Is your shop having an identity crisis?

Mirror Mirror on the wall… who is the best frame shop of them all? Are you getting an authentic reflection of how your business is perceived by potential customers, or do you need a reality check… and maybe eyeglasses?

While snuggling up with the little kiddos in my family recently during story time with Auntie Sheila, I was reintroduced to some of the old familiar fairy tale metaphors regarding reflections. Mirrors are quite troublesome in storybookland:

• Snow White’s stepmother was receiving advice and affirmation from an ancient magic mirror. Instead of giving her an accurate reflection of who she was, the fearful genie trapped inside the mirror only told the Queen what she wanted to hear.

• Narcissus got so involved gazing at his own reflection that he became oblivious to the world around him and he perished.

• Alice stepped through a mirror into a world that wasn’t based in reality, and became trapped in a nightmare until she escaped.

Does your shop reflect a clear brand identity? Are you marketing to the right customer base? If you are ignoring demographics, and neglecting to track sales and marketing metrics, your business may be struggling unnecessarily. The good news is that FrameReady has some great tools and cool new integrations to help you get back on track and keep your brand and business relevant. I have met some egocentric framers who are painfully out of touch regarding how their business is perceived. They are resistant to change and improvements, and yet wonder where their customers have disappeared to?

Speaking of Narcissus, a high-end gallery owner asked me for some marketing help. Their current customer base was getting a little stale and they were struggling to attract new clients. As I admired a $300,000 sculpture outside their office door; I realized that most of the art in the gallery cost more than my house. During our meeting, while trying to determine their sales goals and expectations, I asked the owners, “Who is your customer, and what demographic are you trying to reach?”

The answer to that question seemed obvious. I imagined their target customers would be gazillionaires like Richie Rich and Scrooge McDuck , swimming in Olympic-sized pools of money. Nope. Their answer made me do a double take.

“Well, we want to reach everyone, obviously!” the gallery owner responded with some indignation.

I was a bit stunned. “Everyone?? You realize the 11x 14 painting behind you cost more than my college education? Granted I went to a state school and all, but still…”

It became painfully apparent that this owner had tunnel vision and was out of touch in regards to the income gap between regular middle-class folks and the uber-rich residents in the community. Sadly, I had to burst their wealthy, elitist, gold-leafed bubble. Due to a lack of self-awareness, they had lost their brand identity. Their fancy gallery has a very small niche market of the ultra-wealthy; spending precious advertising dollars to attract regular middle-class folks was a waste of money and time.

After some introspection and re-evaluating their potential client base, we came up with a plan. Using FrameReady’s contact files, we were able to track their top 100 customers’ favorite artists. Anytime the gallery acquired a new piece, they would send out fancy VIP invites to their customers who were collectors. Bargain advertising wasn’t attracting sophisticated art afficionados; but placing quality ads in national business journals, theater and opera programs, attending high end charity events, networking at the country club and marketing to the wealthy clients’ house and business managers proved to be an effective way of reaching their clientele. Rich people like exclusivity; so be exclusive.

Of course, in the real world, most of us peasants don’t have this problem, but the principles of marketing are the same; rule number one is, know your customer and know your business.

Another framer I know was having a different type of identity crisis. She became stuck in a rut. This talented framer opened her shop in the mid 1990’s in a small town 30 miles outside a metropolitan area. Her average customer age was now 55+. An older customer base is challenging because they are usually established, don’t have much wall space, and already have invested in all the art they want. The Thomas Kinkade giclee over the fireplace that they bought on a cruise ship in 2002 is going to stay there until they move out or die. My framer friend wasn’t paying attention to how her city was changing. In the past five years her community’s demographic had shifted dramatically; young couples 25-35 were migrating into the smaller suburb in record numbers because housing prices in the city were too high. This age group of first-time home buyers are a fantastic market to tap; lots of wall space and they’re starting to buy more sophisticated, grown-up art to decorate their new house. A few years ago, her shop was thriving, but sales were dropping and she was too proud to accept and adapt to the changing population and shift in décor style and customer preferences. She confided in me that she was struggling, and asked for some advice. I sent my 25-year-old friend on an undercover mission to go check out the gallery and report her first impressions: “It’s like my grandma’s house in there.” This shop’s “Boomer” aesthetic was a huge turn off to her largest customer base. In denial, she blamed the economy, and big box stores for her poor sales, she was her own worst enemy and refused to see it. She refused to attend trade shows or participate in framer’s groups online to keep up with new trends and styles. A year later she closed up her shop and moved to a retirement village in Arizona. Maybe the grandmas there will appreciate her old-fashioned style?

Another friend was having a different type of identity crisis. He was trying to be everything to everyone… a discount framer who was doing conservation, museum quality work in a gallery that was high end but also sold posters and tacky souvenirs to tourists. His shop was an eclectic mess. Like Alice who had stepped through the looking glass, his shop reflected eccentricity and confusion, and you could see it in his customer’s puzzled faces when they walked in his door. “What is this place?” He was struggling. We talked and he decided that since the scenic town he lived in had a peak tourist season, that was the market he wanted to focus on. He sourced some talented local photographers and artists, and sold pre-mounted art with matting that was easy to fit into a suitcase and into a readymade frame. He also offered shipping services, so if the tourists wanted to buy bigger pieces, they could easily be shipped home. He set up an online store, and developed a mailing list so he could keep in touch with the tourists after they went home. He got an extra surge of business during the holidays. It took some time, but his shop transformed from Cheshire Cat crazy to “that charming little gallery we visited on vacation.”

It’s painful to take a hard, unfiltered look in the mirror and get an honest perspective as to how your shop is perceived. Online reviews from Yelp or Google can be painful to review, but pay attention to the negative feedback, and remember to build on the positive comments as well. We want you to be successful! FrameReady’s contacts file has some amazing tools, along with new integrations, like Shopify, Constant Contact, and Mailchimp that can make it easier to find and market to your customers, make more money and live happily ever after.

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"Mind Your Business", by Sheila McCumby, May, 2023