Musings on Men...

In 4 years of ScrapBiz, we've only had one man join. He was the grandfather of another member who was helping her with the business end of her business. So, he hardly counts. We've never had a man say, "I want to start my own Scrap business", though. I believe it will happen at some future point, but it hasn't yet.

I have been doing some research for a reporter at a national newspaper on men and scrapping. Thank you to all who responded to my ScrapMan post. If the reporter was interested in your story, she has probably already tried to contact you.

In talking to her again yesterday, I sort of had an epiphany about men and scrapping. My husband confirmed my thoughts. So, here's my theory...

There ARE scrapping men out there - I heard from one who is a Creative Memories consultant, even. But, my gut feeling tells me that men scrap, but not the way WE (women) define scrapping. They are defining it on their own "man terms". And, that's okay.

My friend, Alicia, who works for Picaboo as their scrapbook industry diva, told me that about 15% of their customers are men. Hmmm, interesting... That's pretty high, really.

My dad has a friend who goes on several hunting/photography trips around the world each year. He takes a ton of photos and within about a week of getting home, devotes several hours to putting together a Powerpoint Presentation complete with appropriate music. Then he begs all his friends to come watch it. Guess what? He's SCRAPPING, he just doesn't know it. He is putting his "scrapbook" together with as much love and excitement as we women put ours together.

My husband confirmed my thoughts. If I handed him a pile of photos, paper and embellishments from, say, our Disneyworld trip and told him to scrap. He'd be bewildered about what to do. But, if I emailed him photos from our Disneyworld trip and told him to put together a Powerpoint Presentation with them that our kids would enjoy watching, he'd be all over that and totally understand what I wanted. Microsoft PowerPoint is really just a man's version of, say, Scrapbook Max! software.

So, the lesson learned here is that men think differently than we do - like we didn't know that already - LOL! But, I think we just sort of ignored men in this industry. Maybe we shouldn't anymore. Perhaps the Digi Divas can entice them in with backgrounds that appeal to men. I would love Mark to get more interested and if digi scrapping is the way to go, then let's go! Heaven knows I could use a little help catching up...