You probably know the name of this Paris, France, company that sells luxury goods in many countries throughout the world. There are two stores in Texas; one in Dallas and the other in Houston.
This is the bottle I purchased for my website to promote the event.
A $125.+ promotional investment that helped my cause.
The conversation between me and an HERMES representative began in July, 2015. He wanted me to schedule a trip to their Mexico City store in December of last year to engrave their elegant fragrance bottles. He learned of me from other reps who knew my work at Neiman Marcus, Nordstrom, Saks Fifth Avenue, and several other top-tier merchandisers.
The HERMES brand is elite and expensive. The stores' loyal customers expect it. In their fragrance line they have flavors for men. They have flavors for women. And they have the good scents to create those that are unisex so boy and girl can squirt from the same bottle with equally pleasant results. The Mexico City store representative and I pretty well had all our details worked out, then it came to the exact dates he wanted and I discovered I was already spoken for. My HERMES possibility crashed for Mexico City.
Fast-forward to the spring in this year and another call came from the HERMES New York office. The marketing manager wanted me in their store in the prestigious Dallas shopping area, Highland Park Village. We reached an agreement on the fee and details, and a two-day event was set for July. A week or so before the event dates, NY canceled the gig and rescheduled it for September 9 and 10 in the same location. This time it took.
I asked for a few testers to be sent to me for advance promotion and for my site. No deal. NY said none was available. So....I went to the local Nordstrom and bought a bottle to engrave and put on my site. Nordstrom carries a limited selection of the HERMES brand. It was worth the investment and gave me a chance to get my drill into at least one bottle in advance of the event.
Shortly after I arrived Friday morning, when my table, chair, and power were all set, I asked for a batch of testers to engrave. In a short while I had a few words on each that soon lined the front of my table, adjacent to the wall display of the choices currently available. Before long customers began stopping to see what the familiar sound of the dental drill was all about. If they dwelled there for a second or two I asked their name and engraved a black SmileStone™ for them. Some of those came back later with a bottle for me to personalize.
When I had a few seconds between the curious onlookers, I did a stone for each female employee in the store. For the guys, I brought a few small knives to personalize and sign for each. Within an hour I knew the name and had connected with every one of them working Friday.
By the end of the day I had the opportunity to engrave two $900. bracelets. One with stainless steel inside to match the finest knives I've ever engraved. The other had a hard, black substance that engraved just as smoothly. It was a great day.
HERMES employee, Gladys, holds the bracelet immediately below; I engraved her initials into the inside. The other photo below had the smooth, hard black substance where I engraved her name.
Martha, the store manager, was not in the store on Friday. First thing Saturday, she greeted me and said she remembered me from Neiman Marcus events in Dallas 20 years ago. At that time she was an employee at their downtown, flagship store where I did many engraving events. It was a terrific revisit of our early days, meeting in that store.
Martha purchased one her favorite bottles and asked me to engrave it with her name, title, etc., with the French spellings.
Martha, store manager, getting her engraved bottle. Below is the bottle, engraved with a #2 round carbide bur and filled with gold Rub 'N Buff.
The store had a great team of 14 employees. I hope there'll be other opportunities to bring my Calligraphy with a dental drill to personalize more of their wonderful and luxurious merchandise.
-Ken