Denver International Western/English Apparel & Equipment Market

We spent this weekend at WESA’s annual big show and we have a few stories to share, but before we go there, we have to explain WESA.

WESA stands for Western and English Sales Association, an organization formed in Denver in 1921 to bring together retailers and manufacturers in what the association describes as “a forum to conduct business in an atmosphere of fair trade and fellowship”. This forum is the Denver International Western/English Apparel & Equipment Market.

Today WESA is the world’s largest trade event for the equestrian industry, bringing together almost a thousand manufacturers and distributors representing thousands of product lines and over 10,000 independent retailers in a market defining show.

The WESA Market is a sea of people, some having been members of the association for 30, 40 and even 50 years and others coming from a “bloodline” of association members, three generations deep. The program book for this year’s WESA Market is an astonishing 322 page long manual with articles about the organization and its members, content from participating manufacturers and pages upon pages indexing exhibitors, companies and product categories.

WESA is all things horse and cowboy and this is the one expectation that a visitor must keep in mind when attending the show. Big things here are hats and boots, tack and saddles, fashion and accessories and stable supplies. If it’s related to being a cowboy, the WESA Market will have it represented.

The show incorporates a lot of other industry related events, including seminars, demonstrations, a fashion show, themed parties and charity events. It’s easy to make a day of the show or a weekend or to attend and enjoy the entire five day show. Over the next few days we’ll touch on the highlights of our visit to the Denver International Western/English Apparel & Equipment Market.

[whohit]2014-01-12 All About WESA[/whohit]

In western culture the New Year is a time of implementing change through making resolutions. Most of these resolutions revolve around improving one’s self or improving one’s condition.

Four in ten American adults start a resolution every January. A tremendous number of them make resolutions associated with personal health. Many chose to lose weight, stop smoking, cut back on alcohol, eat better, exercise more. Other popular resolutions include career changes or improvements, educational goals, financial goals, religious goals and civic or volunteer goals.

About 90% of resolution makers never get to see the results they wanted with more than half running out of steam and giving up within the first quarter of the year.

New Year’s resolutions have a rich history going back to the times of Babylon. It was a tradition among people in Babylon to start the year by returning borrowed objects and repaying their debts. We know nothing of their success rate, but we do know that resolutions tend to be more successful when undertaken by a group. Social support structures go a long way in building motivation and sustaining determination for success. Studies suggest that with a strong peer support structure resolutions succeed as much as 50% of the time.

So why is a retailer posting a blog about New Year’s resolutions? It’s because we made a resolve to communicate better with our customers.

Retail experts such as Rick Segel, Tom Shay and Lynn Switanowski have been outspoken advocates of retailers reaching out to their customers, and the public in general, to engage them in conversation and thought through the use of social media, including platforms such as blogging.

Resolutions are well intentioned, but hard by their nature. Change is hard. We, as people, are desperately resistant to change. We will attempt to overcome the challenge of making time and being consistent when it comes to communicating. We will provide information and updates on the product lines that we carry and talk about the gifts and collectibles industry in general. We hope to use this platform, much like we do other social media, to interact with our customers, answer questions and offer suggestions. But keeping in mind the dismal success rate of resolutions, we ask that all of you feel free to interact with us in all our social media forums, ask questions and offer suggestions and we will do all that we can to respond. Social support structures are important.

One could argue that New Year’s resolutions are for people who procrastinate and don’t intend to make a change. After all, anyone who is serious about a change would not wait until January 1 to initiate it. We hold regular staff meetings to talk about issues and customer service and market trends and over the course of 2013 we have seen more and more interest in blogging. It used to be that at shows and conferences visitors to our booth asked if we have a web page. Over time the questions evolved from Web 1.0 (passive readership) to questions related to social media and “Web 2.0”, a bidirectional environment where social media platforms are used to communicate with and respond to customers, and blogging is one of the pieces of the puzzle. In 2013 we’ve had a number of inquiries about our blogs and RSS-style feeds that can be subscribed to. We did not use to do this, but with apparent interest, there does not seem to be a reason for us to resist this change.

Change can be engaged at any time. January is here and it’s just a convenient time. Today is January 1 and our resolution is to blog more.

[whohit]2014-01-01 New Year’s Resolutions[/whohit]