This thread offers quite an amount of food for thought and ideas too
Many fellow framers obviously are experiencing a slow down, because the consumer is spending money on other gifts, because TV ads tell them so.
Maybe we should start acting as a group. Maybe we should have started a national TV ad campaign to inform the people (obviously those who don't know, and those who know but need to be reminded) that framing and art are also great presents for holidays, birthdays, whatever. And those come in a wide variety of price ranges.
A national TV ad showing nicely framed objects, shadowboxes, art, etc, and informing the viewer how to get in touch with us: Via a unified website that offers links to member framers in each state.
Name of our club or website? No idea, but maybe we can call ourselves "The National Framing Society", "United Professional Framers", whatever, open to suggestions.
This all could be done via a membership (for lack of a better word) so that we pay for the commercial and for upkeep of the website that offers links / info to our stores.
To keep the website affordable, it will only be for web presence and info, not for placing orders.
I believe Norman in NJ started an idea about a website a few weeks ago, that would be a great start.
We can act and advertise like the big chains without being one. If enough framers participate, the costs would obviously be more reasonable.
OK, now reply to this post and call me a marketing genius, totally deranged or just plain crazy...