Investing in Ink 'lines'--What's your take?

[Looser]

LOL! We've got some good 'ramblers' here @ AI. My mom had a nice Rambler for several years. Don't recall what she traded it for--maybe a Plymouth.

Melissa raises a good point about 'color names'. Sometimes they can encourage us to purchase; other times they can put us off.  Far as 'Marketing Psychology' classes? I'm dead sure that they exist. Psychology is the bedrock of almost any business--including Crafts. Want a really old example of non-craft marketing psychology?

When commercial bakeries began selling bread to mass markets, it was unsliced. Then someone invented a way to cut the loaves into slices & wrap it in one procedure. It was an instant success with consumers. But you know what? It was shrewd marketing, too. Unsliced loaves last longer than sliced ones. Result. Folks bought more bread & ended up throwing more out. Remember. They rarely were able to freeze bread or even chill it to retard mold & staleness. The psych behind it was convenience.

Convenience is a huge force in producing ink/paint lines. The majority of crafters will buy each color rather than take the time to mix one from those they have.  Same for craft tools & more. And that's fine. It keeps the Craft Business in business. Let's be honest. If the Craft Industry had to depend on some of us for it's continued health it would be in 'intensive care'.

I can still recall when Betty Byrd began publishing books that showed painters how to make their own paint colors. Most craft painter designers published their designs with specific brands of paint. Some few would offer 2 brands in their materials lists, but that was rare since many of them got extra $s by working with a particular company's products. That's probably still true, but don't know about how the $ incentives work these days--I've been out of that loop for years.

Another consumer the Craft Industry loves is the 'collector'. They are the ones who have to have every new whatever--stamp, ink, paper, tool, etc.--from this company or that designer. God bless these folks-truly! From a business standpoint I don't care whether you ever use what you buy. Long as you buy it, I'm a happy guy--Ca Ching is music to my ears.

[CarefreeSadie]

Why yes there are marketing and psychology of business classes.  The psychology of business is in the psychology major.  The marketing classes are in the Business major......I know this because I have a BA in each of these.  The psychology of business was a rather odd class in that you actually study the psychology of business.....LOL.   How a large business works inside and how the tone is set from the top down, how people react to other people...different personality types, things like that.  Now the marketing classes, they are fun....you actually have to set up a business plan and a marketing plan for that business.  But you know the one thing I learned in speech class that also is important in business is you have to know your audience.....and in business your audience is your customers.  I went back in my old age and completed the education I started right out of high school and interrupted to raise the family so I graduated in 2007 with that double major in Psychology and Business Administration....LOL!

But the knowing your audience is what Ranger and other successful companies do, they know how to hook you and sell you the unneeded (as looser said)  Big companies do consumer studies to see what is selling and who is buying it.  Now they are done online, you know the tracking stuff.....go to one store and look at a product and all of a sudden you have ads for that product from Amazon on the top of your window.  The companies buy the statistics from that tracking so they can tell how people shop and which products are most looked at over a certain amount of time......

Michaels, Hobby Lobby, and Joann's all keep a running inventory so they know what products are hot and which ones they are happy when the last one leaves the store.  I am sure Ranger know every second of the day which of their products are the hot sellers and who is cutting costs on their products just to get them out the door. 

I would assume Tim Holtz being a spokesperson/creative director falls under setting the tone.  He is enthusiastic about the products and knows how to use them, I bet that carries over to everyone who comes in contact with him in the Ranger company, Ranger knows this and likes how their company operates with a Tim Holtz as a creative director.  I think the reason so many different companies have come out with their own ink line is because of the success that Ranger has had selling their distress inks.  It's like one store has a certain product and pretty soon you notice it at other stores.  The success is there for one company so the other companies want in on it and make their own or get someone else to make the product which they put their name on. 

LOL, well, there is another ramble!   

[Far North]

Congratulations Sadie on your later in life accomplishment of 2 degrees!  You have certainly integrated your knowledge into your work.  The style and grace in which you organized the start-up of Artsy Inkers is an outstanding example.  Thank you for sharing your skills with us! 

Thanks Daniel for linking Superior’s chart on surface compatibility!Now that I am combining more products on Mixed Media projects I find that I need to pay a lot more attention to the characteristics of the colorants beyond dye and pigment but also translucent vs opaque; solvent, oil or water base and the type of surface.  Knowledge of this information helps to achieve more success when mixing products and less of what Daniel describes as a kitchen sink projects.

I have all the Ranger distress re-inkers for my inkpads since there are so many techniques to do with them including making one’s own sprays but for others I have only bought them as needed. I have learned some less used pads don’t need re-inking for years so I would prefer to buy a fresh bottle since I have had a couple “go bad”-as in either smelly or becoming very thick.
 
The packaging for cut-n-dry stamp pad (foam and felt) has lots of great ideas on the back for it’s use.  Yes, you can make your own stamp pads-either temporary or long term.  Generally I select the type of CnD to use just like ink pad-the foam for pigment ink and felt for dye ink. Dylusions blank pad is foam. Homemade inkpads can be stored in resealable bags.  I first wrap mine in wax paper so I can handle without getting inky while placing it in/out of the bag.  Here is a link(pull down to find) to Tim’s video demonstration of how to create an ink pad for a specific stamp.  I find it really easy to create the ink pad and fun if you want a large number of the same colored image one can stamp away.  I have made a few pads for creating batched Christmas cards and they have been useable 2 years later!

[Looser]

Add me to the 'impressed' list with regard to Sadie's degrees.  My initial major in college was Psychology before switching to Theatre & Public Address. Both the Psych Dept. & I were much happier with the change. But lots of more non-psych courses (those with great instructors) helped me understand that there was an underlying psychology--even philosophy with any subject.

Jan. LOL on the 'kitchen sink' comment. The very things you are talking about are what I had to do when I was combining lots of different materials--including but not limited to inks, paints, adhesevives & more. These days when I do a 'kitchen sink' a lot of it is based on what I learned about compatibility of materials back when. But there is almost always a chance that it will have an 'uncertainty factor'. That is wha keeps me doing what I do--just like many of us AIs.

I do like having times when I can trust the outcome of any bunch of stuff I'm using, but I wouldn't be happy if I only depended on that aspect of creativity. And I know that's not what you are suggesting, ma'am.

Regardless of whether we are happy crafting as a hobby or using our ability to earn $s, we share a common goal--making stuff with our 'think'. 

Having been the recipient of complete lines of several companies products--especially paints--when I was doing pro work, I sometimes had to struggle with my natural inclination to use fewer individual colors that I knew I could make from a limited pallete. That was not my job. But--like several of my peer designers--I could slip in occasional touches of 'make your own' & the company wasn't (very) unhappy.

Which brings me back to the original question of investing in 'lines'. If I were considering offering work for publication, I'd probably go for obtaining a full line of a product I really enjoyed using & was able to experiment with in ways the company might not have considered.  And if I weren't interested in doing 'pro'? I might still invest in the whole line for the very same reasons.

That said, however, I truly believe 'collecting' ink colors is always going to be a 'no-go' for me.

My turn to ramble!

[yellowcherrios]

Thanks Jan for sharing your experience with CnD!  I really think that I will pick one (or both) up instead of the dylusions spray pad....and thanks for the link to TH showing all this!!   


Congratulations Sadie for finishing 2 degrees!!  WTG!    Thanks for sharing more of what is in those psychology marketing classes!  I remember from one of my business classes, that they did mention these "tools" used in marketing---but the only one I remember is the 99 cent "tool"---where things that end in 99 cents look cheaper to comsumers: $9.99 vs $10....but I am seeing things ending in .00 more these days in stores.