Starting a Baby Boutique & Clothing Line

How the trade show plan held up

So, I wrote last month about our “plan” for getting everything done in time for the gifting suite. The plan was great, but it didn’t happen according to plan. We were working right up until the moment it was time to leave. And that definitely was not the plan.

But we pulled it off and we were very happy with what we accomplished. Here’s what we did good:

• Plenty of product, good variety of product: We had bibs, silk-screen onesies, floral headbands, and, of course, our blankets.
• Branding: (Really proud of us here) - We had great signs and had almost every celebrity photo taken under our sign, holding the product they chose. We did amazing pinwheels for the kids and these had our happy star stamped all over them.

Here’s where we need to improve:

• Display: We had a great display for what we had to work with, but we could have done a lot better
• Press Kits: We definitely needed more literature to hand out. We need some slick catalogs and brochures. Now we actually HAVE a press kit to put together. We’ve had two GREAT reviews, we’ve been selected for a gift guide, and now we have photos of celebrities with our stuff. All of these write-ups and images should go into our press kit.

What did go according to plan is that this show was a major portion of the prep for our next show. We mainly have to focus on display and literature. We have three weeks to prep for that one, so it’s almost like “away we go” already.

You can click here to view all of the photos from our fabulous day!

Add comment January 14th, 2007

We’ve reached celebrity status!!

We did it. This blog suffered during the process, but we did it!!! We were more than prepared for the celebrity event and it was a great day!! I have a list of celebrities who loved our stuff and took it home with them. Angie Harmon, Tia Carrere, Kevin Sorbo, Carnie Wilson, Rena Sofer, Bill Bellamy, Samantha Harris, Kat Dennings, Tricia Campbell, Shar Jackson, and more.

It was a very exciting day and a big learning experience. It was so great to be able to hear feedback on our stuff and it is really flattering to have celebrities and other creme-de-la-creme of the media and boutiques LOVE your stuff, WANT to have your stuff. It was a lot of fun and we couldn’t be more flattered to have been invited.

We need better press kits and our prep for KIDShow will consist mainly of display and media prep. 3 weeks to prep for that. Right now, the immediate tasks are getting out press releases and writing everyone I said I would contact, and getting out all the blankets that were promised.

There were huge media outlets there and we have opportunities for product placement (met a few producers) and a lot of press. It was very exciting!!

It’s amazing how it all just blows by you. We did take yesterday as a down-day, but back at it today. You don’t have enough time to take it all in. But you have to try.

Will write more tomorrow, because writing is now going to be a part of my morning schedule.

Add comment January 13th, 2007