Category Archives: News

Promotional Products in the Star Trek Age

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If you’ve followed me for any length of time, you’ve likely seen evidence of my love for all things Star Trek (especially The Next Generation for you Trekkies who are interested). One of my favorite gizmos from Star Trek is the replicator. In the far future, this could be an amazing tool for the promotional products industry, as shown in this YouTube clip from the Voyager series:

Watch Worf Gets a Quark’s Mug on YouTube

While this is sci-fi fantasy, a promotional products “replicator” is not to far off into the future, thanks to the miracle of 3D printing. Check out this video and article that appeared on the tech news resource Mashable.com:

Read Turn Yourself into a 3D Action Figure with 3D Printing on Mashable.com

This is going to be the biggest development coming in the promotional products industry. Here are the issues that implementation of this developing technology will affect:

  • Inventory Issues. With the possible exception of being out of material to load in a 3D printer, we’ll never have to worry about being “out of stock” on an item we want.
  • Customization to the Max. Over the years, I can’t tell you how many requests I’ve received for custom molded figures or custom designed products. Typically that means a large quantity into the 5,000 to 10,000 range minimum, high cost to create the design, custom molding a model, sometimes overseas production… it’s a major undertaking. And with the small business and events folks I serve, usually their quantity needed is less than 500, sometimes less than 100. It will all be possible, even on a small scale.
  • Timing. Need it turned around in a couple of days? Well, we have that now, especially with some of my amazing promo supplier partners. But with 3D printing, the only limitation is how fast the machine can crank out the quantity needed.
  • Onsite Promo. While the technology is not developed far enough to be placed on a desktop as inkjet printers are today, in the farther future, this could be used to “print” promotional products onsite at trade shows and events. No more boxes of unused and wasted promos sitting around!
  • SWAG How to Choose and Use Promotional Products for Marketing Your Business by Heidi ThorneSame Swag, Different Distribution. I know I may upset a few of my promo industry pals, but let’s consider the day when this 3D technology is ready for desktop use in a typical office. What role will promotional products distributors play in this future? And will there even be a role? In the transition period (could be years or even decades), distributors will be able to fill a consulting role as people learn to use the technology for marketing. Actually, this is not too much different than what has already been happening with the emergence of retail promotional product shopping sites online. Distributors have had to learn how to stay relevant by offering expanded marketing service to their customers.

What’s not clear is how on-demand “printing” will affect good ol’ standbys such as imprinted T shirts, glass and metal items. But I look at other industries where CNC (computer numerical control) machines can create custom metal parts. And from the Mashable video, it appears that ceramics or ceramic-like items are already doable. Fabrics? Well, that might be a stretch for a while (no pun intended for T shirts).

The bottom line is that 3D printing will fundamentally change the promo industry… forever.

See any other ways this will affect your marketing and promotion in the future? Share with us in Comments below. And for more promotional products news and tips, subscribe to our Promo With Purpose Today email updates by entering your email below and clicking Sign Me Up!






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Heidi Thorne Writes T Shirt Printing and Promotional Clothing Buyers Guide

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T Shirt Printing and Promotional Clothing Buyers Guide by Heidi ThornePromotional products expert Heidi Thorne, Thorne Communications LLC, has written a book titled, T Shirt Printing and Promotional Clothing Buyers Guide: Money Saving Tips for Marketing and Company Apparel, available on Amazon in paperback, as well as for Kindle and other mobile devices.

Whether used for branding or as promotional giveaways, the book walks buyers of imprinted or embroidered apparel through the purchasing process, including explanations of terms and procedures. “Looking back at the days when I started in the promotional products business, I remember thinking how confusing a lot of these things were and how illogical it seemed at times. I’m sure that for buyers not in the trade, especially newer buyers, it’s overwhelming,” says Heidi. “I wish I would have had a guide like this back then. So I wrote this guide to fill an information gap for marketers.”

Some of the topics covered in the guide include:

  • 7 Things You Need to Know When Ordering Imprinted T Shirts
  • What Does T Shirt Weight Oz. Mean and Why Is It Important?
  • Set Up Charges for T Shirt Screen Printing Explained
  • What is “Good Artwork” for Imprinting?
  • How to Imprint QR Codes on T Shirts
  • 10 Things You Need to Know When Ordering Embroidered Apparel
  • Stitch Count for Custom Embroidery Explained

Heidi Thorne is a promotional marketing expert, speaker and author that has been in the promotional products business since 1999. She has over 25 years of experience in the fields of sales, advertising, marketing and public relations, including a decade in the trade show and hospitality industries.

For more information and to purchase the book, visit Amazon.com or www.HowToBuyTShirts.com.

Join Heidi Thorne for Marketing with Video Webinar on November 13

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If you follow the PWP Today blog, you know that I use video… a lot! On Tuesday, November 13, at 3:00 to 3:45 p.m. Central Time, I’ll be presenting another BrightTalk webinar titled, Marketing With Video for B2B. For those that cannot attend live, the webinar will be available on demand after it broadcasts.

Click Here to Register FREE for the Webinar (or to View from Archive)

And since I practice what I preach, here’s my video invitation to you:

Click Here to Watch Marketing With Video for B2B on YouTube

If you’ve been scared to try using video for your business, you need to check out this webinar. We’ll discuss:

  • Why a marketing video is NOT the same as marketing WITH video.
  • How to set up a free YouTube Channel for your business.
  • Sneaky, cheap tricks to help build views and engagement on YouTube
  • How to get started for less than $100.
  • Promoting your videos with AdWords for Video.

Click Here to Register FREE for the Webinar (or to View from Archive)

Subscribe to my PromoWithPurposeTV YouTube Channel

For more updates on online learning opportunities, promotional product ideas and more, subscribe to our Promo With Purpose Today email updates by entering your email below:






Invitation to Heidi Thorne’s Webinar on Social Media for B2B

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Promotional marketing expert, speaker and author Heidi Thorne, of Thorne Communications LLC, will be hosting Social Media for B2B: Avoiding the ROI Black Hole webinar, Wednesday, October 17, from 1:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. Central Time (US). The webinar is being sponsored by BrightTalk.com, a resource site offering webinars and videos for professionals and their communities. For those who cannot participate in the live session, the webinar will be available for viewing from the archive

Click Here to Register FREE to Participate Live OR View Archive of the Social Media for B2B Webinar

The webinar will cover:

  • Social media challenges in the B2B marketplace
  • Proving ROI in complex B2B environments
  • Latest thinking, trends, platforms and steps to becoming a more social B2B business
  • Practical tips and strategies for making social media activities more productive

Professional communities served by BrightTalk.com include: Accounting and Finance, Business Management, Cleantech, Financial Services, Government, Healthcare, Human Resources, Information Technology, Legal, Marketing and Sales.

Click Here to Register FREE to Participate Live OR View Archive of the Social Media for B2B Webinar

About Heidi Thorne

Heidi Thorne is a promotional marketing expert, speaker and author of 4 books including SWAG: How to Choose and Use Promotional Products for Marketing Your Business and Messaging Marketing: The Mobile Marketing How To Guide to Text Message Advertising for Small Business. She has over 25 years of experience in the fields of marketing, advertising, sales and public relations. Heidi is also the editor of the PromoWithPurposeToday.com and MessagingMarketing.com blogs.

Invitation to Mobile Marketing Webinar with Heidi Thorne

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Mobile marketing expert, speaker and author Heidi Thorne, Thorne Communications LLC, will be hosting a webinar titled Mobile Marketing for Small and Medium-Sized Businesses (SMB) on Tuesday, September 25, 11:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon, Central Time.

The webinar is being sponsored by INXPO Social Business TV, a new interactive webinar presentation platform that offers video, chat, presentation materials and post-broadcast archiving. As well, the presentation screen adapts automatically to the type of device upon which it is being viewed: desktop, tablet or mobile phone. Heidi’s webinar will be one of the first presentations with the new platform.

Registration for the webinar is free, whether it is viewed live or from the archive after the broadcast.

Click Here to Register to View Live or Archived Broadcast

Support the Wear American Act this Labor Day

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American flag graphicOn this Labor Day here in the U.S., I have some encouraging news to report. According to the ASI (Advertising Specialty Institute) Counselorgram of July 26, Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio has introduced the Wear American Act of 2012 (S.3444) which will “require that textile and apparel articles acquired for use by executive agencies be manufactured from articles, materials, or supplies entirely grown, produced, or manufactured in the United States.”

Of course, in proposing the bill, Senator Brown had to refer to the recent flap about the Team USA Ralph Lauren Olympic uniforms being made in China. While that was certainly a way to get Congress emotionally behind the bill, the USOC use of overseas-produced uniforms has nothing to do with this bill. Because Team USA is not a state-sponsored athletic program, this Wear American bill will have no impact on future Olympic team gear. However, I was encouraged to see that Ralph Lauren has committed to made in the USA uniforms for 2014 (so the company already been granted the contract?).

What impact could this bill have? Currently, only 51 percent of federal government purchased apparel needs to be manufactured in the U.S. With the bill, that would increase to 100 percent. With a huge trade deficit, I think this is a good move, if for no other reason than emotional support for the American manufacturing sector. It will not affect private purchasing in any way. However, I do think that many U.S. companies will want to follow suit in support of the effort.

So how big of an issue is this for the promotional products industry? From our research into one of the largest promotional product databases in the industry of around 750,000 products, we found that only about 10 percent of those products are domestically sourced in the USA. And if you’re looking for American made and union made (such as for Labor Day promotions), that percent drops into the low single digits.

If you are marketing an international company, this is not that big of a deal. This sometimes offers you lower prices due to lower labor costs in other countries. But that is not going to be the case going forward. We’re already seeing increases in the price of overseas-produced goods. However, if you are a company or association which promotes the value of American workers, businesses, or patriotism, it is hypocritical to promote yourself with offshore produced products.

Whatever country you’re in, always look for ways to help promote your local economy by buying locally produced items. That really is Promo With Purpose.

Have a great Labor Day holiday!

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New Items at the ASI Chicago 2012 Promotional Products Show

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I always love the summer ASI Chicago 2012 Promotional Products Show (Advertising Specialty Institute) every summer. Good way to start getting ideas for fall and holiday promotions.

Maybe I was intent on finding certain types of products and didn’t notice, but I don’t think I was struck by any breakout product categories this year. But there were some fun and interesting selections throughout the show floor. Check these out…

MOOD PROMOTIONAL PRODUCTS

Flashback to the 1970s alert! Many of my clients are always asking me what’s hot in the promo world. These items qualify! Watch the video to see how hot I really am (tee hee!):

Click Here to Watch Color Changing Pencils and Promotions on YouTube

All of these color changing mood promotional products are Made in the USA and available at the USAandUnionMadePromoShop.com.

Click Here to View the Entire Color Changing Collection

 

Energy Sheets Promotion from USAandUnionMadePromoShop.comENERGY SHEETS

Everyone wants a burst of energy these days. Those energy “shots” packed with vitamins and caffeine are keeping people going. Introduced at the show were these energy Sheets. Just pop a mint-flavored sheet on your tongue for a boost of B Vitamins and caffeine. The package can be branded with your logo. Great for sporting events and other activities relating to or promoting energy… either the human or the utility kind. (NOTE: Photo on shopsite product detail page may not be accurate; pending update for this brand new product. The view shown in this post at left is current.)

Click Here for Full Energy Sheet Product Description & Current Pricing

 

Mobile Custom Skins for iPhone from PWPMobile.comMOBILE

This is probably the one category that did have some interesting new items. I just reviewed one of them on our new MessagingMarketing.com blog. It’s a custom mobile skin for iPhone with a lenticular (changing) image.

Click Here to Watch the Video on the iPhone Skin

TRENDS

What I did find very interesting, and helpful, is that more and more suppliers are providing information on product origin, green and product safety features. Years back, if you wanted this information, you had to specifically ask for it. Now, it seems that product details include this data automatically. Makes yours and my jobs a whole lot easier.

Last year there seemed to be a strong emphasis on Made in the USA. Still quite obvious this year, though not to as great a degree. With the recent Ralph Lauren controversy about the Olympic uniforms, I think this will be an issue in the promotional products world for some time to come.

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What are You Really Collecting at Trade Shows?

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Love it or hate it, the Comedy Central series South Park is both creative and crude (always pushing the censorship envelope), serving up a unique blend of bizarre comedy, satire and social commentary. One of my favorite episodes is Gnomes (Warning: Content rated MA). For those of you who are not familiar with the series, in this episode the school-age chums have to write a report on business. For help–now stay with me on this because there’s a good lesson for trade shows in this example–the boys turn to some mischievous little gnomes who have built a business of stealing the town’s underwear in the hope of turning a profit. The gnomes go on to explain their business model in which the first step is to collect underwear, the second is a big question mark and the final step is profit. Laughable, eh?

The Underpants Business (Warning: Content rated MA)

But how many times have you encountered (or maybe even employed) a similar strategy for social media at a trade show? In the real world, it goes something like this: Step 1, collect Foursquare check-ins; step 2 is a big question mark; and, step 3 equals profit. What’s missing is a concrete strategy to transform those check-ins into sales and profit. Unfortunately, what many show organizers and exhibitors do is hop on the latest social media bandwagon–whether it’s Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare or whatever–and do not connect that into their overall marketing plan. They’re collecting a ton of followers, Likes and check-ins. But to what end?

A completely useless strategy like this is one of the “don’t let this happen to you” scenarios that my friend and trade show pro Traci Browne discusses in her book, The Social Trade Show: Leveraging Social Media and Virtual Events to Connect with Your Customers (Que Publishing).

Traci and I are definitely kindred spirits when it comes to our philosophies about trade show and social media engagement. Social media is just one tool, not an endgame. She emphasizes throughout the book that any social media strategy must make the bean counters and your bottom line happy. Yet so many show organizers and exhibitors treat social media as a standalone effort, hoping that magically it will turn into sales and profit. Maybe they’re hoping some little gnomes will make it happen for them.

Traci’s experience, keen observation and attention to the nitty gritty details of effective booth and expo marketing are evident throughout the book. With 24 chapters covering the gamut of social strategies and tactics including content creation (a year-round effort), booth staffing, how to measure the ROI of your social media efforts, and virtual events, this book is THE handbook for trade show and exhibit marketing for today.

Yes, I bought my copy of this book. Though Traci and I are friends, neither she nor her publisher offered me a copy of the book to review; nor did they solicit a review from me. I’m glad to support the education efforts of my friends who are sharing their wisdom with marketers.

Unlike many “experts” out there, Traci walks the social media talk and she uses it professionally and effectively to build her brand and her business. And though we are now friends in real life, Traci and I actually met on Twitter in the #eventprofs (event professionals) hashtag community.

So as you gear up for your next season (and years) of trade shows, make sure you have The Social Trade Show by your side.

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My Rant on the Ralph Lauren Olympic Uniform Made in the USA Mess

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Illustration in support of American WorkersWelcome to our 2012 Olympics Special Report! See the news about the Ralph Lauren Olympic Uniform Made in USA mess? Just another one of those stories where promotional products should have been Made in the USA.

Being a strong supporter and retailer of made in USA promotions, I admit I am biased in favor of manufacturing here in the States. But that’s not why I have a problem with this story. I have a problem with it because it is a total marketing faux pas.

These uniforms are being worn by our most talented athletes on the world stage. Sure, the USOC (U.S. Olympic Committee) could argue that they are operating on an international scale, so what’s the problem with fostering international commerce with uniforms made in China? Valid point. But that isn’t the point.

Like all other similar arguments, you’re promoting an American product (our athletes) that demonstrates our country’s values and strength with a non-American product. Values alert! That IS the problem. Unlike many countries, the United States has the resources to make these items, if not 100 percent, then substantially enough to legally meet made in the USA requirements. As noted in the WSJ article, making them here would have doubled the cost. That’s why we have a higher standard of living in this country that trumps so many nations on earth. We are a fair trade country that has laws to protect workers and their wages. With a higher than usual unemployment here due to the recession, going with USA made uniforms would have demonstrated our commitment to band together for all those on OUR team, both those competing and those who support them with their skills, products and labor. What marketing message are you sending by crying poor? As I always preach, Promo With Purpose, people!

Want more insight on supply chain and Made in the USA issues? See Related Posts below.

In the video accompanying the WSJ story, the reporter said that the Ralph Lauren company probably didn’t anticipate the backlash from the Made in China labels. Really? Ralph Lauren is a marketing and media savvy firm. Has been for decades. With supply chain issues becoming more and more of an issue on environmental and social levels, this is just laughable. Even many of my own itty-bitty clients are specifying USA made and wanting proof.

And Congress, please stay out of this. While I admire Harry Reid’s willingness to publicly take a stand, I can’t believe this would warrant Congressional attention. We do not have state-sponsored athletics. This is a marketing problem.

I am glad to see that Ralph Lauren has made a statement that all future Team USA uniforms would be made in the USA. As they always say about the Olympics, the world will be watching. And the world will be watching these labels for sure.

Bottom line, the marketing message you make with your promotional products must align with the message you want to convey. If it’s “Go USA!,” you better go USA when you buy.

Got an opinion on the situation? I’m sure you do. Share with us in comments. Please, only thoughtful comments relating to the marketing aspect of this. Keep politics out of it! It’s not a political issue. Thanks for letting me vent.

Want more news and views on promotional product issues? Join our email updates list (and the conversation) by entering your email below.







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New Book and Blog on Mobile Marketing for Small Business, Events

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Messaging Marketing by Heidi ThorneThorne Communications LLC, has just launched the Messaging Marketing blog (www.MessagingMarketing.com) and a companion guide book titled Messaging Marketing: The Mobile Marketing How To Guide to Text Message Advertising for Small Business, written by promotional products marketing expert and speaker, Heidi Thorne. Both the book and the blog focus on the use of mobile marketing for small business, events and trade shows, with a primary emphasis on text marketing. The book is available on Amazon.com in paperback and as an e-book readable on the Amazon Kindle and mobile devices (with the free Amazon Kindle app).

“We have been including articles on mobile marketing topics on our Promo With Purpose Today blog for quite some time. With high online search numbers for mobile marketing how to, and from our observations of colleagues’ and clients’ small businesses, we know there is a need for guidance and information in this emerging arena. That’s why we’ve developed the book and blog to work in concert to fill this learning gap,” says the book’s author and blog editor, Heidi Thorne. “We also wanted to make it easier for our blog readers and subscribers to access this content in one place that was separate from our other promotional product news and advice.”

Most of the mobile articles originally published on Promo With Purpose Today have been added and updated into the new blog’s archive. New content will also be posted regularly in the future and new email subscriptions to the blog are available (sign-up forms available on the site).

In 2011, Thorne Communications launched Promo With Purpose Mobile (www.PWPMobile.com) text messaging and mobile consulting services. In addition to standard continuing subscription service, PWP Mobile offers a la carte services for businesses with limited needs and for short term use at events and trade shows.

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