Jul 30, 2012

Cottage Garden’s Collegiate Line is a Success

Cottage Garden’s launch into the Collegiate category created an immediate impact on that industry. Capitalizing on the popularity of their best- selling music boxes, Cottage Garden has introduced boxes featuring collegiate logos, but the key to the product line success was the inclusion of collegiate fight songs. “Customers would be walking down the halls of the various trade marts and glance into the window at our collegiate display. The customer would instantly freeze, reverse direction and walk into the space, pointing and inquiring, ‘what do I have to do to get these boxes into my store,'” said Mark Timm, President of Cottage Garden. “Once they bought the product, the customer told their fellow retailer from their state about the music boxes. It was very common to have a retailer walk in and say ‘I just heard about the College boxes and I have to have them!’ We opened more new accounts this summer show due to Collegiate Fight Song Boxes than we have in many years,” added Timm.

“After 16 years of being in this business, it takes a lot to shock me, but I was very taken back at just how many boxes at $20 wholesale an independent retailer could and would buy when it came to their customers favorite college,” commented Timm. Cottage Garden reported that pharmacies and gift shops alike bought in cases for their stores convinced that the boxes would not be in stock by the time they needed a re-order. They were right; the boxes have sold out of their first production shipment, the second shipment and are half way through the third. If you missed ordering at the shows, the next window for delivery will be on or around October 1st, 2012.

Cottage Garden has received many requests for additional schools, and plans to double the number of schools offered by the end of the year. In addition, they are planning to add more collegiate products featuring fight songs in the near future.

About Roman, Inc.
In operation for nearly 50 years, Roman is a leading producer and exclusive distributor of more than 4,000 gifts and decorative accessories. Roman offers a vast array of Christmas decorations and a wide range of inspirational, special occasion, and year-round giftware. To learn more about Roman, please visit www.roman.com. About Cottage Garden

A young retailer, with a simple philosophy, founded Cottage Garden, Inc. in 1996, in order to give retailers a fair price, free fixtures and excellent customer service on all products. Today, Cottage Garden, a subsidiary of Roman, Inc., is the leading manufacturer of sentiment-based music boxes and musical frames in North America, with distribution in Australia and throughout Europe. The company stands by its reputation – at Cottage Garden, “we know how to make music!”