Jo-Ann, Fiskars and the American Heart Association

Woman 18-34, Enjoys Scrapbooking, Seeks Marketers Who Can Make Her Care

Scrapbooking is now the biggest chunk of the craft and hobby industry in North America, according to the Craft and Hobby Association, with estimated annual sales of $2.44 billion in 2006, a growth rate of 2.4 percent over 2005. The total craft and hobby market size is estimated to be $30 billion.

I only just found these figures, but they don’t surprise me. I live with a scrapbooker/ cardmaker. One of my wife’s sisters works for a company that has a substantial (more than 200 SKUs) scrapbook line. My wife and her sister have been to at least a half-dozen scrapbook shows together from Texas on west.

The research I saw from the Craft and Hobby Association, doesn’t break out the female-male gender ratio in scrapbooking, but I think it’s fair to say that more women than men scrapbook. The research does show that the age group most likely to scrapbook is 18-34, an attractive demo to nonprofits and to companies alike.

The research, conducted by IPSOS, found “7 dimensions of crafting:”

Relaxation & Accomplishment
Recommendation
Spend Time With
Others
Children
Economy & Value
Memory Keeping
Health

While my wife makes cards alone, she prefers to scrapbook in the company of friends and family. Drive past any scrapbook store in the country at 10:30 or 11 pm on a weekend and chances are it will be open. Scrapbook stores commonly host crops that go late into the night on weekends. The ‘croppers,’ frequently in groups, get access to large work areas and the store’s tools and inventory, and the stores get to sell to a captive audience long after the closest Wal-Mart is closed. So while IPSOS may have the order right for crafters as a whole, I suspect that the social aspect is one of the most important aspects of the hobby for scapbookers.

Where do they get their ideas? 54 percent said magazines, 49 percent said family/friends, 40 percent said books, 38 percent said catalogs, etc. Only 13 percent of crafters reported getting their ideas from the Internet. Of the finished product, 68 percent give it as gifts and 64 percent keep it for personal use. Just 14 percent are sold. Of those that are sold, 64 percent are sold to family or friends. IPSOS also did a craft participation cross-analysis and found that scrapbookers are most likely to also participate in card making, rubber stamping, woodworking, wreathmaking and floral arranging.

One last number. Crafters spent, on average, $276 per household in 2006 on supplies. I don’t know of any study that cross tabulates scrapbookers against charity supporters, but I’ll bet there’s a strong correlation.

So my question is, why is there so little cause marketing targeted to scrapbookers and crafters? There’s this half-hearted effort (pardon the pun) from Jo-Ann and Fiskars scissors benefiting the American Heart Association. Close To My Heart a multi-level marketing scrapbooking outfit has a cause marketing relationship with Operation Kids. There are a few more.

But I suspect that right now scrapbookers and crafters are a missed opportunity for nonprofit and for-profit marketers alike.

Chili’s and St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital

I was in Chili’s today and I ordered their “Triple-Dipper,” a three appetizer combo. While I waited for the food, I noticed another kind of combo. Chili’s is doing a full-featured cause-related marketing campaign for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. There was a four-sided laminated table tent outlining the campaign on the table. When the waitress brought the drinks she slapped down Chili’s trademark square paper beverage coasters and on them was a call to action for an element of the campaign called ‘Create-A-Pepper,’ a kind of paper icon campaign. The wait staff was all attired in black shirts co-branded with Chili’s and St. Jude. The Create-A-Pepper paper icon could be found in a stack behind the hostess area. The Peppers are outlines of Chili’s iconic logo meant to be colored. I paid $1 for mine, but they would have taken $5, $10, or more. The crayons, too, were co-branded with the ‘Create-A-Pepper’ and St. Jude’s logos. There’s also creatapepper.com, a microsite, but again wi...

Part 2: How Chili's Used Cause-Related Marketing to Raise $8.2 million for St. Jude

[Bloggers Note: In this second half of this post I discuss the nuts and bolts of how Chili's motivates support from its employees and managers and how St. Jude 'activates' support from Chili's. Read the first half here.] How does St. Jude motivate support from Chili’s front line employees and management alike? They call it ‘activation’ and they do so by the following: They share stories of St. Jude patients who were sick and got better thanks to the services they received at the hospital. Two stories in particular are personal for Chili’s staff. A Chili’s bartender in El Dorado Hills, California named Jeff Eagles has a younger brother who was treated at St. Jude. In both 2005 and 2006 Eagles was the campaign’s biggest individual fundraiser. John Griffin, a manager at the Chili’s in Conway, Arkansas had an infant daughter who was treated for retinoblastoma at St. Jude. They drew on the support Doug Brooks… the president and CEO of Brinker International, Chili’s parent co...

Cause-Related Marketing with Customer Receipts

Walgreens and JDRF Right now at Walgreens…the giant pharmacy and retail store chain with more than 5,800 stores in the United States and Puerto Rico… they’re selling $1 paper icons for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF). This is an annual campaign and I bought one to gauge how it’s changed over the years. (Short list… they don’t do the shoe as a die cut anymore; the paper icon is now an 8¾ x 4¼ rectangle. Another interesting change; one side is now in Spanish). The icon has a bar code and Jacob, the clerk, scanned it and handed me a receipt as we finished the transaction. At the bottom was an 800-number keyed to a customer satisfaction survey. Dial the number, answer some questions and you’re entered into a drawing for $10,000 between now and the end of September 2007. I don’t know what their response rate is, but the $10,000 amount suggests that it’s pretty low. Taco Bell’s survey gives out $1,000 per week. At a regional seafood restaurant they give me a code that garner...

Cause Marketing

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