Looking for design inspiration?   Browse our curated collections!

Return to Main Discussion Page
Discussion Quote Icon

Discussion

Main Menu | Search Discussions

Search Discussions
 
 

Angelina Tamez

8 Years Ago

The Great Frame Up

On the cue of another artist here, I contacted my local Great Frame Up to start a conversation.

The owner wasn't in.

I was a little surprised that the person working there said he had heard nothing about the partnership here.

Hm....

Reply Order

Post Reply
 

Edward Fielding

8 Years Ago

Must have missed the staff meeting.

 

Adam Jewell

8 Years Ago

They may not even need to know who supplies the images, just that they have a source for them.

Store owners or corporate folks wouldn't want to talk about FFA cause if they send sales through there they get no commission.

 

Angelina Tamez

8 Years Ago

Well, if this site is correct, there are 92 franchise stores.

http://www.entrepreneur.com/franchises/greatframeupthe/282394-0.html

That being said, even if the agreement was made on a corporate level, I wonder how many franchise owners know about it?

 

Angelina Tamez

8 Years Ago

That's possible Adam, but they have their own storefront.

http://shopthegreatframeupart.com/

The person I spoke with acted like no one there had any knowledge of it.

 

Mike Savad

8 Years Ago

that's the second time i've heard this. the people working at the store never heard about this new program. i'm guessing no one there turns on the computer at all. it seems like a lot of trouble to look things up when you may already have something better in stock. glad i didn't go out and buy coffee and donuts.


---Mike Savad
MikeSavad.com

 

Angelina Tamez

8 Years Ago

I think it's a great idea, but if they don't even know about it, how is it going to work?

 

Floyd Snyder

8 Years Ago

"Store owners or corporate folks wouldn't want to talk about FFA cause if they send sales through there they get no commission.'

Not sure I follow this line of thinking. Why would they sign up if that was the case?

I think a lot of what you may run into is if the store is locally owned, like a franchise of corporate owned store. Not sure how all of these are structured.


 

Angelina Tamez

8 Years Ago

The Great Frame Up stores are all franchise's.

 

Floyd Snyder

8 Years Ago

"I think it's a great idea, but if they don't even know about it, how is it going to work?"

To me this may be an even better reason to show up with the coffee and doughnuts.

If you are the one that introduce them to an asset they are not yet even aware that they have, that is going to be a big opportunity to endear yourself to them.

Or get run off of course. But nothing ventured nothing gained. Attitude will make a big difference. I can not image Angelina getting run off from anywhere. Mike... well... lol

Got to see the marketing opportunities were they lie, or make your own.

 

Floyd Snyder

8 Years Ago

I would approach this as being more from the FAA or individual local artist angle then something that is coming from corporate. Some franchise owners are tired of corporate "putting stuff on them".

I would have the information all loaded up on my laptop or iPad when I walked in and not have to rely on them letting you use their computer. The may need that computer for business.

I would have my own wi-fi also.

I would also "case the joint" ( sorry, I had to say that ) and see what they are selling already in the way of local art. If they have none, that may be a good thing. If they some, see if any of them are on FAA. More the better for you, I would think, if they are not.



 

Frank J Casella

8 Years Ago

When I first contacted TGF the manager / owner wasn't in either. I introduced myself over the phone as a local artist from FAA and then asked for the owners email. I then sent him an email with the link to his store portal that Sean posted in his announcement. In five minutes the owner replied and we set a time to meet. Now they are working on a meet the local artist event with me.

Angel, call the store and get the email. .....

 

Angelina Tamez

8 Years Ago

I was considering that exact approach.

The thing is, they have a website set up, if they don't know how to access it that will be a problem.

Hahaha...I can't remember being run off from anywhere ;) Yes, it's worth trying to form a relationship, it could be good for both parties.

 

Angelina Tamez

8 Years Ago

Good idea, thanks Frank.

 

Frank J Casella

8 Years Ago

Welcome, Angel. I have the feeling the managers / owners stay in the back room and are 'not in' unless you're 'somebody'.

 

Alfred Ng

8 Years Ago

Maybe you should just drop in as a customer see how or if they will introduce you to the images on FAA..

 

Floyd Snyder

8 Years Ago

"Hahaha...I can't remember being run off from anywhere ;) "

Well, heck, you have just not lived... I have been run off from some of he best places in town! lol

Just kidding, but I do get the feeling once in a while that when I leave a restaurant, they are all scurrying around counting the silverware!

 

Edward Fielding

8 Years Ago

Sure look around the store a bit and then say "hmmmm...I'm not seeing exactly what I'm looking for.....do you have any Vicks? You know Angelina Vick?"

 

Frank J Casella

8 Years Ago

HAHAH!! Love that, Edward!!!

 

Alfred Ng

8 Years Ago

Edward, the not too smart but always helpful sale person then took out a pack of Vicks cough drops from his/hers pocket!

 

Frank J Casella

8 Years Ago

hehehe.... Alfred.

 

Cynthia Decker

8 Years Ago

It's possible that not all the stores have online kiosks. They can be expensive and I think those shops are owner franchises.

 

Angelina Tamez

8 Years Ago

They have to buy a kiosk?

 

Greg Jackson

8 Years Ago

I'm also finding it interesting that some of the GFU stores aren't aware of the FAA online option. You would think that all of them are pretty much outfitted the same, but maybe not.

 

Mike Savad

8 Years Ago

it might just be one of those option that they can sign up if they want it. sort of like running a franchise, but you chose not to run a particular line of it. like you just run the donut part, but not the coffee part. or you don't do the bagel part.

this might just be a thing they can do if they want. so it does make me wonder out of all those places - how many even know about this site? and how many of those plan on using it?

---Mike Savad
MikeSavad.com

Show All Messages

Big Skip

This is a very popular discussion with 81 responses.   In order to help the page load faster and allow you to quickly read the most recent posts, we're only showing you the oldest 25 posts and the newest 25 posts.   Everything in the middle has been skipped.   Want to read the entire discussion?   No problem: click here.

 

Edward Fielding

8 Years Ago

I would think their first priority would be to sell the stuff on the walls. The stuff with fixed costs already invested.

 

Michelle McPhillips

8 Years Ago

Wow! What a nice surprise! Thank you Keith for introducing yourself. It was very kind of you to join the conversation and share your insights with us. I am excited about this program and the progress it's making. I am looking forward to seeing how far it can go.

 

Edward Fielding

8 Years Ago

Keith - Thanks for taking the time to reach out.

 

Nikolyn McDonald

8 Years Ago

I did make a sale through the program recently - so pleased to have that.

When the program first started, I sent a card introducing myself to the only store of this name in the area. I figured the owner could read it and throw it away or read it and set it aside for the moment when it might come in handy. (From the buyer's location and mine, I would say there was no connection whatsoever between that note and the sale :) )

I do think it's very cool that Keith stopped by and is willing to answer our questions. Thank you.

 

Frank J Casella

8 Years Ago

Keith -- Thanks for jumping in here, and for clearing some things up. Very thoughtful of you. Helps us all work together on the same page, so to speak.

Once I made a connection with my local GFU store a couple things impressed me that I think you should consider including in your marketing strategy. The first is that ( I understand ) the store manager really is the owner of the store/franchise. The second is than not only is the store in the local community, it is a part of the local community. In other words, its not just a franchise but a small business a part of a bigger picture ( pun intended ) just like all of us independent artists a part of FAA. One thing special to me is that my local store is active with the local Chamber of Commerce ( of which I am a member of the Board of Directors ). I'm thinking if these two things impressed me than how much more would they impress others when marketed better.

Also, you mentioned you will talk with stores to search for subject matters from distant points of the world to find art that fits their customers style. One thing I do here on Pixels / FAA is serve as moderator of the over 3000 prestigious groups administered by my fellow artists and photographers. All of this is volunteer work, and very important work. I would like to encourage you to talk to Sean ( FAA owner ) about including groups in your shopforart.com portal as I don't see it, here is what it looks like: http://pixels.com/groups.html For example, when doing a general search for 'Chicago' you might first come up with collections or images that have high ranking on the website. When you search for groups, however, then you might find unique and original artwork by many of our living artists and photographers that has not yet ranked high on the website. Instead its ranked by human eyeballs. I know of art collectors and art consultants who search groups because they want to see what us artists who are administrators are featuring as we spend countless hours on this website curating and exhibiting artworks.

Finally, speaking of time on this website. While you're talking to Sean, you might consider your stores bringing in a local FAA member to help as navigator of this website. As stated above, many of us spend hours every week here so we know the nooks and crannies and ins and outs of the website. I know when I first came on here it was quite overwhelming all the features and options. So with that I would just like to say thanks for the important work you do to bring art to be an important part of life.


Edit: I just noticed there is a sort category for 'Recently Featured in Groups': http://shopforart.com/art/all/all/prints?sort=recentlyfeaturedgroup




 

Shop For Art

8 Years Ago

Thanks to Frank and everyone else for the excellent feedback.

 

Tom Roderick

8 Years Ago

Thanks for the opportunity -- greatly appreciated!

 

Floyd Snyder

8 Years Ago

Thank you Keith Ernst, for making yourself available for Q&A, that is very much appreciated.

And thank you Frank, for doing what you do in representing FAA and promoting your groups the way you do. As they say, that is priceless.

Keith, as the past owner of three frame shop/galleries for many years, I would like to impress upon you how important local artist were to the success of my business. I think that having FAA members that are also local artists would be of great benefit to your individual stores.

If would have loved to have this program in my local shops for all of the great access to thousands of artist from around the world. But I would have also found as many ways as possible to feature the local FAA members. Each one of those artist once involved, become walking, talking promoters of the local stores.

The "Buy Local" concept is always in play.

Of course I am sure you already have your plan in place and I wish you the best of luck in whatever direction you go.

 

Shop For Art

8 Years Ago

Thanks Floyd. I agree with your sentiment. Many of our stores do feature local artists very successfully. Especially with the increase of the shop local environment as well.

 

David Randall

8 Years Ago

I have worked in the custom framing business for a lifetime. Ten years ago I had a, "kiosk" with thousands of prints available on DVD from a print consolidator. Before that I had for many years a large encyclopedic selection of catalogs from different publishing houses. The number of clients willing to sift through the physical catalogs during a year I could count on one hand. The kiosk made no difference to those interested in looking and spending time in the shop. Prints are a major part of what we frame and prints have almost always been a big part of the mix. In the last ten years there has been a steady decline in the sale of prints in-house. Less and less is it sensible for a shop to devote floor space to print bins. Inventory will sit for long periods not selling. The percentage of sales from prints in a frame shop franchise is somewhere in the range on of 10% or less of gross. Less in most cases. Why? The internet. In your home you can glance a 1000s of images on your iPad while watching the Simpsons or dancing with the Stars. Not to put a damper on things but the print sales for most framers has tanked. Unless the art prints market makes some dramatic U-turn most folks have stopped buying art prints from shops. I do not expect it to change back.
On average print sales in most frame shops is just another way to sell framing. A poster sells for $35. and costs $200. to frame cheaply. Some do it more and better than others. Framing pays the rent.

Those of you wishing to offer your work in a frame shop may find them more interested in you if they became your framer. They are going to be interested in work they feel reasonably sure they can sell like any gallery. Your strength is being local and offering local imagery. Otherwise they are more interested in proven sellers. Wall space being at a premium and costly.

 

Kathy K McClellan

8 Years Ago

Thank you, Angelina for opening this discussion.

Thank you, Frank, for your positive feedback and suggestions to Shop For Art.

Thank you, Floyd for your suggestion about promoting local artist.

And thank you very much Keith Ernst for joining the discussion and answering questions many of us had and more importantly, for the opportunity Shop For Art is giving the artists here on FAA for a new avenue for marketing and sales.

Good luck to all of us involved!

Kathy

Kathy K. McClellan
http://keppenart.com


 

Roberta Byram

8 Years Ago

I also want to thank all of the above for the interest and caring of our being in business together.

This discussion has been wonderful and demonstrates the interest on both sides of the equation.

I am happy to work with one and all to make this a success!

Best to all of us!

Roberta

http://bertsworks.com

 

Kathleen Bishop

8 Years Ago

I like Frank's suggestion that people who are very familiar with FAA show sales staff how to navigate the site. Many years ago when intranets were a fairly new concept, we developers were dispatched to our company support centers all over the country to train staff in how to navigate the site so they could quickly find the information they need. In those days many of our employees weren't at all familiar with WWW navigation, let alone how to access information through their own intranet, so without our hands-on training the tool was useless to them. Once trained, there was a dramatic increase in user traffic which translated to increased customer support and retention. It was well worth the cost of training staff.

 

Shop For Art

8 Years Ago

@ David Randall. Good feedback David. I remember those Liebermans cd's quite well. Might still have one buried in the files somewhere. Might be fun to go back in time. You are correct in that a big part of our stores goal is to use art to drive framing sales. Part of the attraction of FAA's platform vs the old methods of doing this was the art itself. While the costs on this platform are quite a bit more than a $35 poster, the competition to sell that $35 poster is tremendous. With this platform the art is unique and not really comparable to some of the larger online print sellers (who gash prices). That's part of the attraction. It's a better product. There will still be customers who want to buy the current trendy piece that they saw in a big box store, but there are also millions who want something unique and specific.

 

Shop For Art

8 Years Ago

@ Kathleen and Frank - we do intend on growing our folks awareness of using the site. Totally agree with the point. If you don't know how to drive it a race car is pretty useless! Good input. Thanks.

 

Floyd Snyder

8 Years Ago

Lieberman's CD's?

Man you guys are just puppies!!

What about all those New York Graphics and Hadads's Fine Art catalogs we paid a fortune for. lol

Incidentally, I still do business with all three of them.

 

Floyd Snyder

8 Years Ago

Agree Kathleen. It would also give the FAA artist that has opted into the program a firsthand view of how the program is being integrated or received by the local stores owners and/or managers.

This is a great program for FAA and I am sure it will also work very well for Shop For Art.

My only reservation is that this could very quickly become just another situation where those that dominate the search on FAA are going to dominate the search in the stores.

I personally would like to see some sort of firmer commitment from Shop For At that that is not going to happen.

"We have a number of communications with our stores. In those, we plan on featuring collections, artists, features, etc. Think along the lines of "here is what is selling" or staff picks or here are some new pieces you might be interested in."

"We'll be putting together spotlight features and encouraging stores to reach into the search features on the site to identify local artists and search for subject matters from distant points of the world to find art that fits their customers style.'

I appreciate the sentiment and the good intentions, but I can also see where this very quickly decelerates into relying on the FAA search as is.

I am not trying to throw a wet blank on the program. As stated, I think it is great program. But as I said in the original thread, unless there is some sort of concentrated effort either on the part of SFA or the local artist in being proactive, there is not likely to be any great benefit to the average member of FAA with the exception of the occasional additional sale. If that is all it turns out to be, so be it. It is still a good program.

But it would be nice to have a little more for those artists in the local area that as a group of thousands is part of what is making the program work.

I out lined one such idea above. Here is another.

I can see a sidebar on the screen that comes up and stays up with the name and links to the all local FAA gallery members that have opted into the program. I understand that in major markets that me be a large list and maybe they will have to be rotated. It is much better to be rotated as one of 50 or 100 in your own back yard than it is as one of 100,000 or more as suggested above.

Not sure either of two ideas are practical but I would like to hear of specifics beyond a feature possibility once every six years or so as you rotate through the members.


 

Shop For Art

8 Years Ago

@ Floyd - not sure I fully understand the part about certain things dominating the search but I'll try and address how we already see this working. The local aspect is one part of things. It's good to have because we do have customers who come in looking for things that are locally topical. But most of the time the customer comes in with a certain perspective on what they had in mind. Be it photography, landscapes, still life, abstract, etc. So the customer largely drives the direction of the search. Rarely does someone come in who hasn't at least given it some thought. Often in these situations, staff in our stores will make suggestions that go in the direction that they were considering.

The way the site is structured and the ability to search with so many different filters really works well. I was in a store over the weekend and sat with a customer for 40 minutes going through everything. She didn't end up finding that one piece she loved but she'll continue to look until it speaks to her. Our franchisees want to help the customer find the right fit above all else. No matter where the art came from.

 

Andee Design

8 Years Ago

I would be willing to offer a discount code that could be used off my profits to be considered for getting more promotion or sales. Keith send me an email here jhttp://andeedesign.com/contact.html if that is something that would help if you find work of mine but it is too high to feature with the discount you get already. I do not want to lower my prices on site but would do that to be considered for a spotlight or to help get more sales. (Unless those do not work with the program and in that case I can open a private gallery and reduce pieces for your view only)

ANDEE

 

Frank J Casella

8 Years Ago

Keith, Floyd, Kathy, and Kathleen -- thanks for your kind feedback. It's all about helping each other through life, and the business of Art. Enjoy your day!

 

Shop For Art

8 Years Ago

@ Andee - while I appreciate that offer, I think that we'll move forward with how things are currently. Thanks though.

 

Andee Design

8 Years Ago

You are welcome Keith.

ANDEE

 

Floyd Snyder

8 Years Ago

"The way the site is structured and the ability to search with so many different filters really works well."

If you are talking about the FAA search, it is not, in any way, shape or form, going to benefit the average FAA member to any great degree. The search is simply not weighted that way. I don't know what the exact percentage is, my guess would be that in 90% of the search only the top 10% of the sellers are going to come up within the first 10-15 pages of the results. Only on a rare occasion is that local FAA member going to show up. Unless of course that store happens to be in their backyard.

Of course that may suite your needs perfectly well and that is all fine and good I have no problem with that.

I would not necessarily even bring this up. I for one have no problem with the way the search works. But when you start reducing it down to individual artists that have opted into your program and put it in a store right in their own back yard, the playing field has changed. I now see where it an opportunity that would benefit not only that artist, buts FAA and SFA to have a specific program that does not rely on the FAA but would specifically feature that local member.



 

Shop For Art

8 Years Ago

Well Floyd, I guess we'll have to see how it works in time. The variety of pieces sold thus far are pretty well scattered from medium, location, size, etc. We try to be very data driven so we'll see how the ball evolves. Thanks for the info.

 

David Smith

8 Years Ago

Hi Keith

Thanks for participating in the forum.

Does your company track unfulfilled requests at all?

Many stock agencies do, and send out regular "needs lists".

Might be valuable to work with Sean to set up something like this.

 

Floyd Snyder

8 Years Ago

Best of luck to you! Really appreciate having been give the opportunity to give a little input.

 

Lindley Johnson

8 Years Ago

Thank you, Angelina, for opening this topic, and Keith for all of your helpful information. Thanks, also, to all of you for your helpful contributions. I'm eager to see how this goes, and will be visiting my local store soon.

Lindley

http://lindley-johnson.artistwebsites.com

 

Shop For Art

8 Years Ago

@ David - We really don't. Frankly the times when someone can't find something that would work doesn't happen that often. I suspect being on the FAA platform will continue to turn out the same way.

 

This discussion is closed.