What do we frame the most each month?

Angie Pearson CPF

MGF, Master Grumble Framer
In Memorium
Rest In Peace


Gone but not forgotten
Joined
Mar 4, 2005
Posts
678
Loc
Poplar Bluff, MO
I was just reading Bob Larson's thread on getting new customers and it got me thinking about how slow it's been since the new year (probably due to most people spending all their money at christmas.) I'm guessing Bob's business is feeling this on top of being new. Anyway, I was trying to think of what framing trends there are in January, but I can't think of anything that I usually see a lot of during this month... Do you ever notice a trend in customers framing certain things like wedding photos and vacation photos after the summer. And of course the Christmas prints, x-stitches, and puzzles in November and December. I bet mailing lists could be a bit more efficient if we knew all the trends. It might give them the idea to frame those trend things when the time is right instead of random "Frame your old photos" mailings.
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This year I think everyone here cleaned out their closets before the company arrived for the holidays and found things they'd forgotten about. We're getting a lot of older pieces, especially canvases and posters. I guess they didn't spend ALL their money on Christmas and sky-high energy prices.

But it's still very slow.....
 
I wonder if the old photos have something to do with seeing all the relatives at christmas...
(This is an edit.. oops I see that you said posters and canvases but I'll leave what I origionally said)

I just realized that we have been getting a lot of sports posters lately...
 
I am getting all the stuff that people were afraid, too busy or forgot to bring in December. From sports posters, to family pictures to antique prints & botanicals.

If this stays like this, it will be a Christmas in January!
 
It's interesting reading about the volume of business in different parts of the country. I'm with you Paul, I've taken in so much work. I really hoped for a break after the Christmas mania but it didn't happen. I'm doing autographed sports and family photos, signed jerseys, x-stitch, and some work for our college and a bank, too!
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we're getting our regular mix of stuff - but this time of year we start getting canvasses in from people's hot weather trips.

We get some of the neatest stuff in this time of year.... makes me long for the tropical sun, sand and breeze of the tropics..... sigh.........

did I mention that it's snowing out???
 
Today was busy with me stretching two Balinese paintings 39x78 full wrap, stapled on the back..

Shar and her husband tore apart the fitting room and appropriate large table and shelves that had been there for 20 years...

Tomorrow at 3pm the CMC arrives..

and then I just happened to glance at the board...

Yikes! :eek: 32 frame jobs, 5 fabric mats 3 w/fillets, one custom wood work frame due wednesday.... and I leave to my sisters tomorrow before the crack of dawn... oh who am I kidding.. there won't be ANY dawn tomorrow... we're in the 25th day of rain and no sign of let up until May.
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Not "Christmas" busy, but busy at the worst possible time... We are shutting down for Vegas that whole week....

I'll be back to paint and refinish the fitting table.... fresh shellac and urethan for the first time in 20 years... Ok, so I've been busy.
 
Framing projects have poured in since re-opening on Jan. 3. Not seeing any particular trend other than lots of shadowboxes. Have taken in 14 of those, but they are all totally different. Several customers rec'd prints or paintings for gifts during the holidays. Lots of old family photos have been brought in for framing. Hope the whole month continues like this.
 
I've been getting a lot of "I was cleaning out closets and drawers and found these that I've wanted to frame for years". Nostalgia stuff; old family photos, military certificates, a couple of small Kinkades, all "ran across" in cleaning frenzies. A couple customers came in testing me, they said. Geeze. One lady just finished 2 cross-stitches she'd been working on since 1980! Seems people are looking to renew family ties with photos. Is that normal for just after New Years?
 
Oils on canvas, oils on canvas, and more oils on canvas. We have numerous local artists, and it seems they sold a lot of paintings as Christmas gifts. Okay by me except for the ones that came straight from China and have to be stretched. Having "Arthur" in my hands makes stretching my least favorite and most painful task. I think I will add a pain index charge in LifeSaver using a scale of 1-10. Why can't I do that???
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I think it would have to be photography in our shop. All kinds from snapshots to huge (50, 60, 70 inchers), to those stylized on computer and printed as giclees in neon colors.
 
This is one of those areas where we get a lot "guessing".

I think that most framers need to know this type of information, but most just guess

I have long suggested that the average framer would benefit by tracking the next 100 customer. It might be as simple as a legal pad and write down a little about the next 100 people that walk into your store

List if they bought anything, if they asked for something that you do not have, if you have it and they didn't buy and why not, little things like that

But, first, make a list of what you think they will do and say, then seal it up and don't look at again until the exercise is over

Then, review and see how close your "expectations" came to reality.

When, I ask framers how well they know their clients, virtually everyone is convinced they got it down in spades-that they know everyhing possible about their client base

Thi drill might be an eye opener
 
Honestly, I think it's like trying to predict the weather.
I don't care what they frame, I would like to predict when they frame.
 
This month I'm specialzing in the next person through the door...
Bob, I've long since given up trying to predict what a client, or at least a new client, is going to want. I just don't have the numbers to make a viable data base, and looking back over the last month or year even, there is little consistancy but for the lack of same.
There is a good deal of repetition from year to year since some of my clients have annual events that require my services (I'm on the job on those well in advance of their needs), but the average retail customer is all over the map.
In your instance there are enough raw data to make statistical sense of the buying trends of your customers...you probably bill out in a month what I do in a year, and that's at one location.
Now combined data from a number of the smaller shops in a single region might generate some numbers that have significance, but whose going to coordinate that? PPFA/Decor/PFM have done so in the past, but I take their results with a grain of salt. This is another instance where I mourn the demise of FramerSelect.
 
Framing Trends??

We frame whatever the customers schlep in. Not sure if any indicates a trend really.

If in the same day, 2 different people bring their kid's pictures, that doesn't mean it is a trend; a coincidence maybe.
 
Wally-This might be more of self-examination drill.

I'll bet if you asked people what their closing rate was, they would all claim very high. Perhaps, this might confirm that or point out a problem

Or, how about that 5 people (maybe only 1 a week) ask for yellow widgets and you don't have them. See that request often enough and maybe you ought to look into yellow widgets

Or, maybe it is a simple as 10% get posters framed (as cheaply as possible)and thats up fom maybe 5 last year?

It reminds me of that exchange in Alice in Wonderland ("Through the Looking Glass")where Alice stumbled across the Cat. Not sure where she was, she asked the Cat which way she should go. The Cat replied that it depended a great deal on where exactly she wanted to go.

Alice said she really didn't know as long as she got there. Where the Cat replied that as long as she walked far enough, she was bound to get there sooner or later

Gumbogirl, meet the Cat

I learned that lesson years ago in a Marketing Class and remebered it all these years. If you do not know where the heck you are going, how in the heck do you expect to get there? And, how do you know if you are going in the right direction? Or, even if you ever get there?
 
Originally posted by Paul N:
If in the same day, 2 different people bring their kid's pictures, that doesn't mean it is a trend; a coincidence maybe.
Sure if only 2 people bring in photos in one day it is a coincidence but if all you are framing one week is kids photos, kids photos, kids photos... and it happens the same time every year, I would call that a trend.

I learned that lesson years ago in a Marketing Class and remebered it all these years. If you do not know where the heck you are going, how in the heck do you expect to get there? And, how do you know if you are going in the right direction? Or, even if you ever get there?
I think this is exactly what I'm talking about... we should be prepared for these trends if they exist.
 
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