The Stationers Guild

For a couple of years, I have been a member of the LinkedIn group Greeting Card, Stationery & Gift Industry Gurus. For the record, I am not a Guru, – but I wish I were – and I didn’t join the group to become one.  I simply joined to exchange ideas on industry trends with fellow professionals.  When I joined the Gurus, I seem to recall that there were some 300 members.   I now think that membership is approximately 2,000.  Today, this group has one less:  I quit.

My reasons are quite simple, I felt the forum had been hijacked by “members” with an agenda.  Specifically, the expanded Guru membership consists of Chinese manufacturers pushing everything from radio-controlled toys to cheap writing instruments and from multilevel marketing evangelists to barter trade scam artists.  This was not the group that I had signed-up for and I finally got exhausted at dealing with the inane self-promotion and general idiocy which characterizes a forum without direction.  The Age of Social Media has arrived:  Those who speak loudest and more often determine the message.  It is an age where chatter is more important than relevance.

The instruments of social media provide a useful platform for people to promote agendas without substance and self-promotion artists posing as respectable business people.    This is not a group that has much future since it has become a support group for people without an identity and not much self-confidence.  I suspect that many other Gurus will soon jump ship if they haven’t already done so.

How reassuring that some people still write personal notes and are still able to express themselves eloquently in this abyss of mindless social chatter signifying nothing.

For the last several years, I have attended practically every seminar offered by the National Stationery Show that had to do with website design, e-commerce and social media marketing.   While I have found some seminars to be quite useful, I have often felt that the information provided was either too basic for many in the audience and, at other times, simply overwhelming for those seeking a few tips on how to promote their business online.

As such, I was not expecting much as I sat down to listen to Rafael Mael of brandlauncher.com talk about social marketing.  Boy, was I in for a surprise.  This was simply the best presentation I have heard on this complex subject and I am quite sure that those who were fortunate to attend would share my assessment.  Well done Mr. Mael and tell your wife that we all thought you did a great job!

The goal of Mr. Mael’s presentation was to give us five very valuable insights on how to tackle social media.  His objective was to teach us how “to engage successfully with a minimum of effort” so we could get back to our “real life” with family and friends.  As one who spends far too much time in front of a monitor, I find this to be a most worthwhile objective.   After all, a real person is far more engaging than a Twitter “follower” or a Facebook “friend” – at least they should be!

I am going to list his 5 Rules (which he  supported with useful examples of what he was discussing) with a minimum of fanfare unless I think it is required:

1. Optimize Everything - This Rule mainly covered website design in which he emphasized that “less is more.”  A simple design pattern that tracks “proven” website reading patterns (the “z” effect) works best.    Fully agree, and my next website will reflect that look and functionality.
2. Give your audience what they want -  Your audience seeks two things:  stuff that is “interesting,” and stuff that is “free.”  Mr. Mael was interesting and entertaining and passed out many FREE gifts.
3. Automate Everything -  He gave us tools to automate NOW: ping.fm and tools to automate LATER:  hootsuite.com.  Ping.fm is used to communicate the arrival of new products and “new” news, which Hootsuite.com is used to schedule communication to social media outlets that are known in advance.
4. Use Video:  YouTube is the second largest search engine after Google.  There are plenty of activities in your store that attract interest.  For instance, one video received some 14,000 views on how to wrap a gift.
5. Where do you Start? – Start with the end result in mind and reverse engineer the process.  In other words, envision where you want to be and then work out the details to determine how you can get there in the most efficient way possible.

Following the presentation, Mr. Mael stayed around to give those that were interested a 10-minute one-on-one.

Thank you Mr. Mael and thank you organizers for finding this most engaging speaker.

Richard W. May
Therese Saint Clair

One of the more useful benefits of attending the National Stationery Show (“NSS”) is the opportunity to attend highly targeted seminars that fill our impressionable minds with the many things we can do with our store and provide a context for identifying new products and trends.  The 2010 NSS was no exception with daily “How-to” exhibits  ranging from making wedding favors to holiday wrap and tying bows.  In addition, there were educational seminars ranging from stationery trends to how to use social media tools to market your bricks-and-mortar store.

Being the geek that I am, I attended two social media seminars brilliantly hosted by Patricia Norins, of Specialty Retail Expert from Gift Shop Magazine and the enthusiastic and engaging Carolyn Howard-Johnson from How to do it Frugally Publishing.  Both seminars were targeted at those who wanted to find out more about Twitter, Facebook and Blogging or those that were sceptical and wanted to see what the fuss was all about.  Judging from some of the questions that were asked, I suspect that most people who attended were novices.

Personally, I think both speakers made a convincing case as to the merits of engaging in social media marketing.  Carolyn stressed the importance of connecting with your clients in this new digital medium in an open-handed and friendly manner that was less about promoting your business than being a part of your community.   Both speakers made the point that Facebook is a more relevant social platform for exchanging information with family and friends, while Twitter has become far more commercial and “immediate.”  I certainly agree with them on this point, but feel that both platforms should be used to creatively engage, build and sustain a loyal following of customers.  The idea is to befriend your digital audience and come across as a “real” human being with a sense of humor and personal  interests rather than the proverbial one-dimensional used car salesperson.

It is difficult to judge how many attendees will heed Carolyn’s and Patricia’s advice.  I suspect that the digital revolution remains an anathema  to most storefront retailers.   While many have gotten over the hurdle of having a website, this is not a medium where they feel comfortable  and most appear unwilling to make the effort to do more.  It is not difficult to get started as Carolyn and Patricia demonstrated, but it does take time and effort to build new skills and engage in the online debate. Frankly, it is fun and interesting once you get the hang of it. 

We all know that the Yellow Pages (“YP”) brings in little or no business, but many stationers continue to pay ridiculous fees to YP to highlight their store rather than spend the time using free social media tools to market their business.  Hard to understand, but sadly true.  For those out there who want to know if your store can be found online (no, you do not have to have a website!), please visit getlisted.org to see if you are on the right track.  A listing below 50% means you have some work to do.  This is a good litmus test to join the 21st century. 

Richard W. May
Thérèse Saint Clair

Pam Danzinger of Unity Marketing reports that changing consumer communication behavior suggests bleak times ahead for the stationery and greeting card industry.  Ms. Danzinger, in a summary of her company’s report, argues that “the market for greeting cards is a tough one in today’s environment . . . as consumers turn to newer, faster and more user-friendly  communications alternatives.”   This should come as no surprise to anyone, but clearly it is already having a profound effect on manufacturers and distributors in this $41 billion industry. 

Excerpts of the Unity Marketing study printed on Newswire find young adults (age 25-to-34), are looking for alternatives to traditional paper cards and that, “Social Media” – notably Facebook, MySpace and Twitter – could be the future for this generation to send greetings.   Organizers of the National Stationery Show seem to be leading the way for this new adventure in digital correspondence. 

I have not read the report ($3,500 is a bit out of my league), but Ms. Danzinger segments her market into four “psychographic” groups with the “alternative seeker” comprising the largest segment.  I have no idea whether Ms. Danzinger coined these definitions or whether these are generally accepted academic terms describing social behavior.  In any event, I find the term “alternative seeker” rather vague and somewhat akin to “alpha female” or “Yuppie.”  Presumably, if you are marketing an “alternative seeker” you must have some idea where he or she is today. 

The compelling argument(s) for shifting from paper correspondence to digital communication is cost and efficiency.  It costs virtually nothing to send out “greetings” or “tweets” to your contacts and followers and this can be done so with a minimum of effort.  The question is:  If it costs nothing and is easy to do, does it have any value? 

In purely economic terms, if there is an unlimited supply of a product that costs nothing or virtually nothing to produce (i.e. air)  it has little perceived value to a buyer.  Why pay for something that is free?   Newpapers who give their content away for free online cannot be surprised that paid circulation and advertising revenue is declining rapidly. 

Without looking too hard into the crytal ball and trying to interpret what “alternative behavior” market segments will do, I believe that the end is in sight for companies that sell “paper stationery” online.   The justification is simple:  Why should I go online to purchase paper stationery when I can just as easily go online to send digital correspondence for free and with far less hassle?  In other words, once you are committed to the online experience, why go half-way?  Sure, some better known greeting card companies that provide digital stationery and invitations will survive simply collecting affilitate income and advertising revenue from those obnoxious ads that accompany most emails and “free” digital communication. 

Paper companies that continue to invest in quality products and designs may be forced to contract, but overtime they will become the value proposition to “alternative seekers” who eventually decide that “cheap” and “efficient” may send the wrong message for job interviews, getting married or annual holiday greeting cards.  I certainly hope so.

Richard W. May
Therese Saint Clair