Meeting needs for promotional products facilitates one-stop shopping.
Did you hear the one about the forms distributor who added promotional products to his line? He increased his profits!
While some industry professionals look derisively upon ad specialties, many proactive distributors are obliging the need for this unique printed communication, which increases public awareness, reinforces corporate identity, establishes branding and introduces products and services.
Making the Move
Certainly Mike Boyle, president of Murray & Heister, Beltsville, Md., never dreamed he would be handling ad specialties. But about eight years ago, when laser printers started effecting serious market changes, he be-came increasingly aware of promotional product use among his print customers.
Already in possession of customers' logos, Boyle saw the addition of promotional products as a logical move. So did Dave Flucht, president of Anaheim, California-based InForms.
"My first love is still business forms printing," he said, "but in 1991 we were reading all of the gloom and doom predictions concerning the industry and decided to expand into a new niche area. Some customers were beginning to inquire about imprinted mugs and other ad specialties, and since we already had their logos, it seemed like a natural fit."
Flucht credited ASI with providing strong support as InForms gradually entered into the market.
"ASI's structure and organization made it very easy for us to research suppliers to buy from," he said. The company's promotional product sales steadily increased and now comprise 45 percent of InForms' sales volume.
Said Tom Johnson, CEO of Applied Graphics, San Rafael, Calif., "We knew many years ago that customers were buying promotional products through other sources, and we knew that where our relationships were strong, we could get that business."
Johnson pointed out that providing promotional products also facilitates one-stop-shopping, which provides convenience for his customers.
David Donnelly, president of Suncoast Forms and Systems, headquartered in Sarasota, Fla., recalled the day he unwittingly presented a customer with a calender he was using to market his company's form products.
As luck would have it, the customer was in a jam and looking for a new source for pocket calenders. Donnelly left with an order for 500 of them.
"We were made aware of promotional products associations through DMIA and immediately got in touch with an ASI supplier," he recalled.
Soon the inquiries started coming in and the orders started getting bigger, ranging in size and varity from 7,000 clocks to 15,000 T-shirts.
Generally, the size of promotional product orders tends to run the gamut from the very small to the very large.
At Orange, California-based Eagle Graphics, Vice President of Sales Jeff Carte reported orders that range in cost from $250 to $50,000 and more. However, many distributors find that the majority of their orders are fairly modest.
Who's Buying
Donnelly observed that every industry uses promotional items, although his reps specialize in certain niche markets. Donnelly himself services many of the big citrus processors in the area, while his associates cater more to payroll services, health-care facilities, insurance companies and banking institutions.
His company also finds promotional product accounts in every imaginable type of business, while Carte said that Eagle Graphics tends to find banking, technology, manufacturing and insurance lucrative markets.
In addition, Carte noted that he has gained forms customers from accounts that originally started as promotional products customers.
Hands down, all five of these distributors indicated that wearables comprise the largest selling category. This is due in part to the fact that the high demand for wearables is fueled by prevailing trends in corporate casual wear and dress-down Fridays.
Flucht observed that the popularity of promotional products traditionally breaks out with wearables in the lead, followed by writing instruments and drinkware—a fact his sales stats prove.
Carte reported similar findings. After apparel, he said pens, bags, cups, golf items, leather products and plastic items are the big sellers for Eagle Graphics, while Applied Graphics does a brisk trade with writing instruments and drinkware, including mugs and barware.
"Some customers know exactly what they want," said Carte, "while others have no idea. This requires us to go through different catalogs to get them focused on an idea or theme."
Flucht pointed out that corporate-sponsored outings and other special events often have themes, which provide great opportunities to creatively bundle promotional products.
"For instance, a distributor might provide a Hawaiian shirt with a pair of sunglasses and a beach towel if a client wants to have a Hawaiian theme," he offered. "Providing ad specialties like this is really stimulating because it involves something new every day."
Suncoast Forms & Systems provides packages for award trips, and during the holiday season, took advantage of its warehousing and shipping capabilities to design more than $40,000 worth of gift packages.
The company also established a promotional products display room in its office to provide customers with ideas, as well as market the service.
Learning the Ropes
While Johnson finds success in selling promotional products to existing forms customers, he reported that it has proven to be more difficult selling forms to those typically buying only promotional products.
By the same token, Johnson believes that it's easier for printing salespeople to become proficient in promotional products sales than it is for promotional products salespeople to learn how to sell forms printing.
"Selling ad specialties is less complicated," agreed Flucht. "Promotional products don't require the technical acumen and precision that forms printing does."
Still, it does take time and energy to become knowledgeable about ad specialties, and it is an ongoing and ever-changing process. This is especially the case with wearables, which require an understanding of fabrics and garment construction as well as imprinting methods.
"We have a few salespeople who routinely attend educational seminars," said Johnson, "and manufacturers' reps frequently come in to show us the latest in their lines."
In addition to attending educational seminars at industry trade shows, Boyle has suppliers like Augusta Sportswear coming in about once a month.
"We always make time for suppliers within the industry because it's important to build strong relationships with them," he said.
"Knowledge of wearables is a gradual process. You don't become an expert overnight," said Flucht, who recommended the educational programs offered by the promotional products industry associations.
Carte said suppliers are consistently e-mailing information about new products. Some of Eagle Graphics' top suppliers include Leeds, SanMar, Digispec, Logotec, Bic, Max Balloons, Edwards and Berney-Karp.
"Marketing strategies for ad specialty products come from networking with business associates and suppliers, attending seminars at trade shows and good old brainstorming," said Carte, who expects ad specialties to remain a lucrative market for the company well into the future.
Johnson also expects promotional products to generate a significant portion of Applied Graphics' revenue going forward.
"To enhance this, we've hired a few sales professionals who came from the promotional products industry and who still derive virtually all of their sales from these products," said Johnson.
Flucht also believes promotional products will remain strong and is seeing to it that his sales reps are trained properly to provide these products.
All five of these distributors utilize e-commerce tools to some degree, especially to help build company stores for their customers.
Eagle Graphics has a complete online ordering program as part of its software package. The program allows customers to access a custom-designed area through the Internet to view chosen promotional products.
Murray & Heister currently has a very basic Web site to accommodate orders and reorders.
"So far," said Boyle, "e-commerce hasn't proven to be all that I had imagined—but then again, it's new and I haven't really been promoting it too strongly.
"I believe it's more important to nurture the personal service aspect of the relationship," he continued. "If distributors can't get face time, they should at least get phone time."
However, increasing e-commerce is part of Boyle's strategic plan for the future.
By Maggie DeWitt