Stephanie’s first post opens discussion on an important topic. As a scrapbooker who participated in the hobby for well over 5 years before the birth of my daughter, I’m very conscious of this industry’s emphasis on child-focused marketing. I hope Stephanie’s post can open a discussion among our community on the topic, and help make industry businesses more aware of what consumers they might be overlooking in their marketing.

I recently wrote an article on my site on child-free scrapbookers, that raised some great discussion. Part of the discussion was over the terminology: should this group be described as childless or child-free? Both are value-laden terms, and both describe people without children by choice (child-free) and by chance (childless). The terminology does not matter nearly as much as the point of the article: people without children scrapbook.

The scrapbook industry does an excellent job zeroing in on the key demographic of new moms as new scrapbookers (and rightly so), but in this quest to convert new moms to scrapbooking, the industry as a whole tends to overlook scrapbookers without children.

The industry needs both groups to continue growing and needs to take care to not alienate either group in the process. Why might the industry need both groups? Scrapbookers without children are:

• More likely to be motivated to scrapbook for reasons other than creating family heirlooms to be passed down to future generations.
• Less likely to be creating scrapbooks to record stories or memories for other people.
• Are more likely to be scrapbooking only for themselves.

Scrapbookers without children are more likely to be intrinsically motivated, which means they will continue scrapbooking as long as they remain intrinsically motivated and feel there is a place for them in the hobby.

People who take up scrapbooking for others (e.g., new moms) may not scrapbook outside of their family responsibilities. This means that once their children grow up or their child’s memories are scrapbooked, they may not continue scrapbooking. The industry hopes that new motherhood serves as an entry point into scrapbooking beyond parenthood, but this does not necessarily happen. In some ways recruiting moms to scrapbooking is somewhat risky because it uses guilt and obligation to motivate scrapbooking rather than intrinsic value.

The industry needs both groups and needs to make sure neither group is alienated. When I interviewed scrapbookers without children who were fairly emeshed in the hobby (i.e., they were aware of the larger industry), they often talked about the magazines with cute kids. They talked of being alienated from the larger industry by this perception that it is moms with kids who scrapbook. They mentioned not fitting in at crops and sometimes even being questioned by other scrapbookers for their participation in the hobby.

The industry needs to work at changing this perception that scrapbooking is just for moms. Many of us (myself included) became scrapbookers way before children were ever considered.

The magazines have a reputation of showcasing cute kids on the covers. Cute kids may sell magazines, but does it sell the hobby? Kids on the covers imply that scrapbooking is a child-centered hobby. As a customer, if I don’t have children and see these magazines, I interpret that to mean that scrapbooking isn’t for me. Other craft magazine covers are not nearly as child-focused. Look at the covers of other craft-magazines: knitting, quilting, or mixed-media.

I don’t suspect the magazines are going to change a whole lot but if you are a business owner, you have the power to make sure both scrapbookers with and without children are welcome in the hobby. When you offer classes, make sure you offer classes that are about children and classes that are about things besides children (e.g., travel, all about me, technique-based). When you promote your business on social media, make sure you include posts to reach both of these markets.

Now might be a good time to do a little brainstorming:

• How are you reaching scrapbookers with children?
• How are you reaching scrapbookers without children?
• What could you do to increase your  business’ reach towards scrapbookers with children?
• What could you do to increase your business’ reach towards scrapbookers without children?

What are your best practices for reaching scrapbookers with and without children? Feel free to leave a comment below.

Want to stay up-to-date on all the latest scrapbook news?

But if you’d like to see a perfect example of viral marketing done right, you need to see the holiday music video just put out by Scrapbook.com called “It’s Always Sunny In Here”. The only way to describe it is to say think about a combination of Glee and Mad Men in theme…It’s been the toast of Twitter the past few days – the true stamp of a campaign gone viral.

What makes the video the perfect viral marketing piece? First, it is downright fun! You can’t help but smile watching it. You want to watch it over and over, and tell your friends to watch it because you know they will smile too. You absolutely do not feel like you are watching an ad – which then leaves you with a positive feel about the company. This video is not only great marketing for Scrapbook.com – they’ve added in some subtle specific product mentions, so they’ve provided some marketing for their vendor partners too.

This sort of marketing is drastically under-utilized in the scrapbook industry (both the video and the viral aspect of it). More businesses should consider trying projects like this…the return on investment can be very high.

Disclosure

Want to stay up-to-date on all the latest scrapbook news?

The critical holiday sales season is right on top of us, and retailers must take advantage of it to be successful. As usual, Kizer & Bender are here to help, with their new e-book “Jingle Bells Christmas Sells: Events, Promotions & Tips for the Holiday Season“, available on their website for $24.95. Co-authored with their Australian counterpart, Debra Templar, the book is designed to give retailers all the tools and information that they need to maximize their holiday sales and have a successful holiday retail season.

Why is a successful holiday season so important to retail businesses? According to Kizer & Bender, the holiday season quarter accounts for 36% of a retail business’s sales, and represents the highest level of profitability for those businesses. Get the holidays wrong and your whole year is wrong. Do you know the origin of the term “black friday”? It’s called that because the sales on the Friday after Thanksgiving were usually when most retailers finally became profitable for the year.

The holiday season is a critical time for retailers. Don’t turn down the chance to get wonderful marketing advice from seasoned experts like Kizer & Bender and Debra Templar when you can most use it.

Want to stay up-to-date on all the latest scrapbook news?

To find out, let’s take a closer look at this recent scrapbooking haul video posted to YouTube by user detdaty0129:

This individual will be a marketing champion within Information Management & Identification for Specialty Labels and Cards. This individual will have product line management accountability for Specialty Labels and Cards, which includes fabric transfers, printable note cards, crafts & scrapbooking products and e-media products. Specific responsibilities include business reviews and developing strategies and marketing plans for this business in close collaboration with the BU senior management, sales, supply chain, and other functional areas. This person will own execution of agreed upon strategies and programs. This may include: new product development, product line extensions, product refinement, new distribution, cost reductions, concept development, market research, pricing, competitive and category analysis. This person will also be instrumental in identifying and developing the marketing elements to support these programs such as packaging, merchandising, consumer promotions, etc.