How Marketing, Free Art, and Retailing Dovetail

I received this artistic  freebie  in my e-mail box from my fave book cover designer Chaz DeSimone. It seemed as if he had my retail clients and friends in mind.  

Chaz designed  several of my book covers including Your Blog, Your Business (http://budurl.com/blogging4retailers). He does a series of  free Ampersand poster art each year for the sheer joy of giving and doing. This is one all my retail friends should look into for sure! It could be used on any marketing material or display advertising--in-store or otherwise.  Please do give Chaz credit, though--just another way of passing around the joy for 2014.  Here's what his e-mail said:



I hope you got everything you wanted for Christmas. But if it's the wrong size, color, or if you simply don't need another mug or pair of socks, there's always the Returns & Exchanges counter. At least you don't have to camp out overnight like Black Friday; in fact, your return can usually wait 30 days or more.
Here's a rendering of a typical Returns & Exchanges sign of the Art Deco Department Store era. Remember the smell of fresh popcorn at Sears?
(Personally, I don't usually return stuff--instead, I purchase a ton more Christmas decorations at 50% off for and even grander display--a la "Christmas Vacation"--the following year. )
http://amperart.com/index.php/2013/12/26/55-returns-exchanges/
...for a large detail view, notes about the artwork, and how all my half-price decorations irritate the neighbors.
Next week look for the last AmperArt edition of the year, the last of the Ad Slogan Series. Great tips on working with others to complete tasks and achieve goals, and how losing weight and feeling great is actually a lot of fun. Happy New Year!

Chaz DeSimone Graphic Design, 12228 Venice Blvd. #156, Los Angeles, CA 90066, USA

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PS: Please feel free to contact chaz at chaz@amperart.com with questions or to let him know you like his great attitude toward retailers. (-:

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Carolyn Howard-Johnson's FRUGAL book for retailers is A Retailer’s Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotions: How To Increase Profits and Spit in the Eyes of Economic Downturns with Thrifty Events and Sales Techniques launched at the National Stationery Show at Javits Center. Because she is the author of the multi award-winning how-to books for writers,The Frugal Book Promoter: How To Do What Your Publisher Won't and The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success, retailers will also find essentials of writing for blogs, Web sites, and newsletters on this blog. She is the author of an award-winning novel, This Is the Place; and other fiction and poetry. She blogs on better writing at The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor blog. Find her tweeting for retailers at @frugalretailing . If your followers at Twitter would benefit from this blog post, please use this little green widget to let them know about it:

Retailing: On Halloween, Cute Dogs, Profit and Depression

So, now you've gained at least a pound from swiping the chocolate from your kids' trick or treat bags and we've heard all the retail stories about how Halloween sales are going to be down and see that Time magazine says "Consumers are spending (way) more on pet costumes, it's time to get real.

It's always been important to watch trends. And animals have been trending up (to use Twitter's phrase) more than about anything else--at lease since the 1990s when I carried something in our chain of gift stores we called "cold-cast porcelain) dog figurines. They retailed for about $39. and came sculpted in about every breed imaginable. People bought them for themselves and people bought them for friends and relatives who were crazy about their dogs. And everyone is. (They had cats and some other animals in the line, too, but dogs sold three for every one other species we sold.)

So I'm not surprised that doggie costumes were big for Halloween. If you're frugal, you could buy a pumpkin costume and dress your pup up to amuse Thanksgiving guests, too!

So what other lesson to glean from the Halloween/pet retail coup? Well, you may not remember the Great Depression. Neither do I. But I remember stories of how it influenced even the movie industry to make more jolly, bright, and wonderful musicals.  When the nation is under sequestration and our we are under constant threat that we won't pay our debts, people are down. As long as our money holds our we will spend our money where 1. it doesn't cost us too much  2. makes us feel good.  At least as long as our own money holds out.

Sooooo....search out products that are fun and reasonable to add to your mix. Even fun and frugal can be "quality merchandise." Especially if it put bacon on a retailer's table.


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Carolyn Howard-Johnson's FRUGAL book for retailers is A Retailer’s Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotions: How To Increase Profits and Spit in the Eyes of Economic Downturns with Thrifty Events and Sales Techniques launched at the National Stationery Show at Javits Center. Because she is the author of the multi award-winning how-to books for writers,The Frugal Book Promoter: How To Do What Your Publisher Won't and The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success, retailers will also find essentials of writing for blogs, Web sites, and newsletters on this blog. She is the author of an award-winning novel, This Is the Place; and other fiction and poetry. She blogs on better writing at The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor blog. Find her tweeting for retailers at @frugalretailing . If your followers at Twitter would benefit from this blog post, please use this little green widget to let them know about it:

Retailers Will Love New Link Service for Increasing Worldwide Sales

 

 

I am testing a new free service that helps people sell products that are listed on Amazon  in countries other than their own. I am so jazzed about it, I am speechless! (Well, OK, not quite!)

 

BookShow assigns a new link that takes readers to a sellpage on the most  appropriate Amazon bookstore depending on where they live. I.e. If a a German buyer is looking for your product that is for sale in other countries, it would take them directly to your product on Amazon.de.  The same link would take work no matter where your customer resides.

 

In fact, this is so miraculous, I don't quite trust it. So my poetry partner Magdalena Ball and I set up a trial link for our chapbook for mothers:  http://bookShow.me/1438263791

 

We're wondering if those of you who live in countries other than the US would check to see if this link works for you and where it takes you. Maybe tell us where it takes you if you say, live in Denmark. To the French Amazon? To the Spanish Amazon? 

 

I'd love to hear if you're excited about the possibilities, too. Either as a comment on this blog or by e-mailing me direct at hojonews@aol.com.

 

I think this is 2013's  Most Promising Free Online Service.

 

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Carolyn Howard-Johnson's FRUGAL book for retailers is A Retailer’s Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotions: How To Increase Profits and Spit in the Eyes of Economic Downturns with Thrifty Events and Sales Techniques launched at the National Stationery Show at Javits Center. Because she is the author of the multi award-winning how-to books for writers,The Frugal Book Promoter: How To Do What Your Publisher Won't and The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success, retailers will also find essentials of writing for blogs, Web sites, and newsletters on this blog. She is the author of an award-winning novel, This Is the Place; and other fiction and poetry. She blogs on better writing at The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor blog. Find her tweeting for retailers at @frugalretailing .

Free Flier: 7 Reasons Why You Should Share Your Expertise with a Book

“Getting published is good for business.”

Some of the subscribers to this blog are what I call soul writers, meaning they would be different people if they didn’t write.

Others of you are professionals who know the truth of the first line in this note. You publish to showcase your expertise in your chosen career.

For some of you, the line between the two is not clearly defined. You may be both kinds of writer at once, even within one book. Some writers may use one kind of writing to financially support the other. I'm definitely a bit of both.

If literary authors, poets, and other soul writers want to build writing careers, they need to think of their writing as credibility boosters more often. More business people should think in those terms, too.

If you aren’t convinced, e-mail me at HoJoNews (at) AOL (dot) for a free copy of the little four-page flier I give away when I speak to business groups. It’s called  

Seven (or More*) Reasons Why You Should Share Your Expertise by Publishing a Book

And here are the first three of those reasons to get you started.

1.  A book of your own gives you credibility. Even Star Speaker Pam Kelly, a top coach and one of the master UCLA instructors I took classes from in order to get a special instructor’s certificate, has found that a book (http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=howtodoitfrug-20&o=1&p=8&l=as1&asins=0979100100&ref=tf_til&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr) makes her a standout among other experts.

2.  Having a published book can be an excellent negotiating tool. Imagine! A top investment firm is taking applications for a keynote speaker before a room of 500 and you're the only applicant who can offer a package of keynote skills plus a book (perhaps packaged in a signature tote!) to this prospective client!

3.  Having a published book for sale at the back of the hall where you are speaking or in your store or business office will add to your profitability.

 

*Great Marketing Rule: Try to give people more
than they paid for, more than they expect.

I know you’ll want to see all seven reasons. You may want to use the flier as a handout to use yourself. You may adapt it to your own needs, but do credit it to me with a link to my site or a little pitch for this blog.

 

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Carolyn Howard-Johnson's FRUGAL book for retailers is A Retailer’s Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotions: How To Increase Profits and Spit in the Eyes of Economic Downturns with Thrifty Events and Sales Techniques launched at the National Stationery Show at Javits Center. Because she is the author of the multi award-winning how-to books for writers,The Frugal Book Promoter: How To Do What Your Publisher Won't and The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success, retailers will also find essentials of writing for blogs, Web sites, and newsletters on this blog. She is the author of an award-winning novel, This Is the Place; and other fiction and poetry. She blogs on better writing at The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor blog. Find her tweeting for retailers at @frugalretailing .