Dancing Panda's Winter Product Premiere Party

After much debate and note-scribbling, the idea that was hatched in my last post has finally been given a green-light. The Winter Product Premiere Party is a go!

Many factors contributed to the direction that things have taken, including the fact that I was laid off from my day job early last week. It was a planned layoff, not something that blindsided us. I made the conscious decision to take life's lemons and make them into lemon-drop martinis. I was prepared to go full throttle into the holiday season here at the Panda the minute my desk at the day job had been cleared out. (**For new readers, I occasionally take on temporary work assignments outside of Dancing Panda when a new need arises in my household. In this case, we are saving up for a down-payment on a new house.)

Another factor was that due to having a day job, albeit part-time, we had cleared the traveling show schedule for the last 10 weeks of the year so I could finish the project I was contracted to complete with little distraction. Not until after we had cleared out calendars of everything but holiday travel did the day job tell me that things might be changing more quickly than originally planned.

So, given that we had no shows planned, John (my husband and unofficial business partner) had pretty much written off the holiday selling season as a wash. He wasn't convinced we would make much money or garner many sales because we have NO BUDGET when it comes to marketing. Being a fairly young company, we can only utilize no-or-low-cost marketing strategies to achieve the same impact as the Big Guys.

I said, "To heck with that attitude. We'll make our own show!" And the premiere party was born.

Granted, it isn't exactly a completely original idea. I can remember my mother taking me to Mary Kay "hostess parties" her friends organized when I was a teenager, and I know that PartyLite was big in this area a few years back. It all started with Tupperware parties back in the 1970's, really, but I digress. Whichever way you slice it, this is a marketing method that has merit, as well as a proven track record. John and I LOVE throwing parties; however, we can rarely justify it in the budget. Talk about a win-win situation! We get to throw a party, the business gets a bump in sales, and our clients get to introduce their friends to our fabulous products as well as preview new goodies before they go on sale to the general public.


I will do a series of posts outlining how to throw a premiere party such as ours, and not break the bank! Those posts will come later, though. November 22nd looms ever larger on the horizon, and there is much work left to be done. Speaking of which, I can hear the FedEx truck pulling into the driveway now. Gotta run. Deliveries won't sign for themselves!