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