Tales Of A Fourth Generation Textile Executive: A Beginner’s Guide To Swatchcards Part III
Happy Monday! It’s not often that I look forward to Monday, but as much as I love my two kids, 5 days with them starts to wear on me. Between the 2 hour ride to Thanksgiving lunch, the sleigh riding carrying my little one up and down the hill, the never ending cartoons (Peppa Pig is my nemesis), the birthday parties, the sports classes, the bowling, video games, junk food, temper tantrums, difficulty getting them to sleep and the list goes on. So thanks for giving me Monday. Hope your time off was more relaxing than mine.
This is my final installment about swatchcards which will tie up all the loose ends. Believe it or not, a lot of our time is spent creating, making and checking these cards to make sure the end result is nothing short of an impressive presentation. Without a great presentation, customers will just say, “next” and we certainly don’t want that. So the swatchcard provides that first impression which we all know is integral to success with fabric and in life. As you may or may not know, we introduce lines 5 times per year (January, March, May, July & October), so we could be talking about anywhere from 40-70 lines per company in a year. That is a whole lot of swatchcards and a whole lot of moolah as the cards can get expensive.
Inks, fonts, paper quality and color matching are critical factors that need extra special attention. But in addition to that, for our companies, it is essential that we have at least one free project with every line that we present. Usually, we have more like 2 or 3, but sometimes we have up to 6. This is our investment to help our quilt shop customers market and merchandise our fabrics. All of our projects are free downloads on our websites and I am confident that this does help sell the fabric otherwise we would probably stop doing it and figure out something else to help our quilt shop customers sell our fabrics. Unlike some of our competition, every project is unique and made specifically for the new line we are presenting. As time goes on, we have been branching out in to different projects as opposed to just quilts. Table runners, placemats, cat beds and bags are a few project ideas that come to mind.
In addition to the entire line that we are presenting, we also like to add other suggestions of basic prints that will “work” with the line being presented. So for example, in addition to the 15 skus in the new line, we may have a range of the Peppered Cottons, Just Color!, Shadow Weave or Watermark that may also work with the line and they are presented on the card as well. This acts as an added sale for our rep, but it also gives the shop owner other ideas of how the line could be used and merchandised.
If our reps sell an entire collection i.e. the 15 skus in the line, the customer has the option of buying the collection in 12 or 15 yard cuts. This is an incentive for them to buy the whole line as a full collection and is our goal as a fabric company. When counting the line, we do not include any of the basics we add to the card. So usually somewhere on the card you will see that it says 15 skus. Sometimes it even says what else is on the card i.e. 6 Peppered Cottons or 6 Just Colors!.
The final thing that I could think of that you should know about our swatchcards is that you can usually find a lone number on the card which signifies the delivery date of this fabric line. So for example on the back page of the card you may see a number 6 which signifies a June delivery. This is helpful to the rep so he/she doesn’t have to refer to the pricelist when writing up his/her orders.
In closing, I hope you have found this detailed three part synopsis helpful in understanding the swatchcard process for the Jaftex Companies. Hopefully I didn’t miss anything, but if I did, please send me any other questions you may have.
Signing off,
Swatchcard Scott