Flash-Based Product Configurator

In summer 2004 I helped launch an innovative product configurator for a jewelry manufacturer.
This Flash-based application allows the customer to choose ring size and stone type as well as place a customized inscription inside the clam-shaped ring.

The application increased retail sales and sales for the company’s channel partners as well as reduced mistakes and reworks.

Here’s the full text of a Chicago Tribune article on the company:

MINDING YOUR BUSINESS

Artist’s savvy adds glitter to jewelry firm
Knack for business helps designer craft sparkling results

By Ann Meyer
Special to the Tribune

July 18, 2005

One hit can lead to even bigger opportunities, if you manage it right.

For Chicago jewelry designer Tammy Kohl, her patented Takohl
Treasure Rings, selling for $990 and up, have become a cash cow for her
company, she said.

"I had a vision to come up with a piece I could protect and call my own," she said.

Kohl, who is president of Takohl Design Ltd. and also runs Takohl–A
Gallery of Exceptional Jewels in Chicago, attributes her success to her
business savvy as much as her creative ingenuity. She started selling
jewelry to pay her college tuition bills in 1984, but she had toyed
with having her own business since long before then.

"When I was a little girl, I played cash register instead of dolls,"
said Kohl, the Wisconsin-born daughter of farmers. "I’ve always been
fascinated by business."

That’s unusual among most creative types, suggested Cindy Edelstein,
president of Jeweler’s Resource Bureau in Pelham, N.Y., specializing in
business advice for jewelry designers.

"So many artists say, `I don’t like sales,’ but how else are you
going to get your art out of the basement?" she said. "I have countless
clients that are just treading water."

But Kohl is different. To free up time to focus on the business,
Kohl no longer makes her own jewelry, though she buys her own gems and
designs all her work. Instead, Kohl uses in-house jewelers and a
Chicago jewelry manufacturer for production.

"Tammy Kohl is making it work," Edelstein said. "One idea is trademark-patented, and she can market the heck out of it."

Kohl’s Treasure Rings, which have bands that swing open to reveal a
personal inscription, are available at more than 100 stores and at her
Web site, www.treasurering.com. Customers choose the metal and gems
that go into each ring, and create their own message, so each ring is
unique, Kohl said.

To ease the ordering process, Kohl’s Web site includes a specialized
form that reduces errors, she said. Even retailers use it. "By making
it easier for their customers to buy the product and for them to sell
it, I’m a step ahead," she said.

Kohl’s emphasis on the Web puts her ahead of the curve, suggested Toni Lyn Judd, an independent jewelry manufacturers’ rep.

"Craftspeople need to reinvent the way they do business,
particularly with the opportunity for consumers to buy goods in so many
different venues," Judd said. "People are going to do less shopping in
retail stores and more in the confines of their home and office."

The Treasure Ring has another advantage over most artists’ work in
being personalized yet available in quantity. While many consumers like
one-of-a-kind products, retailers don’t like to disappoint customers
with unavailable merchandise, said Merle White, editor in chief of
Lapidary Journal, based in Malvern, Pa.

"To get a retail venue to take their work, it has to be repeatable," White said.

While the patented line, launched in 1997, has become Kohl’s bread
and butter, fully 40 percent of her business is custom design work, she
said. Many who own the Treasure Ring come back for something different,
she said.

Employing a staff of three to help with daily operations, Kohl
concentrates on building the business. The result is a business
generating revenues of between $1 million and $2 million a year, she
said.

Besides operating her retail gallery, Kohl works as her own
wholesale sales rep, often visiting retailers in person and attending
trade shows where buyers scout for products. She takes out national ads
and uses public relations to build awareness of her brand. Having her
creations adorn the fingers of celebrities such as Helen Hunt, Kevin
Kline and Steven Tyler helps attract attention as well, she said.

Kohl made the most of the downturn following the Sept. 11 attacks to
accelerate advertising, taking out national ads in slick magazines such
as Town & Country and Harper’s Bazaar at lower-than-usual rates,
she said. The ads, in turn, have helped land her jewelry in more stores.

A public relations campaign also can lure new clients.

The bigger your reputation, the more likely you are to sell to stores outright, instead of on consignment.

"It’s a huge expense to have 20 pieces at a gallery on consignment.
It’s like making a long-term loan, which is difficult to do," said
Evanston jewelry designer Noel Yovovich said.

Yovovich hopes recent media exposure of her titanium jewelry will
help her pick up some new gallery accounts. She has been featured in
several articles, and her $8,000 teapot is included in a recently
published book, she said.

While Yovovich would like to expand her business, she acknowledged
that she hasn’t made the leap to put business before art. "I would love
to hand the entire business aspect of it over to someone else," she
said.

Consultant Edelstein encourages jewelry designers to see business as another opportunity to create.

"Once they get that there’s a lot of creativity in business, then
they can really rock," she said. "They need to fall in love with the
creative challenges of marketing and promotions and sales."

Copyright © 2005, Chicago Tribune