I spent the day at the Canadian Gift and Tableware Association (CGTA) trade show. I found an interesting product line and I would appreciate your feedback as to whether or not I should begin selling them.
Let me take two steps back. As you may know, not only am I the Contest Queen, but for the past 20+ years I have also been a professional marketer. About a month ago I was contacted by Alphacritters. They had been successfully selling their name pictures for the past 10 years at festivals and fairs. The business was run by a mother-daughter team, Linda and Karen. All the “critters” had been created by Karen, who sadly passed away last year. (For the full story behind the company, please visit their website.) Linda promised to keep Karen’s legacy going. My job was to help Linda grow the business and keep her promise. The next logical step was to take the product to the retail market place. So we created a wholesale marketing plan and Linda rented booth space at Canada’s largest retail industry trade show.
Now one step back. Several weekends ago we attended the wedding of very close friends of ours up in Collingwood ON. At the Sunday brunch, one of the guests was wearing the most interesting flip flops. They were covered in little blue balls looking like sea foam and tucked in the “foam” were little fish and starfish. All the women were commenting on them. (Men don’t really care about such things!)
Back to the CGTA. While on a break, walking through the show looking for anything lucky I could add to my online store or sell on a convention vendor table, what should I see but the Canadian distributor for Hot Flops!
Not only did the have the oceanic flip flops, but they had all sorts of fun styles. The closest thing they had to lucky, was poker. I don’t think they fall into the lucky category, but they sure are fun!
So, what do you think? Should I carry them?
Hot Flops
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