Advice needed for branding and stuff.....

[yammascrafts]

As you can tell I'm all about the technical stuff. I know Rainee said she would be posting as soon as she could about marketing and branding, but I'm getting myself in a bit of a tizzy (as I do).
My main concern is that i do cards and a lot of crochet as well as other crafty things. I was wondering about separating them somehow on my wordpress gizmo - which is something i don't know whether i can do or not so that's one for Bryon, as i feel they could be muddying each other if you get what I mean. i think it's too late to change my name "Yammas Cards and Crafts" to just Yammas Crafts as that would umbrella everything just as well and be more memorable as I've already got the webby domain sorted and if people can remember yammascardsandcrafts.co.uk then they are going to remember what it's called anyway.
Right I'm gabbling a bit I notice, so in short I want to know if there is a way to separate them but keep them together at the same time???? And another thing is, I really feel I'm up the creek without a paddle branding wise...maybe it's because I don't have a pretty logo by Rainee, I don't know. I know my fav colour is purple and like to write my letters of thanks in purple pen, and if I had a pretty logo it would have to have purple in it, but as I do a few things I cant seem to focus on anything to do branding - hence I think my question about separating them a bit....so that each thing i do has something I and potential customers can relate to straight away.
Not sure I'm really making myself clear. I know what is in my head but it's not coming out very well. If anyone understands my gabblings, please help this numpty out, as I'm getting myself wound up about it now - cheers 

[JhnStcks]

Firstly i think yammascardsandcrafts.co.uk slips of the tongue a lot better than just yammascrafts.co.uk so personally i would keep it.

There's no reason why you can't keep the cards and crafty products on the same site just in different categories.  You can target different keywords in each category so you would be attracting different visitors to each category.  When i visit little sites looking for "stuff" i tend to get distracted and have a browse through other things on that site.  If I see things that interest me i will bookmark it and come back( you should see my bookmark list), I'm guessing a lot of people do this.

[yammascrafts]

Thanks for that - one of my main worries is that it was too long to be memorable. I do have different categories all set up, ready for various pictures, I think part of me is having a crisis of confidence and just needs slapping round the head with a wet fish a few times     cue  (I know she likes doing things like that our little miss whip cracker  )

[JhnStcks]

I would advise getting a logo done, either a paid one from "someone", or make one yourself.  You can then put it on your business cards, invoices, the website, compliment slips, car stickers, posters etc.  Everyone who sees your logo should recognise it as you and your site.

[Rainee Bows]

i like to make you think about the direction your business is going in .........

in the same way i like to make you aware of your terms and conditions ...... :o) is that wrong ?



It's a business and you need to know it from back to front , you have the answers in order to work out how to best make it grow :o)


i just make you take a step back and look at it for the money maker it is supposed to be  


people here taught me that over the years in various ways


but you need to question what you are about in order to make it grow

who you are selling to and target markets how do you know whos going to be interested if you dont ask yourself ? lol  ... or others ...

how do you know which sales approach is likely to work without knowing who you are likely to be selling to ??

brand image , packaging , all of those should be defined to some extent to your target market , personal services and custom made jewellery has a different approach to skateboards for instance .... the customers are a different demographic :o)


all those questions if you are aiming to sell online should have an answer


if you want to see results from the work you are putting in online  :o)  and that includes facebook and other platforms


Rainee x

[yammascrafts]

Thanks again JhnStcks and of course the lovely Rainee .... and of course it's not wrong to make us think about these things. My only problem is, my brain isn't used to being used any more and I'm really not sure of the answers at the mo so will be thinking seriously (of getting a new one) over the next few weeks as I get my webby sorted. That is coming a lot clearer in my head now, and Rainee will defo have a logo to do soon as I'm too stubborn to give in now.
I'm sure with prodding and poking in the right direction (I must already be halfway there as I found the Rainbow gang) I'll get there and everything will be a lot clearer than the mud I have at the mo.
Cheers guys 

[yammascrafts]

Think I've got the target market straight now and how to sell things best (possibly lol) but brand image and packaging has me stumped if I'm honest. Think it is again because I make varied items that I'm struggling here. Trying to sort out my Wordpress shopp thingy - please see my other question in another bit of the forum somewhere lol - while I'm at it.
Any ideas on these bits please feel free to stick some ideas in my head as to what I should be thinking.
Ta muchly x

[Baa]

Think I've got the target market straight now and how to sell things best (possibly lol) but brand image and packaging has me stumped if I'm honest. Think it is again because I make varied items that I'm struggling here. Trying to sort out my Wordpress shopp thingy - please see my other question in another bit of the forum somewhere lol - while I'm at it.
Any ideas on these bits please feel free to stick some ideas in my head as to what I should be thinking.
Ta muchly x

Why can't you package all your crafts with the same style? What's an overriding theme to your work, colour, knitting, strawberries etc. Is your work marketed to a high quality market or more homely?

I notice above you mention purple as a colour you want to use, does this fit in with your target market? Purple shades are great for young teenage girly types for instance but some shades can leave quite a lot of adult women very cold.

[yammascrafts]

Purple comes up just because I love it Baa, but I don't think I have a theme to my work. I do crochet and I do cards and pretty much anything that catches my eye that I think I can do. I found craft late on in life as I was a real "cackhanded kid" and couldn't grasp the simplist of things. My nan tried to teach me to crochet and knit....I was diabolical...so gave up. My art teacher told me I was useless when told to do texture (not having been shown any techniques) so I gave up
Do you see a pattern emerging. I couldn't do a lot of things as a kid that were practical - the theory I could do! But I seem to have had a swop around in the last 10 years...now I struggle with the theory and I'm starting to excell in the practical lol. Everything I do I have taught myself. Within a few weeks of learning the basic stitches of crochet I was embarking on a lacy cardi for a friend. It said it was an intermediate pattern and I breezed through it, found it really simple.
I think I keep trying so many different things to prove to myself that I can do it, but like I said, the brainy part of me seems to have packed up and gone on it's jollies. I struggle to get the easiest of things straight in my head these days.
No particular colours feature in my work, they are always varied. I suppose it would be more homely than High End though - Joe Bloggs a specialty - the every day person.....

[Baa]

Purple comes up just because I love it Baa, but I don't think I have a theme to my work. I do crochet and I do cards and pretty much anything that catches my eye that I think I can do. I found craft late on in life as I was a real "cackhanded kid" and couldn't grasp the simplist of things. My nan tried to teach me to crochet and knit....I was diabolical...so gave up. My art teacher told me I was useless when told to do texture (not having been shown any techniques) so I gave up
Do you see a pattern emerging. I couldn't do a lot of things as a kid that were practical - the theory I could do! But I seem to have had a swop around in the last 10 years...now I struggle with the theory and I'm starting to excell in the practical lol. Everything I do I have taught myself. Within a few weeks of learning the basic stitches of crochet I was embarking on a lacy cardi for a friend. It said it was an intermediate pattern and I breezed through it, found it really simple.
I think I keep trying so many different things to prove to myself that I can do it, but like I said, the brainy part of me seems to have packed up and gone on it's jollies. I struggle to get the easiest of things straight in my head these days.
No particular colours feature in my work, they are always varied. I suppose it would be more homely than High End though - Joe Bloggs a specialty - the every day person.....

OK this is going to sound harsh but for the purpose of the post I'm not interested in you, I'm interested in your business. You are not your business, you are representative of your business but that is not that same thing. Take one step back and see if you can find the difference between where you stop and your business begins, it will make things a lot easier for making decisions. You need a clinical eye for your business and a lot of people don't grasp that easily, after all it's our project but it's essential to get early on.

I've just had a look at your site, you do have an overriding theme and that is crochet. I've taken a look at some other crochet craft ecommerce sites and this was the best I came across so far www.ballandneedle.co.uk While this isn't a crochet finished handicraft site, it's got some great eyecatching elements to it. There is nothing distracting about the design but the logo and colours they do use are very memorable and pleasing. It's also super simple to get around, find the categories that you need and find the important bits like add to cart.

The problem with craft websites is that they tend to over egg on the creativity side and forget what the site is actually for, attracting customers, keeping them on site and wanting to buy.

I would like to suggest looking at some of your contemporaries and the kinds of styles they use and see where you can do better and what kinds of colours and designs are eyecatching. For there you should discover a logo or a theme you want to chase.

Form follows function and simplicity is a good design trait.

I hope that helps even if it's only a little.

One word of advice on your website I will offer is not to have your favourite links on the same page as any shopping areas. You're begging people to leave and they will listen to that. Also as far a as links are concerned, I've just clicked on link and it took so long to open I clicked off before it did anything ... that's not the kind of impression you want to give!

[yammascrafts]

Thanks Baa - you are a gem although I do believe you are looking at my old website through Moonfruit (ggrrrrrrrrrrr). i'm now in the middle of setting one up through Scotserve (Bryon) hence where all this thought is coming from.
And I do need the harsh words so I can get where I want to go - thanks  
Now off to have a look at ballandneedle now to see if i can get any brain cells working x

OH MY WORD!!! What have you done Baa!? You've only gone and found me another shop to buy all my yarn from at really good prices too...okay back to the job in hand. My next thing is get Rainee to do me a logo for my birthday (hubby won't know what to get me - so I'll take the thought out of it for him  )  Now where do I stop and Yammas begin.......I could be some time on this one 

[Baa]

Thanks Baa - you are a gem although I do believe you are looking at my old website through Moonfruit (ggrrrrrrrrrrr). i'm now in the middle of setting one up through Scotserve (Bryon) hence where all this thought is coming from.[/quote}

Ahh that would explain why it didn't look like wordpress!

  Now where do I stop and Yammas begin.......I could be some time on this one 

It's always hard to separate yourself from you business, worthwhile but hard.

I've not looked in depth but I couldn't find anything crochet other than blogs and yarn. I don't know the knitting/crochet crafts well, (can't knit or crochet) so am a little surprised at the deficit. I keep hearing it's currently really popular.

[yammascrafts]

Cheers Baa - still can't properly separate myself from t'other suffice to say I'm the idiot with the face and Yammas is the creative one....must be as she was only born when me and hubby got married (Sam May backwards hehehe) and that's pretty much when the real creativity bug caught me.
Thanks again 

[Rainee Bows]

Sam ,


where you stop and where your business begins ..... look at it like this


try looking at yammas as a completely seperate entity to yourself , build "her" a look thats all her own rather than an extension of yourself  ;o)

your packaging ... is it purple becasue you like purple or because the packaging colours represent your business or products in some way , Baa is right with regards the target market affecting packaging choice ....


higher end packaging tends to be less fussy and much more sleek than "handmade" type packaging although it is possible to mix the 2 ....


would you be better off with such a wide range of products sticking with white packaging and using the colours as an accent ??

Your brand image does not HAVE to scream yammas ... there are several high end retailers who are recognisable purely by their packaging materials ... real natural paper (l'occitane) for example ....

purple is a very regal colour and quite difficult to use in large swathes effectively without being garish and in your face ;o)




Rainee x

[yammascrafts]

Rainee as usual you are a pillar of light. Yes purple is just coz I like it and white sounds like a good idea for packaging, I'm also liking the kraft stuff that is about at the moment but from a packaging point of view and what I do, white would be better....looks clean and classy although saying that, I have bought some clear cellophane for my candles (the ones with poinsettias on) and have got some red paper ribbon to secure the top with - purely because they are for Christmas and have red on them.
Any ideas on packaging cards when I do have them. I never have liked just putting them in their cello bags and popping them in the post in a bubble wrap envelope. I've also got to get some display boxes made for some of my other things (coasters and wedding spoons) as I don't like the idea of not sending them out in something....earrings too. Oh crud best I make me a list, I'll never remember all these things I want/need to do otherwise 
Anyway Missy Bows, I do hope you've got your thinking cap on for a logo for me as I get paid from the day job next Wednesday and it's my birthday on the Saturday after that so I'll be in touch about that as soon as I get home from work on the 19th as the money will be there then