Your welcome Kim.
That was a really good point to make. I recently talked to a lady in
Gettysburg who has lots of costumes ready made. You would think in
Gettysburg, you wouldn't have a problem selling ACW ladies' costumes. But
that market's area has so many established costume businesses that have they
have the market tied up. This lady does beautiful work. But she is being
forced to sell her costumes at below their cost because she needs to get
back her investment.
I have a lot of education in marketing and merchandising. So many factors
go into play when marketing a product line. I don't know if you are
watching the Tommy Hilfiger reality show on CBS, called The Cut. It is
really interesting because he is dealing more with the business side of
design than the creative edge. Last week the challenge was taking 500
pieces of TH merchandise and reconstructing it to sell on the streets. One
team lost a day of selling, and decided to sell the clothing for $5 a piece.
The other team had two days of selling and had only knocked about $20 off
the suggested retail price. Tommy was very upset about the team that priced
at $5, but they sold the most merchandise. The $20 off team received a
stern talking to for pricing to high. Price points (pricing) comes from
studying the market and what the market can bear. If you price to low, you
can hurt the intregity of the designer's name. If your price is too high,
you can scare away customers and have to depend on those few sales.
If you look at pricing of a product line in any store, there is a medium
point in the price line structure. The medium line is generally contains
the largest number of products. This is what the retailer counts to pay the
bills. The higher-end merchandise can bear several markdowns and the
retailer can still make a profit. The medium line can only bear a few
markdowns. The lower end merchandise generally is to bring the customers
into the store. The retailer may be taking a loss but can afford to take
the risk to generate more business.
A good way to understand this is to look a your local grocery stores weekly
ads. Last week, a local store put staple items on sale for 10 for $10.
This is their slow season so they need to generate business. They were
taking a loss doing this, but they were bringing more people into their
store during a slow time of the year. If you shop regularly at this store
like I do, you would notice the other items in their sale paper were at
regular prices. They made their profit from bringing more people into the
store. This week, a different grocery store has the same 10 for $10
promotion on similar products. Who do you think generated more business?
Store A, because they were the first to bring these new/returning customers
into the store. Another marketing factor came into play... as my husband
calls it, The Eagle Screamed... government payday week. Store A had the
promotion during the goverment pay week. This was a smart marketing
strategy for Store A. Now you might not think that this plays into the
costuming business... but it does! Costuming is not a necessity of life...
products are purchased with what money we have left over after paying our
bills. I have seen over the years that the third week beginning of the
fourth week is when most people spend money on costuming. They have paid
their bills and by that point in the month, they know what extra money they
do or do not have. Saying that, another marketing factor comes into play...
one we all don't like but it is still a factor. People are having less
**extra money** to play with at this moment because the price of gasoline is
affecting our budgets. This extra expense is cutting into how much extra
money we have to play with in a month. If you have been into business over
a year, you might see that your sales in the last two quarters of this year
might not be as high as the previous year. Sales might float up and down
just like the gas prices.
Demographics is a large factor in marketing. If you have access to a good
university library, you can find some needed information in the reference
section. I know there is a book that tells how many people are in certain
organizations, like SCA. You could poll groups for demographic information.
Something to think about, what are the average ages of people going to the
faires. College age people probably don't have has much extra money to spend
as the 25 and older group. If doing bridal in off-seasons, you can find
information as to what the average prices for wedding dresses in your area
by checking with local bridal shops. You can check the 2000 census reports
for things like income levels, mean. age, educational levels, etc. Some
city's take their own census and can provide that information. A Chamber of
Commerce might be a good place to look for that information. This can give
you a better idea where would be a good location for your business. If you
are just selling locally, there are three zones for business, primary,
secondary, and tertiary. These areas descend at five mile radius from the
business. I can tell you from my business being on the internet, that the
majority of people into costuming (in general) in the U.S. are located in
California and Virginia. There are lots of other hot locations in the U.S.
but this is where I have found the most interest in historic costuming over
the years. An example of special interest is for the Victorian bustle era,
the southwest is very popular.
Things that could influence the costuming business is what movie or
television shows are popular at the time. I spoke with a lady in London who
is very big into role-playing games online. One of the things her group
loved is the HBO series Deadwood. I remember when the series Lovesome Dove
was popular and the whole fashion industry did a swing towards Western style
clothing for women. This even took a swing into the southwestern style home
furnishings. Keeping an eye on Hollywood as to what is coming up and being
the first one to offer adapted costumes, is a great way to get your name out
there. If you watch the Hollywood rag shows like ET, Access, or get the
Hollywood magazines like Entertainment Weekly, you can follow what is on the
horizon as to what films are coming out. Vogue will occasionally have
articles about the costumes from an upcoming film. With blogs being so
popular on the web, you can find blogs about movies that people are awaiting
to come out. Someone on h-costume mentioned a blog about the costumes from
the last Star Wars... I think it was Michaela. I went to the blog and they
had images of the costumes detailing. When I watched the film I didn't
notice some of the details that we mentioned on the blog. But after the
description, I would love to see it again, to see those details.
Kim, when in business you will be re-evaluating and changing your goals as
your business ages. The market changes all the time. Have you found that
you have seasons in your business? Most businesses do. During the slow
seasons you can build up stock or look to other marketplaces that have
seasons. Like when it is not Renfaires season, look to the bridal market.
I know one costumer in California, who picks up movie sub-contracts in her
off-season.
Renfaire may be your favorite season, but to bring in $$$ in other seasons,
you might want to look around for other markets that you could hit, like the
anime industry and their conventions. The whole role-playing industry is
really unbelievable.
When I started out in business, I had set in my mind that there were certain
time periods that I hated. Never failed, I would get jobs working in those
time periods and I learned to respect them.
BTW, if you are considering going into the design end of the business, I do
suggest watching the two reality shows from this past year, Project Runway
and The Cut. As I said before The Cut is more along the lines of the
business side of the industry. Project Runway (PR) is the creative side of
the business.
I have PR on videotape and am loaning it to people around the U.S. My tapes
have been traveling all over the U.S. this summer. They are on their way to
the final person on the waiting list. If you would like to be put on the
waiting list to borrow them, send me a private message and I will put you on
the list. The rules for the loan is that you have two weeks to watch the
series. You will be responsible for mailing them to the next person on the
waiting list. I am videotaping The Cut too. I will be loaning those tapes
out when the series is over. To be on the waiting lists, please send me a
private message, with your name, snail mail address, email address, phone
number, and which series you want to borrow.
Penny E. Ladnier
Owner,
The Costume Gallery, www.costumegallery.com
Costume Classroom, www.costumeclassroom.com
Costume Research Library, www.costumelibrary.com
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