Marketing and Sales
How's a small or independent distributor supposed to compete with Amazon and the mega online promo distributors? It's a question we hear a lot, especially as those large distributors grab more and more of the market share. But there might be a simple answer: Don't even try...
Leed’s, Pittsburgh, announced that it is expanding its CamelBak product offering for 2019. The company will carry backpacks and is adding new drinkware styles from the popular retail brand. Leed’s will begin carrying five CamelBak backpack styles in eight different colors for 2019. The items that will be offered are the CamelBak Hydrobak, CamelBak Arete…
"Sales meeting.” No two words in the English language cause a reps’ eyes to roll more than these. Sales meetings are important, though. They can keep a team a team. They can be informative and informational. Since all sales challenges are shared, there’s a good chance someone in the room has an idea or a solution that is exactly on point. While sales meetings are necessary, boring sales meetings are not...
The financial market is certainly appealing for promo distributors. The obvious reason is, well, the money, and not just the kind in the bank vaults. There are seemingly countless numbers of banks (with numerous branches all over the country), lending institutions, credit unions, you name it—and if you approach them the right way, it could…
For its advertising campaign tagline, Mastercard has dabbled in brand bravado by dubbing its services “Priceless.” That adjective, though, will soon lose its applicability with respect to the New York-headquartered financial services corporation’s logo, as the credit card behemoth will be dropping its name from the artistic identifier. Only two-and-a-half years after it modified the…
It’s a new year with new opportunities to make 2019 your most successful year yet, and the first step is to get rid of the "but" in your vocabulary and stop making excuses. Many times I find people give excuses without even knowing it by making statements such as, “Last year my goal was to…
Soon, pretty much the entire promo industry will converge on Las Vegas for PPAI Expo. To get you ready for the trip, Kellyann Messick, road warrior for Hit Promotional Products, dropped by the studio, live and in-person, to give her best advice on Expo prep, business travel, industry events, what to do in Vegas and…
Next Level Apparel, Gardena, Calif., announced that it is expanding into Germany and the EU through an exclusive partnership with L-SHOP-TEAM, a Dortmund, Germany-based company with locations across Europe. "We’re delighted to be launching our styles into Germany/EU, and even more so to be launching with L-SHOP-TEAM," said Mark Seymour, CSO at Next Level Apparel.…
The end of the year is a time for retrospectives. We look back on the year and think about our accomplishments, the highlights, maybe some things that didn't quite work out but we can work on in 2019. In the television world, it's when you usually get stuck with an episode that revisits clips from…
What was everyone reading in 2018? These stories, apparently! By page views, these were our most-read promo industry (or promo industry-related) stories of the year. If you missed them, don't worry. You have until the stroke of midnight on New Year's Eve to get caught up. After that, they all turn back into a pumpkin, or something. Thanks for reading, everyone...