Corban & Blair have chosen not to exhibit at the August Trade Fairs, focusing on both on-line and off-line business strategies with our retailers.

For all those retailers setting off to Melbourne on their annual buying trip we’d also like to draw to your attention the opportunity of learning and gaining insights into improving business through a seminar based Business Development Program. Since the GFC retail has experienced some tough times, so learning new things, getting ideas and simply being motivated is a great thing to do.  We’d recommend you set aside some time to participate in the Program.

Reed Gift Fairs, Business Development Program is running  throughout the Fair offering a comprehensive program of seminar style session covering the following topics:

• The 100 minute MBA of Retail Trading
• Grow, Diversify and Out-manoeuvre Your Competition
• Control Your Buying
• Visual merchandising for the small(er) retailer
• Local Area marketing
• The Power of 2 Purchase – How customer data gives wholesalers and manufacturers the power retail distribution.
• Retain or acquire? Are your current customers feeding your business or do you need new ones?
• Find Your Perfect Match

In this final seminar I will be contributing as a supplier with Kate Moriarty from Stem a successful on-trend design store in Balmain.  By clicking the [red] link below you can Reserve Your Place!

Reserve your Place       Reed Gift Fair: 7 – 11 August

Find Your Perfect Match

Presented by Michael Neaylon – Director, MCME

Monday 9 August 11.00am – 12.30pm

What makes the perfect retailer / wholesaler relationship? Does such a partnership exist? In this highly interactive seminar, we discuss how partnership of various kind can be successful. Packed with real stories from new and leading wholesalers and retailers, find out how you can make these vital relationships transparent, enjoyable… and profitable. Make it a date.

Melbourne Convention & Exhibition Centre and Melbourne Showgrounds

This season we are not exhibiting at the Trade Show we are launching our products on-line with the newsletter below.

This is an experiment to see if it is easier and more informative for our customers. The newsletter provides a comprehensive view of what we offer to the retail sector as well as the wider business community.

This of course has to be supported with many other strategies, as the downside of an on-line launch is that people may not get it, it may go into spam or their computer may not read it… so we follow up with a phone call, contact from our agents, appointment for product showings, our new catalogue and further information about our new promotion- buy one of our leather Duet products and be eligible to go into a draw to win our new The Story Book.

So far after 18 hours we have had 2 orders, change of address information and a number of really nice communications with our retail customers.

We will only know if this strategy has been successful at the end of the selling season. A few months to wait! We are keeping fingers and toes crossed.

If you would like to receive this newsletter email me on info@corbanblair.com.au

I went to this last year and learned a lot. I hope this year will be as useful. www.onlineretailer.net/reviews.

Last week I had the luxury of rumination -this week it was solution finding.

When you have the best of plans and a set of expectations around an outcome and it does not happen. It is SO CONFRONTING.

Your mind goes immediately to why did this happen? How did it happen, who or what is responsible? and what will we do about it really quickly.

We held our June sale last weekend. We go to a lot of trouble to merchandise it so it looks gorgeous and colourful. It takes several of us about a week to get it in place. We are fussy and want to present our brand well, even during a sale.

We became aware that something was not quite right when the flow of people was a little different than usual and more than one mentioned they had not received their usual invitation.

The glitch was in the email communication where 6000 of our key customers did not receive their invitation. This was a very costly mistake. We have been in business long enough to know that mistakes happen (unfortunately) and what you do about them is what counts. Never making the same mistake again is also a good idea.

The team at Corban & Blair found the glitch very quickly. They put a new system in place and arranged to have a POP IN sale in July for customers who missed out. We had our solution in place in a few hours. This is more hard work (stationery and frames are heavy) but (we hope) this will work for our customers.

If you are also a business owner you will understand the implications that such a small glitch can have on your thinking – you ask yourself questions like is our business logic, current strategies, our brand and product designs and our current communication strategies relevant? Probably not a bad evaluation process to go through in a hurry, but I would not want it to happen often.

See below invitation to our JULY POP IN SALE at Lewisham 30 and 31^st July as well as our 15% off retail On-line SALE.

The nature and purpose of THE SALE has changed.

We are in the midst of our June sale and have been holding mid year clearance sales for the past 20 years.

We do this for several reasons:-

To clean out samples and left over materials ready for the next collection. To sell end of line items and get rid of damaged (not quite perfect stock) as well as sell at reduced prices those items that couriers sometimes play foot ball with. We make available large frames and not standard frames that are too difficult to send by courier. It is also useful cash flow at the end of the financial year.

Our sale is at our work premises and enables everyone who works here to participate and talk to and meet our brand followers. We also watch what interests them and at what price- after all we are product developers.

This used to be why we had sales.

Seeing our sale stock beautifully merchanised is always time for reflection.

In the past we have had some huge sales, usually around Christmas. I think this is now a thing of the past as the major players in the retail environment see markdowns as regular strategy so customers do not see sales as special or an opportunity anymore- just more of the same. This has changed the value of what things appear to cost.

We would miss having our bi annual sales as it is a whole company effort, Amanda and I make the food for the first night drinks, everyone works extra our accountant and family included. It is a diversion and we get to see lots of customers, friends and new clients.

As things change so quickly, I wonder how we will adapt and incorporate this sale mentality into our regular strategy.

I am interested in what other people think of the nature of “THE SALE”. Have we ruined them? If you have other ideas let me know. Thanks.

Writing copy that attracts people to read it is one of our new big challenges.

With so much interesting content around- what makes you stop* read* think* and act? Does anything any more?

Expert fundraising copywriter Jill Ruchel ruminates.

In 2008 I was lucky enough to spend a splendid evening visiting the wonderful Sculpture by the Sea exhibition in Sydney, a display of some 150 sculptures carefully placed along the glorious cliff walk from Tamarama to Bondi.

I had been thinking a good deal about the current world financial crisis and what it meant for fundraising, when I saw the winning sculpture.

Created by Mark McLelland, it was a large block of steel, perhaps two and a half metres high, with a key shaped space in the middle. But the space ran horizontally, creating a fabulous tension between the pressing weight above it and the bulk below, like a roiling emptiness of energy.

In that moment, what struck me was that what was important in dealing with fundraising in a recession or financial crisis is not what is happening – it’s what’s missing.

Tough times are the perfect time to do something innovative, something that hasn’t been done before, or hasn’t been done that way.

It’s like the old adage – if you keep on doing what you’ve always done, you’ll keep on getting what you’ve always got.

When you think about it, being bold and being fresh is important all the time. Anyone can copy what you do, but if they can’t compete with you for boldness, ideas and initiative, they’ll always be followers and never leaders.

So don’t be afraid to try something new. It might not work. It might turn out to be wrong. But it might succeed fabulously. Either way you get an outcome, you’re sure to learn something. And it’s always better to do something than nothing.

www.praxisfundraising.com.au

I attended an informative seminar hosted by Gadens Lawyers workplace relations team.

Stephanie Rodriguez (Mighty Media Group) presented an over view about social media and how it can work in business. This was a challenge as the audience was largely new to these media platforms. www.mightymediagroup.com.au

David Redhill CMO of Deloitte Australia gave a very excellent account of how Deloitte’s used various forms of social media it to grow their business. He outlined the processes that took the firm from being a “Sick Puppy” as dubbed by the media a few years ago TO REAL growth during the down turn over the past 3 years. This was accomplished by gathering and developing ideas from their 4500 staff, using various social media platforms including Yammer and Twitter. Staff learned about the various media as they contributed with ideas and passion. This is an inspirational case study. www.deloitte.com.au

Mark Sant and Alexia Marinos of Gadens then discussed the various implications of social media, staff behaviour and the law. There is much to be aware of when negotiating the social media space in business. www.gadens.com.au

The Westpac Women’s Markets movers and shakers- Larke, Sue and Rebecca attracted a most inspiring group of women (as they always do) to share the experiences of speaker Kylie Charlton, Managing Director of Unitus Capital.

Lunch at Aria on the Quay with a few words from the chef and Larke, before Sue introduced Kylie Charlton (in pink shirt)

In 2003, after more than 10 years in conventional investment banking, Australian Kylie Charlton set out to use her background in global capital markets to solve some of the world’s most challenging social and environmental problems.

This included arranging US$100M for microfinance institutions in India and $300M for microfinance institutions and social enterprises across Asia.

In the following six years Kylie lived in the UK and then the US, joined the international not-for-profit, Unitus Inc, in Seattle and established a team that arranged capital for microfinance institutions around the world, advised banks and investment funds on their microfinance investment strategies, and developed and raised capital for specialised investment funds.

In 2008, Kylie co-founded Unitus Capital which has since arranged more than US$100M for microfinance institutions in India and is actively raising capital in excess of US$300M for microfinance institutions and social enterprises across Asia.

While “impact investing” has little profile in Australia, in the US and Europe it is forecast to grow to US$500B in 10 years. And the global financial crisis did not curb the momentum with the top 10 microfinance investment funds growing by 32% in 2008.

Kylie returned to Australia last year to focus on the development of social investment in Australia through her Heloise Waislitz Fellowship at the Asia Pacific Centre for Social Investment and Philanthropy at Swinburne University and this year through her position as Social Investment Fellow at the Centre for Social Impact.

For more about Kylie and how investing can change the world, please click here

www.unituscapital.com

How do we learn these days? This is how our book club does it . . . it is hard to define what is learning and what is entertainment . One thing is certain it feels good, is stimulating and USEFUL.

From Jill Ruchel when she got back home to Melbourne.

“We had a great book club last night.

We discussed ‘The World Cafe’. Some of us hadn’t read it at all, none of us had read all of it, most of us had read parts or skimmed it. The interesting thing was the fundamental idea – how you can create conversations that involve and inspire many people using a cafe style model; sitting around small cafe tables, butchers paper at the ready, ready to listen effectively, take responsibility for the conversation, participate and contribute. For me the most useful chapter was that on questions and how to form questions that will open rather than close conversations (much more than just a simple ‘open questions’ model).

Gillian recounted using some of the methods at her work – asking each of her staff to come prepared with a 3-4 minute presentation on a specific area of social media. The result was extraordinary – people were inspired and energised. It changed the whole atmosphere of the place.

As usual the food was good and the company better. We evolved into looking at some of the online initiatives we have been taking, like Kate’s new Facebook page, Kate’s website in progress, (stemgifts.com.au) Gillian’s website, and Susie’s new website (yes Susie’s – we insisted that it was ready to launch and she didn’t have to wait any longer). That’s an achievement in a year! I was pleased to show a new website I am working on for a client, with a groovy little character who walks across the scene. Fun!

Susie and I had a great conversation about the information products she could create from her business, and Gillian and Kate pored over Kate’s new Facebook page, sharing tips and demonstrating new features.

We realised that there was much to be gained out of sharing what each other has learned. I can’t remember whether we finally decided on doing the book ‘Drive’ by Daniel Pink, or having our next session showing each other all our new online skills and achievements. 
A truly great evening. Hope you all can make the next one. Thanks again for the delicious dinner and the lovely venue’

* Frances was not there but this is her contribution “Just to add to the mix… here is an article on home pages – why they are not as important as we think they are”

http://www.cmswire.com/cms/web-engagement/web-design-the-decline-of-the-homepage-007269.php?awt_l=IYwNF&awt_m=1fFzFxJmB4n0sm

* Bobbi who could not attend either as she is putting the finishing touches to her new website. I have seen it – and it is fabulous.

www.mahlabmedia.com.au

Having intelligent inspiring friends is just great. Anyone else have friends like mine?

Has anyone further feedback, ideas or other places to learn and be inspired?

The Connectnow Conference held in Sydney 7-9th April was great. Paulette & I went from Corban & Blair. We found it informative thought provoking with broad implications across all the social media platforms we use and interact with.

Exceptionally interesting were Darren Rowse@problogger (Australian) and Gary Vaynerchuk@garyvee (American). They stood out (others we good also) for their ideas, tenacity, passion and generosity. Both are worth having a look at.

We took away things like- know what your purpose and goals are, LISTEN and know what is happening out there, learn from the success of others, be useful, build a community- extend your community onto further platforms, be personal, tell stories, be unique, leverage what you have, craft your content, be transparent, be consistent and prolific -just get out there learn, adapt and improve as you develop and achieve your goals. Authenticity matters if you want a “real” community, as does transparency and the equity you can build into your brand.

This was just a snippet of the conference offerings.

If you have suggestions of other conferences, blogs, books, people we should look into let us know. Like most other successful creative businesses we are learning and making it up as we go.

Any wisdom you have to share would great. Just put it in the comment box and we will respond

See Connectnow.net.au for information on the other speakers.