a Wedding.   Ms. Hohlfeld, blindly jumping on the “save-a-tree” bandwagon, acknowledged that she was “firmly against using e-mail for something as momentous as a wedding invitation.”  Nevertheless, she added that “putting a website URL on the lower left corner of your invitation would . . . save paper on your end.”  As an etiquette adviser to Martha Stewart, Ms. Hohlfeld should know that putting a website URL on an invitation is not only improper etiquette but is also quite TACKY.

Look, I have no issue with people sending out email invitations to save money.  Nevertheless, to justify sending an e-Vite on ecological grounds is either stupid, deceptive or simply dishonest.   First and foremost, many quality wedding invitations are printed on paper made from cotton and not wood fiber.    In fact, Crane & Co. has been printing paper from cotton (a renewable crop) and cotton rag from textile mills (recycled cotton) for over 200 years.  Perhaps, this is one of the reasons why Ms. Stewart decided to partner with Crane & Co. to launch her new line of Martha Stewart wedding invitations.  Perhaps, Ms. Hohlfeld should consult Ms. Stewart and ask her whether she would like to see a URL at the bottom of her invitation.

Secondly, the “save-the-tree” war cry of environmental righteousness is simply a banal sound-bite probably concocted by online email advocates like AOL and eVite to justify their services as “green.”  I think we all know the expression that if you repeat the same sales pitch or lie and nobody questions it, overtime people will believe it to be true.  Wake up wantabe environmentalists, it’s a hoax!  Most serious paper companies like William Arthur and many others source and produce papers made from wood fibers using the highest “green” standards.  In fact, harvesting wood may be beneficial rather than detrimental to the environment, according to  David Foster director of the Harvard Forest Project.

Martha Stewart Weddings

Thirdly, if Ms. Hohlfeld honesty believed what she was saying, she would most certainly recommend to Ms. Stewart that she immediately cease the publication of Martha Stewart Weddings in the interests of saving a forest, not simply a tree.  Or how about the fact that the average PC user consumes 28 pieces of paper a day.  Should we simply abolish PCs to save a tree?   Ms. Hohlfeld and others who promote themselves as experts should take the time to seriously research issues before simply repeating self-serving slogans that have little basis in fact.  Civility and good taste would be far better served by “Etiquette Editors” who understood the difference between etiquette and a sales pitch.

I was somewhat taken aback but hardly surprised that the National Stationery Show will partner with Get Married to produce a series of bridal theme displays.  The National Stationery Show is scheduled for May 17 through May 20 at the Jacob Javits Center in New York City.

I must admit that I am not familiar with Get Married’s pedigree, but a cursory review of their website suggests that it offers little more than the myriad of online wedding sites that populate cyberspace.  What does Get Married have to offer that The Knot or the Wedding Channel or indeed a boatload of other wedding portals don’t have?  These hyped-up wedding portals are designed to sell, not inform.  Their value is largely determined by the all-powerful advertising dollar, not relevance to the consumer or the craftspeople and designers who make fine stationery products.

While I applaud The National Stationery Show planners for enlisting the help of a “wedding planner” to help showcase bridal theme displays, why did they select an online wedding website?  I view this as a sell-out to online resellers and online printers who are rapidly undermining the craftsmanship of fine stationery and custom invitations.  The National Stationery Show organizers should be chastised for promoting distribution channels rather than the artisans who make fine stationery and invitations and the experienced stationers who sell them.

Online wedding websites should be judged by their advertising sponsors, the products they promote and the distribution channels found on their website.  Specifically, I judge the integrity of wedding portals by the number of “true” local businesses that are listed under local resources.  For instance, Get Married, today listed six sources for local invitations and calligraphy in Connecticut on their website.  Four and probably five of these “stationers” are national resellers or printers.   Get Married is no different than The Knot or Martha Stewart Weddings who promote national resellers and printers as local resources.  How sad it is that these website owners have so little regard for the online buyer who may be looking for an experienced stationer in their neighborhood and invitation designers and fine paper lines who would never consider selling invitations online.

In an era when our public leaders quibble over the definition of  “is”, how can we expect website owners and search engines to agree that “local” refers to a business at a fixed location.  An 800 or 888 prefix is not a local business.  It is most unfortunate that online buyers searching for genuine local resources now have to sort through irrelevant, yes dishonest, search results that have been compromised by advertising fees paid to these wedding portals.

As a long-time visitor the National Stationery Show, I can’t wait to see the Eco-Chic wedding theme table promised by the organizers.  I suspect that the “Eco-chic wedding”  is just another questionable marketing ploy by the organizers to make us feel good about buying invitations that are produced from recycled paper and post-consumer waste.  Like the marketing spin on local resources, I suspect that this is simply   Greenwash spin that only serves to discourage leading craftspeople where concern for the environment is simply an integral part of their everyday life.