Monday, July 27, 2009

Gense in Japan

Gense was invited to decorate five tables at the 150 years anniversary of the port opening in Yokohama Japan:
Below Figura and Appetize Below Figura
Below Gammal Fransk Silverware
Below Indra
Below Victoria Silverware

Friday, July 17, 2009

Help the press to help you

When we started Creative Danes we were clueless about getting press coverage. Quickly we were swamped with offers from PR agents wanting huge retainers to pitch our products to the press. Luckily Menu won the "Best collection award" at our very first New York gift show, so we weren't tempted to hire outside help. From the press section on our website you can see that we are getting pretty good coverage.

http://www.creativedanes.com/press/?c=pubs

Like with everything else the key to working with the press is to
a) deliver the service they need
b) continue to maintain a relationship once a contact is established. Here are five easy steps to free coverage:

1) Identify the appropriate editors, bloggers and other press writers in you local area.

2) Make sure they are signed up for your mailing list, or if you haven't got one make sure that you have a distribution list so you can e-mail news to the entire group. If you already have an newsletter, add the editors to the list (they won't mind, they want your news)

3) Make sure to e-mail your press contacts once every 4-6 weeks.

4) Forward relevant info from your vendors to your press contacts, but be sure that your business is mentioned in the write-up.

5) When the editors ask you for samples, images or other information act like if this is your best customer ever - usually they are on a deadline and need you help - help them immediately.

With these easy steps you should be able to get free press for your business on a regular basis - good luck.

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

CREATIVE DANES SALES "WAY UP" IN FIRST HALF OF 2009

The first six month of 2009 has passed and to our great pleasant surprise our sales are up significantly compared with the same period last year.

As we sat down and celebrated this over the 4th of July weekend, we were naturally both claiming that our individual efforts was the reason, but after we sobered up (Monday or Tuesday) we decided to see if we had a better explanation.
This is our “non-biased” analysis:

1. Menu offers more than 250 unique and beautifully designed items and most of them have clever and practical features to them as well. In our current assortment 150 items are priced between $30 and $70.

2. More than any other design brand Menu continues to modernize the brand by introducing more than 40 new products every 6 month. You might not like them all, but usually there are 2-3 new bestsellers among each batch of new products.

3. For in-store presentation the Menu items come beautifully packaged and thus strengthen its uniqueness. For on-line sales Menu offers numerous professional photos, that facilitates strong web sales.

4. Menu’s bestselling items are Decanting Pourers, Trivets and Rubber-vases. Over the past couple of years 10,000 of these items have been sold in the US alone. Each piece is a conversation piece in itself and every day new people across the US are introduced to the Menu items. The host likes the attention (and wants to buy more Menu) - and the visitor wants a Menu products of her own….and so on.

5. Lastly the fact that Creative Danes has been almost solely focused on promoting Menu for more than two years (instead of carrying 10 different brands) may also have helped a little J


This is our humble opinion – please let us know your thoughts!

Friday, July 3, 2009