Weary and jetlagged I arrived at the secret location (well, no one told my satnav where it was) just hours after getting off the plane. I was greeted by Nicci, Becky and Kerry-Jane from the Docrafts team and asked to take a seat. I was joined by I think 10 other local crafters and we started to look at different possible product ranges that Docrafts were considering using in the near future.
They had mock ups so the images were flat but the girls explained to us were shimmer, shine and other elements would be. There was a new fairy range that had mixed reviews. They weren't your typical cutesy ones which is good if you want to broaden your appeal as often when I've done my fairy cards they are only really any good for children. These fairies looked to be in their late teens themselves and had a variety of poses. The colours were nice - blue and purple - but they were darker than you would maybe expect for that theme.
Posh Pets was the next theme which I loved. It was a mixture of regal dogs and cats - proud poodles and posh Persians. They realised that often you are a cat OR dog lover and so had a good mixture and considered selling the stamps individually as for such as myself I would only want the cat stamps to scrapbook with. It was however argued that you craft for other people so you could do a dog lover a birthday card extra. I was very impressed with the quality of the image but found the backing papers colours to be quite pale. Paler than I'd expect for such a regal array of animals.
Again working on the animal theme they had a safari range which was lovely. Although I have a lot of similar products this one stood out. I liked that it wasn't specifically aimed at young children but it wasn't that grown up that it was no longer cute. They had hit that happy medium where you could use it for any age range or gender. I especially liked the backing papers. Many of mine are that busy with pattern that you don't want to put anything over it or that plain that it doesn't colour coordinate enough with it. Again I thought they'd hit the mark with this.
Although that was the fun part the main part was them trying to find out if they, and particularly the Creativity magazine was doing the best it could for its readers. We discussed price, packaging, content, regularity, features, availability. Does it need to be exclusive to craft stores or should you be able to nip to the supermarket and get it with your local shop? Is there too much 'other craft' and should it stick to just paper crafting? Should they provide 'sister' publications? Are free papers something that the market wants?
We also touched a little on the website. It became clear that this is a hot topic especially with the launch of the Creativity Club and the restyling of the website. Unfortunately time did not account for this and they stated that they would do future focus groups based on the website. I think that this is definitely needed and think that it would be nice if they could ask the same people back to discuss this issue so that they can get a full overview of what readers want.
I had a fantastic night, learnt a lot and made some new friends. I would love to be involved in something like that again as you do feel closer to the product and a lot of the Docrafts aim is to get a loyal network. If anyone is ever asked to be a part of this process I would definitely take up the opportunity to have your say.
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