New York Kids Market - Are Expensive Trade Shows Necessary?

Sometimes the way an industry conducts business changes and it presents opportunities for the visionaries who see the disruption on the horizon. In my industry, kids wholesale fashion, such an opportunity may have arrived. The four times a year New York fashion trade show schedule no longer meets the needs of retail buyers. I hope the people most impacted, independent New York sales representatives; can collectively act upon changes in retail buyer behavior to the benefit of the entire kids fashion industry.

I will do my best to explain the opportunity I see on the horizon. I do this somewhat selfishly because my company stands to benefit economically, but if done right there are enormous benefits for retailers, sales reps and manufacturers. I hope the management of the trade show venues and fashion trade media work with the New York sales reps to provide an incredible service to retail buyers. All people involved need to get off the what’s in it for me train and climb aboard the train that delivers for our customers, the retail buyer.

This is an open invitation for all to join the evolution. This is not a revolution intended to hurt any company, but a recognition that our industry has changed and as leaders we should work together to provide retail buyers with as much convenience and economy as possible. I know this presentation will be met with an incredible amount of resistance from anybody comfortable with the status quo.

Why now? For a couple years there has been displeasure among manufacturers and sales reps with the retail buyer traffic at trade shows. Hello! It's not about how many manufacturers exhibit, but how many buyers find it useful to attend. Why me? It's not about me; it’s about all of us. I've been a catalyst for change in the New York trade show scene before; Corky was the very first company to sign a contract to do the very first ENK Children’s Club. Until today I've never looked back on that decision.

It costs roughly $80 per square foot to set-up, staff, pay for travel and exhibit at an ENK Children's Club trade. It may cost some companies more and some less, but on average this is what it costs me; a 15 foot booth $12,000, a 20 foot booth $16,000 and a 25 foot booth $20,000. My rule of thumb is we need to write orders at the show equal to 10 times the cost for the show to be cost effective. Up until about three years ago the economics worked great, but today the economics don't work; we're lucky to write orders equal to 3-5 times the cost of a show.

If this is a Corky problem so be it and I am happy for all the other manufacturers who find the trade shows cost effective. I may be greedy and demand too much from a show, but I have a great New York sales rep to support who leases a very expensive showroom. My New York trade show budget as well as other manufacturer’s budgets needs to be reallocated to deliver economy and convenience for retailers.

I sincerely hope that the independent New York representatives can put together a semi-annual multi-week market that spans two weekends where retail buyers are fawned upon and scheduled in showrooms in an orderly fashion. No heavy sale pressure once the buyer is in the showroom, just business that the buyer wishes to conduct. Treat buyers special and if a line has merit they will reward you with orders. If a buyer doesn't wish to conduct business in New York, that's fine, just forgo the conveniences for the next market, they'll understand it's just business.

How about town cars to shuttle the buyers, building escorts to assist buyers to individual showrooms, group dinners, train and airfare allowances and some free hotel rooms? Involve and invite the designers and manufacturers because it's their money that will make it happen. Why do we have to jam business into a three day trade show!

Here's my humble opinion of the current situation. The ENK Children's show doesn't have the buyer reach like they did just a couple years ago. ENK used to pull at least half the buyers from across the country, but now it’s 80% from New York and New Jersey. My rational is simple, my New York showroom should handle the 80% of buyers from New York and New Jersey and my Boston and Philly reps should handle most of the other 20%. For the small percentage of the truly out of town buyers I'd love to offer frequent flyer tickets for you to come to New York or for me to fly out to visit you.

We’ve been doing 3-4 New York shows every year for the last fifteen years (first Larkin, then Advanstar and now ENK Children’s Club) at a cost of $10,000 to $20,000 per show. I can’t believe where I’m going with this, but we’ll probably skip the January ENK show for the first time ever in fifteen years. The catalyst being the show set-up starts on January 3rd and I can't imagine buyers want to get on a plane to start making purchasing decisions for back to school 2009 a couple days after New Years. Hello! Have you ever heard of family and hangovers?

Yesterday I registered the domain NYkidsmarket.org and also redirected the following names to that URL, NYkidsmarket.com, NYCkidsmarket.com and .org and NewYorkkidsmarket.com and .org. I choose the .org because I look at NY Kids Market not as a commercial venture, but an industry wide collaboration worthy of being branded as a .org. I choose this name after reading a quote in a blog about selecting a killer domain name, "Tell them who you are, where you are, and what you sell."

For up and coming companies, doing trade shows is the BEST and ONLY way to develop relationships with retail buyers and New York sales people. In this business it’s all about relationships and ENK provides this valuable service. Here are three pieces of advise that will make your start up ultra successful. 1) deliver a product that fits well 2) deliver a product that looks better than your sales samples and 3) be ready to deliver one day before your stated start ship date. At Corky we meet goals 1 and 2 with fairly predictable success, but we work relentlessly to try to meet the third goal which is the hardest of all.

At Corky we're done shipping back to school and I can turn my attention back to this blog. This project will become my after hours hobby and I look forward to working with industry leaders to deliver a compelling experience at a great value to our customers, the retail buyers.

Local Kids Boutiques are Great For the Community

Kids Boutiques on Target: Specialty store owners work hard to choose a product mix that is cutting edge, fresh and novel, and represents a compelling value to the consumer. Basically kids clothing specialty stores will never compete with mass merchants on price, but the product selection at the local baby boutique could never be produced for the mass market.

Also, there are immense benefits of doing business locally with the neighborhood children clothing boutique as opposed to shopping at big box retailers. At the Small Business Resource blog they go into detail about these benefits. Below I've twisted the article slightly to make it focused on the local kids fashion retailer.

Independent local kids boutiques employ an array of local supporting services. They hire architects, designers, cabinet shops, sign makers and contractors for construction. Local accountants, insurance brokers, computer consultants, attorneys, and advertising agencies help run their businesses. In contrast, a big box retailer is a clone of other units, eliminates the need for local planning, and uses a minimum of local goods and services. The chain store’s profits promptly are exported to corporate headquarters.

Dollars spent at community-based merchants create a multiplier effect in the local economy that, by most findings, typically amounts to three times that of a chain. This is well-evidenced by an economic impact study by the IBA in Austin, Texas that concluded for every $100 spent at a chain, $13 remained in the community while $45 remained when spent with home town businesses.

Kids boutique retailers sift through competing clothing (and coat) lines to find those that will appeal to their customers. Though a single local shop may carry a smaller selection than a big chain, you can bet a dollar that the local store owner will have more appealing products for its customers. As fewer giant corporations dominate production and sales, our options – determined by a powerful few — dwindle. Our freedom of choice is imperiled when a few buyers from national chains choose what reaches customers.

When asked to name our favorite restaurant, cafe, or shop, it’s typically a unique local business. Just look at the results in any community’s “Best of” polls as proof. Those businesses define our sense of place, but we often forget their survival depends on our patronage. Local owners, typically having invested much of their life savings in their businesses, have a natural interest in the community’s long-term health. Community-based businesses are essential to charitable endeavors, and their owners frequently serve on local boards and support numerous causes.

The overall impacts are clear: locally-owned businesses play a vital role in our community that chains rarely do. To the success of the local children's boutique!

Great Fashion Starts with Outstanding Quality

At Corky & Company, like most small companies, we pride ourselves on the quality of the garments and products we make. The image of your company and ultimately its brand longevity will depend on product quality.

A small branded apparel manufacturer can’t afford a large quality assurance department, nor is this the proper way to insure a quality product in garment manufacturing. At Corky, we define quality in five very simple steps.

1. Design fresh looks which sell
2. Develop a good consistent fit
3. Produce to product specifications
4. Deliver on time
5. Analyze retailer selling data
   

These five steps may sounds simple, but to implement properly you will need the combined efforts of your entire workforce, supplier base, sales force and some very straightforward customers. This is what we call total quality management; quality of design, development, production, delivery and salability. I purposefully didn’t capitalize total quality management because that would infer a proper noun or the name of a program, but I prefer it to be a noun, management, modified by two adjectives total and quality.

Never think you’ve mastered the total quality cycle because the marketplace always throws a curve ball; employees will leave or retire, suppliers will go out of business, new suppliers will develop great products, customers will order later than expected, production will start and/or finish late, and competitors will emerge with a better product. You as the business leader must accepted the fact that total quality will be an endless effort and require a positive company culture of constant improvement and mutual problem solving.

The quality of a garment is a function of good design, basically quality is designed into a garment from the start. In addition to a “look” that will retail, design is responsible for fabric, trim and thread selection, fit and product specifications. Get anything wrong here and maintaining total quality control will be near impossible.

Sales people need to provide design with retailer and consumer input so positive trends can be emphasized and negative trends can be addressed. I’ve learned to, Treat Your Customers Like Royalty, because they truly want to tell you how to succeed. Whenever possible have your design team go to trade shows and involve your sales people in line development before cutting sample sets. The return on this investment is enormous.

A good consistent fit is imperative in building a brand! Corky coats have had the same fit for 15 years “a generous cut that runs true to size.” Sales people, retailers and consumers all know how to describe the fit of a Corky coat. Whenever we produce a coat that does not run true to size we receive an enormous amount of negative feedback that we must quickly address. Look at a consistent fit this way, if one size 3T style fits a child, every size 3T in your line should fit that same child.

Produce to specifications and deliver on time. Oh how simple this sounds. In the last three years, technology advances, lower travel costs and improved shipping options has made it relatively simple for small apparel manufacturers to source raw materials from suppliers on four continents without the need to speak English, Spanish and Mandarin. This has led to more fashion value for consumers as discussed in my post, Specialty Stores on Target.

Five years ago a small apparel manufacturer had a network of suppliers in close proximity, but today many of those suppliers have gone out of business. Now small business production managers are like orchestra leaders, coordinating the global purchase and delivery of raw materials, the offshore assembly of garments and the importation of finished items to the company’s warehouse. Unfortunately, this type of supply chain came about, not by evolution, but by revolution when the US and its trading partners repealed the Multi Fiber Act in 2004.

At Corky, we had become well known for the quality of our delivery as well as the quality of our products. However, the events of the last few years had a detrimental impact on the quality of our delivery. During these changes, I’ve insisted the quality of a Corky coat will never be sacrificed over the quality of delivery. I think this was a wise decision because now that the quality of our delivery is improving dramatically, the quality of the brand was never sacrificed.

Many business leaders have their own definition of total quality management, and this post is my attempt to explain Corky and Company’s culture of total quality management.