Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Beyond a Brand


Caught with my hand in a cookie jar
Caught with my skirt up a little too far
Caught in the rain, in the dark, all alone
Caught past midnight up on the phone

Caught in a kiss with my lover alone
Caught by my mother sneaking out before dawn
Caught at a light when all I needed was green
Caught by the wind, my dress showing everything

Caught with notes on my hand during a test
Caught eating chocolate when I was depressed
Caught bluffing in poker my chips all taken
Caught in the lunch room line breaking

We have all done it, all turned red and embarrassed
We have all hidden our faces in shame
Everyone of us has experienced it; everyone understands
Being caught RED handed--an experience not just a brand.


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We took a weekend trip to Atlanta, my husband, brother, and sister-in-law, and ended up standing in front of Tiffany's. "Let's just go in and LOOK," I pleaded. Well, as we were browsing, a helpful little salesman walked by and began to try out his magic on my husband. Witin a couple minutes my husband had turned the tables around and was asking him "Why Tiffany's? What makes this bracelet better than any other bracelet?" The salesman politely looked and my husband with assurance in his eys "It's not just the jewlery, it's the experience."

It is very important to sell a quality product, a product that you can stand behind and really enjoy and cherish. BUT I learned somethging that day. The experience--or the brand--is as important as the product itself. We live in America where jewelry, soaps, candles, and even art is easy to come by. In order to be succesful your product, whatever it may be, needs to stand out. It needs to pack an experience a long with it. Every designer needs to develop a BRAND.

We have been working on this specifically for the last couple months and it has been a lot of fun but also a lot of work! The name of our shop stems from my constant awful, terrible, no good, very bad luck. When opening CRH I decided to just put it out there. There was no use fighting it anymore. With that decision of acceptance my business grew as did my customer base. I started to receive emails like this one I received just the other day:

"Your red-handed poem is a delight! I could really identify with several of those scenarios. I once confidently walked into the men's washroom at a pub. The guy at the urinal turned his head to see who was coming in and caught me, big-eyed and back pedaling. No prob hiding my embarrassment in a big, darkish pub, right? Ha! He came out of the john and returned to his seat, right behind my chair, big grin on his face! Aaargh!" --Earotica
www.earotica.etsy.com

I have truly enjoyed laughing with my customers and other artists. But within the laughter came something unexpected, something truly original and something wholly mine. Within the laughter came an EXPERIENCE that took us right past a brand.

1 comment:

Wendy Dooldeniya said...

As the winner of the pendant a few weeks ago, I was delighted to receive the darling MODERN WATER LILY pendant in the mail.

It is delicate in style and hardy in quality. I see it as an heirloom to my 2 daughters already. They are already signing up for turns to wear it.

If you need something delicate, with a touch of feminine - this piece is for you.

The quality of crafts- woman- ship is fantastic!

Thanks Caughtredhanded for the great pendant! Can't wait to order more!