Mixing It Up
Knowing what we know now, it's almost quaint to reference that Bruce Springsteen song, "57 Channels (And Nothin' On)". Fifty-seven channels! Ha! If only things were that easy. Now, there are not only thousands of channels, there are millions more where that came from, in about as many mediums—and the power is entirely in the hands of the consumer.
So the thing is, The Boss was kind of wrong—there's always something on. But how do marketers ensure that something is their thing? By opening up the branding channels to include promotional products, that's how (because yes, the power might be in the hands of the consumer, but that also means the lanyards, pens and coffee mugs can be, too). Wanna know how to do it? Don't touch that dial.
Tip 1: Rethink how print plays in.
Despite its naysayers, print is already enjoying a spectacular second act all on its own—and one of the keys is personalization. "Variable data print is doing a heck of a job resuscitating and creating an entire new print category that really didn't exist 10 years ago," noted Glen Rapoport, partner at Proforma Instant Promotions, Toronto, an affiliate of Cleveland-based Proforma. These advanced technologies go a long way to make consumers feel more uniquely targeted—and coupled with something they also can take home? It's a successful combination that adds value to any campaign.
For example, have you happened to see your name on a Coke lately? According to "Coke's Personalized Marketing Campaign Gains Online Buzz," a recent post on WSJ.com, the "Share a Coke" campaign—which has mass-produced bottle labels featuring people's names in the place of its famous logo—has been showcased in more than 125,000 social-media posts since its inception. And while the effort has been a digital boon, it's important to remember that the buzz begins with a printed piece and ends with a tangible, branded item people will keep around. Sound familiar?
Tip 2: Tell a story.
"Promotional products are the one advertising medium people don't complain about getting too much of," Rapoport said. After all, there's a reason it's a multibillion-dollar business that just keeps growing. But despite the sheer ubiquity of T-shirts with logos on them, there's a double-edged sword in there as well. Rapoport said: "I think what you have to do is step away from looking at it as a commodity." Because there's "swag" that gets forgotten in a week or two, and then there's a targeted promotional item that supports a business plan—and cross-selling with the latter goal in mind is a long game that requires both planning and precision. Here are a few questions to pose to your clients:
- What's the objective of the campaign?
- What do we want people to do with this item?
- Where does this piece fit into the strategy?
- How can we package other marketing elements along with it?
In "There's an Art to Telling Your Brand's Story: 4 Ways to Get it Right," an article in the April 2014 issue of Entrepreneur magazine, author Ann Handley noted, "A compelling brand story gives your audience a way to connect with you, one person to another, and to view your business as what it is: a living, breathing entity run by real people offering real value." Basically, simply throwing a bunch of keychains in with a print order isn't going to do it. What clients really need is someone to advise them on how each piece—from pamphlet to label to promotional item—fits into an overall campaign strategy.
Rapoport discussed one of Proforma's direct-mail programs that uses a dimensional mailing piece with variable data printing that also includes a promotional product. "All the pieces of the package work together to tell a story," he said. The piece currently has a 30 percent success rate at converting to first appointments, which shows that going the extra mile with packaging, personalization and promotional items can help to get and keep a customer's interest. Plus, integrating your efforts helps to position you as an objective-based marketer able to solve your client's challenges. (If you can do it for yourself, you can certainly help them do it, too.) And this, according to Rapoport, is what will help differentiate you in the marketplace.
Tip 3: Make new friends ... and keep the old.
If print has been your sole area of business for the life of your company, it may be a challenge to reposition a wider range of services to current clients. Rapoport found this to be the case back in 2010, as he began building up his own product offerings. Simply put: "Our clients pigeonholed us," he said.
His team's solution to this issue was to begin presenting themselves as "objective-based marketing partners" to a new demographic. By wrapping their print expertise in with a whole new collection of services—including, of course, promotional products—they were able to make inroads and change the way they do business. "It was a great opportunity for us to talk about the full package," Rapoport noted.
But what about your current relationships? While your regulars might be more resistant to change, it's certainly not impossible. It all hinges on the ability to maintain what your company already does well while still being able to add in new selling tools.
Inc. magazine discussed this idea in its March 2014 article, "How to Grow Without Losing What Makes You Great." The article focused on several national brands (Starbucks and In-N-Out Burger, among others) and the positive and negative effects leveling up had on each company's identity.
Though being a billion-dollar brand isn't exactly a common experience, the takeaways are valuable for any business—namely, making sure your company's values are hardwired before starting to expand into uncharted territory. "Companies grow well and scale badly when they focus on running up the numbers, but not the quality," noted Robert Sutton, co-author of Scaling Up Excellence: Getting to More Without Settling for Less.
Promotional products can be a great channel through which to cross-sell and grow, but when you add them in a vacuum, the effect on your business could be the opposite of what you had intended.
Tip 4: Don't forget the fun.
If the Adweek article title "It's Getting Harder to Separate Advertising from Entertainment" didn't say it all, then the subtitle certainly brings it home: "And that's exactly how marketers would have it." The March piece discussed how branded content has shifted from advertisements we all have to suffer through to something consumers can enjoy. "Advertising, in many cases, is no longer a toll you pay to watch content, but is taking the form of content itself," noted author Sam Thielman.
The same ideas can trickle down to the pairing of print and promotional products, as well. Rapoport laughed as he described a campaign he'd noticed recently that did this effectively.
While driving from Pittsburgh to Toronto, he and his family stopped at Kings Family Restaurant. On the hostess stand, there was a printed sign showcasing an image of a brownie with a frown on it and a cheeky message. "It immediately struck me when I walked in," he said. When Rapoport asked about it, he was told that was the restaurant's mascot, "Frownie."
Equal parts folksy and irreverent, Frownie is present everywhere in the store, from the sign immediately greeting patrons to promotional items like stuffed animals and T-shirts. It's even featured in edible form. A box of brownies with Frownie's signature scowl can be taken home in "The Pity Pack," and one dessert, "The Angry Mob," is a shared ice cream sundae covered with fudgey Frownies. The grumpy lil' guy also has a section all its own on the company's website.
It was so aligned, it not only got inside Rapoport's head—a veteran in the industry who has seen many a campaign come and go—but it stayed there. He mentioned saying to himself, "That's cool. I want to remember this." Which is exactly the point.