All things Becky15 Higgins/beggy Higgins

I think that the main issue with BH's stubbornness is that we aren't the customers she wants.

She created Project Life as this simple, slipping photos and cards into pockets, solution for "getting documentation done." I think this goal and focus on simplifying and "just getting it done" comes from her religion and the fact that Mormons stress the importance for women to keep the family history--whether they have an interest in it or not. I think her goal is to help out Mormon women who feel overwhelmed with this responsibility and have no real interest in scrapbooking and just want to "get it done."

However, instead of the Mormon population (of women who aren't really scrapbookers but are tasked with the family responsibility of recording the family history) becoming her core customers, she found that scrapbookers of all faiths (including those Mormon women who actually enjoyed the hobby) purchased her products. I don't think she anticipated that at the beginning and rode the gravy train in the excitement of her product taking off. However, we were never the customers she wanted. So when we wanted embellishments, square corners, more designs, etc., she kept thinking how that would get away from the demographic she really wanted to sell to--people who don't actually want to scrapbook but "have to." But, as her products took off and became more and more popular she continued to add more and more kits and designs and eventually embellishments, etc. and I think she felt lost in it all because, even though her products were flying off the shelf, WE weren't the people she wanted to buy her products. Meanwhile, the products don't seem to have taken off (at least it doesn't seem that way from what little info I have) with the demographic she originally targeted.

All of her soul searching and jumping around and unrest I think comes from the struggle she has had between trying to shape her product to aim at the demographic she wanted while still maintain the sales from the demographic she didn't want, but nevertheless was making up the bulk of her sales. This last bit of info from the podcast, that she turned down Michaels', etc., ideas just reaffirms my thought that all of these recent "changes" are her redevoting her product to the original concept of "solving a problem" for Mormon women who don't want to scrapbook. She doesn't care that they aren't buying and that her product is wildly popular with non-Mormons. We aren't the customers she wants and she has made a conscious decision to stop giving into our requests, even more so than before, so that she can redevote her product to her original target demographic.

Ultimately, she would rather be an unsuccessful business that has stayed true to her core goal of helping Mormon women, than bend to the requests of the scrapbook industry for profit.