Luxury Jewelry Packaging: Bodacious Goods

This post is part of our Best Next Step series, where you will hear from creative business owners like you, who are wondering what to focus on next. The background stories and questions are from all kinds of businesses in various stages of growth, and I share my ideas for how to proceed forward most efficiently and ambitiously. I hope you’ll enjoy these! Today we’re hearing from Viola Joyner of Bodacious Goods. My top piece of advice for this shop’s next step: present luxury jewelry with luxury packaging!

About:

I am a jewelry designer and created Bodacious Goods in 2014. The earrings and necklaces are hand fabricated from bronze metal and precious metal clays. The jewelry lines are created with clean simple lines that are modern and abstract.

What makes my jewelry unique is that each piece is fired in a kiln which then produces each piece slightly different every time. So each piece of jewelry is as individual as each one of my customers. No two, like people, are alike.

Bodacious Goods jewelry is created for the woman who wants to be uniquely trendy, steps to her own beat, and wears accessories that are classic in style.

Challenges:

My shop has only been selling earrings and necklaces online since August of 2014. So it is a brand new shop and up to this date, no sales have been made. I feel that since my price point on my jewelry is in the $58-$125 range, customers may be a bit hesitant to make a purchase from a shop that is new and does not have any “buzz” published anywhere.

One way to resolve this is I need to create more awareness and to build trust with my potential customers.

Another way to do this is to have my products “in front” of my customer and buyers and my goal is to have a booth at a trade show and craft fair in 2015.

Also, I think a redesign of my branding and logo to express a better message of being “Unique and Authentic Everyday!”

Objectives:

My objectives are as follows:

• 4th Quarter of 2014, continue to build the product lines, to have at least 60-80 products for sale.
• 1st Quarter 2015, get the editorial calendars of magazines/blogs and start to send out email pitches that would be a perfect fit for my jewelry. Also, send out postcards to b&m stores, to build my Stockist for wholesale.
• 3rd Quarter 2015 – Do NY Now trade show for wholesale customers
• 4th Quarter 2015 – Do Renegrade Craft Fair for retail customers
• Financial Goal: My goal is to have to make over $150K in sales by year-end 2015
• My Internal Business Goal: To be able to feel secure that all is working towards success. To stop feeling fear of failure.

Promotion:

I am slowing promoting Bodacious Goods because at the same time, I am also expanding the product lines. My shop looks skimpy with only 24 products, all of which are earrings.

I promote on Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter and my own blog.

Once I have about 40 products in my shop, I will promote much more strongly. Plans also include pitching my business to PR media resources/magazines and other bloggers.

Bodacious Goods’ Best Next Step

Hello Viola,

Thank you for entering our Best Next Step giveaway – hooray, you’re a winner! My thoughts follow (read them with a grain of salt, since I only have a brief outline of your business and challenges right now).

Speaking to your target client

Your website looks good (great choice to use a theme and not mess with it too much!), and your jewelry looks good, and now it’s just a matter of getting people to the website to see the jewelry, and making sure it’s all in a cohesive package that speaks to your target client.

I agree with you about the logo. If “Bodacious” is a combination of “Bold” and “Audacious,” (which Urban Dictionary tells me it is!), your current logo is too cute! You want something bodacious, uniquely trendy, and classic, none of which your current logo is.

Jewelry is a saturated market, and you need to stand out as unique (and not just by saying you’re unique, but showing it!).

Presenting a luxury product with luxury jewelry packaging

At your price point, not only does the jewelry need to be beautiful, but the packaging needs to look luxurious. Picture a Tiffany necklace with a digitally printed hang tag and a cute logo, and you’ll see that this is jarring.

The earring cards I see in your picture don’t look luxurious. The logo is too cute, the tagline is too pert (I’d lose the exclamation point, at the very least, and re-think it, because it seems vague and cliched), and the text is too close to the edges, with awkwardly rounded corners. Splurging on the tags for your jewelry (better paper stock, professional design, letterpress, foil, or a custom die cut), will wow potential customers in your pictures and impress customers and gift recipients who receive your packages.

We, of course, design logos and packaging, and I’m including some case studies below that will show you what a difference professional design will make here:

• Prismera: Modern Logo for a Jewelry Designer
• Why You Should Splurge on Business Card Printing
• Why Your Full Brand Identity Matters
• Business Stationery Design: Building Your Brand

You’re a jewelry designer, not a graphic designer – it’s good to stick to what you’re best at, and hire help for the rest.

Attending shows gives you a testing ground

I agree that attending the trade show and craft fair will be valuable. Not only will you introduce your work to others, but you could see how your packaging and presentation is being received, see what price points work with what types of audiences, and learn from the experience. You can decide if they’re worth continuing to attend past the learning experience.

Add to your product line, but don’t hold off on promoting

Adding to your product line is a great idea, but don’t let your skimpy product line stop you from promoting now. Do both at once, and don’t hold off on steps that will be valuable for your business until you feel like you have enough variety. Pitching to blogs, magazines, and press is vital.

Keep your blog on your website

A little extra bit of advice: consider moving your blog over to Shopify. Then people can easily go back and forth without feeling like they’re leaving one site or the other, and it will be easier to get people to shop after reading your blog posts. You don’t have many posts now, so instead of struggling with the importer tool, you would just move the content over by hand, put a notice on Blogger that you’ve moved (with the new URL), and go forward with the blog all in one website.

Good luck making your brand match the quality of your jewelry

Thanks for the chance to learn more about Bodacious Goods. I hope this all makes sense, and I encourage you to get your brand and packaging in shape, and then tell the world about it. It’s a lot of work! Let me know if we can help. I can already picture your new packaging, and how it will help you set sail with the rest of these plans.

Are you ready for the next step?

If you’d like the power and experience of the Aeolidia team behind you, please get in touch! We would love to untangle your business priorities and take a few tasks off your hands so you can do your work. Contact Aeolidia – we never bite!