You can’t go to a retail show without getting some classroom time.  Most lectures talk about how to pick merchandise, how to plan the store’s budget, how to engage customers and how to present the merchandise.  The WESA Market is the first retail show we attended where a presentation was a live horsemanship demonstration.

Ken McNabb is a modern day cowboy and the star of a syndicated cable show, “Discovering the Horseman Within” where he teaches horsemanship and horse training to a broad audience.

In his presentation Ken used a young partially trained colt to demonstrate how to work with horses and encourage them to partner with their rider without using anything that could be deemed as abuse or intimidation of the animal.  He relied on a riding crop, which he tapped against the horse’s ankle wraps to encourage it to both pay attention to him and move in ways he desired.  He quickly convinced the horse to walk along with him without being on lead, stop when he stopped and even take a few steps back when he backed up.

Ken advocated not using force or intimidation to get the horse to cooperate, saying that earning the animal’s trust and attention goes much further than the old methods which relied on fear to gain the horse’s cooperation.

This session was a refreshing change to the usual fare of business oriented presentations that retail shows host.  Ken told the audience that his presentation is an opportunity to educate retailers whose customers are often the people trying to train horses.

Ken McNabb on horsemanship

[whohit]2014-01-15 Cowboys and Horses[/whohit]

Denver International Western/English Apparel & Equipment Market

Passing the security check at the Denver International Western/English Apparel & Equipment Market you enter a long hallway with permanent vendor showrooms on either side.  Security is an important factor here because like all industry conventions and conferences, the WESA Market is open to insiders only, insiders in this case being the manufacturers and retailers.  A rainbow of colorful badges is the first and most visible element of credentialing of those at the show.  The lime green tags are by far the most common.  They all read “buyer” across the top.  Vendors wear red or blue tags that are labeled “exhibitor”.  There are yellow and orange tags identifying sales associates and white ones identifying staff, who are constantly scurrying around, trying to lubricate the gears that make the show run.

The walls of the corridor are lined with magazine dispensers.  At first glance the magazines can be “Time”, “Newsweek”, “People” and the like.  But pausing to take a glace at the free to pick up publications, one realizes that the cover tends to sport a Stetson-hated cowboy and his steed.  Titles like “Rodeo”, “Western Horseman” and “American Cowboy” face the attendees and, upon a longer glace, there are less familiar publications such as “True West”, “Tack ‘n Togs”, “Cowboys & Indians”, “Horse Illustrated” and “Beef” to be found.  There is a momentary hesitation to reach down and pick up a copy of “Beef” to see what it’s all about.  On the cover is an older gentleman wearing a Stetson and a button-down shirt, riding a white appaloosa.  Flipping the magazine open reveals articles such as “Beef Crystal Ball”, “Bad Advice” and “Clean Green Beef”.  The ads are all, you got it, beef.  It is, without a doubt an all beef publication.  Probably not a mainstream publication, but there’s no doubt that it has a very strong niche market.

The attendees are a breed onto themselves.  You stand out if you don’t wear boots and a cowboy hat, whether you’re a boy or a girl.  Some women have high heels as if attending an evening gala and a few have ubiquitous Texas big hair.  There’s a sea of plaid and sequin shirts and jeans, ranging from well loved to brand new.  There’s a handful of suits in the crowd, all standing out like sore thumbs.  Here, if you’re not wearing cowboy duds, you’re better off wearing jeans and a t-shirt or a sweater.  Adding a big belt buckle will go a long way to helping you blend into the crowd.

Visiting the vendor booths offers a distinct array of merchandise.  There’s everything here that one would need to be a well dressed cowboy and everything that one would need to have a well equipped horse.  Other items include food and preserves, tools, a vast assortment of jewelry, purses and bags, cosmetics, animal medical supplies, paintings and western art, furniture and gifts and collectibles.  It’s the gifts and collectibles part that drew us to this show and it was everything else that made us stand back and watch in awe.

[whohit]2014-01-13 A First Impression of WESA[/whohit]

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]