Viva Las Vegas: Your Planning Guide to the Vegas Gift Market

July 30, 2010 Evergreen Enterprises, Inc. 0 Comments

Our third major trade show of the summer is almost here! Next week, August 2–9, 2010, we’ll be in Las Vegas, Nevada at the World Market Center. Evergreen Enterprises will exhibit in Building C, Showroom C-0718.

As if Las Vegas itself didn’t have enough things to offer, we want to invite you to our showroom to check the thousands of new items we’ve introduced so far this year. As usual, our Territory Managers and other helpful staff will be on hand to answer any of your questions and help you write the orders that will best benefit your store.

While you’re at the Market, be sure to catch all these special events:

Insulated Cup Giveaway
After 2pm each day, we’ll be handing out samples of our new Cypress Home insulated cups filled with sangria! Complete with top and straw, these are one of the hottest new items that Evergreen offers. We’ll end the giveaway on Thursday—assuming that the supply lasts that long! So come pick one up and check out all the designs we offer.

Market Expansion Celebration
On Tuesday, August 3, the Market will host an afternoon reception to celebrate the expansion of the Gift + Home show, with a balloon drop at 5pm. Buyers will have the opportunity to pop a balloon and win a prize from exhibiting vendors. Evergreen Enterprises has stuffed 10 of these balloons with great prize certificates, which you can redeem in our showroom. The Market is also offering one “golden ticket” prize of an Apple iPad! Don't miss your chance to win!

Social Media Bar
The World Market Center is offering free assistance to all attendees in the use of services like Facebook and Twitter via their Social Media Bar (think Apple Genius Bar). Representatives from the Kaleidoscope Partnership, a social media agency for home furnishings and related industries, will be on site to basic and advanced level advice to those looking to better market their store, company, or brand online. The Social Media Bar will be open Monday, August 2 to Thursday, August 5 in Building C, Room 1096. There will also be a "Tweetup" cocktail launch party Monday at 5pm with some industry celebrities. Link up and log on!


Change For Life
As you consider your order strategy, remember that Evergreen continues to participate in “Change For Life,” a benefit program where we will make donation to the Gift For Life foundation for every order placed in our showroom through the entire Vegas Market. Gift For Life exists to promote AIDS education and research. Help us help others!

For details on the World Market Center, visit http://www.lasvegasmarket.com.

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Feel What’s Blowing in the Breeze for 2011

July 28, 2010 Evergreen Enterprises, Inc. 0 Comments

Evergreen started as a flag company, and to this day decorative flags remain one of our strongest product categories. As Spring gives way to Summer, we’ve got just the right thing for either season in our newest Spring-Summer 2011 Evergreen Flag catalog. 

Design Selection
Evergreen is very proud to be the world leader in outdoor decorative flags. Our customers testify that our flags are just as durable as they are beautiful, and our selection just as unmatched as our quality. There really is something for everyone, from the trendy to the traditional.

Being the largest flag manufacturer, “We have to hit all bases, all trends — every flower, every bird,” says Tim Lamm, our resident Flag Daddy. We offer over 1500 designs across 2 major categories (heat sublimated and embroidered appliqué), along with coordinating product in the form of over 300 mailbox cover designs and over 400 doormat designs. See our Collections for matching flag, mailbox, and floormat patterns that coordinate together.

Our vast selection carries over into our Monogram product as well. We now offer 5 styles of monogram flags, including our new (and popular!) Pineapple monogram, and 3 different styles of monogram coir mats. Monograms are still strong sellers, so you’ll want to continue to take advantage of this trend.

Category Expansions
As you browse our catalog, take note of a few areas where we have expanded our product offering this year. First, on many of our new sublimated Silk Reflections flags, the words at the top or bottom can be read from both sides! Just look for the Double Talk icon. Second, we’ve got several new flags celebrating specific family relationships, whether at the beginning of life with our new baby flags, or at the end of life with our cemetery flags. Third, we now sell new balloons and spinners along with our windsocks. Finally, don’t miss our brand new large displays. We’re sure that our new floormat display and our new modular arbor merchandiser will be tools towards stronger sales.

Solar Hardware

Flags and hardware—without one, the other isn’t very useful. Just like our new solar garden stakes, we are now excited to bring you solar flag hardware. These innovative flag poles and stands include a solar panel that absorbs the sun’s energy during the day and stores it in a rechargeable battery. Then at night, the translucent top will remain lit for up to 8 hours (in most cases). We offer 3 main designs options for solar hardware: a crackle glass ball, a multi-crystalline plant or animal shape, and a housed spotlight. 

Any of these will make for “enlightening” coversation pieces and provide night-time enjoyment of flags. Plus there’s the benefit of knowing that you’re encouraging an eco-friendly accent lighting solution that uses the clean, renewable energy of solar power.

 
With all this selection, you may be finding it hard to choose what to carry in your store. Your Territory Manager is well-equipped to discuss the options and make recommendations for you. And remember, you can browse our web site and place your orders 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. 

Can you feel the breeze?
 

See What’s Springing Up in Our Garden for 2011

July 26, 2010 Evergreen Enterprises, Inc. 0 Comments

If we had to identify a theme that describes our newest Spring-Summer garden product, it would be “decorative and functional.” The combination of beauty and usefulness allows anyone to enjoy the Evergreen Garden line for its aesthetic attractiveness and practical purpose.

Maybe you weren't able to make it Dallas or Atlanta. Either way, with the recent release of our Spring-Summer 2011 catalog, we wanted to call your attention to some key highlights.


Embossed Glass
If there’s one group you don’t want to miss this year, it’s our widely expanded new embossed glass. Most of these items are available in bird-related product categories such as bird baths and bird feeders. You’ll see several new designs in our popular and versatile 18” glass bird baths. As mentioned in a previous article, there are tons of ways you can display these. 

We’ve also taken the glass bird bath concept and created smaller stake-based versions, complete with a 3-prong stake bases for stability. See all 15 new designs in this brand new stake glass birdbath category on our web site, along with a unique display base accessory.

We’ve gone several steps further in bird-related product, and now offer many patterns of hanging glass baths, hanging glass feeders in several different designs, and stake glass feeders. Hang these from a tree limb or place in a mulch bed, and let them attract all kinds of friendly feathered friends, while the owner enjoys the bright colors and multi-dimensional patterns of the hand-painted embossed glass.

For bird lovers, we’ve got over 60 pages of product to choose from, including new glass hummingbird feeders, and new bird houses that are—you guessed it—both decorative and functional. We've gone a step further with our newest birdhouses (as shown at right) which display fun, multi-color patterns applied with outdoor-grade paint onto solid wood with a protective coating.



Solar Stakes
Garden stakes have long been a staple of our Evergreen Garden product line, and this year, we’re offering a brand new approach using solar technology. Our new Solar Stakes include a solar panel that absorbs the sun’s energy during the day and stores it in a rechargeable battery. Then at night, the translucent, multi-crystalline top will put on a show of bright, changing colors for up to 8 hours (in most cases). The stakes also include a handy on/off switch and ship in a color box for easy gift-giving. 

Whether insects, birds, flowers, or mushrooms, we’ve got designs to please anyone—even a solar bottle tree!

We’re excited about this new category, partly because of the novelty and interest it will create for retailers and homeowners alike, but also because it offers an eco-friendly way to provide accent lighting to any home or garden. We encourage our customers to seek out “earth-aware” solutions that use and promote renewable energy sources such as solar power.


Monogram Stones
Monograms have been a solid trend for years now, and we are excited to offer some great options in outdoor garden décor. Make sure you see our new Monogram Garden Stones, which include 2 different 12” garden stone bases (either round or square) embellished with fleur-de-lis, and a full complement of letters, all sold separately. Our decorated 5” circular monogram stones drop into the ornate garden stone frames, and include small magnets to keep the inserts in place.

You’ll find the most advantage in our new monogram stones by ordering the complete and convenient program. This includes a full assortment of product, plus some free inserts and free hanging pegs to merchandise everything on our garden stone display. Check with your Territory Manager for full details.

Suitable for both indoor and outdoor use, we also offer a pre-packaged program of monogram wall hooks. Ornately cast in iron and painted for a rustic look, they feature 2 built-in hooks, and ship together in a single display box.
Finally, take note of our alphabet tiding stones, which express positive and encouraging sentiments through decorative lettering with a monogram look. They’re made of resin and painted with a natural finish and golden accents. Like all of our tiding stones, these also serve as handy key hiders.

Once again, decorative and functional is the name of the game.

Freeze Frame: Highlights from the Atlanta Gift Mart

July 23, 2010 Evergreen Enterprises, Inc. 0 Comments

July is always an exciting month for Evergreen, and a huge part of that energy is the Gift Market at the AmericasMart in Atlanta, Georgia. It’s the location of our largest showroom and perhaps our strongest single concentrated sales effort throughout the year. To all that came to see us, we sincerely appreciated your visit, and hope that you enjoyed some of the special events that we offered. We were pleased to see how many people were interested in the Cypress Home insulated cups that we gave away!

Now that the show in Atlanta has drawn to a close, we wanted to share a few key takeaways...

We first want to acknowledge our new showroom coordinator, Kevin Locascio, and his staff, who took on the tremendous job of staging the rooms. The resulting arrangements and displays were fabulous! We heard many overwhelmingly positive comments ranging from “the most beautiful look you have ever had” to “I have never seen the showroom look as inviting or the product romanced as much.” You can see more photos of the setup on our Facebook page.
We noticed some retailers actually adding to prior Christmas orders after being able to see the product merchandised so beautifully in person. Overall, the traffic and product response were both up from last year, part of which may be due to our addition of a new space this year.


It’s always helpful for us to see what kinds of product comments our visitors share, and we think it’s also useful to know which items generated the most interest at market. With that, here are some of the better-performing categories from this past week in Atlanta...

Glass Birdbaths
Bird baths continue to sell incredibly well and we got many complements on the new designs. They turned out to be an attention-getter placed in window! Other related glass garden items also did well—stake and hanging glass bird feeders, glass tables, and shaped glass stakes.

Statuaries
These sculpted garden accents did well as a whole. We noticed special interest in 3 specific themed areas:

1) Companion Breeds – These dog statuaries with coordinating garden stones and windchimes were loved by all. Dare we say they’re a retailer’s best friend? Our matching Companion Breed flags and floormats also did very well at the show.

2) Collegiate Mascot Statues – Many of you said that these detailed sculptures made a much greater impression in person. They’re larger and more striking than you might think! You’ll also find quality photos of all the designs on our Facebook page.

3) New Creative Nativities – The elaborate scenes that we set up drew lots of attention, both in terms of number of pieces available, and the dramatic effect of the large versions. They're a great collectible item, and it’s not too late to order for Christmas!

Monogram Flags

It wouldn’t be a proper Gift Mart without strong Monogram sales, and our newest pineapple-patterned monogram flags were leading the way. This design offers a clean and classy individual expression to any home or business. When it comes to the all-important flag hardware, our solar garden flag stands were popular choices. They’re an excellent way to highlight a strong display of character.

All in all, it was a fantastic week at the AmericasMart. Next stop on the trade show train is Las Vegas in August!


To shop all of our outdoor décor and home accent products, visit http://www.myevergreen.com

Those of a Feather Flock Together: Wild Birds Unlimited Show Recap

July 19, 2010 Evergreen Enterprises, Inc. 0 Comments

At the end of June, all of our Wild Birds Unlimited dealers gathered in Indianapolis for their annual meeting to share insights about their business and learn new ways to please their bird-loving customers. They also participated in a Vendor Mart, where Evergreen was proud to be among the many product suppliers demonstrating their new and unique bird items.

We’re glad to say that we enjoyed our most productive WBU Vendor Mart to date. Dealers expressed confidence in their businesses so far this year, and were ordering accordingly for this fall and into 2011.

Speaking of 2011, several of our new Evergreen Garden product categories did very well at the Mart.  The star of the show was definitely our Glass Bird Baths. Many WBU dealers have seen great retail performance from this category. Most also took advantage of our recent expansions into glass product such as Glass Side Tables, Hanging Glass Birdbaths, and Stake Glass Birdbaths. Also strong at the show were the St. Francis statuaries from our New Creative garden line.


Shop all of our garden accents (bird-related and otherwise) by visiting our online resource center. Login in today to browse all our current catalogs.

3 Ways to Make Selling a SNAP

July 12, 2010 Evergreen Enterprises, Inc. 0 Comments

One of the challenges for any business is growth. At Evergreen, we are continually looking for ways to help our retailers grow through increased sales. But just as we’ve all been told to “work smarter, not harder,” we know you can all benefit from avenues to greater sales that don’t take a whole lot more effort.

Enter Snap Retail. Born out of the OneCoast sales organization, this relatively new company is focused on making retail… well, a “snap.” In fact, they’ll tell you that it’s as easy as S-N-A-P:

S = Sell Through
N = New Marketing Tools
A = Available 24/7
P = Promote with Ease

Evergreen has recently partnered with Snap Retail in order to make their strong online selling tools available to any of our retailers. It’s our hope that you’ll be able to boost your current marketing efforts through one or more of the following three opportunities:


1) Traffic Builder
This innovative marketing system will help you increase traffic in your stores by targeting and reaching more consumers through electronic methods such as e-mail and social media.

2) Marketplace
In this virtual showroom, retailers can browse thousands of products in catalogs from numerous vendors, in addition to Evergreen, and place orders online 24/7. Consider this a supplement to the Evergreen online resource center which already provides you the same convenience, as well as bill pay, order tracking, and customer service support.

3) Snap-in-a-Box
Coming in early August 2010, this new system will make it easier than ever for retailers to get product images and data from vendors on items they have purchased.

All 3 of these tools can serve as additional access points for retailers to reach more customers and grow their business in the process. We invite you to learn more about Snap Retail and how you can take advantage of this partnership. Just visit their web site today at http://www.snapretail.com where you can sign up and get started.

Happenings in “Hotlanta”: Your Planning Guide to the Atlanta Gift Market

July 09, 2010 Evergreen Enterprises, Inc. 0 Comments

Our 2010 summer show season got off to a fantastic start last month in Dallas. This month, we’re getting ready for the big one in Atlanta, Georgia, at the AmericasMart International Gift & Home Furnishings Market, July 14-21, 2010. Evergreen Enterprises will exhibit in Showroom 1700 in Building 2.

This will be a fantastic opportunity to come see some of the thousands of new products we’ve introduced since the beginning of the year. You’ll also be able to meet many of our knowledgeable and helpful staff, who can assist in finding the best sales solutions for any retailer.

Don’t miss any of these "hot" special events next week in Atlanta:

Early Bird Special
Stop in on Tuesday, July 13 for our Early Bird Special! All shoppers on July 13 qualify for free freight on the single order of their choice. (Order must be placed in our showroom, and the free freight is in addition to your standard terms.)


Meet & Greet Lori Seibert
Come by and meet artist Lori Seibert, whose amazing work has inspired several new collections across most of our product lines. Lori will be in our showroom on Friday, July 16, beginning at 3pm, signing garden flags bearing her artwork (while supplies last, of course).

Breakfast with the Best
On July 17, from 8am to 9:30am in Building 2, Room 1238, you're invited to a full complimentary breakfast and a fast-paced idea exchange with the Gift & Home Trade Association's Retailer Advisory Board. We're co-sponsoring this opportunity for our retailers to gain key business insights from top industry colleagues. You'll also learn more about the GHTA and network with your retail peers in the process. Don't miss it!

Party Time!
This year, we’re offering not just one, but two chances to party with us. To celebrate the opening of our new expansion Showroom 1709, we’ll host a Summer Block Party on Friday, July 16, from 5pm to 8pm. You’ll enjoy delicious BBQ, a steel drum band, and more! Then join us in Showroom 1700 on Saturday, July 17, beginning at 5pm for a fun-filled NCAA Tailgate Party! We’ll provide hot dogs, chicken fingers, beer, and music. Make sure to wear your favorite collegiate attire and support your favorite school!

Acrylic Tumbler Giveaways
Each day throughout the duration of the Market, we will give tons of free samples of our hot new Cypress Home acrylic cups. Their popularity was off the charts in Dallas, so take a look at all the designs we have to offer in this great new category.

Change For Life
You may already be aware that Evergreen is participating in “Change For Life,” a benefit program where we will make donation to the Gift For Life foundation for every order placed in our showroom through the entire Atlanta show. Keep that in mind as you plan your orders, and help us help others!


For details on the Atlanta AmericasMart, visit http://www.americasmart.com.

Instant Replay: Highlights from the Dallas Gift Market

July 02, 2010 Evergreen Enterprises, Inc. 0 Comments

What a week it’s been in Dallas! We’ve had a great time and have enjoyed seeing so many of you in the showroom. We think it’s been a very successful show, perhaps the best one we’ve ever had in Dallas.

One of our favorite parts of any major market is getting to see what products generate the most excitement for our retailers. We had an overwhelming positive response to our new 2011 Evergreen Garden collection. Collegiate continued to perform well, and Cape Craftsmen was strong. It certainly makes a difference when you see the actual samples in person!

Here are our top 5 picks from last week:

1. Coir Mats (Evergreen Flag)
All of our durable and decorative coir mats, including the monogram designs, continue their popularity streak. Tough and tidy is the name of the game. The rubber base for the coir mats was our number one item at the show! It keeps the coir mat in place, and provides an impressive, elegant look.

2. Acrylic Cups (Cypress Home)
Our new acrylic cups were a runaway success at market. These sharp-looking cups are insulated to keep cold beverages cold, and they include a twist-off lid and a durable straw. We thought they would be big, but not this big! The Polka Dot monogram pattern was especially hot, and we heard several people interested in doing custom designs. We plan to give away lots of these cups in our showroom in Atlanta later this month, so make sure to stop by.


3. Monogram Garden Stones (Evergreen Garden)
Having been in the business of marketing monogram product for quite some time now, we’re very pleased by the response to our newest entry. We offer equally popular square and round decorative garden stone bases, both of which include an opening for our monogram stone inserts. Order them in a handy program, which includes free inserts and hanging pegs.



4. Nativity Statuaries (New Creative)
We noticed that many of you are still buying for this Christmas, and what better choice than our newest selection of resin Nativity statuaries? Choose from the colorful Storytellers Nativity by Mark Haas, the decorative Flourish Nativity by Layhou Lam, or the natural Seeds of Faith Nativity. Each set includes multiple pieces, making them great for collectors.


5. Home Accents (Cape Craftsmen)
Our Cape Craftsmen continues to perform well in the photo frame and wall décor categories. The colorful, floral-embellished photo frames and wall crosses were two of Cape’s best selling items—plus they coordinate perfectly!

That’s it from Dallas. Our next major stop is Atlanta. Hope to see you there in 2 weeks!



To shop all of our outdoor décor and home accent products, visit http://www.myevergreen.com

For details on the Dallas Market Center, visit http://dallasmarketcenter.com