We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Morgan Loftin a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Morgan, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today One of the things we most admire about small businesses is their ability to diverge from the corporate/industry standard. Is there something that you or your brand do that differs from the industry standard? We’d love to hear about it as well as any stories you might have that illustrate how or why this difference matters.

Candidly, I’d like to really take a second to educate the public about what an Insect Taxidermist is. When most people hear “Taxidermist” they think of stuffed animals, preserved like they are still alive. This is very difficult labor and a cocktail of chemicals not for the faint of heart. The industry standard for preserving animals falls under taxidermy, so we get lumped into this category. However, we’re not doing anything to preserve insects. We don’t add chemicals. To summarize our process, it’s just hydration and pinning. It’s much simpler, and easier to do. All it takes is practice, and steady hands. We’d like to start offering workshops to the public soon! Anyone can learn how!

Morgan, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

My husband and I started this business together in April of 2021. Micah, my husband pinned a butterfly specimen for me as a gift, and we enjoyed it so much that we decided to try it at our local farmers market. He’s really the muscle behind everything we do. We noticed that most insect taxidermy offered to the public has a very dark, gothic style, and wanted to offer artwork that was very modern, and style fluid. The public generally loves insects, and we found a way to provide artwork to anyone, whether their home is mid century modern, traditional, farmhouse, etc. The insects speak for themselves, and don’t need any addtional adornment, in my opinion. We certainly make custom commission for people, with their style in mind though!

What’s been the best source of new clients for you?

Markets! The consumer who loves to shop small is my favorite person! We can establish an authentic relationship, and build more loyalty with face to face interaction than we can online. People get to know us, our family, our story, how we do this, where we get our insects, etc. We take the time to educate them about their specimen, and make sure they feel empowered to share that information with their friends and family too. I notice our engagement rate is very high for being a new business with only 1K followers, because of how much we invest in our 1 on 1 relationships during tradeshows, markets, etc.

Any thoughts, advice, or strategies you can share for fostering brand loyalty?

We try not to bother our clients, in fact, I need to do a better job at managing our presence online and engaging more. However, we feel we establish brand loyalty easily with the quality of our work, and lifetime warranty. Our goal is to make the customer feel a painless, easy experience where they are heard and respected.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.pinnedptera.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pinnedptera/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PinnedPtera

Image Credits
Anna Hill Photography