David Louis Product Design

Comercially we have been extremely busy this Christmas but we have had time to launch a new slide show of our Specially Commissioned Work, (Please do have a look) mostly from corporate clients but one or two from individuals, I have put this work under our David-Louis banner but it also falls in the Gifts of Distinction range of commercial corporate design work.

We are also working on expanding the retail outlet and just closed our first exhibition and will be launching a new web site in late January to compliment our sister Hip Flask site.

We have also come up with a few commercial strategies to combat the potential fall out from the dreaded credit crunch, the words on all entreprenurial lips at the moment.

For my own part concerning Gifts of Distinction, David-Louis and Flaskstore we have seen growth in all areas, all be it be focsing on different aspects or nieche aspect of the market, by being flexible in delivery of the product and service plus complimenting this by introducing new and what we consider to be innovative marketing techniques, breaking away from the traditional routes to market such as trade fairs and exhibitions and focusing on internet branding, blogging, networking and using PR through magazines such as living etc as a tool to drive traffic to the web prescence.

Over the last year during the mentoring of creative entrepreneurs I have been involved in and with new businesses in the area I have been pushing local businesses in the Jewellery Quarter toward blogging and creating a buzz about their buisnesses on line which has the benifit of attracting a real world audience to their workshop / studio plus attracts a virtual global audience to there web prescence, creating a real world and virtual world that co-exist generating sales and brand awareness – it seems obvious but to make somthing like this work a business needs to develop a formal strategy as opposed to being opportunistic and jumping on bandwagons.

The bottom line is… the bottom line, in other words a creative enterprise should capitalise on low cost systems to attract a new audience to the business in question.

In the coming year I will be lecturing on the BA at the School of Jewellery (who have also got involved and launched there own new website) focusing on business strategy, my goal is to develop life long creative entrepreneurs not simply short term business that exist for a few years, dissappear and are replaced by new businesses that repeat the pattern – this is not growth nor is it sustainable – the Jewellery Quarter as a center for creative entrepreneurs is shrinking and we need sustainable enterprise to be the key to long term viability of the area.

It has been a trying few months for all the creative entrepreneurs I work along side and I hope through the shop, bloginng about them and other new and emerging trends and  businesses plus organising our end of year exhibition that I have in part contribute in some small way to driving business to each and every one of them.

I expect to contribute more to this blog over the next week or two and to put an extract on the Jewellery Quarter web site in the new year, plus add more links to associate web sites but I have to go downstairs now to the arrivals area in the Ariport and then home for Christmas.

Take care and Happy Christmas.

David-Louis

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