Were you born to be a princess?

Is there a princess gene? Were you (or someone near and dear to you) simply born to be a princess? As incredible as it may sound, the answer might be YES!

Parents often notice their little girls taking a sudden interest in all things pink and girly around the age of two. This article The Princess Gene, questions why this happens.

Of course, generally an accusatory finger is pointed at indoctrination by advertising and cultural stereotypes - ie we push them into it. Cue the psychologists, who drag genes and gender into the debate.

Unfortunately for any girl trying to excuse her pink obession, the evidence offered is patchy to say the least. And, besides, it seems these days you can get a psychologist to quote on anything - the more sensational the better! Perhaps, they should analyse their own desire for self-promotion?

For parents exasperated by their little princess's girly demands, some reassurance is offered. Apparently, this is just a stage they'll most likely grow out of (yes, this is ground-breaking stuff!) Don't fret about them turning out to be a wet little wallflower either, because "Playing with a doll does not mean you won't grow up to be a veterinarian, or an astronaut, or a lawyer or a teacher,". Thank goodness. But likewise, as many a grown-up princess will tell, growing up doesn't mean you'll lose your 'I deserve the best' attitude and penchant for all things pink and girly either!

Princess Sells Stories

On the 31st August this year it will be ten years since Diana Princess of Wales (I think that was her official title, post divorce) died tragically in a Paris car crash. But, so powerful is the princess's 'pull' that her image and name remains hot property for the media - worldwide.

Aside from the current ruckus over Channel 4's plans to screen a new documentary with sensational (read tasteless) new images of her receiving medical treatment immediately AFTER the crash, Diana's name is being used to peddle several other 'stories'. Take your pick from:

"Knightley to play princess Diana?" - the story of the bidding war over rights to a film adaptation of the controversial book, "Diana and the Paparazzi".

"Texas Chef's recipes were fit for Princess Di" - a thinly veiled plug for chef Darren McGrady's attempt to cash in on his four years of feeding the Royals, "Eating Royally: Recipes and Remembrances From a Palace Kitchen"

"Di's cast for dress book" - how wedding dress designer Emmanuel is selling a £1,000 book about Princess Di's wedding dress, because it comes with an off-cut of the gown's fabric!

"Princess Diana's bike goes on display" - describing how "a bicycle which was ridden by Princess Diana when she was a child has been put on show for the first time". WOW! Come on chaps, is this REALLY news?

All these stories surfaced over the weekend. But, after a quick check on Google News, it seems The People's Princess is never out of the news for more than a few days!

Although no doubt vehemently denied by those concerned, it's hard to see many of these stories and the gimmicks behind them as anything but cheap exploitation. The proof? Take 'Princess Di' out of the picture and what are you left with?

- A child's bike goes on display
- A £1000 book about a wedding dress has been launched, complete with fabric samples
- Texas chef launches cookbook
- Kiera Knightley is being considered for an acting role.

I rest my case.

Of course, by reporting on the reporting, one has to question whether we are guilty of the same? Doh!

Gift catalogue changes

If you've been to the pressies4princesses gift website lately, you may have noticed more change is a foot. We are experimenting with new page layouts. Basically, we want to help customers find the right gift faster - because that saves you time and, obviously, helps our sales!

Of course, we understand that many people arriving at the store actually don't know what they want "until they see it". And, that's where I think the new pages come into their own.

Up 'til now, like most gift retailers, we have created sections for different occasions (eg birthday, anniversary, new baby, etc), gift types (eg jewellery, personalised romantic, etc)and the different gift recipients (like girlfriend/ wife, mother, friend, etc). But, once in a section, you'll find there's just a big long list of gifts, spread across page-after-page in a fairly random order (most popular first in our case). So, in girlfriend/wife you might find a gorgeous handmade necklace, then a bouquet of flowers, then a personalised poem, then another piece of jewellery and so on. I don't think this is particularly helpful and often wonder if our customers don't struggle to see the "wood for the trees".

The ongoing process of re-shooting all our product images has helped a little. Shot on a pure-white background they tend to stand-out more and be more instantly recognisable. But, this doesn't solve the inter-mingled ordering.




So on our best-selling gifts pages and our best-sellers for girlfriend and wife section, we're experimenting with showing groups of gifts on the first two pages, then outputting the simple list (by popularity, as before) afterwards. The idea is that visitors can cover a lot more 'ideas' faster and only have to make the interested/ not interested decision once for each. Under the old system it was like (reading down):

"Oh a handmade necklace. Nah, definitely don't want to buy her jewellery..."

"A teddy bear...hmm..."

"A bathing gift set - possibly..."

"Another necklace. Nope not jewellery."

"Another handmade necklace. Look, I am really not interested in this jewellery!"

We hope the new layout will help solve this problem. It gives more focus to each gift idea. But, once you've dismissed it, you're not going to have to wade through loads more similar suggestions!

The new catalogue pages are a work in progress and I think we have some tweaks to do with the actual design. So, if you have any suggestions as to how to improve them, I'd love to hear from you. Likewise, if you've got any feedback about whether this is a better or worse way to show the gifts, please do add your comment.

We want your say

Running a mail order business can be a sad affair. Waving goodbye to all those parcels every day, never to be seen again. Sometimes we feel very isolated. Like we're working in a box and there's all this stuff going on outside that we're oblivious to. Getting out of that box was the main reason for starting this blog. So please, pretty please, talk to us. Tell us what's wrong and what's right; what you want and don't want. Suggest improvements if you like. I promise we will devour every morsel of advice like our first meal in a month.

Wow, I'll tell you what would be fab: if we heard from someone who received a gift through pressies'. I'd love to know what they thought! Anyway, drop us a comment. Anything - positive or negative - would be greatly appreciated.

Soz Naomi - we missed it

Whoops - apparently we missed Naomi Campbell's birthday yesterday! The now 37-year old supermodel has had more than her fair share of publicity again this year. Much of it for behaviour that could be described princessy in the extreme. Notice my careful choice of words here - we don't want the lawyers descending!

Famed for alledgedly attacking an assistant with her mobile phone, apparently Naomi's one girl who demands and jolly well better get. But, besides the tantrums and elite modelling career, and that disastrous dalliance as a pop star (yes - remember that Love and Tears song?!), here's a few things you might not know about this particular princess par exemplar:

Her mother Valerie was a professional ballet dancer and Naomi herself was accepted to London's prestigious Italia Conti Stage School to study ballet

She had a part in Pink Floyd's The Wall (1982)

She had a number one song - in Japan! The "La, La, La Love Song" recorded with Japanese singer Toshi

She's acted in a Spike Lee movie

She ALLEGEDLY insists on being first on and last off the catwalk

She wants to be a mum - ahhh

Anyway, apologies to Naomi if you're reading (year right!) and we promise not to forget it next year.

More Power To The Princess In Us All!

About five or six years ago, I started a business called pressies4princesses. It was during what the Queen would call my Annus Horribilis. Everything had gone wrong with a previous (unrelated) venture. I'd blown my savings. I only had a roof over my head by the grace of others. And, I was labouring on a building site in London where nobody spoke English. Quite the comeuppance for an (apparently) over confident marketing manager who'd turned down a promotion to 'do his own thing'. To say everything had gone horribly wrong was clearly an understatement.

Anyway, bad times bring out the best in you - or so they say. And, it was against this depressing backdrop that the idea for pressies4princesses (pressies') sprang to mind. You see, unlike a lot of chaps, I've always admired a bit of princessy behaviour. High maintenance equals high quality when it comes to fairer sex, in my humble opinion. Why be grateful? Why not demand a little more? 'Askers' definitely do get. Go for it girl, I say. And, besides I certainly had the perfect muse - my wife Rebecca.

So, I created pressies' with the view of helping other blokes meet the needs of these demanding, princessy types (whilst meeting my need to pay a mortgage). But, as it turned out, the girls in question liked the site as much as their menfolk; at least 50% of our orders are from women buying for girlfriends!

Anyway, I've lost count of the number of redesigns, shopping carts and sleepless nights since those early days, but one thing has been constant: my love of this little business of ours (it's a family affair nowadays). I love it when we get great feedback from a customer. And, equally, when we knock people sideways with our commitment to putting things right when they do go wrong. So, when I finally cottoned-on (years after most) that blogging could be means to communicate more with our customers, I lept in - with this post!

'Pure Princess' is the blog of pressies4princesses and a little more. I write the blog and run pressies'. I've called it something else, because I didn't want to limit myself to just bleating on about how great pressies' is. That didn't strike me as especially interesting - for you or I. Think of it instead as the alter ego. It's pressies' without the baggage of actually having to sell stuff. It's the slightly irresponsible sibling who's not trucked with looking after the inheritance. I might put a good word in and, of course, I'll want to tell you what's going on over there. And I also hope customers will use it to tell me what they think of pressies' and what they want. But, I want to enjoy myself here. And, I intend to do that by paying homage to all things princessy. Quite where that will take this blog, I don't know. I'm still working that out. But, above all, I'll strive to make it honest, entertaining and inclusive. And I hope you'll enjoy it too!