The pen and paper have been busy, between Housewares,
Surtex and a few Atlanta leftovers a lot is being said. I only wish I could get
them all, but ya just can’t stop a meeting to write down a good one, and then ya just
can’t remember them all afterward, try as I may… but here are few for you:
“There are a lot of mixed signals, it’s not exactly clear
where the market is going.” – a product developer/importer
“I just met with a guy who insisted we have our contract
in place before I can do any presentations with his art – that just doesn’t work for us.” – from
a meeting at a well known tableware company
“One thing I’ve learned after all these years in this
business is that the product misses outnumber the hits, and you just need to
pick yourself up and keep on moving.” – an agent
“We switched rep groups hoping to increase sales and they
fell by half – no one can explain it.” – a gift manufacturer
“So I’m looking at 30K of travel and show expense this
year and wondering if spending 10K more might help – and then I’m thinking I
must be nuts to be thinking that.” – an agent
“To me, someone who has a successful ecommerce presence
is motivated and smart – exactly what we look for. Anyone telling you
differently has another agenda or their head up their...” – an agent on the
question of artists who sell product on the net
“This is really great and I am sure it will sell like
crazy, but it’s just not our customer.” – a manufacturer
“The good old days of cheap China manufacturing are
gone.” – from a large gift company
"She claims to be one of the top licensing agencies, but if that's the case why have we never heard of any of her artists?" - an agent (and always a good question...)
“It’s either a sun setting or a moon rising, I am not
sure which.” – overheard in the Javits food court where a non-exhibiting agent
was showing a portfolio at the next table(!)
“I like this personally but we’ve already got it covered a couple
different ways.” – a manufacturer
“Pick your poison – boutique retail or mass market –
there are problems either way.” – an art director
“It’s really tough for us out there because the key
accounts are in complete control.” - an art director
I’m going to start
teaching a $1000 course too… it will be called “How to Get Your Head Out of the
Clouds and Do Some Art”. – an agent
“The problem is we make a presentation based on them
ordering 3 products and then they only order 1. Now we don’t have enough product
to fill a shipping container so we have to turn the order down, and no one is
happy about that.” –a manufacturer
“You reach a point where you can see the shades come down
and their eyes glaze over so you just need to stop showing them art.” – an
exhibitor about showing too much
“You never know about that X-factor out there, because the
product, the price, everything was right but it still didn’t work.” – a
licensee explaining why a line didn’t work
“Traffic doesn’t matter, I don’t care how many people are
walking in the aisles if they can’t do anything for me.” – an exhibiting agent
And my favorite one of the group:
“I don’t know if I can do it or not but I’m a pretty good
‘tryer’.” – an exhibitor
