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Well, back-to-school is starting up. Fortunately, we don't get too much with it over in PDS. However, there is a new product OMax is offering this year that's supposed to involve us: custom notebooks, aka "Creation Station.". Pick your covers, pick your filler paper, pick your inserts, bring them to the copy center, and we'll bind them up for you.
We've offered these for a little over a month now...and our location has sold TWO. Just two. That's it.
I mean, overall, it's an interesting idea. The covers are pretty nifty. But one problem I have with it? The covers are standard letter size, 8.5" by 11". The paper for the insides? Standard filler paper. 8" by 10.5". Honestly, it makes the notebooks look cheap. Plus, the standard filler paper doesn't have perforations, so when you pull the pages out, it leaves fringe: teachers hate fringe.
If they'd taken a little time, they could have made "special" filler paper packets for the Creation Station books, standard letter-sized, with a perforated strip before the three-ring holes.
Back-to-school is still in full swing for the next month or so, so I guess we'll see how it does. Maybe if they reimplement this next year, they'll do the special paper. It would take a good idea all the way to great, IMO.
Why am I harping on this now, though? Because tonight on ABCFamily, Omax has a back-to-school special called "Schooled," that's supposed to feature all the "hip and new" back to school products, including Creation Station notebooks. It's supposed to be in "Punk'd" format, the school and teachers playing a prank on the eigth-grade class, telling them they have to come back to school a month or so early to take a test to qualify for high school, ending in a surprise concert in the gym. I've actually seen Google ads for it popping up, as well as the Creation Station (and don't get me started on the PA announcements with "New year, NEW YOU!!" Oh, the horror) on a Sims site I visit, and on my DA page. I might watch it, simply because there isn't much else on at 7 pm (ooh, except for Good Eats). But if I hear one adult using the phrase "bling out your backpack," the channel is so being changed.
Honestly, every time I see something from marketing with the term "bling" in it, I wince. I still feel like Catherine, from the second ep of CSI, when she's playing a suspect, getting him to tell her where he is, saying, "Maybe a little bling-bling?" And after the phone call, Sara asks, "What's 'bling-bling'?" Catherine's reply: "I have no idea." I'm not going to get into my rant about "gangsta" becoming mainstream. I'm not. I really am not. At least not today. But still, marketing using the phrase "bling out your backpack" to appeal to preteens!!??!! Nuh-uh.
Then again, this was the same article (in the associate magazine) that had the statement, "Even the kids who want to conform still want something unique about themselves." I kid you not.
Sometimes, you have to get a wee bit cynical to survive in retail. At least until you can get into the marketing offices and start rearrainging memos. (innocent smile)
We've offered these for a little over a month now...and our location has sold TWO. Just two. That's it.
I mean, overall, it's an interesting idea. The covers are pretty nifty. But one problem I have with it? The covers are standard letter size, 8.5" by 11". The paper for the insides? Standard filler paper. 8" by 10.5". Honestly, it makes the notebooks look cheap. Plus, the standard filler paper doesn't have perforations, so when you pull the pages out, it leaves fringe: teachers hate fringe.
If they'd taken a little time, they could have made "special" filler paper packets for the Creation Station books, standard letter-sized, with a perforated strip before the three-ring holes.
Back-to-school is still in full swing for the next month or so, so I guess we'll see how it does. Maybe if they reimplement this next year, they'll do the special paper. It would take a good idea all the way to great, IMO.
Why am I harping on this now, though? Because tonight on ABCFamily, Omax has a back-to-school special called "Schooled," that's supposed to feature all the "hip and new" back to school products, including Creation Station notebooks. It's supposed to be in "Punk'd" format, the school and teachers playing a prank on the eigth-grade class, telling them they have to come back to school a month or so early to take a test to qualify for high school, ending in a surprise concert in the gym. I've actually seen Google ads for it popping up, as well as the Creation Station (and don't get me started on the PA announcements with "New year, NEW YOU!!" Oh, the horror) on a Sims site I visit, and on my DA page. I might watch it, simply because there isn't much else on at 7 pm (ooh, except for Good Eats). But if I hear one adult using the phrase "bling out your backpack," the channel is so being changed.
Honestly, every time I see something from marketing with the term "bling" in it, I wince. I still feel like Catherine, from the second ep of CSI, when she's playing a suspect, getting him to tell her where he is, saying, "Maybe a little bling-bling?" And after the phone call, Sara asks, "What's 'bling-bling'?" Catherine's reply: "I have no idea." I'm not going to get into my rant about "gangsta" becoming mainstream. I'm not. I really am not. At least not today. But still, marketing using the phrase "bling out your backpack" to appeal to preteens!!??!! Nuh-uh.
Then again, this was the same article (in the associate magazine) that had the statement, "Even the kids who want to conform still want something unique about themselves." I kid you not.
Sometimes, you have to get a wee bit cynical to survive in retail. At least until you can get into the marketing offices and start rearrainging memos. (innocent smile)
