Page 92 - One Thousand Ways to Make $1000

Nantucket, Massachusetts. After several members of this group experienced
difficulty in marketing their handicrafts, a central sales department was
established, which devotes its entire attention to building up and maintaining
a year-round market for the products of members.

Deference to the style factor is most important in holding a clientele which
must be persuaded to pay premium prices for quality products. Next to
shortcomings in design, lack of conformity to color trends has been the most
serious drawback for many a venture among arts and crafts groups. To
overcome these serious obstacles, the sales agent for the Willow Cottage
Weavers goes scouting several times a year to the style centers to study
fashion trends, and more particularly, color preferences. As 95 per cent of the
output is original in design, it is most essential that the merchandise conform
to apparel trends to hold customers, many of whom buy on sample.

The direct sales campaign is two-pronged. On the one hand, there is the
solicitation of old customers by mail. This has lately been coupled with a
“traveling exhibition” which is counted upon to muster new prospects as well
as to contact the old customers in the cities visited. Some of the producers of
hand-woven textiles have simplified their display problem by staging
demonstrations in department stores. The head of the Willow Cottage
organization prefers an exhibition sale at a hotel, club, vacant store, or other
location that permits an atmosphere of detachment. Invitations to hand-
picked lists are relied upon to coax potential buyers.

A second line of attack by the Willow Cottage Weavers is a distinct departure
from the usual handicraft marketing methods. Several times a year,
representatives of the twelve-loom plant visit leading cities to contact interior
decorators and other volume purchasers of hangings, upholstery fabrics, etc.
This plan has been richly productive of new business in sizable units. For
example, a record-breaking order came in for fabrics for a new dormitory at
Cornell. Because of the demand in modern upholstery and interior decoration
for period designs, most of the work must be done to order to insure color
conformity.

These master weavers have found one secret of tying the steady customers