Stifling staleness on the show circuit
Monotonous merchandise and displays can lead customers right out the gate
By Christine Casey
SA Senior Writer
"This is your first time here, isn't it?"
After 21 years exhibiting at arts and crafts festivals, that could be my favorite customer comment. OK, there are a few I like even better. "Do you have any more of these?" and "I'd like to pay cash" come immediately to mind. But on any list of remarks that make me smile, some version of "I've never seen your booth before" is in the top 10.
After so long in this business, a large percentage of the shows that my husband, Jim, and I do are perennial favorites. So, is it only at our occasional new shows that we hear my favorite question? Absolutely not. What I long for - and work very hard to make happen - is the opportunity to hear the words "I've never seen these before" uttered by customers at events we have done for many years.
There is nothing worse for business success at an art or crafts show than staleness and predictability of work. Yet it is a problem that seems to be on the rise. How many times have you heard (or perhaps even said), "I don't buy at arts and crafts festivals anymore. I've seen it all." Or, if you are a show walker, do you find that you move along faster and look less carefully at your fellow exhibitors' booths if you've done the event before? If you get sick and tired of seeing the same old things, so do your customers. And, remember, many of them attend only shows within a close proximity of their homes. If you do fairs all over the country and still are bored by what you see, think what the experience must be like for the patrons who return to the same shows in their hometown year after year. How much "stuff on a stick" does anyone want? How many booths full of comparable silk floral arrangements do show attendees care to see before the similarity sends them heading for the gate?
More.......
Not a subscriber?
Find out how to get Sunshine Artist delivered to you every month.
Subscribers to Sunshine Artist have access to full articles.
