Modern Brides 100 Things We Love features Sticks and Stones!
We are really excited to have Sticks and Stones featured on Modern Bride’s "100 Things We Love" list! The issue just came out, and it will be on newsstands for the next 2 months. Upon seeing we were number 54, I asked the editor, "you mean you could find 53 things you loved more?" She quickly informed me it was in no particular order, lest I be too concerned.
We were consulting for a friend’s startup business the other day who asked, “how do you guys get in national publications?” Honestly, I wish I could answer that question. It’s extremely tough to get national publicity, simply because of the sheer volume of products with which most magazine people are being bombarded.
We were consulting for a friend’s startup business the other day who asked, “how do you guys get in national publications?” Honestly, I wish I could answer that question. It’s extremely tough to get national publicity, simply because of the sheer volume of products with which most magazine people are being bombarded.
First of all, you have to know the decision-maker for a particular section of the magazine. If you don't know who that is, your product is going to sit in a big sample closet for months.
If you are able to come up with the name, which in itself is a huge chore, you face a "freeze out":
if you try to call, you never get a return call. If you email, you rarely get a return email. If you try to send them a sample they will say, “Got it. Looks great. If we can fit you in somewhere we’ll try. Don’t call us, we’ll call you.”
Having a very strong sales background has been crucial for both of us, as we are used to handling and overcoming the inevitable objections you
face. It’s tough for even the most seasoned salesperson to hear “no” 50 times in a row, but the ones that make the sale are the ones that make the 51st contact. Having built the brand, we hear “no” a lot less these days, thankfully.
I think our biggest source of luck was the Oprah-Tom and Katie gift, as that gave us credibility. That, coupled with the fact that we were first on the national scene with a unique and brand new product. We started sending to all the national magazines in 2005, and we are just now getting press in some of them! That’s over THREE years of trying to get our product featured. Nowadays, literally every editor of every magazine that fits our demographic - home, gift, parent, lifestyle, etc - has seen the product, so it’s a matter of finding a story or product feature fit. It’s more a matter of our follow-up and perseverance than anything else.
A disappointing thing is that we always think we are going to attract more customers than we actually do when magazines come out. When the magazines arrive, it is always a lot smaller response than we expected. That said, we are always very excited to be in print.
The toughest thing we face going forward is that once a product starts getting a ton of press, media thinks you are overexposed and they aren’t offering anything new to their audience by featuring your product. After all, they think, you’ve already been everywhere. It’s a tough world out in media-land.
if you try to call, you never get a return call. If you email, you rarely get a return email. If you try to send them a sample they will say, “Got it. Looks great. If we can fit you in somewhere we’ll try. Don’t call us, we’ll call you.”
Having a very strong sales background has been crucial for both of us, as we are used to handling and overcoming the inevitable objections you
face. It’s tough for even the most seasoned salesperson to hear “no” 50 times in a row, but the ones that make the sale are the ones that make the 51st contact. Having built the brand, we hear “no” a lot less these days, thankfully.I think our biggest source of luck was the Oprah-Tom and Katie gift, as that gave us credibility. That, coupled with the fact that we were first on the national scene with a unique and brand new product. We started sending to all the national magazines in 2005, and we are just now getting press in some of them! That’s over THREE years of trying to get our product featured. Nowadays, literally every editor of every magazine that fits our demographic - home, gift, parent, lifestyle, etc - has seen the product, so it’s a matter of finding a story or product feature fit. It’s more a matter of our follow-up and perseverance than anything else.
A disappointing thing is that we always think we are going to attract more customers than we actually do when magazines come out. When the magazines arrive, it is always a lot smaller response than we expected. That said, we are always very excited to be in print.
The toughest thing we face going forward is that once a product starts getting a ton of press, media thinks you are overexposed and they aren’t offering anything new to their audience by featuring your product. After all, they think, you’ve already been everywhere. It’s a tough world out in media-land.
The biggest thing it has done for us is accelerate the company growth. It has made a 10 year process take less than 3 years, which has had its challenges in terms of how to handle rapid growth. Overall, it’s been really enjoyable. I thought I knew a lot about business before Sticks and Stones, and I did have some knowledge that has been very helpful. Being in the middle of starting an internet-based product business has taught me things I never thought I’d learn! I wish I could have learned from someone else’s mistakes. Alas, it wasn’t to be....
posted by Sticks and Stones @ 4:55 PM
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