Starting a home accessories business involves many moving pieces ranging from how you make your product to how you market your product. Today I’d like to discuss how you market your product. Good photographs are a must! And I’m very lucky because I have an incredible photographer, Mark Kerckaert, as part of the team. However product shots, alone, are not enough. Showing how awesome and useable the items are, in attractive locations, is also key to convincing customers they would like your product.
Most small businesses do with what they have and I am no exception. I have photographed basically every corner of my apartment with footed ware and, by now, I find that most of my friends with beautiful homes are in meetings every time I call to enquire about borrowing their kitchens for a “quick” shoot. Hmm….
Then it hit me. Who has beautiful kitchens? IKEA!
I brought along assistance because we knew we’d have to move fast. No propping or art styling on our end. We’d have to make do with what IKEA offered. We didn’t know how much time we’d have either, so the goal was to move in and move out quick before the IKEA floor staff could shut down our photo shoot. We went in with bowls and mugs in our bags, armed only with an Iphone. These were threatening conditions but we felt the goal was worth the risk for these Happy Home shots!
(Plus showing the bowls in IKEA settings certainly couldn’t hurt my chances of encouraging the IKEA buyers to see how great the bowls would be in their stores, right???)
Huge thanks to my photographer, Mark, and my daughter-in-law, Karina, for being open to sneaking in bowls and mugs to our Burbank IKEA.
