The holiday season is traditionally a joyous time of celebration, full
of warm and affectionate sentiments and adorned with Christmas trees,
menorahs, wreaths and candles. Included in this festive season are special
holidays, e.g. Christmas, Hanukkah and New Yearsall very popular
jewelry/gift-giving occasions which offer many excellent opportunities
for promoting all types of personalization, particularly engraving.
This article on holiday inscriptions is the eighth in a series of articles
on jewelry/gift engraving etiquette. The first few installments presented
many important engraving/etiquette considerations worth referring to.
Part 1 (Feb. 04) discussed name engraving. Part 2 (March 04)
concentrated on initials. Part 3 (April 04) focused on dates, donor
names, occasion names and messages. Part 4 (May 04) presented some
very practical ideasthe correct placement and orientation of personalized
message.
Part
5 (June 04) introduced this series-within-a-series of specifically-related
gift suggestions with gift messages and inscriptions related to graduations.
Part 6 published in July 2004, covered wedding inscriptions and Part 7
(August 04) focused on messages for Birthdays and Anniversaries.
In this issue we will continue the mini-series by concentrating on a new
theme: holiday gift messages.
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While
a few end-of-summer sales are still going on, but long before the first
snowflake hits the ground, most R&I professionals are deep in the
midst of preparations for the upcoming holiday gift-giving season. Their
search is already well underway for new engravable items to add to their
standard gift line. And trying to determine what gift items will be most
popular among each years shoppers is not an easy job. However, this
year retailers are likely to find a greater selection of unique and attractive,
customer-pleasing personalizables than ever before.
Personalized
gift ideas for the holidays are almost limitless. There are personal gifts,
desk accessories, jewelry, household gifts, decorative items and even
personalized Christmas ornaments.
But
if stores hope to substantially increase their holiday sales by simply
appealing to their customers with more and better gift choices, they will
find that this is not enough. To further entice customers who are shopping
for holiday gifts, specific engraving suggestions should also be presented
which are related to the holiday theme. By adding an initial, a date,
or a timely inscription, even the most ordinary gift choice becomes a
memorable keepsake.
Offering
personalization ideas for the holidays and promoting it early can mean
greater profits now and fewer gift returns after the holidays. Not only
does personalization by engraving, sublimation, sandblasting etc. provide
an added attraction to help secure the initial sale, it also guarantees
the sale, since engraved items may be considered final sales and customers
understand this! And because many stores do nearly half of their annual
personalization work in the last quarter of the year, its important
to get started early and find ways to make it easy for customers to make
their gift selection. Without adequate information and suggestions readily
available (regarding what items to engrave, what to say, how to say it,
letter selection, layout, etc.) many engraving sales can be lost during
the hustle and bustle of holiday shopping.
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The
busier your shop is, the more difficult it becomes to adequately assist
even the unhurried customer to reach an engraving decision. Personalization
must therefore be presented in as easy and uncomplicated a manner as possible.
Customers who have little experience with engraving and other personalization
processes may be very hesitant. And for each customer who hesitates to
seek assistance it may mean one less sale.
Since
the most time consuming part of any engraving order is deciding what to
say and how to say it, the first step we suggest is that you compile a
list of personalization suggestions strictly related to the holidays.
Hopefully
some of the sample layouts and suggested messages presented in Figure
1 will serve as an initial source of suggested holiday inscriptions. You
no doubt have many of your own favorites to add to those offered here.
You
may have noticed that we have avoided use of the abbreviation Xmas in
our list of suggested holiday inscriptions. This was intentional since
some gift recipients may find such an abbreviation offensive. We are not
suggesting that you not use the word Xmas, only that you point out to
the customer that not everyone appreciates such an abbreviation.
We
also recommend that you provide only a limited number of holiday related
suggestions since too many choices can easily confuse customers. Customers
will quickly become discouraged if they have to "weed" through
a lot of unrelated or inappropriate messages.
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The
small amount of time spent now to compile your own list of holiday related
inscriptions will prove to be quite a time saver later on when discussing
holiday gift engraving ideas with your customers, especially for salespersons
with limited experience. This becomes especially true as customers become
more rushed and time is at a premium. The idea is to make engravable gifts
as fast and easy to order as possible. The handy list just suggested will
provide a good start.
Specially
designed holiday displays can offer additional ways to sell engraving
and therefore finalize holiday sales. . . without the initial aid of a
salesperson by letting your displays do much of the sales work. One time-proven
method is to discreetly place among displays and in showcases some small
message cards/signs such as "Let us personalize your holiday gift
purchases."
In
this article we have offered just a small sample of the many special holiday
inscriptions that might be suggested to your customers. In addition, we
have suggested a few ideas for selling your engraving services during
the busy holidays.
Hopefully
these ideas will help to promote all of your personalization options,
not just laser and mechanical engraving but also sublimation and glass
etching, presenting it in as easy and uncomplicated a manner as possible.
It stands to reason that if the selection process moves along more efficiently
then personalization and gift sales can be expected to increase also.
Future
articles in this series will include specific personalization suggestions
for other gift giving occasions such as birthdays, anniversaries and other
special occasions.
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