I picked up on a terrific article in today’s New York Times entitled Managing an Online Reputation. The point is that your customers are talking about you — and the whole world is listening in. Yelp, Citysearch and Yahoo! Local, Google Maps, Angie’s List, TripAdvisor, and Epinions are just a few of the websites where consumers can give feedback on their favorite and not so favorite stores. The article helps provide a better understanding of the phenomenon and gives some practical advice for hardworking and vigilant store managers on taming this ever growing and critically important challenge for art material retailers. Here is a peek at some of the valuable…
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Art Alternatives Kids Easel Alert: Important Information for Retailers!
Dear Retailers, Our AA13301 Young Artist Easel was tested recently and, to our great surprise, the chalkboard panel did not comply with the the Federal Standard for Lead Paint. We’ve already quarantined our inventory, which is why some of you have been unable to order the easel, and we are working closely with the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) to conduct a recall. Finalizing the recall plan with the CPSC will take an unknown amount of time. In the meantime, we need your help! Please pull the AA13301 Young Artist Easel off the sales floor and hold the easels for further instructions. Our tentative recall plan, worked on with the…
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Industry News
In a posting entitled “Retailers Brace For Dreary Back-To-School Season“, Marketing Daily website reports a new survey conducted by America’s Research Group and UBS Global Equity Research reports that 34.4% of parents are planning to spend less this year. And the reasons are hardly surprising: 41.8% of those planning to spend less say it’s because they have less money, 40.5% say it’s due to higher debt, and 8.2% say because they’re worried about job loss. The survey predicts a depressing sales drop compared to last year of between 8.5% and 12%. Presumably, 65.6% of parents plan on spending the same amount or more. To read the entire posting visit Marketing…
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New Product News From Elmer’s
Here is the latest news regarding a comprehensive range of new products from Elmer’s. NEW FROM CONTÉ Want to create some additional retail selling space? Conté introduces a new space efficient display designed to merchandise an excellent assortment of Conté Crayon sets. The sturdy wire rack displays the sets vertically in a “waterfall” arrangement to best maximize shelf space and it creates a much easier shopping experience, allowing customers to clearly see the sets. The display was created to showcase Conté Crayon Sets with 12, 24, and 48 crayons, in both traditional earth tones and the complete range of colored crayons. The rack is available without a charge with the…
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ColArt BTS: Scoring for the Best Deals
ColArt offers so many new products for BTS that it’s easy to overlook the traditional ranges, or those that may have been re-launched with a new look and improved features like: Derwent’s Water Color Pencils: · Improved softer formulation that transfers color quicker & feels less waxy · Stronger, more soluble washes · Improved lightfastness · Environmentally friendly water-based coating to eliminate solvent based paints & lacquers · Smoke blue satin touch finish color dip end with distinctive silver stripe & silver imprint · Unchanged codes, colors or names · Water color collections now contain Inktense · Available in assortments, tin sets, and open stock And, don’t forget that all…
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Art (Snake) Dog of the Month
Many of you may know about Artisan of Santa Fe’s mascot Delilah. For those of you who don’t, she’s a python who has grown to almost 17 feet and 230 pounds! Here is a video of Artisan’s Ron Whitmore helping as she sheds her skin: A bit of trivia: In 2003, Delilah was voted Favorite Store Pet by NAMTA, and the store was given a special plaque for the occasion.
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Inside MacPherson’s: Atlanta Buyer Bryan Ferguson, Up Close & Personal
We love to share the stories of the people who make up our amazing team. Today our featured person is Bryan Ferguson, Buyer, Atlanta Bryan is from the small town of Bethlehem, Georgia, where watching the cows break through their fences is the most exciting thing that happens. Aspiring to be a creative writer, Bryan settled for creating extraordinary french fries and burgers at the fine dining palace called Burger King for his first job. Bryan started at MacPherson’s 16 years ago. With 13 years in the warehouse, picking, packing, receiving, shipping, and every other thing you can think of, he was truly a warehouse “jack of all trades.” Always…
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Industry News
Joe Scala reports that he has left CraftyDab. Companies looking for a dynamic sales executive with tons of art, craft and education supply industry experience can contact him at jscraftydab@yahoo.com. Roger Hu, CEO & President of China’s Conda Group, has recently left the company. American Art Clay Company’s manager of Key Accounts, Chris Vance, has left the company to pursue other opportunities. Clarke Congdon, our fearless Crayola rep, sent us a Wall Street Journal article recently that indicates June was another challenging month for retailers. We are all continually bombarded this type of negative information and it’s important to remember that the economy is not all doom and gloom. In fact, Crayola had…
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Moleskine Makes it to the Interesting Thing of the Day Blog!
OK, we had never heard of the Interesting Thing of the Day blog before either, but one of our steadfast reporters (MacPherson’s sales rep Paul Mulcahy) sent in a link featuring Moleskine. Talk about perfect timing! Why you ask? Because we’ve just rounded out our Moleskine selection to just about the complete line. Learn some new stuff about Moleskine at the Interesting Thing of the Day Blog and know that you have a simple, complete and stress free pipeline to these high demand products from MacPherson’s.
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Itoya PMA YouTube Interview
Paul Worthington of the 6Sight Report interviewed ITOYA‘s President Jin Takemura at the Photo Marketing Association’s PMA09 trade show, which took place in Las Vegas, NV on March 1-5, 2009. Hear Jin describe Itoya’s approach to digital media storage and presentation. Very exiting and innovative! Oh, and almost forgot to mention that MacPherson’s is carrying all the products in support of the program. For more information, please visit http://www.itoya.com/ Check it out here:
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Check Out this New Gamblin Artists Colors Retailer’s Promotion!
To help retail partners drive foot traffic and sales during Fall BTS, Gamblin is pleased to announce a new Buy-Get Promotion. This program is based on Gamblin’s successful Torrit Grey Program. Participating retailers will receive Gamblin Cold Wax Medium in 2 oz. sizes to offer as a Buy-Get item to painters that spend $30 or more on Gamblin products during August and September. Here’s how it works: From July 1 until August 30, 2009, Gamblin will ship Cold Wax Medium Kits to retailers who choose to participate. This Kit contains everything you will need to run a successful promotion in your store during the Fall promotional period: August 1 thru…
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Strathmore Artist Papers Launches Green-Themed Art Competition
Strathmore Artist Papers has announced its new illustration competition entitled, “How Do You See Green?” Strathmore is asking artists to submit original artwork representing their unique vision of green or the environment. Winning art will be featured on special editions of Strathmore Premium Recycled Sketch and Drawing Pads. “Strathmore has a longstanding tradition of environmental stewardship. We offer a broad range of products, many of which are made with recycled fibers. Strathmore also has a paper line that is made with 100% certified renewable energy,” says Don Bozek, Marketing Director at Strathmore Artist Papers. “We know from our consumer research and customer comments that artists on the whole are concerned…
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No Time Like Now to Launch Golden Open Acrylics!
If you haven’t entered into the innovative world of OPEN Acrylics yet, or you are ready to expand, now is the time! OPEN Assortments are on promotion for Fall Back-to-School at a fabulous discount of 60/10. As an added bonus, purchasing an OPEN Assortment through the MacPherson’s Fall Back-to-School promotion automatically qualifies a retailer to partake in the GOLDEN OPEN Holiday promotion. The OPEN Holiday promotion will be open to all retailers who have purchased a GOLDEN OPEN Assortment between July 2008 and September 30, 2009. More details on the OPEN Holiday promotion will be forthcoming, but don’t miss out on this opportunity to stock this unique and popular product at…
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Sanford Prismacolor News & More!
· The Prismacolor consumer rebate materials have been sent to your MacPherson’s representative, in limited quantities. The rebate form itself is available as a pdf download at www.prismacolor.com and can be printed directly from that site. This is a great selling tool that is tailor made for incremental selling. Your customer will receive a $10 rebate for a purchase of $50 or more of ANY Prismacolor branded product. The rebate is available on purchases made between July 1, 2009 and October 15, 2009. · Don’t forget about the Prismacolor Merchandising contest. Sanford is awarding prizes of $1,000 for 1st place, $750 for 2nd place and $500 for 3rd place. The…
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Partnering Ideas for Retailers & Art Educators
Cheryl Trowbridge writes a terrific blog aimed at helping elementary school educators who teach or use art in their curricula. The blog has amazing ideas that can help art supply retailers connect with schools to expand their role as more that just a source of supplies. Perhaps in part because she is married to Roy Trowbridge, the head of Palace Art & Office, she seems to have a knack for coming up with ways to showcase this idea of partnership between creative supply stores and teachers. Check out Cheryl’s blog: Teach Kids Art To give you a flavor for her unique perspective, here is an excerpt from a recent posting…
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Industry News
More personnel changes at Elmer’s; in a big reorganization, longtime sales team members Liz Hackney (Northern California) and Jim Samoska (Midwest) will be leaving the company. Mike Mankowsky, Key Account Manager for Arts & Crafts will take early retirement beginning in September 2009. He has agreed to consult for a year as a “channel Ambassador”. Best wishes to all of these sales professionals for years of great service to our industry. Our new Elgin, IL DC is up and running. Congratulations to MacPherson’s amazing managers Marco Auriene, Joneil Hilton, Ryan Ong, Jim Semitekol, Pedro Arana, Brandy Cline, Dave Bloomquist and their many hardworking and dedicated team members for accomplishing this…
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A Heartwarming and True Art Supply Story
Here is a real-life, Frank Capra-esque story published in the Monterey County Weekly about the owner of our wonderful customer Searle/Art Max in Monterey, CA. John Wiseman Saved Businesses, Helped Old Friends. By Walter Ryce Longtime high-tech businessman John Wiseman, along with his wife Vicki, moved from the bitter winters of Michigan and went into the art framing business in Monterey with partner Ronnie Barnes in 1991. They started with Max Wholesalers. “We dipped into the last of our savings, bought a bunch of inventory, and opened a small warehouse in Forest Avenue,” John says. “It went well.” So well that Wiseman took over the expanding businesses (two picture framing stores,…
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Artists Ask, and Sakura provides the new Multi-Cultural Cray-Pas® Expressionist® set!
Sakura’s new 12-piece selection of smooth Expressionist oil pastels are blendable, producing natural skin tones for portrait renderings. The Multi-Cultural Cray-Pas Expressionist set attributes: · Convenient collection of 10mm diameter x 71mm length round sticks · Formulated with extra fine quality pigments, wax and oil · Gives artists the ability to build texture & blend very smooth color · The standard from which all other oil pastels are measured Also new is the Cray-Pas Expressionist Extender, a unique oil pastel medium that: · Reveals a color’s hue range · Extends a color · Combines with blending techniques to produce authentic complexions Order Codes: Multi-Cultural Cray-Pas Expressionist set, order code: SKXLP12-SA MSRP…