Does this sound familiar?

• Your customers are busy—yet they want great-looking layouts.
• They’re hearing more and more about gift albums and mini books—but the prospect is new to them.
• All the magazines are touting theme albums—yet your customers think it’s already hard enough to manage their current album.

As for you—well, you’ve been to MemoryTrends. You’ve seen the exciting world of themed mini albums. Now, how can you share this excitement with your students and maximize the profit potential for this new twist on scrapbooking?

Buying Tips
If you went to MemoryTrends, you probably saw a variety of different takes on mini albums, with all different kinds of components. How do you make sense of all the product offered?

“My recommendation when getting into a new category is to buy wide and buy shallow from one or two companies,” says Jarvey. “For example, Hot Off The Press has six different mini album themes, from Wedding to Baby to Disney to Heritage. In each theme, we offer paper packs, albums, cardstock, sheet protectors and metal accents. I would urge retailers to buy 3’s of each and make a statement with the category instead of cherry-picking the collection and ending up with an assortment that doesn’t make sense together.”

Know Your Stuff
What’s a themed mini album? They’re smaller, more manageable albums that focus on a specific theme rather than attempting to contain the family’s complete album. They range in size, from 6”x6” to 8”x8”. Theme albums are those where all the pages in the album are about a specific person, place, event or occasion. There’s often a thread of continuity in terms of design: The papers match the album, for example. However, this doesn’t mean every page in the album must use the same background paper or exact same layout!

Be sure you’re knowledgeable about this new category, so you can answer questions like, “Why do I need to buy more paper when I can just cut down my 12”x12’ paper?” A well-informed retailer has asked this same question of the manufacturer and confidently tells the customer, “Paper Pizazz® papers are created for 8”x8” albums, so the patterns are smaller, the edges of many papers have a faux-inked look and the tags and embellishments are perfectly sized for small pages.”

Merchandising
You’ve bought the albums. You’ve brought in the papers. Now, where are you going to put them?

Themed mini albums are a different approach to scrapbooking—make sure the products don’t get lost among your regular merchandise. “Remember the rule of adjacencies, “ advises Hot Off The Press President Paulette Jarvey. “Placing a Heritage 8”x8” Paper Pack next to the Heritage 8”x8” Cardstock and the 8”x8” Words album will encourage the customer to buy all three. Place them in different areas of the store and the likelihood of all three being purchased by the same customer lower considerably.” Paulette advises retailers consider two options for creating an effective display:

Option #1: Create a Mini Album area where all mini album product is merchandised together. For example, place all 8”x8” albums, paper packs, cardstock packs in one display, displaying coordinating items together by theme.

Option #2: Place themed items together, in the appropriate themed section of the store. For example, place Wedding & Romance 8”x8” album, Wedding & Romance Paper Pack and Wedding & Romance Cardstock together in the Wedding section of your store.

Marketing
Make sure your customers know you are the resource for mini albums. Don’t just put the product on the shelf and call it good—put a little excitement into your new category. Signage such as “Overwhelmed by it all? Try a mini album!” will get customers’ attention and define the category.

Let your best customers know. ‘Tis the season for holiday shopping, so each of your best customers has probably already received a postcard, card or note from you, right? If not, send out a flyer or email with a Last Minute Gifts promotion—bill this as something she can give to her significant other or family member as a gift idea.

Be sure to include information about your new product on your website, your store newsletter, your email newsletter—and of course, in signs in your store. Don’t forget how effective your front window or door is for announcements. A sign saying, “New Mini Albums are Here!” could be just the thing to entice customers inside.

Educating
Classes are a must—as you know. A class could be on a specific theme. like “Create a Wedding Book”. It could be on Gift Albums. It could also focus on a variety of techniques, from using alphabet tiles and pre-printed tags and art, to “shrinking” a favorite 12” layout onto an 8” page.

“Themed mini albums are a great resource for retailers looking to differentiate themselves from the competition,” says Jarvey. “And now is the time to dive into this profitable category!”

Want to know more about this exciting new trend? Learn about our Mini Albums by clicking here.