What if you could create a marketing piece that was a game changer for your organization? This marketing piece would create brand awareness for your organization all year long. It would engage your audience in it’s creation…and it would help raise money for a local non-profit. It would even be a beautiful piece of artwork that would inspire your customers and support a local business. Sound too good to be true? It’s not. It’s exactly what Good Boy Bakery has done for the past few years with the their Good Boy Bakery Calendar.
The Good Boy Bakery Calendars Are On Sale Now.
For the last several years, Good Boy Bakery has created a beautiful custom calendar filled with amazing pictures of their customer’s pets. They solicit the pictures through social media and there is never a shortage of photos to choose from. Everyone is proud of their puppies! The gang at Good Boy Bakery allow people to vote on the submissions and the final pictures are chosen from a small committee to make sure the images are just right.
In addition, they seek out local businesses that might want to sponsor a page. Each page on the calendar features a local business that gets a month’s worth of exposure on the custom calendar. This allows for Good Boy Bakery to help alleviate the cost of the initial printing and increase the amount of money they are able to donate to the local Animal Shelter! The calendars are then sold at Good Boy Bakery in Roscoe Village for only $10. And since the calendars are printed at Hasseman Marketing (we mentioned we print calendars right?), they are support another small business in Coshocton too!
This is a true Win-Win-Win.
What does this mean for you? There are two things I would love for you to takeaway. First, rush down to Good Boy Bakery to get your calendar. There is a limited quantity…so don’t miss out on this chance to support a wonderful small business and donate to a great cause. Second, I want you to understand that this might be a great marketing idea for your organization. Here are a few quick steps to creating your custom calendar that can serve as a marketing piece AND a fundraiser.
Get The Pictures
The better the pictures, the better the calendar. If you want to create a work of art that everyone will want to hang on their wall, it’s worth taking the time to get great photos. No matter what your organization, you can get great images. Good Boy Bakery did a great job of getting pictures from their customers. That’s amazing. You can solicit images from your customers, your team or your community. Show thing around your organization or your community that will inspire…and you are on the right track. Oh…and the higher resolution image the better. If you want to have a calendar that is really crisp, shoot for a minimum of 300 dpi.
Secure Some Sponsors
If you are a non-profit, this can be a wonderful fundraiser. And it’s a fundraiser that is more than just a handout. If you create a calendar with amazing images, your sponsors get real exposure…and are able to tie their brand to a good cause. If you can get one or two sponsors per page, you have the chance to offset most or all of the printing costs!
Get The Calendars Printed
That’s where we come in! We would love to be your printing partner on this cool project! Leave a few weeks for proofing and printing so you have plenty of time to distribute and sell the calendars.
Sell The Calendars
Now it’s time to spread the word! While you certainly can just post the calendars on social media, if you really want this to succeed, get a team of people to get out in the community to sell. This is just like most fundraisers. If you want them to work…you have to work too! Get out there and spread the word and you will create a fundraiser that not only raises money, but also creates pride around your organization or community.
Those are the steps! If you want to create an amazing custom calendar that you can be proud of, please reach out and we can talk! We would love to help. And if you have not already, run to Good Boy Bakery to get their calendar before they are gone!
Since the beginning of the pandemic, leaders have been trying to find a way to communicate the steps to take to slow the spread of the virus. As we all know, in March, most of the country shut down in order to “flatten the curve.” That worked to slow the spread, but it shut down the economy as well. Now that we are nearing the end of 2020, the predicted ramp up of cases is upon us…and leaders all over the country (and the world) are working to slow down the spread.
That goal is what led Ohio Governor Mike DeWine to meet with local officials in Coshocton County via Zoom. He implored our local leaders to get creative and do what they can to help communicate the message that we need to be safe. After the meeting, officials from the City of Coshocton and Coshocton Regional Medical Center reached to us to help spread the word. We discussed creating a video, including many local officials, entrepreneurs and healthcare leaders to send a unified message to our community. The theme became simple.
We need to “Step up…and Mask up!”
The work on that script and video began immediately and I am proud of what we created. But it was important to us to create something that sustains the message after the initial bump. So rather than just create a video, we worked to create a campaign. Next up, we reached out to government officials to step up as well. We sent out script (that I will include below) and the first person who recorded his version of the video was Ohio Governor Mike DeWine. He applauded the efforts of Coshocton County and encouraged everyone to “Step up…and Mask Up!”
Excited about this participation, we worked to keep the momentum going. We will continue to share the message from leaders and government officials, but we also wanted to add something tangible to the mix. So what better way to encourage people to “mask up” than to provide masks with the message? We agree. The design was created (as you see in the video) and the masks are ordered and are on their way. In addition, we have created re-positionable stickers that are being printed and will be given to businesses that want to promote the message.
We are excited about the positive momentum that has been created so far…and are happy to use our powers for good. So how can we keep this momentum going? Here are a couple of ideas. First, if you are in our area and you want to participate, let us know. While we think these items will go quickly, we can try to get you a sticker and a few masks to help spread the word. We know that some people find this message divisive (I don’t get that and I talk about it here), but we feel it’s the right thing to do.
If you are not in our area, maybe you can create a campaign like ours in your community. In the interest of helping, here is the script we created that you can modify and use.
Step Up…Mask Up Script
In Coshocton County, we are proud.
We take care of one another, and look out for our neighbors.
We believe in supporting small businesses.
And we celebrate our heroes in healthcare.
We are kind…and we are proud to give back.
That is why we want to urge you to “mask up.”
Wearing a mask is not a weakness…it’s kindness. Mask up.
Wash your hands. Keep your distance. And mask up.
Step up…and Mask up.
(Multiple Leaders on screen). Step up and Mask Up
Let’s all do our part. Be kind. Support small business. Help keep each other safe.
That is who we are Coshocton County.
Let’s step up…and mask up.
Special thanks to our local leaders for not only wanting to do what’s right…but stepping up and working together to make it happen.
Here’s to keeping each other safe. Step Up. Mask Up.
At Hasseman Marketing, we are proud of our community. And we are proud that Coshocton County is the birthplace of the Promotional Products Industry. It’s true. The birthplace of the $25 billion industry starts with an entrepreneur from Coshocton named Jasper Meek.
“Jasper Freemont Meek was one of the earliest significant contributors to this budding industry. He owned a small newspaper in Coshocton, Ohio, and like many other small newspaper owners of the time, he supplemented his revenue by taking on job printing, which used his printing press between editions.
Seeing a child drop her schoolbooks in the dirt on Main Street spurred Meek to approach his friend, Mr. Cantwell, owner of Cantwell Shoes, with an idea about building store traffic, name recognition and ultimately increasing sales. Meek’s idea was to imprint a burlap book bag with a simple but direct advertising message, “Buy Cantwell Shoes.” Cantwell would give every child who came into his shoe store a free bag. The children would carry the bag as they walked to and from school so Cantwell’s name would be seen all over town. Mr. Meek manufactured the book bag, imprinted the advertising slogan on his printing press, and both Meek and Cantwell reaped the rewards.”
From here, the industry took off. Competitors popped up and built upon the success of each other. And soon, Coshocton became a hot bed of artists, Coca-cola trays and calendars. Jeff Shaw talks about that history in this video.
The words Coshocton and Calendars went together.
Over time, some of the calendar business left Coshocton County. Back in 2004, then JII Promotions outsourced their calendar manufacturing to Norwood in Sleepy Eye, Minnesota. And in 2018, Elliott Calendar company sold most of it’s calendar manufacturing to Drum-line. Beach Company, which has roots back to the beginning of the industry, still produces calendars today.
We are excited to carry on that proud calendar tradition.
At Hasseman Marketing, we have started to produce a limited number of custom calendar options…and the response has been tremendous. The three styles we are currently offering are the 12 Month Appointment calendar, the Year at A Glance calendar and the Custom Planner calendar. All of these can be found here. And because we believe that calendars are still foundational for great marketing, more styles will be explored soon.
We are proud to join this rich history of promotional products in Coshocton County. We look forward to producing calendars here in Coshocton for years to come. If you are interested in chatting about creating a custom calendar for your organization, let’s talk!
Let’s say you are in a leadership role in a growing company. Good for you! Whether you are in purchasing, marketing, sales or the C-suite, this might sound familiar. You have worked hard to create a logo and brand messaging that works. The key players were all involved. You might have worked with an outside firm, or handled it with your internal team, but now you have a logo that you love. The colors are perfect. The feel is just right. And you have even created a set of brand guidelines that make sure everyone understands what you can and can’t do with your beloved brand. This is awesome…it’s how you create a tribe!
Then one day you see something that is very upsetting.
You are walking through the halls of your beloved institution and you see a fellow employee wearing a shirt that CLEARLY is outside of the brand guidelines! At first, you think it’s just an anomaly…but then you see another. And once you see it, you can’t unsee it. There is “off brand” merchandise all over! Apparently, a rogue manager (with the best of intentions) wanted to appreciate their staff, so they went and got some branded merchandise on their own. Since there was no clear internal option to make this happen, they did it on their own…and the logo brand guidelines got flushed down the toilet.
This is every brand manager’s nightmare. And this is just one good reason to create a company store.
A company store is an online e-commerce solution that offers branded merchandise for members of your organization to order. Done right, this solution can be simple and easy to use. And it will help to decrease the number of times that well-intentioned managers will “go rogue” for branded merchandise. It gives members of your team a place to shop and find curated branded merchandise that is consistent with your brand AND can be vetted to make sure you can imprint the correct information. While they do take some time to set up, they can help both marketing and purchasing be sure that promotional purchases are done right.
Understand the Kinds of Company Store
If you want to create a company store, it’s important to know what kind you want. While there are plenty of variations, let’s stick with two basic types of stores. These are inventory versus non-inventory stores. Both types of stores have their place, but you need to understand them before you pick the one that’s right for your organization.
Inventory Store
An inventory store is where you (or your promotional products partner) order all of the branded merchandise in and warehouse the items. Then, as people from around your organization order, the items can be shipped out “on demand.” Sometimes these items are warehoused at the customer location and sometimes the promotional products partner manages that. The advantages to this kind of store are speed and minimums. Simply put, if you have the item imprinted, done and warehoused, you can ship them to your team right away. In addition, if you just want one shirt, this is a very easy way to do it. You can order just one.
There are several disadvantages to this type of store too. First, someone has to purchase all of these items up front. Whether it’s the customer or the partner, someone is on the hook for these items. So if at the end of year these items don’t sell, you will ultimately own them. So you better be really good at choosing items AND the quantity you will warehouse. In addition, someone has to warehouse the items and manage the items. For larger organizations, this financial commitment might be easy enough. But for smaller organizations this can be a big cash flow challenge.
Non-Inventory Store
The other option for a company store includes the non-inventory store. This option has become more and more popular over the last several years. It allows companies to address the brand issues that arise at the beginning of this post without having to commit to large amounts of branded merchandise each year. In this option, a company creates an online store with curated products that match the company brand. Then, as departments need to order, they can order from these selections with a manufacturers minimum. The order is then created “on demand” and the customer is only billed for the items as they are created.
The downside to a store like this is, you don’t have these items on hand. So time and minimums are more of a challenge (though both can be mitigated). If you just need one last minute polo for a golf outing, this is not a great solution. But if want to manage the brand, manage budgets and keep control on both, this can be a great option…even for smaller organizations.
So now that you know what kind of company stores there are…how can you make a good one? Here are a few tips on creating a company store.
Include the Basics
When you are creating a curated collection of items for your company store, don’t out think the room. Yes, you might want to include some cool and hot new products in the mix. That’s great. We are in favor of that. But don’t forget the foundational products that most people want and need. You will want to include a drink ware, writing instruments, and apparel. These are staples. You want to have items that are functional. I would also recommend getting multiples in a couple of these categories. While you may love a Nike 1/4 zip (and I do) not every budget will allow for that. Give people basic options so they can use the company store without breaking the bank.
Keep It Simple
On the other hand, though you want options, you don’t want TOO many options! Keep it simple. Just like at the grocery store, if you give people too many options, they might not be able to choose at all. It’s a delicate balance. And remember, you can always add items down the road. Which leads nicely to…
Update Items Seasonally
If you want people to continue to check out your store (and ultimately stick to the brand), continue to add options. I recommend adding items at least once a quarter. First, this gives your team some new ways to award their team and promote your brand. In addition, this is part of the fun for you! Be on the lookout for cool new items, or have us do that for you! This is a great place to add items to the list that are missing…or give you a place to try more “off the wall” items that might fit during a time.
Get Feedback From the Troops
When it comes to your organization’s company store, your team members are your customers. Listen to their feedback! While you won’t be able to add every single item that is requested, you will likely see some themes. Giving your team input into the items that are on the store will give them more ownership in the idea. That makes it more likely that they will stick to the program and won’t go rogue again!
These are just a few tips on getting your company store up and running successfully. If you want to chat more about whether a company store is right for your organization, we would love to talk!
One of the buzzwords that is thrown around a lot in business today is the word “culture.” I actually love that. It’s important because it speaks to the environment around the organization…and how everyone feels about their work. When you create a successful culture, you have the ability to create a tribe. If you have done that…congratulations.
And when you create a company and a brand that people are proud to represent, something cool happens. Your employees will actually WANT to wear the logo. In fact, they will often be willing to pay their own money to buy branded merchandise with the organization’s logo on it! That shows a powerful culture.
If you find yourself here, then it might be time to create a Employee Sale.
An employee sale is a fairly straight forward exercise. It’s not a new concept. You would select some items that could be imprinted with the company logo on it. Employees have the opportunity to select items for themselves. You would curate the items and the way they would be imprinted. This allows employees to select items that they would be excited about using or wearing, while you get to manage the brand. While the concept is not new, the technology has improved. Now you can create an online shop to help you manage this process in a much more efficient way.
But an employee sale can really get out of control. When they do, they can become a real nightmare to manage. And when that happens, leaders often throw up their hands and say “no more!” That’s a shame. Because if you have created a culture and a tribe that want rep your brand…you want to help them!
So here are a few tips on creating a successful (and less painful) employee sale.
Keep It Simple
One common mistake I see with employee sales, especially the first one, is to try and include everything. The more items you include, the more you have to manage. What I recommend is to keep it simple and include the basics on the first sale.
I explain this to everyone when we start this process. They always nod and say “Yes. That makes sense.” Then when we select products, they ultimately want to include 20 or more items. It’s easy to do! First, we are excited! Second, we have everyone (including our boss) making special requests to be included. Then you look down and have a ton of options on the table. This is what most often leads to frustration. Trust me. Keep it simple. You can always add the special requests on the next sale. This leads nicely to…
Do Them Every Quarter
One of the ways to manage the requests and the expectations is to let everyone know you will do these sales consistently. That will allow you to add special items to the “next time” list. In addition it allows you to add seasonal items. Things that people want in December are not what they want in July. If you do the employee sales every quarter, you can help manage the items and the expectations.
How Do They Pay?
This may sound simple, but there are several ways to do this. There is no “right way.” But it’s important to figure it out up front so that both the team and the vendor know! One way is that the company gives everyone the ability to order the item…and the company pays. Another popular option is to allow employees to order what they want and then deduct the cost from their pay. This payroll deduction option is one of the most popular. Finally, you can let employees just pay themselves. The employee sale can be set up with a credit card option to make this work. Either way is fine…but this needs to be worked out in advance to avoid confusion.
Test and Test Again
Just like any other online product, your new store needs to be “proofed.” You need to look over it with a fine tooth comb. Are the colors right? Is the logo the one I want? Then run a few test orders to make sure the site works like you want it to. You will likely be the first person people come to when they have questions. So make sure you have used the site and can answer the basics.
Be Patient
As I write this, we are in the middle of the COVID crisis, so everything is colored by this time. Stock for nearly all suppliers is a challenge. Delivery times are tough and shipping has been delayed. I wrote about this here. But even in normal times, an employee sale has a lot of moving pieces. There will be hopefully fewer if you took our advice on keeping it simple, but there are still lots of individuals, ordering lots of items, with different imprints. That means things can be confusing.
My advice is to be patient. Your tone will be powerful in your organization. This is a spot to under promise and over deliver. When you are talking about delivery times, give yourself time. The order will not be placed until the Employee Sale closes. After that, give yourself 3 to 4 weeks to expect delivery. When you say that from the outset, you manage expectations and headaches. If then, the items come in sooner, great. But expect the unexpected. It will decrease your stress and the amount of emails you have to answer about the items.
