What I've been up to. Mostly I've been filling my orders. Have to stay on top of those. I have new designs coming. I mentioned those earlier in the week when I posted pictures of the new fabrics. I really haven't had time to work on my website and that goes live any day now. I noticed that the programmers have added the shopping cart. Once I get the website done, I'll give details on how I did it and the great company that I used to get me started.
All this time, my marketing plan included branding my company name. Not me the person. Sure there is a real SharonH behind the scenes. Everyone was saying take pictures, put your face and name out there, let everyone see who you are. Yada. Yada. Yada. Do you readers have any idea who Louis Vuitton is? Would you know Calvin Klein if you passed him on the street? How about the owners of Dolce & Gabbana? Probably not! I mentioned these three companies because they have successfully branded their NAME. The most prominent facial branding I can recall is Aunt Jermima and Col. Sanders. Nothing wrong with that type of branding, just not the league I want to be in. When you think about Louis Vuitton, you think of the overlapping initials all over those gorgeous overpriced handbags. When you think of Calvin Klein, you think of his signature on a pair of undies. And when you think of Dolce & Gabbana.... well who know what you think of, they have so many great products.
[caption id="attachment_417" align="alignleft" width="124" caption="Louis Vuitton"]
[/caption]On some selling sites they constantly plaster their chosen artist on their front pages and ask them a bunch of questions about their artistic process and "how did you suddenly get into stringing those beads together like that?" LOL! See this is a person. This is an artist. Sure, we're all artist. But if you want to maintain success, you had better become a business person too. And you had better come up with a marketing plan for how you want to sell your ART. Art as a business seems to be a dirty word in some of these places. And god forbid you try to promote you "business". Fine-Threadz is a business who happens to have SharonH as the artist on board.
[caption id="attachment_418" align="alignright" width="150" caption="Calvin Klein"]
[/caption]I just started my business Fine-Threadz, which is a subsidiary of Fine-Thangz, that has been in existence for 7 years. (I just love saying that word... subsidiary.) That's when I started designing leather goods. Pillows, laptop bags and ottomans. Home interior goods. Only once I got to other selling venues did I feel duty bound to add SharonH to the mix. I was told buyers wanted to know me. SharonH. It was only later that I began to question that from a business standpoint. After all I would count myself as a business woman too. So that's part of the reason I created this blog. If a customer really would rather know SharonH instead of Fine-Threadz, here I am!
[caption id="attachment_419" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="Dolce & Gabbana"]
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After 25 years of working in marketing, travel, and oil & gas, it's just the way I think. I don't mind revealing SharonH as the backbone of Fine-Threadz, but I'm not changing my marketing plan to put SharonH before Fine-Threadz. Not gonna happen. Why? I did a Google search on Fine-Threadz! And my company name dominates the first 3 pages. Yes. I have done something right. I have branded my company name. Now it's time to build an association with that name. That mean "When you think of Fine-Threadz, you think of.....!" What? Coming up with the "what" is next. When a customer thinks of Fine-Threadz, I'd like them to think about my product, the quality of my designs and the unique comfortable clothing that I offer. I don't want them to think about some lone woman here in Houston, Texas slaving away over orders! For the personal stuff, they can come here to my blog and listen to me bitch about how much work I've got to do, my design process, and whether or not I've got a frigging hangnail. When a customer visits Fine-Threadz, I want them to see nothing but my professionalism.
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