How to get your products to sell well

[robs456]

5 hours ago, chrisash said:

That's true but they had to spend fortunes on marketing and presentation along with  the right design and flair to get noticed in the first place, companies are happy to spend millions just to get you to chose what petrol you put in your car

For sure, not saying they didn't pay dearly for the 'privilege'.

[JLSleather]

6 minutes ago, nstarleather said:

Besides that the info he gives on leather is 90% wrong and 100% misleading.

That 'genius" in S. Carolina trying to sell holsters with my designs and a fancy story about his design skills offers like a jillion year "warranty".  Problem is, if he look ya in the face and lie about the design, then WHAT IS his "warranty" really worth?@!

[fredk]

1 hour ago, nstarleather said:

It's also worth saying that a warranty that's longer than a company has existed is also to be looked upon with a bit of skepticism. 

also consider how long the company is likely to exist in the future. In this 21st century even old companies are closing down at a fast rate. Many guarantees / warranties are worthless. Even when one company is taken over by another and looses its individual identity its warranties are ignored thereafter. I can give plenty of personally known examples but I'll not.

Our guarantees / warranties must stand true

I know a local artisan pottery which gives no guarantee on its works. Someone I know bought a nice looking coffee mug. Sold as such. Got it home, went to use. The mug was porous, like a sponge. Coffee all over the kitchen work top. She took the mug back to the pottery. Their reaction was 'So?' no money back no replacement mug - nowt.  £15 wasted on a pen holder

Our guarantees / warranties must stand true

[mikesc]

Anyone who gives you a 100 year warranty on anything other than hard stone or bronze sculpture..is taking the piss, and to be ignored. Most modern housing is only designed to last a year or two longer than the mortgage. Understanding your customer ( as RockyAussie was saying in the 1st post ) is key, which is how the ad business is able to sell ads to people who make crap, and then pitch those ads to the people who buy the crap.The average person is stupid and easily led, and that is just the average, 50% of people are even more more stupid, and even more easily led. It is up to anyone creating things to sell, which market segment of the population ( any population, anywhere ) they want to target.

Edited September 2, 2019 by mikesc

[RockyAussie]

Take this or leave it. I am not saying you should do it or not do it. I have never given a written guarantee or warranty on any product. I have said before getting me to sign anything is pretty hard to do. I have never been asked for it and I doubt it would make any difference to my sales. The customers I make for have never asked for it anyway and most of them I have dealt with for 20+ years. I have had sometimes something come back to be repaired and I do all I can to HELP them get it back in the best condition I can. One member here for whom I have the utmost respect helped me to get a belt fixed up for a customer in the USA at my request. The belt was over 10 years old and worn in hard yakka conditions every day. It took a fair bit of communication between us and I am very pleased to say that the customer reported back that the workmanship was excellent. I would so like to thank him again and I would love to say his name but ....that is up to him to attest to really. One thing about repairing shoes and leather goods for years before starting to make them gives you a really good idea how to not make the mistakes other makers have made before. I really hate zips in products and do state that if they want them, that part of the product will cost to be repaired if its needed. Truth is that is the most common thing that needs repairing and although I have not had any of my own fail I do get to fix a lot by other makers. Below I can show a little of why mine last as well as they do. The purse on the left is made in Singapore and is a pretty good maker, the one in the middle I made and the one to the right is made in Italy. Previously this customer had them made in the other places to try and save a few dollars. Both of the other 2 makers purses I have to regularly replace the zips in for different reasons. The Singapore version puts them in a little too tight but does a very good quality in most other respects.He does work to a measure and mark method which unfortunately means that some are tighter than others at times. The Italian maker is really sub par in many ways. The zips are put in too close to the edge and sometimes even miss getting caught by the stitching but even worse it has a full cardboard stiffener done in the way if you were making a book cover that means when the purse is full the cardboard puts extra pressure onto the zipper. Worse yet the cardboard is glued down right to the edge where it contacts the zipper. That means when it gets full the cardboard separates back to the stitch line and wow that sure then looks bad.

This pic shows the zip from the edges better. Note that the Italian orange ones lining is very proud as well.

With mine I made a 3d printed mould that helps to keep the zip held consistently at the right spacing, depth etc. This here also gets held in the other wooden jig shown.

This pic shows the zipper now attached over the inner lining and importantly take note of the orange part to the right in the picture. This is the inside view of the outer section to be attached over the zipper section later. Note that the centre section of the stiffener is removed and showing the foam that is attached to the outer skin. This is why my design allows mobile phones to fit inside with out damaging the purse or zipper. Note also that the stiffener has been coloured over and around the edges.

Here you can see the outer skin now attached but only glued up as far as the stitching will reach.

Stitching down shown here

Product now stitched.

NOW I want to ask you as all 3 products are similar to each other visually, Who is copying who and who's nose is out of joint and should I care

@JLSleather Hey Jeff....I love it . 

Please do not think that I condone copying and breaking copyright laws as I don't but I do profess that I like to see that we all learn better by studying and copying techniques in harmony amongst ourselves. I would hope by sharing that we all help to lift the bar a little higher.

                                                           

IF what you do is something that ANYBODY can do, then don't be surprised when ANYBODY does.

 

 

                                                  

 

Edited September 3, 2019 by RockyAussie
picture misplaced

[mikesc]

37 minutes ago, RockyAussie said:

NOW I want to ask you as all 3 products are similar to each other visually, Who is copying who and who's nose is out of joint and should I care

@JLSleather Hey Jeff....I love it . 

Please do not think that I condone copying and breaking copyright laws as I don't but I do profess that I like to see that we all learn better by studying and copying techniques in harmony amongst ourselves. I would hope by sharing that we all help to lift the bar a little higher.

                                                           

IF what you do is something that ANYBODY can do, then don't be surprised when ANYBODY does.

Brian..re: the above..a subject for another thread..which is running at the moment.. but

Quote

I do profess that I like to see that we all learn better by studying and copying techniques in harmony amongst ourselves

We are not "amongst ourselves" LW.net is a totally open to anyone to read forum, and anyone can join..( one "would be plagiarist" just did, there are others reading and joined, and who will join ) it is all fully indexed ( apart from Pms ) by search engines, very very far from "amongst ourselves" ..copying "Techniques" yes.."Designs"..no....

Your stitching and edges are better than on the other two examples that you show..

re Jeff's new "sig"..which you have co-opted..

Anyone can sing "Hey Jude"..( or any song ) .but it is wrong to sing it on a record and then sell, or try to sell, the record without permission from the original writers, or their "estate", if they or their kids are still alive.

Agree with you 100% about zips..

 

Edited September 3, 2019 by mikesc

[incendies]

It's a good idea to create an online store. It turned out Facebook is a nice site to do that, though I had no idea how to start. Now there are a lot of articles with tips on how to create a facebook store, like this one source. I wish I had something like this at that time.

[mikesc]

facebook stores only get seen by enough people if you pay facebook for ads..in which case they'll send 99% bot traffic, and charge you as if they were people..don't waste your time or your money..
subtle marketing there ;)..can't wait to see your next link out :)

[JHLeatherwood]

On 9/2/2019 at 7:38 AM, JLSleather said:

That 'genius" in S. Carolina trying to sell holsters with my designs and a fancy story about his design skills offers like a jillion year "warranty".  Problem is, if he look ya in the face and lie about the design, then WHAT IS his "warranty" really worth?@!

Holy Easter thread, Batman!

I was out poking around your site and saw the downloadable patterns. I don't see any licensing or permissions statements on them, though.

If I download one of your patterns and make the item, are you OK if I sell the item? I don't know that I'll do it, but I'm happy to credit "Design by JLSLeather, hand-crafted by JHLeatherwood."

I've noticed that some designers are very free with their permissions ... and others, not so much.

[chuck123wapati]

2 minutes ago, JHLeatherwood said:

Holy Easter thread, Batman!

I was out poking around your site and saw the downloadable patterns. I don't see any licensing or permissions statements on them, though.

If I download one of your patterns and make the item, are you OK if I sell the item? I don't know that I'll do it, but I'm happy to credit "Design by JLSLeather, hand-crafted by JHLeatherwood."

I've noticed that some designers are very free with their permissions ... and others, not so much.

JLs quit posting a while back you probably should contact him at his store site for permissions.