so apparently us crafty folk are the feature of a new trend (supposedly recession induced) - the 'sellsumer'.
so a sellsumer - consumers who are making money instead of just spending it....hawking their creative output to fellow consumers....yup, that's me! and probably you too. etsy is mentioned under section 2 (sellsumers and creation) in the article over on trendwatching.com '(etsy) boasts 200,000 sellsumers'....not really sure what to make of the word...what is sellsummer a pun on? sellsumthinks? what do you think?
but the point of the article is that we are a new trend of consumers to engage with, consumers who are business savvy, a bit quirky, and not 'string' puppets to traditional corporations. the article encourages brands to come up with a sellsumer service which can facilitate existing or aspiring sellsumers....so that got me on to thinking. what could brands do to help out sellsumers, and what would i, as a sellsumer, want from a brand?
i guess the biggest thing that a brand could offer me is publicity. like the kind of thing that folksy did with howies for the london design festival week. the winner of the competition was featured in their flagship store in carnaby street - how awesome is that? imagine if topshop did competitions like that....or even selfridges?
tips and techniques would be great too - marketing advice from the marketing departments of brands, wouldn't you love to have a chat with the marketing department at cath kidston to get a few tricks of the trade?
via guardian website
(oh and talking of cath kidston, get 15% off tomorrow only by quoting SPGET at check out)
so, what could a brand do for you? post below in the comments and hopefully it might help send them our way!
so a sellsumer - consumers who are making money instead of just spending it....hawking their creative output to fellow consumers....yup, that's me! and probably you too. etsy is mentioned under section 2 (sellsumers and creation) in the article over on trendwatching.com '(etsy) boasts 200,000 sellsumers'....not really sure what to make of the word...what is sellsummer a pun on? sellsumthinks? what do you think?
but the point of the article is that we are a new trend of consumers to engage with, consumers who are business savvy, a bit quirky, and not 'string' puppets to traditional corporations. the article encourages brands to come up with a sellsumer service which can facilitate existing or aspiring sellsumers....so that got me on to thinking. what could brands do to help out sellsumers, and what would i, as a sellsumer, want from a brand?
i guess the biggest thing that a brand could offer me is publicity. like the kind of thing that folksy did with howies for the london design festival week. the winner of the competition was featured in their flagship store in carnaby street - how awesome is that? imagine if topshop did competitions like that....or even selfridges?
tips and techniques would be great too - marketing advice from the marketing departments of brands, wouldn't you love to have a chat with the marketing department at cath kidston to get a few tricks of the trade?
via guardian website(oh and talking of cath kidston, get 15% off tomorrow only by quoting SPGET at check out)
so, what could a brand do for you? post below in the comments and hopefully it might help send them our way!
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3 comments:
I'd love help with product development. By that I mean honing down my designs to what a specific target market wants, instead of just trial & error testing all by myself.
hey tiny...so, is that market research tips early on in the design process to get a better feel for what your market wants?
The thing with brands are that they are bigger than their products. A good descent sized international brand (take TrendMicro or DrScholl or Durex or Asus or something even bigger like P&G or IKEA) could theoretically produce anything. Personally I'd love to see sellsumers (what a wanky word) challenge their favourite brands to come up with products they want rather than than they get pushed upon.
Case in point: iPhone. A PC maker making cell phones. Great.
What else? IKEA making solar panels? P&G making cosmetics? The Guardian making shoes?
The thing is, if we are already predisposed towards buying something by a particular brand, it is a very short step towards buying something completely different from the same brand. Luxury fashion brands understand this as they are already selling watches, bottled water and automatic toll gate card readers (!). At least here in Japan. Also, big companies (brands) usually have the power to produce anything they want, they have the production skills and the contacts necessary.
But, as a sellsumer, the number one thing we look out for is customizability, shareability and blogability. Not in that order though.
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