The statistics alone are enough to convince many distributors to sell ad specialties, but some distributors say they're being forced into the market because of weak form sales and customer demands. Distributors say creativity helps them survive the ad specialties crowd.
Jim Salek opened his first distributorship, Partners in Print, 2
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years ago in Chicago, where a printing company seems to exist on every block. Six months later, he opened Premiums Plus Promotional Products Inc., a distributorship that specializes in ad specialties. "It just became very competitive and very difficult," Salek says. "The promotional products end of the business opened more doors for us."
Salek keeps the companies separate in order to increase his client base. His Partners in Print clients like to know he specializes in promotional products. Many of his friends who own distributorships don't offer them, so they refer customers to Salek. Salek doesn't promote Partners in Print to those customers, so his friends never feel threatened, creating a win-win situation.
While Salek's creativity in the organization of his companies helps him survive the ad specialties crowd, the innovative products he offers, such as a wheel mouse, help him flourish. The wheel mouse (pictured at left) is geared toward clients with new web sites. The client's web address is programmed into
the 3-button scroll mouse, and users are led to the client's web site when they click the middle button. Premiums Plus also offers T-shirts imprinted with a client's logo or slogan, compressed into almost any shape imaginable (pictured on page 93).
Competition and customer demands may have forced Salek into the ad specialties market, but he's not complaining. "After being in printing for more than 25 years, I found myself in a burnout situation," he says. "I just felt I needed something new to add some enthusiasm in my life, and this has really given it to me."
Bob Marshall, senior account representative at distributorship United Business Forms in Miami, watched sales in computer-related forms decline as clients began printing forms on laser printers and purchasing blank paper from office supply houses. "We had to expand our sales into promotional items due to this and the requests from some of our customers," Marshall says.
Distributors are discovering that in order to survive, they need a creative niche, creative products and creative service.
Creative Niches
Adam Evers, president of distributorship Evers Print Group, O'Fallon, Mo., found his niche online. Ad specialties account for 90 percent of Evers' 2
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-year-old distributorship's sales. His site, www.eversprintgroup.com, has been running for about a year and a half. The company's two employees are Evers and vice president Kristina Evers, Adam's wife. How can a 2-person team sell online the most show-and-tell-product in the market? "People are comfortable buying on the internet, and generally speaking, larger companies are buying on the internet," Evers says. "They don't necessarily want to meet with salespeople face to face."
While internet selling has given Evers a comfortable place in the ad specialties market, he stresses the importance of using technology only as a tool. "Individual distributors need to embrace technology as a way to enhance their sales effort, not to replace their sales effort," he says.
Creative Products
Many distributors say a strong sales team and knowledge of the client's industry are important. Having creative salespeople who specialize in ad specialties helps distributors differentiate their companies from competitors. "I don't think any other industry has room for more creativity than ad specialties," says Doug Holtkamp, sales manager at distributorship Midwest Computer Supplies in Cincinnati. "The more creative your salespeople are, the better they seem to do in this line."
Ray McCabe, president of distributorship CMFI Group, Peoria, Ill., agrees. "A lot of it goes back to the individual salesperson's creativity and working with customers, knowing their customers--knowing what they've liked in the past and just watching for new products coming out," he says. "You have to have a good feel for your customer's individuality."
"I don't think any other industry has
room for
more creativity than ad specialties."
Doug Holtkamp
Sales Manager
Midwest Computer Supplies
Cincinnati
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This customer-focused strategy worked out well for McCabe when it came to creating a gift to hand out to sponsors at a junior college's 10
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annual fishing derby. The event is held annually to raise scholarship funds. CMFI Group designed a dozen 13-inch thermometers that looked like bobbers (small, round devices used to indicate a caught fish) for the college to give to its 30 biggest sponsors. "They said the feedback they got back from their sponsors was the best and most positive of all the other gifts they had given out in the previous nine years," McCabe says.
Knowing what the client's company sells or the lifestyles of the client's employees often helps a distributor provide ideal promotional products. Salek sold wooden business cards for a customer that specializes in wood flooring. Holtkamp sold pocketknives with a lumber company's logo engraved in the wood to hand out to the company's top clients. McCabe sold collapsible folding chairs with coolers underneath for use at one of his client's picnics. The client's employees, many of whom had school-aged children, took the chairs home and used them at soccer and Little League games--all the while advertising CMFI Group's client.
"Just be creative," Holtkamp says. "The more off-the-wall the idea is, the better chance it has of working."
Creative Service
Part of offering good service is supplying promotional products that lack glamour--but don't lack necessity. "A lot of the old standbys are still popular just because people use them on a daily basis," Evers says.
Holtkamp's most popular sale is customized pocket note pads, which some of his customers order 10,000 at a time. Salek tries to sell products that will be used daily. Marshall agrees with the strategy. His popular items include pens, cups and paper cubes.
Distributors say delivering products in a timely fashion, doing research for clients and working with reliable manufacturers help distributors stand out. Instead of throwing a promotional product in a box and slapping a label on top, Evers says, it's smart to include creative packaging. "Perhaps you could package it in a little, special way so it makes a nicer presentation," he says.
McCabe offers a fundamental piece of advice: "Make sure it's a good, clean print job. Get it right."
6 Ways to Stand Out
Want to distinguish your distributorship from the rest of the ad specialties crowd? Seasoned printing pros share the following advice:
1. Target similar industries. "Once you reach some success within an industry with a particular client, try to go to other people in that industry," says Ray McCabe, president of distributorship CMFI Group, Peoria, Ill. "It's easier to learn an industry than it is to learn a client because you can take the knowledge you've gained and roll it over to the next client."
2. Look for what's new. "When you walk the floors of trade shows, look strictly for newer items," says Jim Salek, co-owner of Chicago distributorship Premiums Plus Promotional Products Inc. "A lot of these people are tired of using the same, old things. They are looking for new, creative ideas."
3. Push high-value items. "People aren't just giving away cheap pens like they used to," McCabe says. "Typically, if they're going to put their company name on it, they want something that has perceived value or functionality to it."
4. Join an organization. "If distributors are serious about getting into the business, then I think it's very important they join associations," Salek says. "Get into ASI. Get into PPAI. Go through them. I think they help distributors immensely."
5. Show off your specs. Salek says it's important to show clients spec samples of creative promotional products. Seeing a promotional product with their name makes a good impression.
6. Pay attention...everywhere. "Whether you're a client yourself or a vendor, observe and look at what people are using on a daily basis," McCabe says. You never know when you'll see a product that can match a client's needs perfectly.
