Rock the Village

Rennie Heuer

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Last night my daughter-in-law Kelly and I shared a vendor booth at The Village at Meridian's open air concert series, "Rock the Village". It was a great experience if not a profitable one. We had lots of people stop by and admire our wares but not enough of them turned into customers.

The evening started out on the scary side with the weather radar showing very strong thunder storms to our south and the weather service issuing flash flood warnings for both counties south of our position. Strong winds made the set up of our canopy a bit of an adventure and it must have been obvious to any observer that we were rank amatures at this!

Eventually we got everything set up and we're open for business. There was a tremendous number of people there. Thousands attend these events that feature different performers each Friday evening during the summer.

We entertained lots of very nice people but noticed lots of people stopping outside the booth and gazing in. As we watched the traffic at nearby booths we noticed that those with their product pushed out to the front of the booth were engaging more people in conversation about their products. We realized that there must be a certain psychological 'commitment' to coming into a booth that many were not willing to make. So, next week we will be arranging things differently and see if our sales improve!
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Oddly enough, this fellow on the other side of the courtyard selling toilet paper holders and dog food cabinets was selling and had already made back the cost of the space for the four weeks he will be there!

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You definitely have a lot of good looking items in your booth, Rennie. Better visibility might be a factor, but keep an eye on the smalls and sticky fingers!

Good luck next time!!!
 
Nice wares, but you're right about people and their reluctance to go inside a booth. I'd suggest a front table with some of your showcase pieces, and a few smalls to show that you have some lower-priced offerings, too.
 
When I walk around those places I am one of those gazing - from a distance". WHY do that? Because I don't want the vendor to engage me into "conversation" (upselling).

I also notice the money flows freely in the food vendors booths. There is FAR more money in Hot Dogs, chips and soda.

Your booth looks great and I would have stepped in to get a closer look.

I really like craft shows - go to several per year.

I am a cheap yankee, and I don't pull money out of pocket. I would rather put it in.

I like to observe - where the money is flowing.

I talk to the vendors sometimes - but the topic is more about their sales and business, and a little about the product.

I have watched some of them setup and break down.

Some of them have a serious investment into their small business.

I dream about selling small affordable, but attractive signs to the crafters for their booths.
 
Leo, the food and beverage vendors typically pay a lot more for their booth space than the artisans, at least at the shows I've done. Still, I think they make decent money.

Regarding the cost of the booth setup, it's real easy to spend $1000 getting the canopy, tables, table covers, display stands, and decorations put together for a booth.

Oh, and upselling is when you've agreed to buy something and the salesman tries to sell you something more. Engaging you in conversation is an attempt at the initial sale, not the upsell. ;)
 
Very nice looking stuff! A few tweaks in the marketing strategy and by all rights it ought to be flying off the shelves.

Nice wares, but you're right about people and their reluctance to go inside a booth. I'd suggest a front table with some of your showcase pieces, and a few smalls to show that you have some lower-priced offerings, too.

Yeah, if I have to get to close I start feeling obligated... so I avoid booths that look like that. Having some draw pieces more on the outside suckers people like me in :D I think its actually easier to keep an eye on everything when its in the front as well because you don't have to watch the back of the booth.

Don't forget to use some simple marketing strategies like price bracketing and anchoring to change the perceived value point of the rest of the items.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0809078813 "Priceless: The Myth of Fair Value (and How to Take Advantage of It)" by Poundstone is a good (or at least pretty much the original) book on this and will repay your investment in it in about one decent show :D
https://fizzle.co/sparkline/most-common-pricing-mistake has some quick examples to illustrate the points as does http://www.helpscout.net/blog/pricing-strategies/ but isn't nearly as complete as the whole book.

I think the main thing I'm seeing is a possible lack of lower priced "draw" items (where lower priced lands depends on the venue but based on the paper holders guy sales..), although it may be that the jewelry will fit that niche well enough in general I think having some contrasting priced items in the wood section might help sales there. For instance I'd probably have a set or two of coasters next to the fancy cutting boards to provide a price baseline. My bet would be that you'd sell some of those because they would look like a bargain next to the boards and more cutting boards as well because it would pull people in to look at them.

Looking forward to hearing you're having a great round of sales on the next one!
 
Nothing ventured nothing gained is what i say.

Your lack of sales success is not a function of anything being wrong with your product. Rather its a wrong location/ or product mix for the location.

First lesson in retail is "location, location, location".

Then ask yourself how many people attend a Rock the village community occasion intent on making an impulse buy in your price range, then that they would have to carry around with them. The whole environments mood/vibe is not conducive to selling your quality of output.

I am sorry it did not pan out like you would have hoped.
But that's the point. Hope is not a marketing strategy. Hope is also not a marketing/sales plan.
A crowd is not the basis of a customer base either.
Ryan provided some great links to a few books that if purchased or borrowed / acquired second hand and perused would help you move forward with better success.

I suspect you had your arm twisted by certain ladies in your life to expose your wares at the venue to help soften the cost of the booth. ;)

As to your clocks i would not display multiples of them at one time. It takes away the uniqueness and lowers the perceived value. They need to be seen as one of a kind craft pieces. Not batched production. They lovely pieces worthy of a good price and lots of sales. But if you merchandize them in this way you lowered the value.
My apologies for my directness but it aint going to help you for us to be mushy if we want you to be successful. And i believe in you and your work and believe a customer should be so lucky as to be able to acquire a piece of your work so want nothing more than to see you have sales in abundance beyond your wildest dreams.

Dont be discouraged. See this a school fees. You gonna pay them one way or another.
Key thing is do as we did when we were starting to walk as toddlers, get back up dust off , get going again. We never learn to walk on first go, we never rode a bike without falling and selling and marketing is the same.

Rennie invest some coin in marketing yourself and your etsy store online.

Rennie i believe your urns have serious potential do more marketing of them like you did way back when u first made them. Look at having parts outsourced to someone with cnc to make them more cost effective for distribution. Pm me if you wish to discuss.
Best of luck with next adventure.

Sent from my SGH-I337M using Tapatalk
 
Rennie,
My booth is usually set up similar to yours.. I use a "U" shape... a table down one side, one at the back and an "A" frame(Ladder type) arrangement on the other side.. I have peppermills, wine glasses on wood stems, kerosine oil lamps, bottle stoppers and bowls in my booth... no pens any more, just got tired of making them... when I see that a show has a music theme like yours, I generally will avoid them... people come to see the musicians and hear them rather than to shop... I do a weekly farmer's market in Knoxville that's about 120 vendors... about half are farmers and food trucks, the rest are crafts... it's relatively inexpensive to set up there and usually I do okay... not always great, but okay.

I keep my most attractive items out along the front of the booth and then move others to the back side... I generally have pretty good luck with people coming into the booth. I try to stay to the back and greet everyone as they come in... sometimes I do have to invite them in if they're standing outside looking in... lots of fun.

As Vaughn, it's costly to get set up... I bought my tent (an EZ-UP canopy) some years back from SAM's, my tables came from Lowe's... they're the 6' folding tables... a little cumbersome to handle, but sturdy... my ladder type racks I built myself with lumber from Lowe's and have them painted -- by now several times -- I have 3 folding book cases that sit on one table I got from Amazon and I also use two folding corner baker's racks that I picked up at Hobby Lobby... I think $1000 is probably pretty close to the total expense.

At my farmer's market, the farmer's and the food trucks do pretty well... people walk about eating the entire time.

This isn't at the farmer's market, it actually at a local marina where I did a show the first of June, but it's the latest picture I have of my booth.
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That's a pretty nice looking booth to Chuck.

I notice you have some bowls out front, have you found those pull in best? My guess is that at most of these things some fancy pulls but mostly mid priced sells?
 
That's a pretty nice looking booth to Chuck.

I notice you have some bowls out front, have you found those pull in best? My guess is that at most of these things some fancy pulls but mostly mid priced sells?

I agree on Chuck's booth. Looking good, buddy!

Ryan, I generally put a few "showcase" pieces up front, but had others scattered on the tables deeper in the booth. Most of the showcase pieces were on battery powered display turntables to make them catch people's attention. I think that helped draw people in. And all the showcase pieces were priced high...I wasn't real anxious to sell them. Still sold a few of them over time. Once had a college-aged kid in Malibu who walked in, asked no questions, picked up a $280 bowl and turned it over to see the price, then reached in his wallet, took out three $100 bills and said "I'll take it." :thumb:

I also did as Chuck does and generally hung out at the back of the booth, greeting people as the come by. And I always told people "feel free to pick anything up...it's all meant to be touched". That seemed to help people relax a bit.
 
I agree on Chuck's booth. Looking good, buddy!

Ryan, I generally put a few "showcase" pieces up front, but had others scattered on the tables deeper in the booth. Most of the showcase pieces were on battery powered display turntables to make them catch people's attention. I think that helped draw people in. And all the showcase pieces were priced high...I wasn't real anxious to sell them. Still sold a few of them over time. Once had a college-aged kid in Malibu who walked in, asked no questions, picked up a $280 bowl and turned it over to see the price, then reached in his wallet, took out three $100 bills and said "I'll take it." :thumb:

I also did as Chuck does and generally hung out at the back of the booth, greeting people as the come by. And I always told people "feel free to pick anything up...it's all meant to be touched". That seemed to help people relax a bit.

My wife started calling my bowls and such "Fondle Ware", so that's my by bi-line with customers... sometimes I'll have someone comment on how many pieces I have... then I tell them this is what "keeps me out of the bars and off the highways.".... generally good for a laugh.
And if they show any interest in the wine bottle stoppers, I tell that they are the "most useless things I make"... most of the time gets a laugh, but occasionally I'll get a blank stare.

Ryan, most of my bowls are priced reasonably ... highest priced bowl will be under $100... my Pepper mills are priced at about $9 per inch of height... occasionally I'll get a customer pick one up and look at the price, then gingerly set it back, but most don't.... same with the wood stemmed wine glasses... they run about $22.50 per glass, in sets of 2, 4, or 6... rarely have a set larger. And you're right the bowls are the draw most of the time... I'll occasionally set a lidded hollow form out and they draw well too. The kerosene lamps are always at the back of the booth... they draw a lot of attention too.... people are curious about a wood lamp that burns oil.... mine have a glass font-reservoir embedded in the wood.
 
Rennie,
I apologize, didn't mean to hijack your thread... I like your booth and how you have it set up. It's attractive and people will stop in... believe me that those who don't, especially the women, see everything in your booth in pretty much a passing glance.

I get customers where she is interested and wants to come in and he doesn't, and vice versus... I would guess that the majority of my customers are the women... and I'm sure yours as well.
 
I don't know much about craft shows, although I sold wooden 8 track and album holders to pay my way through college at a flee market for 3 years.

this is only my opinion, and elen and me love craft fairs, we attend them every chance we get in whatever state we are in, and look forward to craft fairs in other states since we see the same craftsmen time and time again in our area.

I think your booth looks too skimpy. Get the boxes under the tables out of there,(the guys booth next to you, table covers go to the floor, it looks messy with all the boxes under your tables) or get longer table covers to cover them up.

Get some color tabletops, scratch the black even though I know things look good on black, maybe a blue, or red.........and put things at different heights, not all on same level on table.
maybe put some stair type displays and place items on the stairs.
Id also make one item, something that doesn't kill you timewise, maybe small cheese boards, and make them for sale at cost, a lost leader? come on, put a few out front, stacked on a stair type single display, at your cost, inexpensive, make people want to take a 10 out of their wallet, don't worry about making money on that item. Draw them inside to see the quality of your work, not breeze past with a smile and say beautiful work.
Beautiful work alone will not make you money, you need to market your stuff as well as possible.

Big sign, cheese boards, regular, 18.99 TODAY ONLY 9.00, while supplies last!

like I said, just my opinion, items stacked at different heights and colorful displays draws a persons eye.

walk outside your booth, from both directions, see where your eyes go first, and put what you think is your nicest item in those 2 spots.

generally, I noticed after 30 something years in retail, people gaze to their right, usually at shoulder level when they first looked inside my store.

I put all my yes, you can buy this and be happy items there, hopeful that the low price and item would draw their attention to maybe take a look further in.

one thing is for sure, you are a gifted woodworker, you need to draw people in to see that.

and as much as it may hurt, think about pricing, maybe lower some items 10, even 20 percent if need be, but don't make it so you are working for 3 dollars an hour.

You don't know how much the guy selling the dog food cabinets is making.

If hes making 40 dollars a cabinet, hes working for peanuts, pennies.

you know I luv ya rennie, I hope my post didn't offend you in any way, but if I don't speak whats on my mind, this site would be worth nothing to me just offering generic posts..
I hope you sell out next show. Better yet, get a years worth of future orders.
 
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on another note, before I visited larry last year, I was at a crafts fair, and a guy selling home made woodworking stuff, had display units, home made, with a chicken wire type top on boxes, with signs, all for pets, and hed use a marker and write the owners name and dogs name on the sign once you purchased it. It was not expensive, but he was drawing so many people into his booth, one after another, and was making some small sales.
I purchased a sign for larry, as a gift, most of the guys wooden crafts were for pet owners, seems that stuff was pretty popular in Eisenhower park near me.
I don't know how he made money on those yard signs, but my guess is he didn't care, just wanted people to come into his booth, and it worked.

sorry if my two posts rambled a bit, just had a large coffee, and I haven't had a large caffeinated coffee in over a year.

its jons fault, the 1000 mile trip is catching up to me today, and I only got to tile store today and did nothing else. too beat.
 
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too funny, it was the stak-it line of holders, made from particle board with some kind of plastic film laminated on it.
I sold seconds, put me through college.
8 trak, cassettes and albums.

my wife worked there, my stepfathers business, the day the model for the photo shoot to make their small catalog didn't show, they used my wife as the model, and didn't pay her ofcourse.
I have the catalog somewhere.
 
Very good information on this thread!! This is my first post on this forum so hello from NE Oklahoma! :wave:

Having been in the HVAC business for over 20 years, we had to work on marketing and sales skills often. Now that I'm starting a CNC based metal and wood art/furniture business to be able to work from home, I've got to take a lot of the same principles into consideration and much of this thread is extremely valuable!!! I've seen several posts along the lines of, "I don't like this or I won't buy like that" etc., and while that is something to consider it was one of the biggest hurdles I had in selling air conditioners. Most of my customers don't buy like me. :bang: Some of the most annoying to me marketing methods actually work on a lot of customers!! I spend years .... :deadhorse:..... because I refused to offer financing, sell based on payments, cold call, telemarket, and on and on.

Bottom line, study marketing & analyze your methods. Improve what works and drop what doesn't and be open to new things to try even if they aren't your 'style' because it just might be the thing that appeals to your future customers! :-D

- Robert Johnson
 
Howdy Robert!

You can put your location in your profile as well, then its persistent (most of us put something like "NE Oklahoma" which is specific enough to be vague but vague enough to be useful or something like that :D).

You're certainly right that there's no one right way to tackle most of this stuff, really depends on what you're selling and where and to some extent what sort of person you are. Will definitely be interested to see what you've got going on with your new business, sounds pretty interesting :D :thumb:
 
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