Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Un-Marketing Rabbits


What I don't know about marketing for Etsy could be summed up with the words "just about everything." I've worked in advertising and I'm still at a loss as to how one can be found in the massive catalog of items there. In my less-than-direct marketing efforts around the felt friends I make, I've come up with the 'genius' plan of giving them stories. The stories are really told in pictures, but they are there in the pictures. 

I think.


These stories range from Easter-y stories of egg dying and preparation for the big day, complete with a critique of too many blue eggs ...


... to stories of the bunnies' origin inside painted Easter eggs.

 

Sometimes it's just a bit of fun for the rabbits - going out for a train ride. 


 Or tending their garden.


I tried to show off the variety of them, colors and positions, and how they were hand made.


But I admit to letting them get a bit silly and over thought.


The thing is it turns out to only be fun for me - well, and sometimes the whole family gets involved (though Z is actually tearing apart the scene here). It does not in any way sell rabbits. To date I have sold one single rabbit. It wasn't sold on Etsy or because of some bunny tableau. It was at a friend's shop and by chance somebody bought it. The old fashioned impulse buy.

With only 4 days until Easter, and not a single order, I can safely say I am not a marketing genius. But I've had a lot of fun.