by Kirby Hasseman
Let me be clear. We are unabashed and unapologetic fans of promotional products. We know that they are a powerful marketing tool for you and your organization. You probably know that too. We have written about how they can help you grow your business, how they can help you do trade shows more effectively, and how they fix the appreciation gap in most organizations. Promotional products should be a big part of your marketing strategy.
But no marketing media is perfect.
While promotional products are a wonderful way to reach your customers, there are problems with buying promotional products too. We get that. So we wanted to address some of those challenges here…and hopefully give you some ideas on how to deal with them!
The Problems with Buying Promotional Products
Let’s just start with the idea that no one likes surprise charges. And as you will see as we go through some of the industry challenges, surprise charges are one of the biggest sticking points when purchasing branded merchandise.
Your promotional product sales pro comes to you and says “Great news! I have a special on coffee mugs. They are $1 and you have to buy 500 of them.”
“Great,” you might say. “This it will cost me $500?”
With a hesitant look on their face, your promo pro will say, “Well…” Then they will tell you about the setup charge, the art charge, the proof charge, and the shipping (and don’t forget tax). It’s about then that you realize that your 500 $1 mugs will cost you about $750.
It’s easy to feel frustrated, and sometimes mislead when this happens. So let’s dig into why each of these fees exist.
Setup Fee
When you are buying an item in retail, that item was created in bulk. Each one is essentially the same. So when it comes time to purchase a pair of shoes on Amazon, they can pick up any size 11 and ship it your way. The same is not true when it comes to promotional products. Each order is customized with your logo (and often contact information) on it. That means with every order, there is custom handling on the order. Whether that means creating a traditional screen, setting up the art, getting the machine ready to print the job (or many other ways these items are imprinted) there is handling.
The order has to be “setup” to run. This setup is done by someone that needs to be paid. It’s a bit of an oversimplification, but this is when “time is money” is real. Generally, this is a fee charged by the supplier that is “passed through” to the customer.
While you may be saying, “I don’t want to pay set up charges,” or you might be thinking that “my distributor doesn’t charge me for set up,” I would caution you. Someone is paying for it. Sometimes the supplier will waive it (so they pay their person and eat the charge). Every once in a while your distributor might pay it. Or maybe they are building it into the cost of the item (so you are paying it).
It’s a little like ‘free shipping.” Most of the time, you are paying for it somewhere.
Bottom line: A setup fee is a real thing. The best way to combat this is communication. Make sure you are asking about any setup fees on the front end. Whether you like them or not, you want to know about them on the front end!
Art Charges
While there are exceptions to every rule, this is one I think falls under the “legit” charge. Why? Because generally speaking, an art charge comes when the customer is not providing quality, vector art. Want to know what that means? Check out this blog.
This usually happens because of one of two reasons. Either they simply don’t have good art, or they are being lazy (I say this with love, of course). If you don’t have good art, no problem. But it does take the work of a professional designer to create that art. Trust me. You don’t want to create a branded item with a bad imprint. That’s not good for anyone and it does your brand a disservice. So paying a nominal art charge (think between $25 and $65 depending on complexity) is well worth it.
The lazy reason is simple. The organization probably has the art (they had it created at some point), and the person does not feel like looking. That’s cool too. But again, it takes time to recreate it. It’s amazing how often, when an art charge is brought up, the vector art magically appears.
Bottom line: Want no art charge? The answer is simple. Provide good art.
Proof Charges
This is probably my biggest pet peeve in our industry. To me, this is a charge to you to make sure we got your imprint correct. This is nonsense.
This is generally a fee charged by our supplier partners (love you guys). My take on this is, our suppliers are being beat up to the penny on nearly every item they sell, so they are looking at ways to create margin on their product without (technically) affecting the “per piece” price. It helps them as they fight to show up with a good price in search. But customers do not understand (nor should they) that they have to pay extra to make sure the imprint is what they want. So many distributors like us, simply eat that cost in order to help the customer experience. As I said above, someone is paying it. Generally, it’s us on that one.
The one caveat to this is the customer that asks for proof after proof after proof. Don’t get me wrong, an occasional change is totally cool and makes sense. But when we proof your order 5 or 6 times, charging for the time does start to make sense. At that point, you are using the supplier as your art department, and that’s not cool either.
Bottom line: If you send good art and are using the proof just to make sure everyone is on the same page, I don’t think you should be charged.
Shipping Charges
The best thing about Promotional Products is that we have a very physical media. When done right, branded merchandise can affect all 5 of the senses. But when you have a physical marketing piece, you have to physically get it there! That is where shipping comes in. We have to ship the items to get them to you, your customers or your employees. That costs money.
For the most part, your distributor (or even the supplier) does not set those fees. We are at the mercy of UPS, Fed Ex and USPS. But here are a few things to consider when shipping promotional products.
When do you need them? Just like anything else, if you plan ahead you can save money. If you wait until the last minute, it will cost more!
Where are they coming from? One of the things your distributor should tell you (but if not, you should ask) is where are these items coming from. Sometimes the item you are ordering only comes from California and you are stuck. But often, there are different suppliers that have similar (or the same) products. If so, you can order from the one closest to you for speed and cost efficiency.
How heavy (or big) are they? There are certain things that are heavy to ship. Paper products are heavy. Drinkware is not that heavy, but it takes a lot of space. So you are ultimately paying to ship air. These might be non-negotiable, but if they are, then this consideration might save you some time and money!
Bottom Line: Shipping is real cost. But when you can (and most of the time you can) ask for a shipping estimate. This can help you know on the front end how much shipping will affect your overall bill.
These are real problems you can run into when ordering promotional products. But once you understand these, you will come to find that, as a marketing tool, promotional products are still totally worth it. The antidote for nearly all of this, as you might suspect is communication. One way we are working to remove some of this friction is to provide you a sales order to approve in advance. This way you have the ability to see all of the charges in one place. While we are not perfect, this helps to alleviate some of the confusion on the back end.
My final piece of advice is to ask questions. The goal of this blog was to arm you with some of the questions to get you started. If you want to create a promotional products campaign that really delivers, click here to chat with us.
Oh…and while many people will say “we wrote the book on…” we actually did write the book on how to do Promo right. Click here to buy that for you and your team.
by Kirby Hasseman
Riddle me this. We are living through a strange season in the world today. We have pandemics, racial injustice and murder hornets. Nearly every event in the country is on hold or has been shut down and in-person meetings have all but stopped. So how do you create a successful company launch during this time? For that matter, how do you create buzz and excitement around any new product or initiative when we can’t see our customers face to face and everyone’s attention seems to be more distracted than ever? How do you successfully launch?
Let me introduce you to brandivate.
In the interest of transparency, the folks at brandivate are my friends. I got to watch, up close and personal, how they decided to start a company during a pandemic, and I was privileged to be one of their “brandvocates” (I will explain in a moment). But regardless of my personal relationship, brandivate created a Masterclass on how to launch a company (or product, or initiative) during these strange times using Branded Merchandise and Social Media. I was so impressed. So I wanted to share the story, and a few lessons that might help you in your next launch.
What Did They Do?
brandivate is a marketing, coaching and consulting company specializing in the Promotional Products industry. Led by two industry professionals, Bill Petrie and Kelsey Cunningham, brandivate wanted to announce their new business venture with as much fan fare as possible on a very limited budget. Sound familiar? So with that in mind, Bill and Kelsey created a curated box of nice branded merchandise and sent them to a select group of friends in the promotional industry.
In the box was a personalized and numbered membership card (or brandvocate card) for each person, a nice, soft tri-blend t-shirt (you know I love soft t-shirts), coasters, and more! It was a great group of products! Finally, included in the box, was a card that explained the concept, the items and gave suggestions on how to post on social media to help create a buzz on social media about the campaign. If you want to dig deeper into the exacts of the campaign, Bill posted about it on his blog here.
What happened with the group was really cool.
As you might expect, the friends and influencers in the industry were delighted with their “swag boxes,” and wanted to help. So on Day 1 there were a few people that initially posted the Membership card and pens (as requested). Then the group started to get more creative. And as the week went on, the brandvocates all started to compete (in a friendly and unorganized way) to see who could come up with the most creative post. It was a fun competition among friends in the industry, all on behalf of brandivate…and it created quite a buzz in the Promotional Products industry.
As a side note, if you want to know the winner of this friendly competition, it goes to David Shultz who created this video to post on the Brandivate Facebook page. How fun is that?
The gang at brandivate delighted a few fans, raised the awareness of their launch (during a pandemic no less) and created a buzz on Social Media. That’s great. But did it garner results? I asked for the details and here was was the answer to the question:
“Did you get business results from this campaign?”
Yes, yes, yes, and yes! Numbers are still coming in but we can conservatively say we’ve seen a 30% increase in likes on the FB page, 15% increase on Instagram, 20% on twitter. We saw a 25% increase in content subscriptions on the website as well.
From a sales perspective, we have four active quotes as a direct result of the campaign with one of them doing the same type of social media launch for another company. Last, and this is the most challenging part to quantify, the engagement on social was far greater than we could ever have expected – almost to the point where it was impossible to keep up. When you couple that with the level of creativity on the posts, videos, and comments, we created a cost-effective, fun, and, most importantly, engaging way to make the brandivate brand feel like everyone was a part of the launch.
And that, my friends, is why I say that you can still create an amazing product launch, initiative launch or even company launch right now…using branded merchandise as a catalyst. Now here are some quick takeaways on what I think they did right!
Target Your Market
You might be thinking, “If this is such a great launch, why didn’t I hear about it?” If so that’s cool. They don’t need you. It’s not that they are elitist. They just know their market. They focused specifically on their targeted audience. That is one of the strengths of great branded merchandise. It is incredibly targeted. Kelsey and Bill reached directly into the market they were trying to reach…with no waste.
Select Great Branded Merchandise
When you create a campaign to launch a brand, the merchandise you select is directly representing you. You don’t have to buy the most expensive piece on the market, but now is not the time to be cheap. Select quality. You want to create an impression of high value. And let’s face it, the value of a branded product is determined when they are used over and over again.
Tell Them WHAT To Do
One of my favorite parts of the campaign was so simple, but often overlooked. They told their “tribe” what to do to help them! So many times, the people who love and respect you want to help you succeed in your venture, but they don’t really know how. Sure, maybe they can buy from you. That’s great. But in creating this campaign the brandivate team told their ‘brandvocates” exactly what to do to help make the launch a success.
So there you have it. How do you successfully launch? Here is a simple case study on how to use branded merchandise and social media to create a real splash with any campaign.
If you want to talk to someone on our team on how to help you create an awesome launch, head to our Branded Merchandise page here for more information!
by Kirby Hasseman
Yesterday, my wife and I had lunch at a brand new restaurant in Coshocton. And when I say “brand new,” I mean it. They opened yesterday at lunch…and we were there. The new place is called Main Street Station and it’s next door to the Hasseman Marketing office. So we were able to watch from a close distance at how hard they have been working the last couple of months to get ready for this.
Starting any new venture is hard, but working to open a restaurant during a pandemic has to be top on the list of challenges!
Amy and I were there because we are excited to have a new dining spot in Coshocton. But we were also there because we understand how hard it is to start something new. It is challenging and fun, and exciting and overwhelming and scary. As a matter of fact, it can be all of those things at nearly the same time! Your team is looking at you for answers that you don’t yet know. Everything is being done for the first time.
And during those times of launch and exploration, it’s important for a community (any community) to celebrate new beginnings.
These new ventures require bravery. They also require time and money and hard work. But the one thing that people often forget about new businesses is, they require support. If you want to have new gym in town, you need to join it. If you want to have a successful restaurant in town, you need to go and enjoy it.
When someone in your community starts something new, make sure to celebrate it. Patronize it and spread the good news. Look for positives to share…and be a part of the reason that new venture succeeds.
P.S. Amy and I had a great lunch at Main Street Station yesterday. The food was fantastic (and there was a lot of it) and the new decor looks great! And as a side note, both of my daughters are working there too…so stop in and see them! Good luck Main Street Station! You are off to a great start!
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by Kirby Hasseman
It’s time for Episode 41 of the He Said She Said Podcast with Hasseman Marketing! This podcast is designed to give an inside look at being married and being entrepreneurs and the projects we are working on and the challenges we are facing! We talk about business, family, community and more. So listen in and let us know what you think!
On this episode we talk about…
Trending Topic
This week Kirby and Amy talk about the importance of getting away. During this different time, Kirby and Amy discuss their struggle with the idea of needing some time away to recharge…and how to do it.
Weekly Whirlwind
This week in the Weekly Whirlwind we talk more updates on the building at 539. Progress is really happening as the 2nd floor nears completion and destruction on the 3rd floor starts. Kirby talks about an uptick in print business during this time and the new Hasseman U. You can learn more about that here.
Lesson In Life
This week in the “lesson in life” Kirby and Amy talk about the importance of showing up and doing a little each and every day. You can read a short blog about that here. So many people succeed because they just don’t stop!
Shout Outs
Each week we want to give a shout out to an organization or an individual doing good work. This week we talk about two couples in Coshocton County that drove around Coshocton in an RV, playing patriotic music on the 4th of July and handing out hot dogs and popsicles. So cool. Learn more!
So that’s a wrap! Thanks for listening to Episode 41 of the He Said She Said Podcast! Any feedback will be welcome as we try to provide you value! If you want to subscribe you can do that where you normally get podcasts…or you can head here to follow on Soundcloud.
Thanks so much for listening! If you have any topics you want Kirby and Amy to cover, please comment and let us know! Oh…and if you like this content, check out this page where you can find all of the content we create!
One final thing…we have created a 5 Day Marketing Course you can take for FREE. There is no catch. Learn more about it here.
by Kirby Hasseman
So here we are in 2020. A lot has been made about the “unprecedented times” we are living. But here we are. As I have said before, we need to stop talking about things getting “back to normal.” The reality is, we don’t know when that might happen. We do need to take an honest look at where we are…and start working to succeed from here.
We need businesses to get rolling again. I mean, we NEED it. But you might be asking “how do I market our business in 2020?” Times have changed. People have changed. We need to consider that as we tell our organizations’s story today. So here are some things I see working (right now) to market your business in the world we live in.
Direct Mail
In a world where people are less likely to leave their home, direct mail has become more effective. Yes, it’s a bit old school, but it’s a low cost way to reach the masses right where they are. And if you can create a creative, valuable offer, you have a real chance to stand out in a mailbox full of bills.
Email
One of my favorite things that Joe Pulizzi says is that we are very comfortable ( as marketers) with “rented lists.” The radio, tv station or Facebook owns the list…and we just rent access. But a real, vetted email list of people who have subscribed to what you have to say is a list that you own. You get to decide when you send it, what they see, and who gets to see it. You have to provide value, or that audience can opt out. But there is real power in owning the list. And I am not sure how long it will last, but email open rates have actually gone up during this pandemic. Give value through your email list and you can make an impact in 2020.
Postive Content on Social
In this 2020 world of arguing politics, racial divides, mean spirited debates and complaining, your organization has a chance to stand out. Just create content that is nice! Regardless of the content platform, most of us are starved for something that provides us joy and inspiration. If you and your organization can show up like that (consistently), you have the chance to gain a real audience and a real following.
Branded Merchandise Kits
You don’t need me to tell you, but the traditional way we see our customers and employees has changed right now. Many events have been cancelled. Trade shows have been put on hold. Heck, even the idea of going to work has shifted (it’s hard to believe March was only like 4 months ago). With that in mind, Branded Merchandise kits can be an EXTREMELY powerful tool to reach your target audience. When done right, branded merchandise kits can improve brand affinity, affect behavior, help company culture, and yes, get people to pick up the phone. I talk about one of my clients using branded merch to replace an event they were holding here. If you have your team working from home, there is a kit for that. What if your team is coming back to work? You can create kit to (safely) welcome them back. What about creating an online conference and mailing attendees some cool swag to get them fired up? The possibilities are limitless.
Online Learning
I have been a believer is providing value first in marketing for a long time. Heck, I wrote a whole book about it! Well 2020 is a great time to do just that. Create online learning to provide value to your clients. Our friends at Commonsku created an amazing online conference to do that for their clients and over 800 people attended. It was awesome. That is the inspiration for us creating Hasseman U. We also spent some time creating a FREE 5 Day Marketing Course for anyone that wants to take it. The idea is to provide value for your clients in a new way. When you do that during this time, you have the chance to build real trust with customers and prospects, and come out stronger on the other side.
Those are just 5 ways that I see companies successfully marketing in 2020. I hope this gets your wheels turning! While these are not necessarily prescriptive for your business, what I will say is, now is not the time for business as usual. It’s a great time to really consider how you want to tell your story moving forward.
Good luck!
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