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Baer Charlton

SPFG, Supreme Picture Framing God
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May 24, 2004
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The customer had been coming to us for most of her 25 years as a teacher. We had framed many of her own kids art and school pictures as well as some art from her students.

It was a wonderful morning and we were talking about her years as a teacher, and the stuff she had framed to preserve. We were now working on three big projects, one for each of her children.

12 opening mats that would have caligraphed "age and grade" for each of the 3x4 pictures. The frames were very nice and would last her childrens life-times.

The accompanying three pieces with fabric mats, fillets, museum glass and gold frame would be for each of their High School graduation 8x10s...

We were just laughing about one of the kids big faux pas, when the mailman came in and dropped the mail on the counter. No big deal....

Except the fact that Framing Monthly was on top, and was VERY readable to her. I read upside down as fast as I read rightside up.... and we read and looked up in unison... my heart was in my throat.

How could I explain that THIS is NOT the way 28,000 framers view their customers.

She quietly picked up her pictures and walked.
Time will tell if it was 'out of our lives'.
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Maybe a brown paper wraper would have been more appropriate with a 24 point line about "Tugging at heartstrings . . Big Profits".
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Hopefully she will come back in if you mail her a card and say you were just as shocked as she was on what you read, and yada, yada, yada. However you would think a person bringing you framing for 25 years would not take it so personally. Such is life I guess.

Rock
 
Marketing is not a mortal sin. Profit is not a dirty word.
Every business looks for ways to increase sales.
Every business has trade magazines with articles such as Think Young .

I don't get why she took offense.
 
She assumed that because Baer subscribed to the magazine that this was his point of view and that he was only helpful and sugestive to get the most money out of her. She felt used and taken advantage of. Of course her assumption is wrong. Most framers I know will not suggest something that will not work for the piece just to make a couple of bucks. And if Baer had "tugged" at her heartstrings just to increase profit she would not have felt comfortable in returning all these years. She might just has been impulsive and will realize how well she was treated in the past and will return.
 
After 25 years, she was probably totally shocked to realize you're in business to make money! My customers become friends, they count on me to help them make very personal choices for their homes. I'll bet because of your relationship and the discussion you were having, it increased her vulnerability and she did indeed feel taken in. Hopefully she'll rethink it and come back but these are the life lessons that take away our childhood innocence and unfortunately, change our personal relationships forever.
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What unfortunate timing! Probably your long-term relationship built on good design sense, skillful work, and personal, caring service will trump the impersonal message (which- let's face it- YOU did not write). I would take Rock's advice and send her a note putting it in context. She'll come back.
As to the magazine- I think that headline is a point of view best expressed on the inside, not the cover. Although there is obviously nothing wrong with a little motivational message aimed at retailers, exposing the same sentiment to the public is a good way to take the "magic" out of the retail experience for both parties.
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Rick
 
Wow...

Cancel your subscription!

Get a P.O. Box!

Isn't it amazing what comes out of left field?

Dave Makielski
 
Baer I gotta say that is a pretty callously worded ad! I don't know whether to be more upset with the ad co for writing the ad or with the mag for plastering it on the back! Definitely worth writing a letter to the editor stating you lost a long term customer because of it!
 
Originally posted by Bob Doyle:
Baer I gotta say that is a pretty callously worded ad! I don't know whether to be more upset with the ad co for writing the ad or with the mag for plastering it on the back!
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This is the FRONT cover!
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Thanks Sue, and I would have said 'it was an article not an ad', but then after reading the "article" through four times.... I'm not sure Bob isn't correct.

As for my customer, I just ran into her in the grocery store and we had a very long chat.

She just retired from teaching for 25 years. She is walking with only 42% of her salery and no medical.
She just couldn't face another year with 35 7th graders and 6 1/2 days of 16-18 hours each day. The teaching environment here is in the crapper and the general public belief system does it no good.

There are many articles about the PERS [Public Employee Retirement System] handing out golden parachutes to retiring teachers. Which is not true. [my mother-in-law now makes 78% of what she did teaching when she retired 28 years ago].

I pointed out that her walking because of her perception of us, was the same as the voting public who believed that she was rich.

We are going to scale back on her ideas for her children... now grown. And I even [please don't shoot me] swung by the Scrapbooking store and picked up some neat ideas for her.

I think that we [her and I] are good now, but I'm still steamed about a concept that rates [IMHO] right up there with "I can hire someone half your age, at half your wage".
 
Of course there are some framers that do think that way. Just as there are some morticians who know that a funeral is the perfect time to sell "the last thing you'll do for..." - whomever.

There are good and bad in all industries. Our customers just don't need to read things like this.

The article would have been fine to just say, "Think Young - framing children's art" and left it at that.

As I often say in another realm - it's not so much what you do or don't do - it's your attitude toward it that makes it right or wrong.
 
Gee, I got mine in the mail today and never even read the copy - my first thought was "What a hideous frame to put on such a free-spirited piece of child's artwork!"

I thought they were just shafting the teachers in Buffalo! Sad to hear it is elsewhere as well...
 
Yea, got my copy today and haven't had time to take out of plastic (had to read the Grumble first) and my first impression was that it was not the best way to word it. True it is a trade mag, but not the message that you want to send to the public. The message I think is true, but taken out of context it sounds calous and greedy on the framers part. Maybe this whole thread should be forwarded to the editor.
 
Oh my........

Baer, I am glad you ran into her and were able to work things out and I think that "swinging by the scrapbook store..." Will be icing on the cake! You done good!


Elsa
 
The customer had been coming to us for most of her 25 years as a teacher
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If this is what it took for her to get such a lousy impression of you/your shop, then there could not possible have been the great/grand connections that you think you had(altho 25yrs in the frame MUST account for something). &/or she obviously doesnt have her head screwed on tight!
...or both???


now to the REAL problem at hand......do you call/visit, as a concerned friend, about her obvoius emotional turmoil, or do you chaulk it up to an unfortunate happening & 'get on down the road'??? I honestly dont know how I'd handle it.....luck, either way

or it simple could be that today was just "one of THOSE days"
 
The second sentence is entirely unecessary, in my opinion. The front page would not be at all offensive if that second line had been left out...especially as a front cover headline.
 
I think we all should tear the cover off and mail it back to the magazine with our opinions of it. If enough of us do this, just MAYBE someone will listen and, who knows maybe even apologize. Just don't hold your breath waiting for that apology.

I'm sure somewhere there is a trade magazine for the energy companies with a front page that says how great it is to screw the people of California and make billions.
 
It just reminded me to frame some kid stuff for my back to school window.

Thanks for the reminder, sorry it messed up your sale.

I would also be a little ticked with the magazine if I were you.
 
Originally posted by framah:
I'm sure somewhere there is a trade magazine for the energy companies with a front page that says how great it is to screw the people of California and make billions.
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Framah, normally I would say "funny" but I think that was the article in the Enron in-house organ that featured the "Fat Boys" all sitting around laughing about "sticking it to granny".... that you were thinking about.

As a side note on this; I was talking to our "regular" mailman about his fill-in dropping the mail... and the fall-out.

"Of course, there is so much these days, you guys don't even notice thing like that...."

"Nope. We read it all."
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He said that over the years, he has been amazed at the stuff that is written on the exposed covers of trade journals. "More Bucks for your bang with smaller, smoother canelas for facial liposuction". :eek:
 
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Granted sending this in an open to view package was a little silly………but is there not an element of truth in what the article says…………Oh sorry if I hit a raw nerve…….lets do it but we better not talk about it……we might hurt our own feelings and sensibilities



:rolleyes:
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Sure, we can talk about it. Do we pluck heartstrings so that we can make a profit? Every darn chance I get! Do we need to have this pointed out to our customers? I think not.

It's not as if we needed a sensational headline a la People Magazine [Secrets of Brad Pitt's Framer Revealed!] to get us to pick up the rag from the newsstand. Well, maybe the headline writer just moved over from People. It will be interesting to see what develops...
 
Originally posted by B. Newman:

The article would have been fine to just say, "Think Young - framing children's art" and left it at that.
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I definitely agree with what you all are saying, but I got another impression as well. IMO, the second line seems to indicate that we can have greater profits from children's art. In other words, have a greater markup because parents will pay for it.

She just retired from teaching for 25 years. She is walking with only 42% of her salery and no medical.
She just couldn't face another year with 35 7th graders and 6 1/2 days of 16-18 hours each day. The teaching environment here is in the crapper and the general public belief system does it no good.
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I, personally, can identify. If I had actually been paid for the hours I spent on lesson plans, meetings, after-school parent conferences, etc., I might be rich--but far from it. Teachers also spend $$$ out of pocket to pay for supplies the schools can't afford to purchase. Teachers should be paid babysitter's pay per hour for each of the 150+ students taught per day (do the math), then teachers would be paid what they are worth.

Oops! I got on my soapbox again. :(
 
>She just couldn't face another year with 35 7th graders and 6 1/2 days of 16-18 hours each day.

I'm having a real hard time not seeing this as a bit of an exaggeration.

As for the whole incident, it seems like a huge overreaction. Given her situation, it's understandable, but I don't think it makes sense to edit trade magazine covers such that they will be sure not to offend people in emotional distress who are not even part of the target audience. The fact of the matter is that businesses need to make money. There's no shame in that.
 
Well, they definitely read the G as the editorial mentions Phoneguy's signature line...
 
Of course there is no shame! Profit is the fuel that drives the machine.

But there are some business discussions that should happen behind closed doors.
 
As I haven't received my magazine copy yet, can someone tell me who wrote the article? Was it by a particular company for advertising purposes or just a generalized business/marketing type article by the magazine writers?

Roxanne Langley
Langley House Gallery
 
Baer - its a good thing they didn't see the magazine underneath it - in the brown sealed wrapper and what it had on the cover!

The only word that is offensive to me is "big". It was probably added just to catch our eye & usually isn't true - big profits. As the others have said, we shouldn't be afraid of making profit - that's what we are in this business for (at least most of us - I hope)

We can all admit we make profit - but I'm not sure we should admit "big profit" - esp not to the customer.
 
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