Our Christmas sale always looks gorgeous, but is hard work. We reorganise our studio and shop to accommodate large special frames, end of lines, samples, experiments, damaged stock and other bits and pieces.
It is also a team building exercise which all ‘enjoy’. The accounts person is a brilliant merchandiser, sales staff are great at carrying boxes to cars, designers are terrific blowing up balloons and we all contribute to the food (drinks and nibbles for the customers.) We can only manage this and keep the business still running with loyal cooperation from our staff.
It is also a wonderful opportunity for us to come face to face with our customers, see what they buy and hear what they say. This is valuable as all who work at Corban & Blair get to interface with real customers.

A big thanks to our loyal customers many of whom come every year.

As usual we are having our Christmas sale at our shop/studio at 2 Victoria Street, Lewisham, (near Leichhardt) Starts Thursday 5th November at 8.00am and finishes Sunday 8th November at 5.00pm For people out of town or who are busy we have a sale in our online store 1-9th November use Coupon No 1523 for the 15% sale discount. Let us know if you would like more information. All welcome.

Printing and storing memories is now easy.

Store photos in a Corban & Blair photgraph album

Albums for special acassions include:
Amore, Belladonna, Destiny, Bridal, Baby Handprints, Black, Metal
* drymount acid free black pages with interleaving or slip in pages
* suitable for traditional or digital photos
* attach photos with photostickers or glue
* write on pages with gold or silver pens
• refills are available
Hand made in Australia

www.corbanblair.com.au/c-2-albums.aspx.

Print with one of Canon’s new high quality printers. See the range of PIXMA printers that print photographic quality in your own home.

These include:

PIXMA Mp 550, MP560, MX7600, MX860,iP100, MP640, MP990, iP4700. For more information go to www.canon.com.au/pixma/

Canon are also running a promotion with great gifts one of them is a Corban & Blair Wonderland album.

The campaign is now live on www.canon.com.au/milliondollarpicture

I used to go to some of the Lowy Institute lunchtime speakers program. Now I down load the talks onto my ipod and listen when I am the gym. This way I get to experience all the talks. I highly recommend them.
http://www.lowyinstitute.org/

The Lowy Institute is an independent international policy think tank. Its objective is to generate new ideas and dialogue on international developments and Australia’s role in the world. Its mandate is broad. It ranges across all the dimensions of international policy debate in Australia – economic, political and strategic – and it is not limited to a particular geographic region.

The Institute has two core tasks:
To produce distinctive research and fresh policy options for Australia’s international policy.
The Institute seeks to throw fresh light on issues of relevance to Australia through rigorous research, and then to generate workable policy ideas. The Institute also seeks to contribute to the wider international debate. We believe Australia can make a significant contribution to the global dialogue.

To promote wide discussion of Australia’s role in the world.
This is the Institute’s other vital task: to provide an accessible and high quality forum for discussion of Australian foreign policy and international relations, through debates, seminars, lectures, dialogues and conferences.

SEED is a customer of ours who create appealing in store environments.

SEED stores are located in most major shopping centres and sell fashionable apparel for young children attractively merchandised for the customer to enjoy a sophisticated, yet warm and friendly shopping experience.

Corban & Blair made the black and white frames that feature atmospheric lifestyle images. www.seedchild.com.au

The CEW (Chief Executive Women) annual fund raising Dinner last night was a great success. Huge numbers attended to hear Gail Kelly CEO of Westpac speak. Gail is a truly inspirational speaker whose message is always realistic – all about people and customers as well as the bottom line. Westpac’s aim is to DELIGHT their customers. A huge challenge but one they do have strategies in place to make happen. The customer matters- of course we all know this but how many businesses really have processes that support the customer. It is a shame not many large companies try to ‘walk this talk’ A great night – pity we did not win any of the raffles! www.cew.org.au

HOLLA ADVERTISING We had a meeting with David and Alex, their company focus is to deliver integrated thinking – very professional, and interesting ideas on strategy. Visit their site. www.holla.com.au

DAVID JONES As it was Fathers Day last weekend, Amanda and I spent time in two David Jones stores talking to customers and assisting staff in the stationery department. If you ever want to know how a business is running spend a few hours at the ‘coal face’ It is interestingly revealing. How long since you did this in your business? Gail Kelly’s sentiments were clear – if you don’t interface often with your customer you will probably not know your customer (but will think you do) and therefore will have little knowledge of how to assist, let alone delight them.
www.davidjones.com.au

LUNCH at McGRATH. A lunch was held for Donna Rae Smith, a visiting business owner from US who runs a business called BrightSide. Their aim is to ignite leaders and accelerate the results of women in the workplace . Donna had many ideas of how to further women’s progress in the business sphere. This was a small group with stimulating and insightful lunch time conversation. www.bright-side.com

While all this stimulating socializing is going on, it is of course business as usual at Corban & Blair. Orders get dispatched, customers are looked after, and most of our new products are now designed for February and even some for Christmas 2010. Being out and about participating in other businesses, meeting people from different industries and cultures is a method we use to prevent ‘group think’ or as the big companies put it ‘ silos.’

Red and blue cushions from our Landscape fashion collection for Christmas.

Amanda and I went to a lunch hosted by the Westpac Women’s Markets in Sydney.

It was held to introduce a group of women from Africa and around the Pacific to Sydney business women- many of them customers of Westpac. The visitors were in Australia to experience how Westpac works with its female customers and to attend banking seminars.

This is the second time we have met women from the African region at Westpac. While the visitors were here to have new experiences, it was fascinating hearing about the challenges they face in their jobs, lives and families.

This inspirational event was hosted by Larke Riemer and her team – Sue Jackson, Tami and Rebecca to name a few. They hold many events – always with style and care, that are very inclusive and always have an intellectually stimulating centre piece.

We have made a range of RED compendia, journals and folders for Westpac. They are gorgeous and people love them. They are a great marketing tool. See below

Amanda and I see attending these events as one of the advantages of being in business as we always learn something and meet interesting people.

If you are interested to know more about the Westpac Women’s Market go to their network web site The Ruby Connection www.therubyconnection.com.au/

Corban & Blair and Online Presentations (webinars)
To launch our latest products we have run 7 online presentations (webinars).

This experiment has had varying success. After testing extensively, we had sound glitches while presenting to some customers- this was embarrassing!

It is a great way to communicate though when it works and has raised possibilities about how to communicate in personal, interactive, informative, inspiring and effective ways with our customers.

This experiment while not totally successful has opened new possibilities for getting close to our customers using on-line marketing strategies.

Have you used this medium with more consistent technological success than we have had? If so we would love to hear from you.

See our current presentations on the link below

http://www.corbanblair.com.au/t-OnlinePresentation.aspx

Regards,

Gillian

gillianc@corbanblair.com.au 61 2 95600122

Creativity and ideas are what motivate us at Corban & Blair. This is how we attract energy and intelligence to our values and vision, how we create our product collections and product solutions year after year.

A forum to exchange ideas and share possibilities is the aim of this blog, A discussion between ourselves and others to help us grow, clever and sustainable businesses in 21st century Australia.

Assistance and inspiration from other business people is important, it is something we have always reciprocated with. It is often fundamental to enjoying success.

Design gives us a competitive edge. We believe to be sustainable we need all the edges we can invent to compete in a global economy.

Ideas came very easily in our first collections- the energy, exuberance and excitement of starting out, establishing a market and then a brand, just flowed. Once established with market acceptance and others watching, creating new products, treatments and concepts did not always come intuitively. Clever processes are now utilized to ensure ideas still evolve on a daily basis for product solutions. For example:-

• keep creative invite artists and other designers for conversations about their experiences and inspirations, brief design consultants to challenge the boundaries with possibilities way beyond the current base lines. Ask for advice. Hold creativity and ideas workshops -these can include customers, suppliers, friends, young and old. Share ideas with other business people- formally or informally.

• new business strategies- look for strategies others are using, large, small, Australian or other. Have reciprocal mentor/coaching relationships with other businesses, collaborate on projects with others, read, research, and constantly question your boundaries and filters.

There are many fabulous books available eg:
A WHOLE NEW MIND by Daniel Pink is a must read. It had a major and positive effect on how we understand the essence of the Corban & Blair brand.

We are happy to share more detail with you or hear of your successes, tips, experiences or current challenges.

Some early products (which incidentally are still some of our biggest sellers)

(style items using various recycled elements)