Distributor News

Rex Hammock of Hammock Inc. released his e-brief evaluating Google+ as a potential content marketing platform and "business" social network. Google+, if you haven't yet heard, is Google's new social network, which offers a variety of features that would be useful to conducting business. Hammock outlines how Google+ is different from other social networks, and what that could mean to small business.

Hammock said in the e-brief that Google+ could really position itself by focusing on the aspects of social networking that appeal to business executives.

Bel Promo, Miami, Fla., announced this week the grand opening of its new 350,000 square foot, state-of-the-art warehouse and production facility in Medley, Fla.

National Premium Inc., a Promo Marketing Top 50 Distributor, acquired C.A.M. Inc., a $7 million promotional products distributor located in Overland Park, Kan., on August 1.

The U.S. Postal Service posted a net loss of $3.1 billion in its third quarter and warned again it would default on payments to the federal government if Congress did not step in.

Total mail volume for the quarter that ended June 30 fell to 39.8 billion pieces, a 2.6 percent drop from the same period a year earlier, as consumers turn to email and pay bills online.

The mail carrier has struggled to overhaul its business as mail volumes fall. It has said personnel costs weigh heavily and is facing a massive retiree health benefit prepayment next month.

No matter how innovative your small business service or product is, you need to make potential clients aware of it. Marketing is the method that most small business owners use to get word out about their company, but marketing isn't just about putting a sales message on a postcard and mailing it out to potential clients; marketing is about branding your company so that potential clients have an idea of what to expect when working with you, understand what sets you apart from competitors and can identify your company out of a crowd of others in the industry.

InnerWorkings' chief financial officer Joseph M. Busky will present at the Morgan Keegan Technology Conference at 3:15 p.m. (ET) on August 8, 2011. 

By Nancy Nord, commissioner, CPSC

Last night Congress passed and sent to the President for signature legislation amending the 2008 Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA). While this Congressional action is long overdue, the question I have is: will this agency implement the new law with more common sense than we used before Congress acted?

As I thought about how we will act in the future, I recalled two notes that I recently received that moved me greatly. They each share themes—both letters relate how our CPSIA regulations are forcing small companies, making perfectly safe products, to shut their doors...

Consumer-facing QR codes are hitting mainstream America hard this summer. Despite the idea that a rising tide lifts all boats, many well-intentioned marketers are crippling their campaigns with simple mistakes.

This is a big reason why QR codes still get a bad rap from some folks. QR codes by themselves are fundamentally neither good nor bad, they're just a means to an end: an offline-to-online delivery mechanism. It's what's beyond the code that usually determines whether the experience will delight or disappoint.

Unfortunately, many early adopter marketers aren't yet fully versed in the best practices or optimal use cases.

The Senate voted Tuesday to raise the government's debt ceiling and cut trillions of dollars from its spending, finally ending a fractious partisan battle just hours before the government's borrowing authority was set to run out.

The bill, which passed 74 to 26 after a short debate devoid of the oratorical passion that had echoed through both chambers of Congress for weeks, was headed for the White House, where President Obama was poised to sign it immediately.

Marketing is the process of communicating your value to your public. Whether it's a product or service, if what you offer has value and solves a problem, then you need to market it in a way that lets your target audience know just how important it is to their lives.

If marketing is communication, then your brand is a part of the message. According to the American Marketing Association a brand is a "name, term, design, symbol, or any other feature that identifies one seller's good or service as distinct from those of other sellers."