For the Business of Apparel Decorating
Issue link: http://read.uberflip.com/i/682926
Josh Ellsworth is an industry expert on apparel customization and General Manag- er of Stahls' CAD-CUT Direct. His portfolio includes a YouTube site (youtube.com/ joshellsworth) with more than 50 educa - tional videos, a blog (joshellsworth.com) that is updated regularly and consulting PRESSING MATTERS B Y J O S H A N D Z A C H E L L S W O R T H visits that have been made to some of the largest apparel-customization businesses in the U.S. You can reach Josh by email at josh@cadcutdirect.com and you can find him here, on the hot spot, talking about customization beyond the basics in every issue. Tune in for marketing strategies and sales tips in the heat-applied graphics discipline. Zach Ellsworth is a lead educator at StahlsTV.com and manages equipment sales for STAHLS'. He has helped thousands of business owners successfully start and grow their decorating business. You can reach Ellsworth at zach.ellsworth@stahls.com. Keeping Up with the Joneses How conspicuous consumption can motivate your business 30 || P R I N T W E A R J U N E 2 0 1 6 I 'm sure you've heard the phrase "keeping up with the Joneses" at some point in your life. Maybe you've even heard the socio- economic term, conspicuous consumption. Well, maybe you haven't heard that one. Conspicuous consumption is the spending of money on and the acquiring of luxury goods and services to pub- licly display economic power. The term was coined back in 1899 by sociologist and economist Thorstein Veblen. It's something that happens all over the world, but seems especially prevalent here in America. So the real question is, how can we, as heat-printing deco- rators, capitalize on this socio-economic behavior that drives people to purchase things, including apparel? Let's find the answer to that question by asking a few more questions. First, who are the Joneses? We need to ask this question about two groups of people. Who are the Joneses with which your customer is trying to keep up, and who are the Joneses with which your business needs to keep up? Tone-on-tone deco- rations are great for a subtle yet current look on performance wear. (All images courtesy STAHLS')