SportsPottery.com

As more and more women become soccer moms or begin to marathon…As more and more alums and students announce their loyalties to universities and college football teams brandishing their apparel, automobiles and homes with logo’d chotchkes….the competition for market share in the sports “gifting” arena will only become that more cut-throat. (It’s competition, baby!)

But fair is fair. Every sport has a playbook, rules of conduct, sportsmanship, etc. And ethically speaking, “rules” should apply in the field of business, too.

No one is safe from being the recipient of a “foul.”  Including myself, a designer, artist and entrepreneur. For instance, in 2000, I trademarked the words “Sports Pottery™” for my collection of ceramic wares marketed to athletes. It was my idea first to put the words, “Sports” and “Pottery” together and to niche market ceramic giftware to athletes and their supporters. It all began with tennis and golf shops, but has grown into more since.

My S corp also owns the URL, www.sportspottery.com (domain name) obviously.

Still, every year about this time (since last year), I get calls from frustrated customers of another giftware company that’s using the name of MY business (www.sportspottery.com) and trademark, SportsPottery™, in their email address. 

It seems, their customers are getting confused–going to their website where they purchased an official NCAA licensed platter and seeing an email address which includes the words “sportspottery™.” After not being able to get anyone on the phone at this other company, the customer starts surfing the net and finds my company, www.sportspottery.com. Thus–thinking we shipped them the “Auburn platter in 3 pieces”…or the “UGA platter instead of an Alabama coffee cup.”

So, in an effort to help them deal with their customers, I called this other company (Magnolia Lanes) last year and asked that the owner contact me. I wanted to know if he/she knew he/she was using my name (SportsPottery™) in their email address. The receptionist told me she would give the owner the message, but he/she never returned my call.

And so another holiday is here. And once again, I’m fielding complaints of confused and disappointed customers who think my company sent them a broken platter and won’t return their phone calls and emails.

Not only is this bad press for us, www.sportspottery.com, which has worked tenaciously for the past ten years to grow our reputation for top-notch personalized customer service—it’s bad for the consumer. Confusing them about the benefits and differences amongst vendors in the sports gifts marketplace.

So, to clarify, here are the differences between two ceramic sports giftware companies (mine and theirs)

SportsPottery™ www.sportspottery.com studio@sportspottery.com (Sharna Fulton Designs, Inc.)

Owns the domain name SportsPottery.com and USPTO trademark, “Sports Pottery™.”

Makes each ceramic piece as it is ordered right here in the United States.

Returns customer emails within an hour and phone calls within 4-8 hours.

Niche markets to runners and all other athletes and their supporters.

Niche markets to golf country clubs and professional sports leagues.

Is NOT licensed with the NCAA.

IS licensed with Marine Corps Marathon, The Boston Marathon and has done official merchandise for the USGA US Open and the PGA Championship.

SportsPottery.com specializes in ornaments, mugs and frames for marathoners, runners, golfers and other athletes.

Magnolia Lanes Collection

Does NOT own the trademark or name, Sports Pottery™ or the domain name, www.sportspottery.com

IS licensed with the NCAA

Mass manufactures ceramic ware in China–fun stuff by the way. My profs to their designer.

 

 

 

Recently I’ve asked clients to resubmit their main copy requests. Seeing it’s the holidays, I felt a bit of a scrooge. But the names they wanted to use–”Grandma’s Marathon” and “USAF” were just two out of thousands of names we are not “licensed” to use at SportsPottery.com. There is often a bit of confusion on this matter as SportsPottery.com is indeed licensed with a handful of organizations:

Here are the names we are currently licensed to use:

The Boston Marathon (The world’s oldest annual marathon) www.baa.org

The Marine Corps Marathon www.marinemarathon.com

Oakmont Country Club (host of 2007 U.S. Open)

Seminole Golf Club

The Los Angeles Country Club

The Atlanta Track Club www.atlantatrackclub.org

And this past summer (as well as several summers past) we made official merchandise for:

The 2007 U.S. Open http://www.golfsurround.com/usopen/2007/index.html

The 2007 PGA Championship http://www.pga.com/pgachampionship/2007/index.html

I’ve been told that Phil Mickelson has one of our pieces. I know Venus and Serena Williams do. I made platters for the sisters when they won their first grand slam tennis tournaments. Also, Lindsay Davenport has a platter I painted to commemorate an Australian Open victory.

But I digress. These pieces were purchased by the organizations themselves: The PGA and The WTA (Women’s Tennis Association.) They own the rights to their names. Therefore, they can use their names for their purposes as they like. In this example, their names were used to give gifts to the folks, (superstar sports figures) who represent their tour. The same is true for the golf clubs. They buy logo’d ornaments to resell in their pro shops to members and guests.

In the case of the U.S. Open and PGA Championship ornaments, the balls were also purchased at wholesale from www.sportspottery.com by the USGA and PGA. They, were then resold at retail inside merchandise tents at two of the four majors of golf.

In the case of the marathons, the race organizations get a percentage of sales in exchange for allowing us (or anyone like a major athletic shoe company) to use their name and logo to sell merchandise. We get to use their name on our products. We set-up a booth at their expo and promote the products at www.sportspottery.com The idea is that our sales increase because we are using the organization’s official language and marks.

Why does an organization let us use their intellectual property? What’s in it for them?

Financial return

Promote their name and brand

Offer quality goods and services to their clientele

SportsPottery.com was licensed with the ING New York Marathon in 2004 and 2005. http://www.nycmarathon.org/home/index.php The contract came to the finish line when they asked us for $25,000 to continue the agreement. That’s the value they place on their event and their name. Since their name is their property, they get to call the shots.

So what is licensing exactly?

Licensing is the act of giving a contractual right to another party to use certain property that is owned by someone else. In the case of SportsPottery.com, that “property” we ask to be licensed to use is known as “intellectual property.”

Intellectual property refers to creations of the mind: inventions, literary and artistic works, and symbols, names, images, and designs used in commerce.

The name, “SportsPottery” is trademarked and is “intellectual property,” itself. SportsPottery.com is a URL domain registered and owned by Sharna Fulton Designs Inc. since 1998. www.thesharnashop.com is also owned by yours truly.

My newest venture, Chloe Pink TM, www.chloepink.com is also intellectual property of Sharna Fulton Designs, Inc. She is a cartoon character I’ve recently trademarked. She stands for confidence, curiosity and a cafe culture zest for life for every girl and every woman. Every card, every word and image that has gone into creating the 32 cards in the line thus far are also copywrited by the U.S. Copyright Office. I hope someday, someone will come to me and say, “Hey Sharna. Will you license us to use Chloe Pink TM on our bags, t-shirts, movie, our…whatever. You get the idea. Chloe and her scottish terrier mutt, Pete are my babies, my brainchildren. And I’ve taken the necessary legal prevention steps to let others know that. Hopefully, their style of humor, sarcasm and friendship is a brand like no other.

Branding allows a company to differentiate themselves from the competition and, in the process, to bond with their customers to create loyalty. So a position is created in the marketplace that is much more difficult for the competition to poach. 

And here’s where we get to the crux of the matter. This is the good ol’ United States. Marketing and capitalism are numero uno here. The ability to come up with ideas and inventions and then bring them to the marketplace to further our livelihoods…this is our birthright as Americans!

To then, sell our brother (or sister) down the river…to steal their intellectual property, their logos, their names, their ideas would be to not accept the notion that one of the things that makes our country great is our creative and enterprising AND HONEST spirit. And that we must value that in each other and appreciate the personalities of these brands created by our own brethen.

In addition, we must respect our own selves enough, so as NOT to steal. To have faith and believe we have what it takes to develop original material that will somehow make a difference to someone on this planet. So as to come up with our OWN ideas…even if it falls flat on the floor 100 times over. We get up and try it again. This is the legacy and history lesson of Einstein, Schultz (Charles and Howard), Jobs, Knight, Gates, Walton, Turner, Winfrey and Edison to name a few.

The Chinese are kicking our butts in manufacturing. But in America, it’s the IDEA that reigns supreme. And the marketing of that idea that differentiates us from our Asian trading partners. Hence Starbucks, CNN, Apple, Microsoft, Coca Cola, American Express, Barnes & Noble, Walmart, Nike, etc.  

As an artist who makes a living creating new products, new ideas and new ways of doing business, I could never steal a logo or name we’re not licensed to use. That would not only be unAmerican, but totally unartistic. It would be cheating myself because I hold the “creation of ideas” in the highest esteem. I would not want anybody to steal my work–and they have—and thus, would not do it to someone else.

I hope this little soap box blog on licensing sheds some light on why we (I) reject other company’s intellectual property (names & logos) quite often. While we aim to offer unique gifts at www.sportspottery.com celebrating mostly athletic achievement, it’s the personality of that “giftee” we must proudly tout…not the event that person participated in.

I encourage each potential SportsPottery.com customer to create your own “brand” as you write copy, choose colors and a visual icon to create your own SportsPottery gifts at our on-line shop. So what? We won’t hand paint the words “ING New York City Marathon” on your sportspottery gift. (We’re not licensed…remember?) Instead, we can put, “Sally PR’d in New York” with a 26.2 at the bottom of her mug. After all, there’s a good chance, Sally’d rather look at her own name–not ING’s when she drinks her cup of joe every morning.

For more information on copy/art rules for your sportspottery piece: http://www.sportspottery.com/faq.php#3

 

 

The Marine Corps Marathon Expo began on a rainy Wednesday afternoon and continued through Saturday evening. I (Sharna Fulton, designer, SportsPottery.com) was incredibly fortunate to have the unlimited talent and resources of my mother and father-in-law, who live in the D.C. area. Thank you Bob and June Blaszkiewicz for moving SportsPottery.com into the venue, working the show, helping customers, gift wrapping, etc. Also, thank you for the wonderful hotel accommodations at your beachside home near the Eastern Shore of Maryland and the chauffeur service to the D.C. Armory each day.

In case you’ve never been to the Armory, it’s a beautifully stoic domed roof arena built in 1941 and just next to RFK stadium. The MCM show interior, as you can see, was drenched in red and gold. It was a gorgeous and welcoming environment for the exhibitors and marathon shoppers alike.

The 2007 Marine Corps Marathon SportsPottery Sales Team: Bob and June Blaszkiewicz. Photos by Bob Blaszkiewicz.

June, my mother-in-law, arranges and preps the gift wrapping station at the SportsPottery.com booth. I’m the human vacuum picking up the carpet before showtime.

One thing I love about marathon expos is getting to actually see my customers! (Versus the world of virtual shopkeeping.) Pictured here is 4x Ironman Finisher, Michael Collins and his vivacious, bubbly wife, Kristin. (She’s no slouch either folks–a 7 time marathon finisher–or is it 8 now?) Kristin has been getting Michael “Iron Distance” ornaments from SportsPottery.com since 2006. They stopped by the booth and I got to meet them face to face for the first time! What a nice surprise.

Who woulda thunk that marathons would become THE romantic date of 2007? Couples often train and run the race together.  Sometimes they stay together only for awhile until the woman takes off and runs ahead. (Or vice versa.) Anyways, note the smiles on this couple’s faces, the overstuffed bags with bib numbers, t-shirts and assorted marathon goodies.

Denise Cormaney of Arlington, VA gets ready to commemorate her first marathon with a Marine Corps Marathon 2007 ornament. The Marine Corps Marathon licensed SportsPottery.com to make MCM wares for the 2007 event. Thanks to Marc Goldman and his marketing team (Kim, etc.) for being such wonderful hosts!

Expos are great family events. It’s a place for kids to join the celebration and get ready to cheer their parents on to run 26.2 miles. Everybody is upbeat, music is playing and there are lots of fun giveaways. We had Cabot Cheese on our left–great cheese made by real farmers!!!!—Shout out to Mike….and Cliff Bars on our right. Who doesn’t love Cliff bars if you’re an endurance athlete? There were also free bandaids, cowbells, “Stick” massages, wine and beer tastings (for older kids), posters and more. I also noticed a ton of Boston Red Sox hats. Congratulations to all ya chowdaheads on the 2007 World Series. Let’s not forget, these major marathons attract people from all over the United States–Boston to L.A.–Seattle to Miami. And yes, there was even a vendor from Loganville, GA by the name of SportsPottery.com

About a month ago, I visited a local chatroom to field interest in painters and packers for the upcoming holiday season. A few short hours later, I had enough interest to fill two workshops with talented and creative women from just a few miles away.

Using cooking school principles, I set up stations around the kitchen island that serves as production central in my studio. There’s room for 5-6 people to comfortably work. Each person had a sheet of butcher paper, a sanding stick, two paintbrushes, a jar of paint and two pieces of greenware to practice sanding and painting.

The women who attended these workshops cross-stitch, make stained glass and jewelry. One had spent time at SCAD, a high end art school in Atlanta. Many are mothers. Several have other jobs or side businesses. One of them has her own business right here in Loganville and we plan to help each other cross promote.

The idea for the workshops is to get the “bees” ready to take greenware home to base coat with various colors (depending on the project.) They, then return them to me and I finish them with the dimensional paint trim and handwriting, personalization, etc.

So far, the system is working a little better than the old way of having one part-time person working more hours and being at the studio several hours a week. Although I must say I miss you, Dianne, DEARLY! It frees up my time–as a small business person–to work on marketing, customer service and tackle the many administrative tasks that go along with the biz.

So far, the worker bees have helped with: Marine Corps Marathon tiles. Heather is our tile expert. She is also working on some awards for an upcoming road race. In addition to painting tiles, Heather has a full-time job she commutes 2 hours total each day to, plus a 10 year old daughter and a 3 year old son. 

Jennifer has been taking home MCM ornaments. Can she stay between the lines or what!!! She also comes into the studio once a week to get me organized. She created a project management system on excel. Jennifer has a Southern Living business: creativelyjennifer@yahoo.com If you’d like to see some of her culinary offerings, send her an email.

Vickie and her daughter painted some mugs and did a nice job. I hope they are available for other projects.

Danielle is a young mother with artistic skills. She’s helped out on ornaments for a golf country club.

Luana is a computer whiz and has great ideas about the gifting business as she has one herself. We need to get together soon, but we are both so busy. In addition to her business, she coaches her daughter’s cheerleading squad.

This is just the start of what I hope will be a great system for sportspottery.com and the worker bees (women) who help out. Giving them a way to make a few extra bucks, work with their hands and yet have the flexibility to do the other things we women do. It is really quite impressive to see how us, women/girls can do so many things at one time and do it all so well.

The Worker Pottery Bees in my own backyard are living proof!

 

There’s a story on MSN.com home page this morning about the marathon business. In the wake of the overheated Chicago Marathon last Sunday, the story begs the question, “Are marathons too risky for the average joe?”

According to the AP, there’s a simple reason the Chicago Marathon has more than doubled in size in the past ten years: More revenue for the city.

Since SportsPottery.com markets to marathoners, we are part of that whole “revenue generating process” in the running industry. This made me ponder the question, are we a part of the problem? Are we offering up Marine Corps Marathon mugs to folks who come ill-prepared and unfit to run 26.2 miles?

It’s been my experience at these expos that marathoners are not only fit and well trained, but extremely goal oriented, determined, educated and of course, athletic. That doesn’t mean that we see every marathoner at our booth in Chicago, Boston or D.C. But it would be fair to say, we see a good cross section of them, “you.”

Here is the link to that story in case you didn’t catch it: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21213707/wid/11915773?gt1=10514

I’d also like to hear your thoughts on the business of marathoning? Do you think “anyone” can run 26.2 if they train hard and put their mind to it? Are big city marathons admitting too many people in the interest of money? What do you think?

 

 

 

 

Drizzly, overcast days are perfect for production. I throw on some khakis and a white tee-shirt, grab some coffee and get to work. Today, one of my projects is to paint 10 Marine Corps Marathon mugs completely black. This requires three coats of paint around the entire exterior of the mug (except the front label where the writing goes)and takes about 7 minutes per mug. It also uses up 1/3 of a jar of paint. There is no quick way to do it. You can’t dip or airbrush them. They need three good coats applied with a paint brush. But the finished product–a black mug—is very striking.

Anyways, after I finish those, I plan to letter 30 ornaments that have been prepped with base coats by one of our new Worker Pottery Bees.

I found the Worker Pottery Bees swarming closer to the studio than I ever imagined. We’ve had part-time help since 2000. But I realized lately, I needed to farm out more projects in order to grow the business and attend more events.

So, I blogged on Loganville Online, a local chatroom in a suburb of Atlanta. A few hours later, I had 2 days worth of Worker Pottery Bee training workshops filled. The worker bees then took home “batches” of greenware to base coat. A few days later, they return the pieces to the studio. Then, I do all the finishing work like the handwriting, firing, glazing and more firing.

It’s only been a few weeks since I tried to implement the new Worker Pottery Bee system. Old habits die hard and I’m trying to learn to delegate and accept help. Still, making sure our gifts have the same attention to detail and quality as in the past is job #1 to me.

Off to paint mugs black…on a gray day.

Three weeks from today, we’re off to Washington D.C. to exhibit at the 32nd Marine Corps Marathon Expo. This will be our 2nd time there, but our first to offer merchandise within the MCM shop…Meaning the mugs, ornaments and frames all say “Marine Corps Marathon” on them. I want to thank Marc Goldman, MCM Sponsorship Marketing Manager, for inviting us to be a part of MCM’s souvenir offerings this year.

Flashback to 7 years ago. My father-in-law, Bob, who lives in the D.C. area helped me load ceramics into our booth at the MCM Expo. It was the year 2000 when we first took our wares to a marathon expo. Just three days later, we knew we had a business idea.

I’d been making ceramics for art festivals and Jr. League Shows. Tennis ladies were coming to my garage in Duluth, GA to write me a check for captains gifts. I had ”Tee-Time (golf) Teapots” and “All You Can Play Tennis Buffet” Platters in local golf and tennis country clubs. But at the Marine Corps. Marathon, lines formed to buy ceramic souvenirs. We couldn’t check people out fast enough. The pottery was “in demand.”

Since then, we’ve exhibited at roughly 13 marathon expos, averaging about 1 1/2 shows per year. Some years we’ve attended up to 4 expos. Others just one. Shows have included: ING New York City Marathon,  LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon, Disney (1/2) Marathon, Rock & Roll AZ Marathon, Country Music Marathon, The Peachtree Road Race and of course, The Marine Corps Marathon.

Now in 2007, we have a few more tools at hand. We take VISA, MC, Discover and AMEX. I’m putting together a new email promo with Constant Contact that’s much easier than mass BCC emails sent from Outlook Express. We’ve also got a brand new shiny website dedicated to selling SportsPottery. And this blog.

But the process of creating gifts for runners remains the same. It’s really an old fashioned, timeless and timestaking process of pouring greenware, painting it, firing it, glazing it, firing it. Then, finishing it, packing it and taking it to our customers. Those currently in training for the Marine Corps Marathon! Which reminds me, I’d better get back to the studio. There are mugs to paint. And the show must go on!