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Of Fairy Dust and Pretty Pink Unicorns

September 13, 2011 By 3 Comments

I had lunch yesterday with friend of Think, Ashley King of Ashley’s Bride Guide.  Much of the conversation revolved around Fairy Dust and Pink Unicorns. It’s really scary how much Ashley and I think alike.

First up, Fairy Dust.

All you need to do is advertise with me and you will have all the brides you want.

You hear this from just about every sales rep you meet.  They know your marketing budget is small and they want all of it.  Sadly, you also hear it from the talking heads that represent the major players like the Knot and Wedding Wire. The truth is that no one place is going to do it for you, you have to spread your exposure out as well as you can and have it all point to the one place you truly control: your website.

All you need is a Facebook page.

No, again your Facebook page is just a sign post to your website. If you post all your content on Facebook they have no reason to go to your site and all that traffic goes to Facebook, not you. Facebook is important, don’t get me wrong, but it is only a piece of the puzzle

The Wedding industry is recession proof.

Wrong. While it is true that people will keep getting married, even that is less true than it used to be. There as been so much written about this, including a lot of it on Think, that I won’t bore you with it. Beyond that, the amount that couples spend is directly effected by the economy. When people are struggling to pay their mortgage and put gas in their car they aren’t going to spend $500 on a custom aisle runner or card box. They are going back to basics, back to what matters.

If you offer low end alternatives no one will buy your high end offerings.

Really? Nothing could be farther from the truth. Why would you purposely leave money on the table? More importantly, if you give budget brides a gateway into your offerings if they find extra money they may well buy your higher priced items.

 

Pink Unicorns

It was interesting that it isn’t only me that hears the constant cry of, “I only want to do luxury weddings.” ~sigh~

Long before I started writing on this public blog, back in the days when Think was subscription only, I began trying to dispel this myth. Yes there are some really high end weddings in America, but no where near enough to support every vendor that is chasing them. Yes the weddings that brides see in the major blogs tend to be high end.  Yes, a large group of brides want a Style Me Pretty wedding but not many can afford it. The problem is that when it comes time to write the check to make those weddings happen, very few (and shrinking) can actually ante up. When faced with the cost, most regroup and back way down.

Here is one more point you may want to consider. The really high end weddings, a quarter of a million and up, are being planned and designed by the people that have been planning and designing for that family or peer group for years. Not someone they found on the web.

“Wait! ” you say, “I want the $100,000 to $200,000 weddings.”  That market, the upper middle class, is the one that is shrinking faster that all others.

A recent article in the Wall Street Journal was addressing how giant Proctor and Gamble is restructuring to match the new realities and had this little tidbit.

In the wake of the worst recession in 50 years, there’s little doubt that the American middle class—the 40% of households with annual incomes between $50,000 and $140,000 a year—is in distress. Even before the recession, incomes of American middle-class families weren’t keeping up with inflation, especially with the rising costs of what are considered the essential ingredients of middle-class life—college education, health care and housing. In 2009, the income of the median family, the one smack in the middle of the middle, was lower, adjusted for inflation, than in 1998, the Census Bureau says.

The slumping stock market and collapse in housing prices have also hit middle-class Americans. At the end of March, Americans had $6.1 trillion in equity in their houses—the value of the house minus mortgages—half the 2006 level, according to the Federal Reserve. Economist Edward Wolff of New York University estimates that the net worth—household assets minus debts—of the middle fifth of American households grew by 2.4% a year between 2001 and 2007 and plunged by 26.2% in the following two years.

P&G isn’t the only company adjusting its business. A wide swath of American companies is convinced that the consumer market is bifurcating into high and low ends and eroding in the middle. They have begun to alter the way they research, develop and market their products.

Does that last sentence remind you of any high end wedding gown designer? It should, it’s exactly what Vera Wang is doing.

So what does this mean to you?

It certainly doesn’t mean you should give up, I am not trying to spout doom and gloom. It means that you may need to rethink your goals in light of what is really going on with your target market. Is there a way that you can offer some product to the lower end bride?  It is really smart to put all your marketing drive into getting a market that is evaporating?  There is money out there to be made, it just may not be where it used to be.

 

 

Filed Under: Back to Basics, Inspiration, Trends Tagged With: , , ,

The Final Nail in the Knot’s Coffin

September 9, 2011 By 4 Comments

I have said it for so long that I am blue in the face:

The portals are dead and Google killed them.

Yet year after year, so many wedding vendors throw money at the Knot for ads that aren’t working. They throw money at Wedding Wire and every little portal website that comes along. Then they wonder why they aren’t getting any return on their investment. ~gah~

There was a time when the Knot really was a place for brides to go to get the information and inspiration that they needed. Today? uh, no. Why would they sort through pages of nonsense when all the have to do is Google exactly what they are looking for and get pages of very specific related answers. Even better, pages of images.

Finally I have back up. Today the Motley Fool picked XO Group(formerly the Knot) as their “Throw This Stock Away” pick of the week.  Below is the best quote of the article:

XO in general — and The Knot in particular — just aren’t as necessary as they used to be. Friends swap wedding service referrals for free through Facebook, and Angie’s List has grown into a powerhouse of vetted reviews.

Brides today are going to go where they already feel comfortable.

Now take a look at this quote about a stock they would pick to replace XO Group.

  • Google: XO relies on wedding service providers paying up to be featured on TheKnot.com. Despite all of the lifestyle site launches and acquisitions over the past four years, revenue has climbed just 22% higher at XO. Where are the advertisers going? My best bet would be Google. The search giant’s AdWords platform makes it easy to smoke out leads for pennies per click. It’s also hard to argue against Google at less than 13 times next year’s earnings.

I hate to leave you hanging at the altar XO, but I’m just not that into you.

What does all this mean to you?

In a nutshell, brides are finding information by searching on Google. If your website isn’t top notch and built to be search friendly, no amount of money you throw at advertising is going to do you any good.

Remember when I said “In 2008 we hit the reset button?’ Well this is one of the things that has changed. Ignore it at your own peril.

Oh and one more thing. If you own any stock in XO, I’d probably take the Fool’s advice.

Filed Under: Blog, Rants & Raves, Trends, Website marketing Tagged With: , ,

Some Companies Get It, Some Don’t.

September 1, 2011 By 2 Comments

One of the keys to continuing to be successful in business through the ups and downs of culture changes and economic upheaval is to stay focused on what your customer wants. Customers evolve with time, businesses have to as well.

Two very different articles crossed my path this morning and they highlight this better than anything I could do or say to convince you.

(Essdras M Suarez/Globe Staff)

 

First was an article in the Boston Globe talking about David’s Bridal’s decision to close their Priscilla’s of Boston division. Started in 1945, Priscilla’s was the epitome of high end gowns for many, many years. It salons were upscale, gorgeous and exclusive. The purchase of Priscilla’s by David’s in 2007 was their attempt to tap that market at the height of the wedding bubble. Unfortunately, the bubble burst, the economy tanked and the culture changed but the business model didn’t. The market for high end gowns sold in a slow paced pampering environment all but dried up.

This quote in the article from Yolanda Cellucci, once the reigning queen of the high end bridal salon says it all

“I used to carry Bob Mackie wedding dresses that cost up to $25,000,’’ Cellucci said. “We had a baby grand piano in the foyer with a pianist. There were models, and we served champagne. People don’t have time for that anymore. Everyone is rushing.’’

Cellucci saw the writing on the wall and closed her famous Boston salon 2 years ago. This was a woman that was smart enough to have an ATM installed in her parking lot. She never missed a trick.

David’s, also a very savvy player, hooked up with Vera Wang to go the other direction. Wang’s moderately priced line for David’s, White has reportedly been a tremendous hit. Know thy customer!

On the other end of the spectrum is Chicago’s House of Brides. I have listened for years to bridal salon owners call HoB every nasty name in the book because they saw the writing on the wall and opened an online store in addition to their brick and mortar operation. Originally opened in 1929, HoB could have continued to plug along with one little store but they jumped online and stayed ahead of the curve.

Today’s press release announced the opening of their 10th store, The Quinceanera Boutique . Something else that the article highlighted was it’s Diva Bridal Boutique, a shop exclusively for Plus size brides.

The Diva Bridal Boutique is the first salon in the nation dedicated to plus size brides. The Diva Bridal Boutique showcases fashion-forward designer wedding dresses exclusively in sizes 18 – 40. All wedding dresses are available in Women’s sizes only including the samples. Plus size brides can try-on dresses in Women’s sizes instead of the industry’s standard sample sizes of 10s and 12s. Diva Bridal Boutique features dresses available for immediate purchase or special order.

Talk about listening to your customer and giving them what they want.

Now you tell me, is it better to continue to do what has worked in the past or to continue to evolve as your customers do?

Filed Under: Back to Basics, Blog, Building Your Business, Trends Tagged With: , ,

The Changing Face of The American Wedding

June 29, 2011 By 3 Comments

I set out this morning with the intention of doing one of my Trend Tracker post. You know, where I run through about 1000 posts in my reader quickly to see what jumps out. Well today, what jumped out was a little deeper than colors and feathers, circuses and painted signs.

What jumped out was a different way of thinking about weddings, to be more precise, how couples are thinking differently about their wedding.

There seems to be a feeling or yearning for the small town, tight knit community of family and friends. Gone is the urban chic. Even the Mad Men look was no where to be found. I felt transported to a time and place when life was simpler. A time of picnics in the town square, concerts in the band shell, carnivals that appeared magically on the outskirts of town, a time of farmhouses and faded picket fences.

I saw more and more of families pitching in to help the couple realize their dreams. Think of the new American wedding as a modern day barn raising.

If you will notice, I used the word ‘couple ‘ in the 4th sentence instead of ‘bride’. That is another change that is just beginning to emerge. Because weddings are increasingly being financed by the couple, the men are becoming more involved and to a lesser degree, more excited by the wedding planning process.

I have long maintained that more and more, brides are getting their information from blogs, chat and forums. I ran across an interesting thread that helps to explain why. There are several pages to this thread, but this one statement tell the story better than I ever could. Mainstream wedding media, pay attention.

Shortly after getting engaged, a recently married co-worker suggesting I check out Weddingbee. She said of all the wedding websites, Weddingbee was her favorite as it followed real brides on real budgets. (emphasis mine)

Two more  interesting threads concerns the desire of some brides to blow off the fluff and pouf altogether. The first is from Weddingbee and illustrates that despite their desires, brides were into full on planning mode due to pressure from not only their families but also the groom.  In the second thread the Tribe Community manager for OffBeat Bride explains that she really isn’t all that OffBeat. This quote explains why she wasn’t a fit for traditional wedding media:

I don’t do the poetic schmoopy thing very well, but to ME, being offbeat is putting your marriage and relationship ahead of your wedding and being true to the people you are every day. It means that your wedding (ie: a party) exists to honor the two of you, and to celebrate you choosing to spend the rest of your lives together with the people you adore. It’s not a showcase of wealth and taste, carefully tailored to inspire envy, covetousness, and awe in as many people as possible … it’s a showcase of your love

Well said Ang.

More and more I see the face of the American wedding changing in some very positive ways. Oh maybe not positive for the wedding professionals that still yearn for the “More is better” heyday of  2008; but a big plus for our society and for the vendors that change and adapt with it.

 

Oh ya, the Trend Tracker

 

Colors are softer, dresses are softer, finishes are softer, it is like the world is looking at wedding by squinting.

 

 

{Source}

Filed Under: Announcement, Trends, What Brides Say, What's Hot Tagged With:

Marketing to Grooms

June 3, 2011 By 1 Comment

Now that we have established this new dynamic going on in the wedding industry, specifically grooms having more input, how do we use it?

First things first, you have to decide if your service or product is one that is likely to fall in their laps. Some things like gowns and flowers probably won’t. Face it,  you show a groom a bouquet of all white carnations and another of white phaleanopsis orchids and most are going to see two white bouquets. Just about everything else is fair game.

Next, let’s take a look at where he is mentally on this whole thing. He is probably going to have an attitude of “Well heck ya I can do this and I’m going to look damn good doing it! i’ll knock this out of the park.” Underneath all that is doubt and fear at entering an arena in which he has never been. Add to that the knowledge that this is the first really big thing he has undertaken in his budding role as “husband” and the outcome will forever color the opinion of not just his wife but also her mother and sisters. Let’s not forget that he still wants to look manly to his bros. No pressure.

Men Shop Differently

Much of the marketing we do aimed at women can best be summed up as ‘wooing’. We strike her emotions and become her friend. She buys the team, he buys a commodity.

Your first goal will be to put him at ease. A little humor will work wonders here.

You will want to clearly state the benefits of your product or service. Even go so far as pictograms and charts of why you are different. Remember, the nuances that she would see must often be pointed out to the men. Also, men are visual.

You need very clear calls to action. Don’t just list your phone number or contact info. Put in a big button.

Give them clear steps to follow.

  • know your budget
  • know your guest count
  • choose your style (see options)
  • review our menu suggestions (click here for menu)
  • set a tasting
  • book your event

    •  

    Here is the deal, women shop a bit like the students in a Montessori program learn, by seeking out and discovering on their own. Men want a clear orderly list of actionable steps to success. Your goal is to give it to them.

    In the end, your couples are probably going to make the final decision together, but an increasing portion of the leg work is going to fall on him. You need to be ready.

     

    Disclaimer: I am not talking about all men, nor am I talking about all couples or all women. I am in the most general terms trying to help you be ahead of a trend I see on the horizon. As with most trends, this is happening first in the more urban areas with the couples least bound by tradition.

    Filed Under: Ask Christine, Trends Tagged With: , , ,

    Has Our Client Changed?

    June 1, 2011 By 4 Comments

    Conventional wisdom is that wedding vendors market to brides,

    but is that still true?

    I have been tracking a rising trend of grooms doing more of the planning than ever before.1 Time was when the groom picked maybe the band and maybe, just maybe the men’s wear. Other than that, they knew they were better off just staying the hell out of the way. This was between their future bride and their soon to be Mother in Law, both of which he knew better than to piss off.

    That was then, this is now.

    I  have been having a discussion with wedding vendors all around the country and most are saying the same thing: Grooms have more power in the process today and they view it much differently. Men view shopping (and to them that is what this is) as price, contracts and commodities. They don’t see the nuances. They see apples to apples when we all know that simply isn’t true.

    Grooms may or may not be as emotionally invested in the wedding as the bride.2 They are flexing their muscle to impress her by handling it in a very businesslike manner. Determined to get the best price and the tightest contract they are bringing their negotiating A-game. Lovely.

    So how did this all happen?

    Our culture is changing, for one thing. If you have read any of the numerous studies that have come out in the last year or so about the rise of women then you should have seen this coming. By the time women reach the average age of a bride in 2011, they have completed university and begun to establish their career. They have learned the value of team work and delegation of duties. They see their role of wife as an equal partner and the see the wedding as belonging to the couple not just her. Another change is that her career is of high importance to her and she realizes that she has to work very hard to rise in her field. So she does what she has learned to do: she delegates.

    No longer is the conversation, “Honey, please help me decide between these 2 invitations.”  Now it is more likely to be ” Look, you have more time than me, you have great graphic skills, deal with the invitations.” Women have long grumbled about the entire job of wedding planning falling on their shoulders and they are finally finding a way to change it.

    That is wonderful, but it comes with it’s own issues. Men are just different in the way they approach the issue of acquiring goods and services. We as wedding vendors have gotten very good at how to sell to women. Now comes this new creature that we formerly either humored or ignored that is now the decision maker. It is time to hone you A-game and learn to sell to these guys. Your future may depend on it.

     

    1Like most trends, this is most prevalent in the urban centers. Talking with professionals in less urban areas, this isn’t as much an issue…yet.

    2 Notice I said wedding, not marriage; many of them are even more invested in the marriage than the bride.

    Filed Under: Blog, Trends, What Brides Say Tagged With: , ,

    Shrinking Options.

    May 11, 2011 By Leave a Comment

    I attended an open house last night at a very cool, out of the ordinary venue , The Wine Loft.  The thing about events like this is the chance to chat very openly with others in the industry. It’s amazing what you can learn.

    One of the topics that came up was the trends of venues moving beyond the use of preferred vendor to the new level of “only” vendors. One very popular local venue1 has made the decision to only allow a certain rental company and a certain lighting company. On the one hand I can somewhat understand the desire to protect this historic property, but I have to wonder if there isn’t more to it. You know, like kickbacks. In those two categories, there are some other very professional options, often at a lower cost.

    This decision has the potential to hurt a lot of people in the wallet. Brides for instance. If they want the venue, they have to hire the higher priced vendor or forgo the use of lighting or a tent. Hmmm. The other option she has is to start slashing the budget somewhere else. That has the potential to hurt the florist or decor vendor, the caterer or the baker. How long are they going to be excited about this venue once they realize that the brides that use it are going to have to cut their piece of the pie so they can afford the more expensive lighting company. How long before they stop referring this venue?

    It’s an interesting question and I wonder if the venues that are doing this have fully thought out the unintended consequences?

    Along those same lines, there is another group of local venues that are charging a percentage of a vendors bill. This, in my opinion, is just crazy. If a brides tab with, say a caterer, is $15,000, someone has to pay the venue 10%, $1500 on top of the rental fee for the venue. That charge is going to the bride one way or another. If the caterer is paying it, you better believe that that charge is getting padded into the bill. Can’t you just see the bride’s reaction if that charge appeared as “Venue demanded kickback”. Yah, I just gulped too. I wonder what  would happen if the venue just tagged the bride directly.

    I realize that the economy has sucked for the last few years, but really?

    How long will this trend continue and how far will it go before the law of unintended consequences kick in?  Today’s bride is more than willing to look at out of the box options. Just because you have a popular venue, doesn’t mean you can just keep squeezing.

     

    1 No, NOT the Wine Loft, they are very cool.

    Filed Under: Trends Tagged With: , ,

    Game Changers in the Wedding Market

    April 8, 2011 By 3 Comments

    I talk to a lot of different wedding businesses over the course of a week. I also talk alot about change and our changing marketplace.

    When I run across the former that really gets the later I want to jump up and down with joy. You have heard me talk about photographers that are switching focus, florists that are changing to showcase rental and planners that are putting thier talents into an Etsy store with all the things they make for weddings.

    Here are two that are jumping into the wedding fray from other industries that might just be game changers.

    My Flip Wedding:

    My Flip Wedding is the brainchild of Storymix Media. These guys have been doing editing and fusion media for pro-photographers for a long time. Now they are jumping into the retail side.

    Couples can rent Flip Video cameras and have their closest friends and family members video their wedding, shower, stag & hen nights or any other part of their celebration. Then they send the cameras back in the pre-paid envelope and let the Apple Certified pros create a highlight reel. It’s fun, it’s easy, it’s really inexpensive and couples are loving it.

    I know that videographers are going into convulsions right now. Look, this doesn’t have to be about cutting you out, it is about adding a different POV. It is also an option for the 70% of couples that weren’t going to hire a pro anyway.

    Here is a company that read the numbers, found a new solution using cutting edge tech and are poised to be the hot new trend.

    Just an example of reading the market and giving them what they want in the way they want it.

    Something Borrowed NY:

    We have all watched the changes happening in the bridal gown market. Vera Wang saw it coming and hooked up with seemingly strange bedfellow, David’s Bridal.

    I had the pleasure of speaking with Brittany Haas last night of Something Borrowed NY. Haas and her business partner met while in university studying fashion, both design and business. As they watched their older sisters and friends search for the perfect wedding gown and grapple with the cost, they listened and learned.

    It seems that the newest generation of bride still longs for that high end designer fairy tale gown, but don’t attach the same sentimentality to it as generations past. Yes they want to wear it, but once the wedding is over, they could care less. After the wedding, these same brides tried, mostly in vane, to sell their very expensive gowns. Despite the now seeming abundance of resellers and consignment sites on the web, they had no takers.

    As a response Haas is working the plan and building the foundation of what may well be a new trend. Rentals. It may not take off tomorrow or next week, but mark my words, as more and more Gen Y brides enter the marketplace this will become acceptable. They are already comfotable with concepts like Rent the Runway and Bag, Borrow or Steal. When it comes time to decide what to wear on the big day, well, Something Borrowed NY will look pretty good.

    Yes, it is a fledgling business in a fledgling concept, but when it hit’s; look out world. Something Borrowed NY is an idea whose time may very well have come.

    (I purposely did not include Something Borrowed website because is isn’t ready for prime time, but give them a follow on Facebook and watch these dynamic ladies leap forward?)

    How are you changing the game? Or are you content to just stand there and get run over.

    Filed Under: Ask Christine, Rants & Raves, Trends, What Brides Say Tagged With: ,

    My Flip Wedding and Staying Ahead of the Curve

    March 15, 2011 By 1 Comment

    I have built a reputation of being pretty spot on in terms of trend tracking, well here is the next one.

    I rarely take on clients for full on marketing campaigns anymore, but this one was too hot to pass up.  I want you, my faithful readers to be ahead of the curve.

    In the coming months, your brides are going to be asking you about My Flip Wedding. What, you ask, is a Flip Wedding? It is the brain child of the wonderful folks at Storymix Media and it is a way for brides and grooms to capture the memories of their wedding (before and beyond) in a DIY way with amazing results.

    Storymix Media will rent the simple to use little Flip cameras as a package, your bride then gets them into the hands of the people who know her best, her friends and family. Once they have filmed the bits and pieces of the big day from their unique point of view, the cameras are packed up and sent back to Storymix Media. They upload the footage and then the bride can use their easy-peasy storyboard editing system to pick the scenes, the theme and the music. The Apple Certified Pros at Storymix then edit them into a wonderful highlight reel.

    Videographers, don’t panic. This isn’t to replace you, this is in addition to you.

    I think, even cooler than couples using it for their wedding are all the other applications I am seeing. Grooms are using them for their bachelor party, brides are capturing their shower and girls day. Couples are taking them on their honeymoon. The possibilities are endless. You see the thing is, sometimes your best friends and family see things that you (and your videographer) miss. It is like getting to be a guest at your wedding.

    You can find out more in today’s press release. You can also check out the Man Registry for a post later today. Next month, OffBeat Bride is doing a feature on My Flip Wedding.

    Here is one more thing that you might find useful. Mike and Ariane Fisher, the brains behind Storymix Media are offering an affiliate program. If you have a retail storefront or are a planner, this is one more way to add a little cha-ching to your bottom line. Think of the impluse buy possibilities. We are still in the building stages of the affiliate program, so if you have some input, let me know.

    Here is another heads up. I am seeing some copy-cats start to climb out of the wood work. Don’t go there. Mike and Ariane at Storymix Media have been doing this since 2006 for pros and consumers alike. The new part is that now they have launched a wedding division specifically for the bridal market. Trust me, the team at Storymix Media knows what they are doing.

     

    For the record, no this isn’t a sponsored post but they are a client of mine.

    Filed Under: Announcement, Trends, What's Hot Tagged With: ,

    DIY Your Niche

    February 14, 2011 By 4 Comments

    My friend Sheryl shared a press release she ran across about how Micheal’s is upgrading their wedding section to add more upscale designs. It just so happened that I had the opportunity yesterday to poke my head into the wedding aisle at this mecca of DIY. What I found got me thinking.

    It wasn’t the products that intrigued me, but the shopper. Here stood a lovely young women, looking flustered, frustrated and not at all happy. Such is the truth about DIY.

    To read the forums, the blogs and the magazines, crafting and creating all the details of your perfect wedding are a pleasure and a joy unspeakable; something akin to walking barefoot through a field and picking daisies. Well, as a life long crafter, I am here to tell you that is about as far from the truth as it gets. Then you go and add a deadline, a million other tasks and the looming presence of “The Biggest Day OF MY LIFE”  and you have a recipe for a major meltdown. I wonder just how many weddings have been canceled by grooms witnessing an overload of DIY?

    I know, just make them stop doing it and we will all be a lot happier. Sorry kids, that isn’t going to happen anytime soon.

    But…

    You can use it to your advantage.

    How you ask?

    Trust me, when they finally cry “uncle” the person that picks them up, dusts them off and helps then finish is going to be their hero and they will pay handsomely. You have to have the right attitude about it, you can’t be all “I told you so” you have to be the kindly big sis/brother that just wants their day to be perfect. You will want to explain ~gently~ that you do of course have to pay your staff.

    Business success has always been about finding a problem and then solving it. I am here to tell you, this is a problem!

    Filed Under: Blog, Building Your Business, Horror Stories, Trends Tagged With: , ,
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