Once a month I report my scrapbooking expenses in an effort to make myself accountable and motivate msyelf to use the scrapbook supplies I already have as part of Minimalist Scrapbooking.
I’ve been a bit busy with work and have been a bit neglectful with the blog. Here are my July expenses:
I spent $57.45 at my local scrapbook store.
I spent $25.06 at a big box craft store.
I spent $21.00 at Lowe’s for peg board and accessories for mys scrap space.
I spent $3.67 on prints.
Grand total for July: $107.18, which is still higher than I would like, but lower than June’s spending. Stephanie
What better way to capture the world around us than in living color? No matter what time of year it is, color takes center stage and we can’t help but focus on the bright and beautiful hues that inspire our daily lives.
Through this 30-day photo centric celebration, Picture Color will encourage you to turn your lens toward the colors that delight you most. With daily email prompts delivered right to your inbox, you will be greeted and inspired by a myriad of colorful shades to awaken your senses and your inner-artist as your camera clicks color after vibrant color!
Just leave a comment by Friday, September 7 at midnight Central Standard Time and I’ll pick a winner.
Each Wednesday, I write a post from my dissertation.
Industry workers emphasize that they do not pressure customers to purchase products, they offer better customer service, and they are more knowledgeable about scrapbooking than the competition.
Industry workers focus on their business as a scrapbooking business in comparison to other businesses that happen to sell scrapbooking products. This emphasis as a scrapbooking business, enables these industry workers to see themselves as the experts on scrapbooking.
Pressure
In terms of pressuring the customer, however, brick and mortar industry workers see direct sellers as pressuring customers to buy only from the direct seller. Brick and mortar industry workers talk about how even when their store offers free classes, they never put pressure on customers to make a purchase. Direct sellers are viewed as a group as using pressure sales tactics but when brick and mortar industry workers buy from direct sellers, they point out that their consultants do not use these tactics. Direct sellers are lumped together as being pushy, yet individual consultants may deviate from this stereotype and be split off as different from the typical consultant.
The pressure does not seem to come directly from the consultant but from the structure in which the product is sold. Typically, potential customers are invited to a friend or family member’s house where a direct seller (often the host’s friend) will demonstrate or show available product. Industry workers talk about how they feel pressure to attend these parties because they had been invited by a friend or a family member and that this made them feel compelled to also make a purchase. Pressure—real or imagined—also appears to come from the other guests. One industry worker talks about how she did not like attending these parties because she cannot afford to buy very much compared to the other guests. Direct sellers, however, do not see themselves as applying pressure on customers and note that if they did, they would make more money than they do.
Customer Service
Direct selling works through using a person’s relationships to sell product. Brick and mortar industry workers may not invite their friends and family in for a sales pitch, but they do focus on building a relationship with their customers and retaining customers based on this relationship. Local scrapbook store industry workers explain that they are able to offer personalized customer service that large chain stores are not.
Knowledge
Another difference between the various sources of scrapbooking supplies is the knowledge of the employees. Industry workers talk about how they have customers who have taken scrapbooking classes at chains from instructors who were not scrapbookers and were assigned the class at the last minute. Brick and mortar industry workers explain that they are hired for their expertise as scrapbookers or for their experience in related activities (e.g., an art student or handmade card maker). Being a scrapbooker is seen as helpful to working in the industry because it means the employee uses the same discourse (or language), is better able to show customers how to use the products in addition to just selling the products, and is better able to share ideas and support compared to a non-scrapbooking employee. Industry workers regularly mention that employees at other stores are not scrapbookers and are not as knowledgeable about scrapbooking.
Even employees hired with little scrapbooking experience are expected to learn more about scrapbooking than the customer so that they can better serve the customer. When I was hired in a local scrapbook store, I had made a couple of scrapbooks but had little knowledge of the industry. I was encouraged to take classes offered at the store and flip through magazines and idea books sold by the store. I was expected to be able to demonstrate how tools work and offer suggestions to customers on what products to use on a layout or what they needed to get started scrapbooking. In other words, I was hired as a novice, but was expected to become an expert. By the time, I left that job, I was more of an expert than not, but am only now really considering myself to be an expert on scrapbooking as a hobby and an industry.
Do you expect industry workers to be experts? What are your customer service expectations for scrapbook businesses? Do you feel pressured by scrapbook industry workers to buy product? Join the conversation below or on facebook.
Did you know that you can subscribe by RSS? Stephanie
Each Wednesday, I write a post from my dissertation.
Direct sellers and brick and mortar industry workers feel the competition from online retailers. The internet makes it much easier for customers to find what they are looking for, but at the same time means they may begin staying home more to do their shopping.
Offline industry workers counter online shopping by emphasizing the advantages of purchasing offline instead of online, such as being able to see and touch an item before committing to buying it. Scrapbookers, however, emphasize price. Most likely, this difference is because most of the industry workers in this study were selling products that, for the most part, could be purchased for less money elsewhere. These industry workers worked at selling more than just merchandise—they are selling a pleasant shopping experience. They were and are selling a third space.
Next week, I will discuss the scrapbook shopping experience.
Do you scrapbook shop based on price, shopping experience, or some combination of the two? Join the conversation below or on facebook.
Each Wednesday, I write a post from my dissertation.
Scrapbook stores do not just sell scrapbook supplies, but also sell (or more accurately, rent) scrapbook space. Scrapbookers expect brick and mortar scrapbook stores to offer some sort of scrapbooking space for either free or for a small fee.
Direct sellers also offer crop space, but are limited by the size of their home or their ability to procure another space to offer cropping space to their customers. For example, direct sellers may organize a scrapbooking retreat at a hotel.
Some stores offer scrapbooking space that is available for customer use any time classes are not being offered. Others have to use the space to also display inventory and offer more limited crop time.
It is unknown how effective crop space is to increasing sales in relation to the cost of having the crop space in the first place. Regardless, if people do not have the space in their home to scrapbook or any other alternative, they are less likely to scrapbook. Offering a space for them to scrapbook gets them scrapbooking and gets them to buy more scrapbook supplies in the process.
Non-brick and mortar industry workers and scrapbookers who do not work in the industry underestimate the challenges of offering crop space for customers. Customers often resent having to pay for crop space. Free crops are sometimes perceived as a ploy by scrapbookers to get them to buy more merchandise. Scrapbook stores are a place for people to hang out, socialize, and create scrapbooks. At the same time, scrapbook stores are businesses. Industry workers have to walk a fine line between business/non-business. They are a third space, not home (first space) and not work (second space) (see Oldenburg 1999). Scrapbook stores are a place that can build community, yet at the same time, they are still a business.
Do you use scrapbook space offered by stores or others? Is it just a place to scrapbook or is it a chance for community? Join the conversation below or on facebook.
Oldenburg, Ray. 1999. The Great Good Place: Cafes, Coffee Shops, Bookstores, Bars, Hair Salons, and Other Hangouts at the Heart of a Community. New York City:Marlowe & Company.
Each Wednesday, I write a post from my dissertation.
People who work in the scrapbook industry see their way of selling[1] the product as superior to the alternative. I was surprised to find that industry workers overall had little knowledge about their competitors. One reason for this is because industry workers shopped for supplies where they were both convenient and less expensive due to their employee discount. I bought very little outside of the store I worked. Industry workers have little motivation to seek out scrapbook supplies elsewhere. Most direct sellers did not use brick and mortar stores and most brick and mortar workers had never been to a direct selling event. Very few purchased scrapbook supplies online (though I’m sure this has changed since these interviews took place due to the closure of local scrapbook stores and the increase in people shopping online in general). Their unfamiliarity with the competition strengthened the differences in their mind between direct selling companies, brick and mortar stores, and online stores. The main differences among these different types of scrapbook suppliers can be thought of in terms of variety, exclusivity, and limitations.
Variety
Brick and mortar stores are known for carrying a wide variety of product from a variety of vendors. Online stores are able to carry even more product than offline scrapbook stores because they do not have the overhead costs allowing them to have an even larger variety of product in-stock. Online stores can spend more money on inventory compared to brick and mortar stores and direct sellers.
Exclusivity
Direct selling companies offer products that may not be found elsewhere or they may sell products made by them and also some products from other manufacturers made exclusively for them. For example, Creative Memories carries exclusive products, but they also now carry a line of exclusive Cricut cartridges. These products can only be purchased through Creative Memories.
Limitations
Scrapbook stores and online stores have more product diversity than direct selling companies because direct sellers are individuals who have to store their inventory in their home. Direct sellers tend to emphasize their company’s superior products and the fact that customers get them (i.e., the consultant). What direct sellers can’t offer in terms of inventory selection, they make up for in superior products and personal contact.
Conclusion
I did not set out to compare these different forms of selling scrapbook supplies and how supplies are sold has changed quite a bit since the industry became “an industry.” Unlike other industries, scrapbooking has a had a strong direct selling component. I’m left with more questions than answers about these different selling methods.
Do you work in the industry? Do you know what is going on with competing ways of selling scrapbook supplies? Join the conversation below or on facebook.
Thanks everyone for your links and layouts! I think I’ve got everything I need! I have the best readers! Stephanie (August 13, 2012)
I’m preparing a couple of presentations about my research to an audience of sociologists and am looking for images (layouts) for a few topics:
Stigma
I’m mainly thinking of a photo of that ever elusive “grandma’s scrapbook,” you know, the one that none of our scrapbooks look like.
I’m also open to layouts about stigma more generally or managing a stigma.
Collective Tragedy
Do you have a layout about 9/11, the Iraq War, or Hurricane Katrina?
I’m also open to layouts about other collective tragedies.
Heritage Albums
Specifically, I am looking for layouts that attempt to recreate the time period on the layout by using product that reflects the time period to some degree.
Imperfect Memories
Critics argue that scrapbookers only focus on the good and happy in scrapbooks. Do you have a layout that focuses on the sad or bad?
Please send a link to your layout or the actual photo to stephaniemedleyrath at gmail dot com. I will acknowledge you in the presentation. If you have a link to something that is not your own, send that as well and I will attempt to track down permissions.
Each Wednesday, I write a post from my dissertation.
Scrapbookers may be artists and historians, but they also are scrapbooking shoppers and croppers. Both shopping and cropping shape the identity of the scrapbooker as a scrapbooker and shape their larger identity outside of scrapbooking.
Scrapbookers shop for scrapbook supplies where they think they will find scrapworthy items. The decision as to where to shop for supplies is shaped by industry workers. Industry workers focus on how their business differs from the competition in terms of pressure applied to the customer, the relationship they have with the customer, and the knowledge they share with the customer. Customers, however, focus on the economic side of the equation in making decisions about where to shop, though there are many reasons customers purchase scrapbooking products beyond price. Over the next few weeks, I will discuss scrapbook shopping.
Where do you shop for scrapbook supplies? Does where you shop contribute to your scrapbooking identity? Join the conversation below or on facebook.
Did you know that you can subscribe by RSS? Stephanie
Scrapbookers often are historians—specifically, they are their families’ historians. Not all scrapbookers take on the role of historian in terms of learning about their or their family’s past, but the simple act of scrapbooking makes them a record keeper of their present life.
Heritage books in particular draw on history in order to be completed in the first place. Even in non-heritage scrapbooks, scrapbookers relate how they add historical facts and trivia to their scrapbooks. For example, respondents research and include the price of various items during the time period memorialized in heritage scrapbooks. Others include facts about the places he or she visits. Sometimes this involves including memorabilia such as brochures with this information and other times it involves looking up the information and writing it in the scrapbook. Scrapbookers take great care to provide richer stories by putting their stories into a larger cultural context.
One company, It Takes Two®, actually has an entire line of stickers for each year between 1901 and 20010 with information about things such as the price of gas and the number one film from the year in addition to stickers with facts from various national parks and about several different sports. Though respondents do not say they use these stickers, their existence illustrates that this is something many scrapbookers do in their scrapbooks and is at least encouraged by the industry.
For many scrapbookers, it is important to know where they come from, which is why they scrapbook not only the present, but also the past. What scrapbookers are doing is something non-scrapbookers do as well. For example, in 2010 NBC started running a show calledWho Do You Think You Are? produced in partnership with ancestry.com where a celebrity with the help of local historians traces a branch of the celebrity’s family tree. The show’s tagline is “To know who you are, you have to know where you come from.” Ancestry.com has one million paying subscribers (and presumably has been used by many more who are no longer subscribers). Some of these subscribers are compiling scrapbooks and many more are compiling variations of scrapbooks through this genealogical research. People use scrapbooking as a way to learn and share their family’s history and thereby demonstrate an identity.
Industry workers encourage scrapbookers to include the historical context in their scrapbook pages. For example, scrapbookers are discouraged from cropping out too much of a photo as they may inadvertently delete some of the historical context (e.g., that orange shag carpeting may be hideous but it dates the photo so some of it should remain in the photo). Scrapbook manufacturers produce products that have a vintage look to recreate a historical moment in time. Though critics opine that scrapbooking is too commercialized because scrapbookers are more likely to use vintage reproductions rather than originals (see Helfand 2008), they are missing the biggest difference in that the reproductions are more likely to be of archival quality. If one purpose of scrapbooking is preservation, then they are not going to use some original items because they will deteriorate and damage photographs and other items on the scrapbook page as they deteriorate.
Are scrapbookers historians? What role does historical work play in your scrapbooking? Join the conversation below or on facebook.
References:
Helfand, Jessica. 2008. Scrapbooks: An American History. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
Did you know that you can subscribe by RSS? Stephanie
I won’t be writing for Scrapbook Update anymore. My contract was discontinued. That’s fancy for fired.
It came as quite a shock as I had been having some great conversations in the comments of my posts at Scrapbook Update. After I’ve had some time to reflect, I’m actually really fine with it. I covered CHA and wrote a few posts for Scrapbook Update and if you’ve seen my CHA posts over there, you know those are not me. I’m not a brand cheerleader or celebrity chaser. I wrote posts that were not me because that is how I understood that Scrapbook Update covers CHA and it was how I was asked to cover CHA.
Let’s face it, my content overall was not a good fit for Scrapbook Update. I pitched a column that would focus on the marketing side of scrapbooking and those posts went over well, but they really don’t fit at Scrapbook Update. I can be critical of the industry overall and occasionally of specific company’s choices. This is all speculation on my part, but this is not an environment that is good if your site depends on advertising revenue. Regardless, I’ve decided to reexamine my own advertising policy so that I can write what I want to write without any consideration for advertisers.
I did not create Scrapworthy Lives to become some sort of passive income stream or to become a star in the scrapbooking world. I created Scrapworthy Lives because I wanted my research to be read by a wider audience than academic research typically gets read by. I wanted this site to be a place to help me figure out how to take my research and turn it into a book. And I did this partially with my e-book on market research. The e-book came about as a way to financially support the site (cover hosting, newsletter fees, web guy fees, so on). The e-book was not a means to a passive income stream or anything like that, which is why I don’t really even market it (I know, ironic, right?). My real goal is to write a book for a wider audience based on my doctoral research and more recent research on scrapbooking.
That being said, I am getting rid of most of the advertising on Scrapworthy Lives. I don’t want any advertiser determining content on my site. I don’t ever want to feel like I can’t say something because it might offend an advertiser.
I will continue to advertise for Ella Publishing. Through 2012, I am part of the Take 12 design team, part of belonging to a design team is marketing for that brand and I need to continue with this commitment. Fortunately, I really like Ella Publishing’s products, so I’m not ethically troubled by this relationship. There also may be occasional advertising that shows up over the next couple of months on posts already scheduled. And I think advertising is attached to the RSS feed, which will get removed soon. I might advertise here and there very selectively for products I know and am comfortable with.
Don’t get me wrong, briefly after CHA, it crossed my mind to start doing more layout focused posts and adding inlinkz to the end, but then I remembered that I hate tracking down links, want to use old and new products, and really hate inlinkz on other people’s blogs (it reminds me, the reader, that your goal is to sell to me, not necessarily education, inform, or entertain). I thought perhaps, I may end up with free product from CHA and maybe I still will, but I don’t write about scrapbooking for free product. I have a job and can buy my own product. I would rather buy products I want to use rather than feel obligated to use product because it was given to me.
Over the next month, you will see some changes here at Scrapworthy Lives to more closely reflect my mission and goals with the site. It’s time for me to get back to what really matters to me: celebrating scrapbookers.
Last night I heard this song while chopping veggies for the deep freeze and it just seemed appropriate to include with this little manifesto. Enjoy!
Stephanie Medley-Rath is a sociologist and scrapbooker who studies scrapbooking and memory keeping. Scrapworthy Lives is a blog focused on her sociological analysis of scrapbooking, with a sprinkling of posts about Stephanie's own scrapbooking projects.
Stephanie Medley-Rath is a sociologist and scrapbooker who studies scrapbooking and memory keeping. Scrapworthy Lives is a blog focused on her sociological analysis of scrapbooking, with a sprinkling of posts about Stephanie's own scrapbooking projects.
