Love ‘em or hate ‘em, you have to admit that the Kardashian clan is a media, marketing and merchandising powerhouse. So brand extensions are a natural fit… until an disaster erupts like the recent Kardashian sweatshop scandal with allegations about the use of sweatshop and child labor to produce some of their branded product lines.

• Click to read the story at the Huffington Post
• Click to read the exclusive story at RadarOnline
• Click to view the Kardashian Family Accused of Using Sweatshops for Brand on YouTube

Haven’t we heard this story before with brands and celebs such as Nike and Kathie Lee Gifford? Same story, different day.

Here’s the problem… and why I feel sorry for the K-clan. If you’ve done any reading on foreign labor issues in the apparel industry, you’ll soon learn that it’s an absolute muddy mess. The factory that you may have contracted with may also have contracted with a not-so-up-and-up inspector to cover up unacceptable labor practices. Want an in-depth look at the global apparel markets and manufacturing that will just blow your mind? Check out this book…

• Click here for The Travels of a T-Shirt in the Global Economy: An Economist Examines the Markets, Power and Politics of World Trade (Amazon, but not affiliate, link)

The labor practices that the United States and other fair trade countries take for granted are just not the norm outside our borders.

While I don’t know their situation, I would be willing to bet that the Kardashians have an army of advisors working for them on marketing, merchandising, public relations and legal issues. It is unlikely that Kim, her mom, and stylin’ sisters personally inked deals with these less than honorable foreign companies and “bad people.” While I am for fair trade, I am also for fair reporting and fair dealing. The investigation into these allegations is now going on. And until all of these allegations can be confirmed, I will cut the family some slack and abide by another cherished value in our country: innocent until proven guilty. As well, I’m sure their advisory army will have some explaining to do.

I had to chuckle at the statement from one of the labor groups mentioned in the articles that said the Kardashians were making their products in China to make more profit… yep, them and the world’s large multinational corporations. Just to give you an idea of how much is produced in Asia and other low labor cost regions, let’s look at the promotional product industry as an example. My scan of the Advertising Specialty Institute (ASI) product database, one of the promo industry’s largest, revealed that only about 10% of all products were identified as made in the USA. Only 10%! (With that limited selection, you can see why we opened up the USAandUnionMadePromoShop.com to accommodate our clients who demand USA made.)

• Click here to shop for Made in the USA promotional products at USAandUnionMadePromoShop.com

With so many contributors to most supply chains, the possibility of a dishonorable link anywhere along the line is a reality. So what should our friends the Kardashians do to help assure that this doesn’t happen again… and what can YOU do to protect your brand from an incident like this with your promotional products? First, I would suggest sticking with made in the USA products. And while the following article was written primarily for nonprofit groups, the suggestions apply to any company or organization that wants to live true to its values.

• Click here to read How Non-Profits Can Avoid a Public Relations Nightmare
• Click here to order my book which discusses more about buying on purpose and on values

On a related note, things are changing in the China labor arena. According to a Wearables magazine article (November/December 2011) on “Rethinking Sourcing,” Chinese workers are striking for better wages and leaving the factories for better jobs. Hmm… looks like they’ve got the collective bargaining bug.

Got some advice for the K-fam or for fellow marketers on sourcing issues? Share with us in Comments below.

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The post Why I Feel Sorry for the Kardashians appeared first on Promo With Purpose Today.

Do you have some defining moments in your career? I do. And I can recall them with such clarity that it’s ridiculous. Here’s one of mine.

Needed a better paying job that I hoped would help pay for college. So I went to interview for a job as a secretary/administrative assistant at a major convention hotel in Chicago.

Into the interview walks my future boss, an energetic and positive guy who would be an influential mentor of my early career in the hotel and tradeshow business. After the usual drill about skills and experience, he asks me an unusual question for this job’s pay grade (and for my age since I was barely 21 at the time). Here it is: What is your business philosophy?

Huh? Even though I had worked throughout high school, I was hardly in business long enough to have a philosophy. So I spewed out this gem without even thinking about it:

“If I do my job to the best of my ability, everyone else will be able to do their jobs to the best of their ability.”

Years later in retrospect, I realize that this has been a guiding principle throughout my career. So somewhere along the line, even as a young person, I had formulated that this was the way I would conduct myself in business.

So, think fast! What’s your business philosophy? What’s the first principle that comes to mind when I ask you to answer this question in 10 seconds? I hope you’ll share your philosophy with the rest of us in a comment below.

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The post What is Your Business Philosophy? appeared first on Promo With Purpose Today.

Another event, another T-shirt. T-shirts continue to be one of the top selling promotional products year after year. They’re walking billboards that are appreciated and used. But yet they can get somewhat ho-hum after a while. So I’d like to introduce you to the cure for the common T-shirt…

View Promotional Products – Cure for the Common T-Shirt on YouTube

The shirts are available in hundreds of shapes and custom shapes are available. You can customize the full color inserts and your custom imprint is included on the T-shirt, too. What an awesome multi-impression way to reinforce your brand and image!

Heads up: One of the issues that does come up with these shirts is that the wrinkles may not completely come out upon immediately opening. They usually relax after first couple washes.

Update May 2011: We’ve just added hundreds of shapes of compressed T-shirts to our BrandingWear Collection on PromoWithPurposeShop.com. We’re sure to have one that fits your logo!

Product Info

• Compressed T-Shirts from BrandingWear Collection on PromoWithPurposeShop.com
• Read T Shirt Printing and Promotional Clothing Buyers Guide: Money Saving Tips for Marketing and Company Apparel

Related Posts

• Promotional T-Shirts – Why NOT to Buy Them (video)
• 10 Things You Need to Know When Ordering Embroidered Apparel
• How to Start an Ecofriendly Casual Friday

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The post Promotional Products | Cure for the Common T-Shirt appeared first on Promo With Purpose Today.

Over this past week, I’ve been to two restaurants who were mindful of The Number One Promotional Product Mistake Restaurants Make of not providing a branded pen when asking a guest to sign the dining check. Who are they?

Ted’s Montana Grill, Schaumburg, Illinois

Alberto’s Restaurant in the Holiday Inn, Carol Stream, Illinois (a fellow member of mine in the Carol Stream Chamber of Commerce)

Congratulations to them for making a commitment to their restaurant’s marketing and branding efforts!

Even though this seems like a small thing, all the small things add up to your overall brand. Little stuff counts.

Seen some bizarre pens showing up in your dining check folder because the restaurant won’t buy their own? Comment below. Always gives me a good laugh.

• Click Here to Read The Number One Promotional Product Mistake Restaurants Make Blog Post
• Click Here to Buy Pens for Your Restaurant or Business
• Read SWAG: How to Choose and Use Promotional Products for Marketing Your Business

The post Restaurant Promotions: 2 Who Got it Right appeared first on Promo With Purpose Today.

Once you’ve decided to make the leap to invest in logos or brand identity packages, here are tips to save you money and get a logo that will serve you well into the future:

Read SWAG: How to Choose and Use Promotional Products for Marketing Your Business

Do Not Have a Family Member or Friend Create the Logo – Of all the logo disasters I’ve encountered in my networking, this is the most prevalent. Unless your family member or close friend is a true professional graphic and identity designer–and even then, I would not only recommend it with caution–hire someone that is a “stranger” of sorts. They will be looking at your image from that all-important outsider viewpoint.

Do Not Barter for Logo Design – A networking contact is a “graphic designer” (or thinks he is). He needs the service or products you provide and offers to create your logo for either free or for a dramatically discounted rate. Here’s what happens. You provide your products or services. He creates a logo (or several) that just don’t work for you. Now you’re stuck. Should you use the miserable mess he’s created? Or should you use another designer? If you use the mess, you mess up your brand. If you don’t use it, you will essentially be paying double for it since you’ve already given away your time, talent, products, and maybe even income.

If You Don’t Like What They’ve Created, Say So – Anything that involves creativity involves judgment. And everyone has different tastes. While you don’t want to become a prima donna client, if you don’t like what’s been created, tell your designer. Be specific about why you don’t like it and make constructive comments as to how your designer can change it to meet your needs.

Insist on Receiving a Complete Set of Electronic Logo Files – Your designer must provide you with a complete set of electronic logo files that you can provide to printers, web designers, and places where you advertise. The main file that you will need is a vector format (non-pixel) rendering of your logo; this is typically an Adobe Illustrator (.ai) or Encapsulated Postscript (.eps) file with clean, smooth edges on all elements. If you do not have a program that can read these files, ask your designer for an Adobe Reader (.pdf) file to view. This will assure that your logo can be used on items such as promotional products and can be scaled up or down, without distortion, for signage. When viewing the proof the artwork, zoom it up to around 500% to check for the clean edges. If they’re ragged, all the person has done is convert a .jpeg file to .eps and the artwork is not usable in design applications.

In sum, this logo file set will, at minimum, include: 1) Encapsulated Postscript (.eps) file in color; 2) Encapsulated Postscript (.eps) file in black and white; 3) High-resolution JPEG file for use in commercial print jobs such as brochures; and, 4) Low-resolution JPEG file for use on the web.

Another word of caution: If, in the black and white rendering of your logo, you see any portion that is a shade of gray, reject that logo and tell your designer to render it in solid black. Why? When using this logo for promotional products or signage, gray cannot be imprinted. Imprinting equipment can only see solids and gray is always a “screen,” meaning it is a collection of micro dots. The results will either be messy or come out solid anyway. To illustrate, imagine this. Let’s say your logo is a black circle on a gray square. When imprinted, all you will see is an almost solid black square which looks nothing like your logo. A good graphic designer will create your logo in solid black and white first, then add color later. Ask for the black and white version before you see it in color so that you can evaluate. Ask for this before the designer begins work. If the designer refuses or tries to tell you that it isn’t possible, reject the designer because you will be using the one-color logo more often than you think!

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The post Logos – Tips for Hiring a Graphic Designer for Yours appeared first on Promo With Purpose Today.

“I’m one of the sponsors at a community event next week. The event organizers want me to send them a logo for the signage. But I don’t have one. What should I do? Should I go out can get one? Or should I just find some clip art to send them?” Got that phone call from an accounting friend of mine recently. Her situation is not unique. If you’re a small business, you might be able to sympathize with that.

Investing in an official logo for your company is a big step in your business’ development. You’ll be using it for years and it is an investment that may cost you several hundred to maybe a couple thousand dollars. But when it is right to take that big step?

Some image development professionals will tell you that you should invest in a logo as soon as you start your business. For a very small business, I think that might be an expense that can be delayed. As you develop as a business owner, your needs will develop and change. Continually changing your logo to fit your growing business is a huge cash outlay which will affect your early profitability. Better to select a common basic font (such as Arial/Helvetica or Times Roman) for your company name that can be used for early advertising or websites. Use your company name and tagline (placing the tagline in italics helps set it off from the company name) the same way every time, everywhere. On the other hand, if your company, right out of the gate, is a large one that will have a major public presence, it is worth the extra expense and effort.

THE CLIP ART LOGO PROBLEM

While you’re waiting to grow to the point where you can afford a logo identity package, do not use clip art images as your logo. One, it is usually illegal. Many clip art providers expressly prohibit the use of their images for this purpose. Why? Logo and brand identity development is a unique skill and commands higher fees from clients. Say you downloaded some clip art image for one dollar and you use it in your logo. That is a missed opportunity cost for the designer. Hey, graphic designers who sell on stock artwork sites are often small businesses too. Would you be willing to offer what you do for only a buck or two?

Two, even if the use of the clip art in a logo is legal, someone else has certainly used it for their logo too. So much for creating a unique identity!

THE INK JET PRINTER/ONLINE BUSINESS CARD PROBLEM

I don’t know about you, but I can always tell when someone has printed her business cards at home on her ink jet printer. Welcome to “Amateur Hour!” If you are not willing to invest even $50 or $100 to get some “real” business cards, chances are you’re not really ready to be in business either.

Then there are those that use an online site that offers free or really cheap business cards. These are usually co-branded cards on which the providers name and yours appears. “What a deal,” you think. I do not recommend this ever. Why? First, you are giving the provider a ton of free advertising for their website or other services. They should be providing them to you for free! Second, go to any networking event. Chances are you will run into someone who is using the same design that you are. In the inevitable quick run through of business cards that happens after a networking event, yours might get pitched because it looks like another from a person that didn’t impress them.

YOUR BEST LOGO ALTERNATIVE

When you first start your business, your best logo alternative is a picture of YOU! Use it on your business cards and website. In fact, you should use it in your marketing materials whether you’re just starting out or are brilliantly successful after several years. People buy from people, not text or logos.

Read SWAG: How to Choose and Use Promotional Products for Marketing Your Business

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The post Branding | To Logo or Not to Logo? appeared first on Promo With Purpose Today.

“Imprinted pens as low as $0.19 each,” says the ad. Wow! At that price you could stock up and promote your business on a shoestring. But you may end up paying more, lots more, in the long run for this promotional product buy. Here’s how…

Read SWAG: How to Choose and Use Promotional Products for Marketing Your Business

The Asterisk (*) – Ads for imprinted marketing products that tout super low prices may have an * somewhere near the pricing information. When you then flip over to the ordering page, you’ll see a host of fees that can easily double a product’s price when all is said and done. In reality, there is no getting around costs such as set-up fees, taxes, shipping and handling. They are necessary expenses that must be passed on to you in order for the vendor to remain in business.

Set-up fees are the costs for the vendor to set up equipment to imprint your giveaways. When you see an ad that says “no set-up fees,” those fees are built into the price. You will be paying them one way or another.

Shipping is the actual freight incurred to deliver your order from the factory to your door. In most cases the factory is not in the same location as your distributor. So your order may be coming from across the country instead of across town. Handling can include time and paperwork needed to process your order, estimating, production monitoring, and other costs not accounted for elsewhere.

Another way the asterisk can mean more money is with the phrase “as low as…” Often products are advertised with the price you would pay if you bought boatloads of them, say 10,000 or more.

Give Today, Trash Tomorrow – A client purchased some cheap imprinted pens from a low-cost provider that “exploded” on impact. Yep, the ink cartridge flew right out of the barrel if you pressed too hard when writing. In addition to some safety issues, flimsy imprinted items do not offer you longevity which is one of the greatest benefits of promotional products.

When You Care Enough to Give the Very Least – What do you think you’re telling your customers and prospects by giving them cheap promotional products? First, it tells them that you may not be able to afford anything better. In the back of their minds they might be thinking, “Hmm, maybe they’re not that successful. What’s wrong with them?” Next, it tells them that you want their business so much, you’re spending a pittance on an item that’ll be trashed tomorrow. The underlying mental note, “If they’re cutting corners here, will they be cutting corners on service too?”

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• Shop for Your Next Promotion at PromoWithPurposeShop.com
• Read SWAG: How to Choose and Use Promotional Products for Marketing Your Business

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