Thursday, August 11, 2005

Darn Moody! WMD NEEDS HELP!


I'm really bummed out.

After one month of sales at 77th Street we only moved 71 T-shirts (no fault of 77th Street's). Over at Skin I think we moved about 20 in 2 weeks with no promotion.

Like this how to save the children? The shelter can't even afford to keep its doors open at the rate we're going!!

I sent press releases to ALL the major media.
- URBAN gave us a nice coloured listing -- thank you URBAN
- Her World gave us a little blurb with a picture of Denise Keller, Sun Ho and Eunice Olsen - thank you HER WORLD
- Style is coming up with an interview with Kit -- thank you Style.

Other than that we have pretty much been .... quiet.

Anyone with any ideas on how we can hit our target of 900 T-shirts? (Now 809 T-shirts to be exact)

I wish there were 100 women's groups or women CEOs with a heart to take 8 pieces each. It's not a lot, is it?

Each day I think about these kids that are thinking about running away from the brothel.
Each day I think about how the poor NGOs and shelter managers are struggling to cope with housing, feeding and counselling them.
Then I walk down Orchard Road and our kids are dressed in fine clothes, eating Haagen Daaz and going home in their Mommy's MPV ...

There MUST be a way to help. There's just gotta be ...

14 Comments:

Blogger Ondine said...

Put the T-shirts on the mannequins? Set up booths at "expat" heavy areas like HOlland Village, Cold Storage Jelita (which is LARGE now like Safeway!), King Albert Park... that sort of thing. I've seen SPCA and RDA and Some other group to save dogs and another to save cats but for the life of me cannot remember what they are called, set up there. Lots of human traffic, especially on the weekend.

10:20 PM

 
Blogger Sausage said...

U R IN 77th STREET???
ARE YOU ELIM CHEW????

10:33 PM

 
Blogger Threez said...

Sausage, noooo, my T-SHIRTS are in 77th Street. Elim Chew very kindly agreed to sell them for me at no cost to WMD at all, bless her heart.

If I say I'm Elim will you buy a T-shirt? ; )

10:53 PM

 
Blogger 叶子 said...

How about working on having more distribution points to back those PR?
Maybe there are people out there who wants to buy (like me), but have not been seeing it around (and thus forgot all about it)? *Sorry*
Is it available for sale on line?

11:06 PM

 
Blogger misty said...

Hi threez. I'm an undergrad from SMU. We have a compulsory module where the students get involved in a community service project. I'm thinking that maybe you need the manpower to raise awareness, such as organising an event. This would be a win-win situation, as you might be able to enlist the help from students and it would be something meaningful for the students. Would you like to consider? No promises, but I would be able to help you ask around.

12:26 AM

 
Blogger Jing..xx said...

Why don't you set up a website with pix of the T-shirts, link to Pay Pal so ppl can buy? Include postage or self-collect in the maling option. We will advertise it on our blogs and maybe sales will increase.
=)

9:15 AM

 
Blogger Threez said...

Hi all!
thanks for your great suggestions!

Our T-shirts are available by mail order through our website www.wmdfest.org. Click on collectibles, print out the form and just mail it to me with a cheque and you'll get the T-shirt in the mail.

I'm really hoping to canvass for bulk buys — appreciate any help you can give!

10:05 AM

 
Blogger "s0n|c'C@libr3,, said...

haa... nice work.



from what i see.. you are selling shirts to save kids? I'm really happy to see that ... haa men kinda touched.


"Each day I think about how the poor NGOs and shelter managers are struggling to cope with housing, feeding and counselling them.
Then I walk down Orchard Road and our kids are dressed in fine clothes, eating Haagen Daaz and going home in their Mommy's MPV ...

There MUST be a way to help. There's just gotta be ... "



There is. A great power behind yr movement can be the act of prayer. Especially in a group. When 2 or 3 are gathered in His midst, there His presence will be. :)


ebay might be a good place to advertise. An amzing number of people goes there to shop :) ..

take care!! and thx for yr bery bery nice comment in my blog :)



God bless.

1:49 AM

 
Blogger BigBrownBearBear said...

Hi, It's the fish guy again.

If you really want bulk buys, then what I think might work is to come up with more material for people to look at.

Approach Student Groups Like the Halls in NUS & NTU, Ask them to help with Friends and Family first. Then get them to move out on a Saturday & Sunday into the streets in town.

I promise you at least 90%-95% would be sold. And you'll have to take orders for a reprint.

And if your group of prominent women is willing to appear 1 hour at each of the higher learning auditoriums, sales would be even greater with a short presentation.

The T-Shirts will not sell as many people does not know nor understand what it is all about.

If you want, I can get you in touch with the proper people to talk to.

1:55 AM

 
Blogger BigBrownBearBear said...

While I love the prayer bit, the Lord doesn't make things happen if you stand around and pray.

Your best bet would be selecting a weekend (maybe the term break that is coming up) and go all out during that time.

1:57 AM

 
Blogger Threez said...

Tiger! Yes, would love to connect with your people if you can set that up! Two students from NTU very kindly carried our T-shrits during their recent bazaar. They sold 7 pieces (which I think is fantastic though they were a bit disappointed).

Yes, going all out during term break is a good idea. My stumbling block is that I need to price the T-shirt at $38 (w/o GST) which is high for students.

9:24 AM

 
Blogger BigBrownBearBear said...

You only have 800pieces.

faculty members from each side can easily hit 100pieces already.

The thing you would really have to do is to have people educated on what the T-Shirt is for and constant visual stimulation for the potential buyers.

You can also allow students to "Share a T-Shirt"

:)

Email me with the details you think suitable for the meaning of the T-Shirt. Let's aim for the term break to get this organised.

1:41 PM

 
Blogger Threez said...

Dear Evan, thank you for considering supporting us and I still hope you will.

Because we are raising funds the cost of the T-shirt needs to be MAXIMUM 30% of the funds raised. As our T-shirt cost a little more than $10 to create, we needed to charge at least $34. This rule has been set by the Commissioner of Charities. As we're working to raise funds for UNIFEM, we discussed the pricing with them and it was actually wiser (from their experience knowing the CoC better than I do) to try to keep the ratio to lower than 30-70, so we pegged it at $38 (w/o GST). Also, when people mail order, we actually absorb the mailing cost of $2+.

We have actually not had anyone say it's too expensive except the students. For students (university and under) we do special bulk orders at $25 (preferably 10s or 20s) but they pay for the postage.

WMD then absorbs the cost of those "special price" orders, but to be honest the setup of WMD came out of our pockets and every time we need to absorb the difference it keeps us in the red. But we're not complaining as long as we can raise the amount in the end to help the shelter.

I hope this makes sense. WMD makes nothing from the sale of these T-shirts, in case you are wondering. It's not our purpose or intent — what we really want is to help these women and children have a better life.

We hope you will support that vision.

4:47 PM

 
Blogger Cowboy Caleb said...

Hmmmm... the Cowboy Bar will be holding a huge party soon.

Perhaps we can sell a couple of dozen tshirts on the night?

I'll email you.

11:25 AM

 

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