New publishers often ask me for business advice and a common phrase used is, “what is standard” in this or that situation in our industry. The implication being that there are set rules or procedures in any given business dealings.
Of course there is etiquette in business and there are common practices in the card industry, but I always bristle at the use of the word “standard.” You see, when people ask in this way, what they don’t seem to realise is that my authority is their authority. That is to say that they are the ones accepting my authority as some external objective truth, which it is not.
The person asking the question is not necessarily choosing to think carefully about what is right for them or right for their customer in their situation and is instead wanting to be told what to do. Like asking a teacher or a parent for permission. What can follow is a lack of responsibility and the insidious abandonment of innovation and creativity.
If we follow patterns and reduce things to ‘standard’ our products and processes become standard and our means of distribution become standard. As a result things can start to suffer.
Take, for example, a recent conversation I had with a very successful and experienced retailer friend of mine about how to design the ultimate, best selling selection of greeting cards. He had a similar discussion with another publisher / broker who had dismissed his ideas because the cards wouldn’t fit into the control system they had for displaying the cards. You read that right, “sorry, we can’t design the ultimate selection of best selling greeting cards because they won’t fit into our display system!” Do you see how our quest for what is standard can lead us down the path to mediocrity?
To my mind this is even worse if we think not only of the money that could be made designing such a selection of best selling cards, but also of what the world wants and needs. This collection of cards could be improving the way that people connect and communicate with one another. It could be touching hearts and changing lives. Yet it isn’t, because the standardised racks won’t accept some of these new ideas. These cards may have already been created and exist in the world at this very moment, yet they will be rejected by the buyers or brokers based on the display systems rather than how the end users of the cards feel about them. The brokers themselves or the buyers can divest themselves of authority by handing it over to their systems. Some teeth sucking and… “Oooh, we can’t do that. It’s not our fault, it just doesn’t fit with our systems.”
You can see also how this problem regularly affects the wider world outside our industry where people are often resistant to change because “that’s just not how we do things around here” or “nobody else does it that way / everybody does it a different way.” Both of these examples are people divesting themselves of responsibility and leaving it instead to the status quo. They are not necessarily stepping back and thinking what is best for them and their customers in this era. Because, of course, times change and what was once the way things were done has now been superseded by better methods. In fact, times are changing faster than ever. I read recently that the first ten years of this century saw more technological advancements than the entire previous century and the last six years or so have seen more than the previous ten.
Disruptive businesses are challenging how we do things across the planet: Tesla are redefining the car industry, Uber changing how we use taxis, AirBnB where we stay when we travel, YouTube how we watch TV, WhatsApp with how we communicate and Facebook with how we consume media and share stories. Whilst a lot of the disrupters are about saving money or time or both, it’s not all about what is cheapest. Despite these changes we still love to buy and share beautiful things. Not on the High Street and Etsy have been big drivers on the internet of this trend. We see it in the ever growing popularity of artisan food products and designer-maker gifts and cards.
So we cannot sit still. We cannot keep doing things the way we have always done them. We need to challenge ourselves and redefine things constantly experimenting with new creative ideas and being prepared to fail. If we publish cards we have to explore new techniques and think carefully about what cards we like to buy and send in order to learn what works for people who still love to buy and send cards. We have to get to know our customers well and never stop asking them questions about what works well for them and what doesn’t.
If we retail then we also need to know our customers. What sells well in our stores and why? What will surprise and delight? When buying new ranges the simplest question to ask is ‘would my customers buy this?’ If you’re not sure, would you buy it? Who would you send it to and why? Does the price seem reasonable? Price scales in relation to the former questions btw. If the designs are beautiful, different or you would love to send the card then it’s worth paying more for. It’s good to keep testing price brackets with products so that you don’t get stuck in a belief system that stops you growing your sales and profits (Eg. “My customers never spend more than £3 on a card.” Never say never). We also need to feedback to our suppliers so they can continue to improve our options.
If we are in the supply chain we have to understand the needs of our publishers and retailers. We have to adapt and create new techniques and innovations for stock control. We have to stay mindful of the environment and support the use of ethical materials and print.
If we are brokers we have to remember that every card needs to be judged on it’s own merit. Is this a card that people will want to buy? The greeting card should drive the planning, not the the other way around.
We all have to innovate with ways we run our businesses and work with our staff, our customers and suppliers. We have to be prepared to experiment regularly and make mistakes. We need to think carefully about cards and our industry. We have to support new initiatives like Festive Friday and Thinking of You Week to keep banging the drums about how great it is to send and receive greeting cards. We must continue to share stories of how important they are for maintaining that sense of connection with one another in the world, in a way that is still profoundly relevant in our digital age.
I’m a huge fan of how systems have streamlined our business processes, but we have to be mindful that they do not become the tail that wags the proverbial dog. The systems need to have flexibility in what is essentially a creative business. We are not selling and distributing uniform fast moving consumer goods like cans of coke. Our systems need to be adaptable because there are a multiplicity of card buying consumers out there with a huge range of experiences and desires.
It’s so easy to talk ourselves out of taking risk and offering something fresh to the world because of what we think is standard rather than following our hearts or testing. Nature is always testing and trying things to see what works and then following its success with more of the same. Not enough to eat on the ground? Grow a longer neck to reach the juiciest buds on the trees. Food still scarce? Then grow a water storage system on your back to traverse large sections of the desert in the quest for another oasis of water.
Whilst we have a need for certainty through things like systems and standardisation it is actually our need for variety that makes living so much fun. More importantly, as we see in nature, variety is essential for survival.
