The other red book

Recently, I became acquainted with a much smaller and less heavy, both in terms of weight and content, red book designed as sales tool for retailers.

The Little Red Guide: Propose, Celebrate, Delight contains creative ideas for celebrating special occasions, including proposals and, for those whose proposals and subsequent marriages go well, anniversaries.

One-time jewelry designer and former president of the Contemporary Jewelry Design Group Jeanne Johngren wrote the book using the pen name Emma Whitcair to keep her brands separate, she says.

Johngren says the tome is intended to be the first in a series of Little Red Guides, which are “short”--under 100 pages--“succinct and get to the point.”

Being a writer, it’s no surprise I was drawn to the chapter titled “For the Wordsmith.” I thought it had some really unique ideas

for proposing using word games such as Scrabble, Boggle or a crossword puzzle.

The chapter reminded me of the sweet proposal my first-year college roommate, a photojournalism major, received from her boyfriend a few years after we graduated. The two were working at a small newspaper together in Indiana that featured a weekly column that could be penned by any member of the staff. He commandeered the column one morning to write a very public proposal with the headline, “A smile, a skipped heartbeat, a heartfelt proposal.”  (For those wondering, she said “yes.” They now have three boys together and, interestingly enough, work as full-time wedding photographers.)

For those into less literary forms of communication, Johngren/Whitcair’s book contains many other fun proposal and celebration ideas involving everything from fortune cookies to hot air balloons, with additional ideas online at TheLittleRedGuide.com.

She says retailers can buy the book from her and give it away to customers or put it near the register as an add-on item. The cover price on the paperback is $9.95 but, of course, retailers buying directly from Johngren wouldn’t pay that much. It is also available for the Kindle for $5.

Jewelers could share the Amazon.com link for the Kindle version with their customers or invest in the old-fashioned paperback version (I, personally, am a fan of the traditional touch-it-and-feel-it book) and brand it with a store sticker containing their phone number, address and even social media information.

Whatever they decide to do, Johngren says the idea behind her Little Guide is to help retailers sell more rings.

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