Promotional Products, Specialty Advertising, Incentive Marketing -- in the On-Line Age

The tools of the Internet are rapidly changing how we do business. For all of us. There are a great number of benefits from this that include a reduction in the number of printed catalogs (which is gaining great momentum), the ability to throw a much wider net as we look for sources and deals, and reducing the number of gallons of gas spent in search of that perfect item.

Probably the most telling factor is how many times phrases such as "Oh, I'll just do a search and get a better price" are spoken. That search can be a double edged sword. Getting search results is also a bit like the proverbial trying to take a sip from a fire hose. How many pages deep into search results can you go before you've feel like you're getting way too much water up your nostrils?

When we come to promotional advertising items in particular, we ask, do you really get a better value? With on-line searches you might find a better price, but do you find a better value?

What we cover here is how to blend the resources of the Internet with the resourcefulness of your promotional products consultant or distributor.

A note for end-buyers not familiar with the industry: A promotional products consultant develops solutions to your marketing challenges. They specialize in building promotions and campaigns for corporate buyers, marketing professionals and others wanting to create brand affinity, increase brand awareness, generate trade show traffic, retain employees, etc. They work on your behalf with a network of approximately 3,500 promotional product suppliers (this is the category are company falls into) that imprint or customize items they have manufactured, imported, converted, or otherwise adapted for incentive programs, trade show giveaways, premium gifts and more.

Why should you use a consultant/distributor of promotional products?

• A seasoned marketer knows there is a difference between investing in a promotional campaign and buying an item with your organization's good name on it. The creative ideas delivered by an innovative consult will bring you brilliant ways you may have never considered for using a product or series of products to support your campaign.
• Consultants have chosen a vast network of resources they can turn to for help. There are colleagues in over 20,000 firms; there are national industry organizations such as Promotional Products Association International (PPAI), Advertising Specialty Institute (ASI) and SAGE which provide training, tools, resources and lots of real people with tremendous experience. There are approximately twenty-eight regional associations across the U.S. alone, plus distributor groups and affiliations.
• A qualified consultant or distributor listens to what you want but then helps you understand and find what you need. These are more than just salespeople, like some PR specialists and marketing departments, we suggest you bring them in during planning strategies.
• They work to develop programs that can measure your success.
• And of course they can help you with the other pieces of a successful project: Helping ensure you get accurate, reproducible artwork with correct colors, fonts, proportions for the selected materials; quoting the total price and realistic delivery times up-front reducing surprises, and monitoring the progress of your order.

Taking advantage of on-line resources.
Rather than necessarily searching for best prices, use the Internet to become an informed buyer. Online catalogs can give you starting points to make suggestions or to ask questions. In fact, a couple of extracts from a post on about.com help illustrate the point:

Event planners spend a lot of money on promotional products and corporate gifts used at trade shows, seminars, conferences, product launches and other special events. However, many don't know if they are buying the best products at cost effective prices... Instead, search the items and discuss the pros and cons associated with various suppliers with your promotional products distributor in order to achieve maximum value.

In addition to the tools available to distributors, more and more services are being made available to help the end-buyer. Most of these that support end-buyers provide information for finding consultants in addition to a catalogs from a collection of suppliers. In addition to industry association Internet tools, you will see new arrivals too. One such site is a new Promotional Product eCatalog search engine, ZOOMcatalog that is in testing now. This one comes from new a senior at University of Colorado Leeds School Of Business working with a veteran distributor.

Where else can you find distributors or consultants? The industry trade groups mentioned earlier provide a great start. There is PromoMart, linked from ASI, that is sponsored by a large group of both national and international advertising specialty distributors. A visit PPAI's Buyer page will help you find a member consultant assist you with promotional products or ideas for your next campaign. There are basic tools too, such as ThomasNet (Thomas Publishing Company) Search and even Google. I suggest you put in a location or maybe a product specialty in addition to "Promotion Products Distributors" or you get an even bigger fire hose.

Links in this post:
PPAI
ASI
SAGE
ZOOMcatalog (coming soon / testing only)
PromoMart (find a distributor)
PPAI's Buyer page (find a distributor)
ThomasNet (Thomas Publishing Company) Search
Google (search: promotional product distributors)