The Stationers Guild

Just received an announcement that Jamie Ostrow has resurfaced and has set up shop in East Hampton, New York.  While her website in not yet up, Jamie has contacted many of her dealers to encourage them to order her new letterpress invitation album and stationery album.  Her holiday album is also available and we understand that she is also working on a Wedding Invitation Album. 

According to Jamie, she will be manufacturing on premises “so that we can control all phases of productions, from order taking through shipping.  Some of you know that for the last several years, we relied on outside printers, now we’re back on our own presses.”

The biggest change Jamie’s loyal customers will notice is that Jamie Ostrow has now moved to letterpress rather than engraving.  While her sharp design, contemporary font styles and very clever wording remain, letterpress will give her  invitations, stationery and holiday cards a “softer” edge.  Personally, I think her clients will be pleased. 

If you are interested in receiving more information about the Jamie Ostrow line, please email Jamie at jamie@jamieostrow.com

Richard W. May

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

Vanessa Redgrave is my favorite actress and I have had a crush on her since the mid-60s when I saw her perform opposite David Warner in Morgan.    I make it a point of seeing every film she is in and when asked to see a sneak preview of Letters to Juliet (the Juliet of Romeo and Juliet fame) on Mother’s Day, how could I resist?

Now some might argue that Letters to Juliet  is a chick-flick, but any film set in Verona, Siena and the beautiful landscape of Tuscany can’t be all that bad.   With the exception of the dewey-eyed Vanessa and a cameo appearance by Franco Nero, most of the performances were Hollywood-lite but who cares as long as there is a happy ending.  I certainly didn’t.

The plot – if you can call it that – revolves around a young American girl on a pre-honeymoon trip with her boarish fiance.  While touring Verona, she notices many young women posting letters on the wall underneath Juliet’s balcony.   In much the same way people write to Ann Landers, women of all ages  seek advice from Juliet on “matters of the heart” and appear daily to blanket the wall with their letters.  While some may find this behavior somewhat bizarre since Juliet  has been dead for over 500 years and was only 13 years old when she stabbed herself with Romeo’s dagger, I find the ritual charming.

Each day at dusk the self-appointed secretaries of Juliet take down the letters and retire to a nearby palazzo to answer these letters on behalf of Juliet.  These lovely ladies give hope to these heart-stricken women by sending a hand-written note, no doubt written on Juliet’s engraved stationery.  In fact, the young American woman finds a letter hidden behind a stone written 50 years earlier by Vanessa who asks for Juliet’s advice on whether to settle for a conventional English marriage or run off with a young Italian man with whom she was passionately in love.  I won’t spill any further details.

Now imagine if this lovely ritual could occur in today’s digital society.  I suppose one could Tweet Juliet or become a Facebook Fan if Juliet has a “Fan” or “Like” Page, but it hardly seems the same compared to penning a letter in a small courtyard under the most famous balcony in the world.  I guess today’s techies could leave behind a RW CD or, perhaps, a USB port under the balcony in the hope that some “New Age” secretary would would care enough to send an e-mail.  Alas, I think not.  But imagine how rich our lives would be if a perfect stranger - in the interests of “love” – would simply pen a note and let you know they hear you and wish you well. 

Oh, it’s only a film.  We have little time for romance and passion in today’s world.  How sad.

Richard 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

Last night we attended a concert in Bedford, NY entitled “Music and the Court of France from Louis XIV to Napoleon.”  This lovely concert was held in The Fellowship Hall of St. Matthew’s Church and featured various arrangements by French and Italian composers of the period and an unusual version of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 3 (The Eroica).  Beethoven had originally called this the Bonaparte symphony, but later changed it to “The Eroica” when Napoleon appointed himself Emperor. 

What was unusual, was that Beethoven’s 3rd was performed by a quartet based on arrangement written by one of Beethoven’s students, Ferdinand Ries in 1810.  This remarkable arrangement was discovered in Finland by cellist James Wilson, who played in the quartet.   Anthony Newman, pianist and Music Director, suggested that it just might be the first time this arrangement was played in the United States.   If so, we were privileged to hear it.

I suppose you are wondering what The Eroica and wedding invitations have in common.  Frankly, not a lot.  Nevertheless, every time I see a well-crafted wedding invitation it seems like I am hearing or better yet seeing a new variation of a Symphony.   In the eight years of working with bridal couples designing wedding invitations for their special day, I cannot recall two being  identical.  Font styles will change, ink colors are different and there are many other variations which make each individual invitation unlike any other.    Designers are pushing the edge in create beautiful new designs on hand-made papers where ink colors resonate using letterpress and engraved printing.

Do yourself a favor and drop into a stationery store in your neighborhood and see and feel the exciting new designs in wedding invitations and stationery.  “Feeling is believing,” is the motto of a new generation of consumers who eschew the Internet and are rediscovering the beauty of personal correspondence.

Sheila P. May
Thérèse Saint Clair

Wells & Drew offers some clear and useful advice on the importance of business stationery.   In this fast-moving world of digital communications, companies invest hundreds of thousands of dollars to promote their brand in cyberspace.  In many cases, it is wasted expense dollars chasing wasted expense dollars as companies engage Twitter and Facebook, promotional news releases, email marketing campaigns, link-building and SEO (search engine optimization) strategies to outspend their competitors to drive people to their website.    Commonly referred to as ”keeping up with the Joneses,” many companies are now finding that a relic from times past often has more of an impact on brand awareness than keyword campaigns:  business stationery.

Often neglected in this process to gain digital supremacy is the company’s own business stationery.   As we have written on numerous occasions, a company’s business card and letterhead stationery often says more about a company than its Google page placement.   Well-crafted designs, printed on high-quality paper convey an impression of substance and respectability that no amount of digital spin can ever aspire to replicate.

As a company that will soon be celebrating their 155th anniversary, we applaud Wells & Drew for continuing to make fine stationery the “right” way.  For those interested in learning the marketing secrets of top legal firms, please request Wells & Drew informative brochure.    For those interested in learning more about business stationery, please consult the Stationers Guild FAQ on business stationery, or drop into a qualified stationery store in your neighborhood.

I was recently at a cocktail party exchanging the usual banalities when a young woman (early thirties) asked me what I did? I told her that my wife and I owned a stationery store in Greenwich. Perhaps feeling sorry for me, she enthusiastically responded that “some of best friends use stationery.” Helping her to feel more comfortable with her obvious embarrassment, I explained that I had arthritic thumbs and couldn’t text all that well and found that the occasional handwritten note on engraved stationery was a good way to stay in touch with friends.

Proving that all good samaritans now have an iPhone, my enthusiastic new “friend” promptly explained that “the iPhone has this new app (read application) which allows you to speak into the phone and it will automatically post your Tweet.  No need to struggle with your disability.  Doesn’t Apple think of everything?”   

Not one to miss out on continuing this informative conversation with Generation Y, I explained I had heard of Twitter, but “was looking for a more meaningful form of communication than 140 characters.”

“Oh, don’t be silly,” she responded. “It’s not what you say, but how often you say it.  It’s all about being connected with your friends.  Sending a note is cute and sentimental and all that . . . but imagine being able to chat with all your friends  instantaneously.”

Feigning ignorance, I remarked “I had never thought of it quite that way.  I suppose none of my friends really care to be that – oh, how shall I phrase it:  ”intimate?”  Doesn’t it bother you to be on call 24/7 and what about privacy?

Not one to be deterred, “Twitter_Lady” quickly picked up on the privacy issue.  “It used to bother me until I learned how to create circles of friends and small groups on Twitter to share my thoughts.  I mean you don’t have to share everything with everybody, it is really pretty cool how you can be as open or as private as you need to be.”

“I find the subject very interesting. Perhaps I could drop you a note and you could let me know what I need to do to get connected on Twitter,”  I suggested.

“Oh, it’s not that difficult, just go to Twitter.com and set up an account,” she said.   Once you’ve got your Twitter name, just send me an email Tweet @jtpapertiger and I’ll add you to my followers.

To paraphrase the eighth Century poet Han-shan

“There was an old woman who lived east of me
She laughed at me for falling behind
I laughed at her for getting ahead
We laughed as though we would never stop
She from the East and I from the West.” 

Richard W. May
Thérèse Saint Clair

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 news clip below highlights one of the major advantages of shopping online for stationery and custom invitations:  No need to get dressed up for the big occasion.

In fact, if you are shopping online, you can do so in your pajamas, nightgown or – for that matter – buck naked.  Just make sure your have your credit card handy, but perhaps you are using Google Checkout or Paypal to facilitate the sale.

As more shoppers embrace the convenience of shopping online,  even fewer consider the limitations of the online shopping experience.  It is one thing to download a book on Kindle or buy an iPhone, but quite another to buy “fresh” vegetables or “fine” stationery.  In the case of the Kindle or an iPhone, it is a narrowly defined “gadget” or “device” which may be available in several different colors or memory capacity, but all of those characteristics are narrowly determined by the seller.

Buying “fresh” vegetables or “fine” stationery is quite another matter altogether.   You can’t see “fresh” on the Internet; nor can you see or feel ”fine” stationery.  Paper is as much a tactile experience as a visual experience and, frankly, digital limitations of the Internet do not allow one to capture the color and design subtleties of “real” stationery or custom invitations. 

Where extensive customization is involved it is best to get dressed up and visit your local stationer to see what “real” paper looks like.  Many online dealers spend thousands of dollars in promotional online advertising to con you into thinking you are getting a “beautiful”  wedding invitation or “stunning” stationery.   If it sounds to good to be true, it probably isn’t.  Trust your senses: all five of them!  A dose of common sense also has been known to help.

The Internet is great for purchasing products with defined characteristics.  Once you begin to introduce customization into the purchasing decision or are faced with choices that require a value judgment or cause the forgotten senses (smell and feel) to be engaged, it is wise to consider shopping the old-fashioned way.

Richard W. May
Therese Saint Clair

iPresentee plans to revolutionize the  stationery industry with its “exciting” new apps (read applications) for Apple.  iPresentee, with headquarters in Vilnius, Lithuania,  is now designing “stationery” templates that are compatible with Apple Mail.  While there several free templates, the basic app can be downloaded for $25.  iPresentee was founded in 2007 by a group of professional and enthusiastic IT designers “to create high quality, easy to use and fun add-ons for Apple’s iWork and iLife applications.”

For those of you who fancy receiving an email with an Easter Bunny motif or Santa coming down the chimney, this email application might work for you.   They say that a picture is worth a thousand words and with online literacy capped at a 140 characters by Twitter, this application just might have a decent future.

I know that it seems old-fashioned, but there is something more tangible and – dare I say it – meaningful about receiving hand-written correspondence.   Pre-packaged templates often reflect the passion of the designer rather than the passion of the writer.   As with pre-scripted greeting cards conveying some mushy or humorous sentiment, just signing  “Luv Rick” doesn’t take a great deal of effort or imagination.  And now, we don’t even have to go to the store to buy a card, or put a stamp on it:  how convenient – how irrelevant!   When life is reduced to a series of “going-through-the-motions” every day more efficiently, it is time to consider getting off the Merry-Go-Round.

When our lives are automated to the extent that interpersonal communication is reduced to a digital  template and “reaching out” refers to the “send” button of your email program, something human has been lost.   The Chinese have a saying that “evil travels in a straight line.”    I do not know if that is true, but certainly John Freeman’s, The Tyranny of E-mail: The Four-Thousand-Year Journey to Your Inbox
is a clear wake-up call of the perils facing a more-efficient society.