It's taken me eight hours to come to terms with an article I read in this morning's Wall Street Journal. Slugged
Dowdy Craft Business Gets Martha Stewart Makeover
(offered online for subscribers only on WSJ.com), the article concerns Martha Stewart's entry into the scrapbooking business.
Not that it's news to anyone who's frequented the local Michael's in the past week; papercrafting supplies have undergone an earthquake to make room for the new "Martha" aisle, while fliers litter the store, announcing the debut of her scrapbooking line.
But it's newsy enough to make the front page of the Wall Street Journal: an article that asks, "What does the domestic-arts maven see in a dowdy industry where merchandise is sold in cluttered stores stacked floor to ceiling with pipe cleaners, Styrofoam balls, glue sticks, beads and fake flowers?"
The story, to me, is the point of view that outsiders bring to our craft. "Dowdy" is just the beginning.
When I re-read the story after a morning's rumination, what struck me wasn't simply that the piece's author, Brooks Barnes, has little understanding of the craft or the crafters who love it--and who support the industry. If this article is to be believed, this viewpoint is widespread among those who would build their profit from our wallets.
Join me as I offer a few (fair use) snippets from this morning's story, to illustrate how outsiders--and even the industry itself--see those of us who share this hobby.
Martha's own people offer faint defense for this move, which is intended to return Martha Stewart Living to profitability. "'Paper crafts may sound like a quaint pursuit,' says Chief Executive Officer Susan Lyne. 'But it's actually a rapidly growing business.'"
No? Really! I think of my bulging papercrafting studio, supplies, tools, computer equipment and cameras, and nod my head in agreement. Quaint? Nothing "quaint" about my Nikon/PowerMac/Wishblade/widepath printer/scanner set-up, nosirree-bob--and I'm not even a digiscrapper. These are just the tools I use to scan, restore, print and share my family's photographic memories.
And that's just the front page. The article gets better ....
The move, it seems, is designed to "steer Martha Stewart Living into low-cost, high-margin licensing deals." Translation: my fellow scrapbookers and I have sufficient herd mentality to cough up big bucks for overpriced supplies purely on the strength of a brand--IF they can get it right.
Will it work? The article describes the challenge: "To succeed, Ms. Stewart will have to connect with a far-flung world of customers, including legions of Middle Americans who may never have used her tips on home decor or holiday cooking."
As a web publisher and print author, intimately familiar with my community, I wonder just exactly whom these "legions of Middle Americans" might be. Martha Stewart's magazines line every supermarket checkstand coast-to-coast, her television show airs daily, and her brand blazes forth from no less a national retailer than K-Mart.
If scrapbookers are going to be a tough sell because we've never heard of La Martha, collectively, we must be living under a rock.
If we do, we live there together with the crafts business. Terming the industry "eccentric", the writer notes that "[e]ven outlets operated by big craft chains often resemble Main Street hardware stores from a bygone era, with oddball items stacked inefficiently in a dusty jumble."
Industry insiders quoted in the article appear to agree. A marketing executive for Michaels explains, "It's not a very sexy business ... but a lot of people have realized it's a good one." Moreover, Martha Stewart Living "decided that two national chains--Jo-Ann Stores Inc. and Hobby Lobby Stores Inc.--were too downscale" to be admitted to partnership. Even Michaels, the retail chain which was awarded the exclusive partnership, had to clean up it's downmarket act; the partnership was conditioned on "a commitment from Michael's to reduce clutter by reorganizing its shelves."
Most of all, the article underscores just how hard Domestic Diva, Inc. plans to woo us poor benighted scrapbookers. Noting that "scrapbooks are often assembled communally, with aficionados hosting 'cropping parties'", the new product line will be sold on the Martha Stewart web site, and will be partnered with "an online forum for crafters" to tap this community mindset.
The products themselves? "[T]he design flourishes will allow the company to market and price the merchandise ... as premium and 'aspirational'." Translation: the Martha cachet means higher prices.
Will we buy it? If nothing else, I found hope in the article's concluding paragraphs. Describing how Martha herself appeared before a "group of 'elite' private craft dealers" to preview the product line, it seems wine was sipped, gourmet Asian appetizers were munched, and the products were introduced to "a chorus of oohs and aahs."
But references to her luxe lifestyle didn't play out nearly so well. "When Ms Stewart described how she converted an entire floor of her 'winter house' ... into a craft-making studio, several dealers rolled their eyes."
Having finished the article, there's a lot more rolling in my head than my eyes. Is this article truly representative of the way outsiders see our craft?
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