THE MAGIC OF MERCHANDISING

As I stare at the shelving unit in my bedroom -- the one that used to hold books, but which is now overflowing with art supplies -- I have to wonder. How did this happen? With all the years I spent being a merchandiser, you'd think I would be immune to their wiles, but I was like putty in their hands...blinded by their brilliance. It got me to thinkin', about a master magician that I met at the Atlanta gift market years ago.

I wasn't the buyer for our garden center, just the visual merchandiser, but the owner was kind enough to let me tag along with her and Nicki on their buying trips -- I guess to help them keep an eye on "the big picture", and on how we could pull lots of items from different vendors together to form attractive groupings that would make you want to buy the whole shebang.

Anyhoo, one year I stumbled across the booth of a company called The Round Top Collection, and it absolutely blew me away. If you've ever bought any darling metal pumpkins, snowmen, Easter eggs or Santas, chances are, they came from RTC. However, at that time, I'd never heard of them.

Now, my boss did not believe in buying "holiday" merchandise, since we had no place to store it if it didn't sell, but somehow I managed to convince she and Nicki to let me place a small order from RTC. Fortunately, there was nothing left to store at the end of the season. In fact, it was all gone in a few weeks. Next season, after much angst and a sleepless night, I placed a much larger order. Then the owner of RTC did something that was absolutely brilliant. He invited all their customers within driving distance (we were practically in the same neighborhood!) to come to their warehouse for an all-day workshop and catered luncheon, where he shared all his secrets for making his merchandise look fabulous, and making all his booths so magnetic. He even had a gorgeous assortment of ribbons available to purchase, and taught us to make bows just like his! Thanks to his tips, that huge-to-me order of RTC holiday decor literally blew out of the doors that season. So, next season we doubled our order again.

Now then, take a business like Ranger, which manufactures art supplies.They could go to market and set up a booth full of paints and inks and stuff. But what would differentiate them from all the other booths full of paints and inks and stuff? Well, what if they first went to the "internets" and found a few charismatic crafters with blogs that had gathered a huge following -- crafters like Tim Holtz and Dyan Reaveley? What if they gave these crafters some of their cool supplies to play with, and these crafters then made awesome stuff with them, and talked about it on their blogs? What if they allowed those same crafters to design their very own product lines, helped them to make videos showing how to use them, and took them to market with them to do demos that would stop people in their tracks and draw them into the Ranger booth? What if they even created something called Ranger U., and invited all the shop owners who had placed big orders to come to Ranger U. to have some fun, and learn all kinds of groovy stuff to do with those products, so they could yak them up with their customers? Best of all, what if you then sent those charismatic blogging crafters, with their very own product lines, out to tour the world and teach classes, live and in person, at lots of the shops that sell your products? That, my friends, is the magic of merchandising -- the reason why I now have shelves full of art supplies...

and why, every fall, I get a big ol' grin on my face when I see all those giant orange metal pumpkins lining the Wimberley streets and sidewalks!