Smoky Mountain Gift Show Section

Best Mementos (From page 78)

them even more when they are name-dropped,” she attested.

As to an item that’s name-dropped and does well presently for the store, Wiley reported that “We have name-dropped coasters that do really well. They are great as a memory item, and make a good gift for others, too. They’re unique and colorful, with Wildlife Safari dropped on them and some of our animals. It’s one of our best-sellers overall.”

As to other best-selling name-dropped items, “Over all it is plus had T-shirts. People want to touch an ani

“We are planning to name-drop T-shirts, plush, and mugs because those items sell really well overall. People like those as gifts, and they like them even more when they are name-dropped.” mal, and plush accomplishes that for them, which is why of course we want to do more of them name-dropped. Our T-shirts are colorful and name-dropped, they’re a great buy, and people just love them as souvenirs.” In a lower price point, Wiley related that shot glasses and magnets both sell well.

- Kelly Wiley, Wildlife Safari in Winston, Ore.

In Santa Ana, Calif., Alex Decker , manager of inventory for the Santa Ana Zoo uses a measured approach to the name-dropping of souvenir merchandise. “We do market research, we go to other zoos to see what they are selling, we look in catalogs,” Decker explained. “We like to do a lot of what I call ‘trying and tracking,’ getting smaller quantities and doing a test run and then getting a larger quantity and ordering the items more often if they sell better.” That is how he discovered the store’s best-selling name-dropped item: sippy cups

“We were selling them already when I came into the position, but I added a few new styles since we started. I saw those newer styles in a catalog, and we got the small quantity in first as a test, and it sold out in the first weekend, so we got more. And now we have several different name-dropped sippy cups.”

The item is popular for a reason specific to the Santa Ana Zoo, according to Decker. “The sippy cups are the most popular, because our main market is stroller moms with young kids, local moms. The cups are very

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