Marketing Tip Monday

Consistency in Your Business Brand Image

With the new year, many of us who sell on-line are looking at our Marketing Plans and reviewing 2008, and making plans for 2009.

Your first start should be a review of your logo. Are you consistent? Do you have a shop on Etsy and one on ArtFire? Are the names the same? Do you own your webname?

Example:

http://FunkyQuail.com - we own it and it currently re-directs to the Etsy shop named http://FunkyQuail.Etsy.com. Then on Artfire, we also sell the knitting shirts and some of Becky's painted shirts and that name is http://FunkyQuail.ArtFire.com.

I am a member at Ravelry (an on-line knitting community. My user name? Funky Quail, of course.

Then I am on Twitter. My Twitter name? FunkyQuail!

Oh, and looking for my Flickr page? http://Flickr.com/FunkyQuail

This is all a deliberate effort in branding.

Consistency is the key.

Now is a great time to review your branding. If your Flickr page is one name, your Etsy shop another, and ArtFire yet another, it's time to consider if that is the best strategy for you.

If you have different names, perhaps that is best for your business. Maybe you carry very divergent stock in your different shops, or perhaps one is for supplies and the other for paintings and another for ceramics. But it should be a conscious decision and not one ever done without really thinking about how you want your customers to perceive your business.

And of course, you *do* own your own URL, don't you? NO???? Then get to http://GoDaddy.com and buy it, before some nefarious person snatches it right out from under you!

Becky was Owly before Owly was Cool

Owls are the New Black. . . .

But Becky was there first. She's liked them for at least as long as I have been married into the family (and probably longer).

So WHO better than her to draw owls.

This beleaguered guy is Geoff. To quote from her shop,"the Geoff Owl is the distant cousin of another challenging bird, the Henry. Much like the Henry its attributes are poor judgment, frequent memory loss and a vacant expression. As this specimen shows, much to hubris’ chagrin, it has forgotten that it is eating a mouse’s tale and also forgotten that it should not eat mice as it is a Herbivore. Cousin Geoff simply doesn’t know any better."

He's 5" x7" on illustration board and has real plastic googly eyes.

The technique used is gouache, which is a technique of painting with opaque watercolors prepared with gum. I had to look that up! So writing about what Becky does is highly educational for me.

(Becky, to refresh your memory, is my step-daughter who also created the art for our knitting shirts. She can draw and paint and all that fun stuff and has a BFA from the Savannah College of Art and Design. I can't draw a decent stick figure. It is not fair, but I am learning to get over it.)

You can check out her blog at http://OwlFactory.com or peruse her Etsy shop at http://OwlFactory.Etsy.com.

Some Days I Can't Stop Knitting. I am a. . . .

Needle Junkie.

Yes, it is true. I can get into the zone. Totally engrossed in my project. I knit in the car (while Mr. Quail is driving, of course), while listening to the television, and bring my knitting anywhere I might possibly have to wait in line.

This is why I need more than one project cast on at once. Many places I knit don't lend themselves to conducive pattern-reading. So I usually have a hat or scarf cast one, leaving the more complex charts for longer bouts of knitting time, such as on a plane or sitting on the couch at home.

I am not completely addicted. After a major knitting frenzy, I tend to put the sticks down for a short while, and take a breather. Then, of course, a needle of another kind starts calling my name, and I am back in front of the sewing machine for hours and hours.

It's a joy and a curse!

Lucky for me, Becky Dreistadt captured this addiction quite nicely in our "Needle Junkie" shirt with the adorable kitty! Because, of course, this type of needle use is a wonderful thing!

Shirt available at http://funkyquail.etsy.com and http://funkyquail.artfire.com

Funky Quail on Art Fire

Expanding the Scope

Yesterday we opened a studio on the new sales site, Art Fire.

We put Becky's hand-painted shirts there, as well as the basic line of knitting tees and hoodies. More items will be added in the future, but we have a good start so far.

Art Fire is in beta, which means they are still working out the kinks. They still have a long way to go to create an effective search, but they are offering STATS for the shop. As a marketing professional, this is very important to me. I need to know where shoppers in my store came from, in order to create a solid marketing plan. The fees are reasonable, too. I won't be hit with constant fees for relisting, just to try and stay near the top.

An important caveat in real estate is "location, location, location." It is a lot like that on the web. It's not who you started with, or who makes the best cupcakes, or even choosing one over the other. It's simply a matter of being where the customers are shopping. And in our case, that means branching out and trying new opportunities.

Check us out if you have a chance! http://FunkyQuail.ArtFire.com