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Meeting The Challenges Of
New Competition
In the August
PPB
article
“Differentiate To Compete,” Mark
Graham, founder of RIGHTSLEEVE and
co-founder of industry software platform
commonsku, wrote that the “price is every-
thing” philosophy no longer works for pro-
motional products businesses, and to success-
fully compete in today’s market, industry
professionals must know their customers’
dreams, understand their competitors’
weaknesses and focus on their own key
points of differentiation.
Coming from the office supply
industry, this feels like déjà vu. When
the three big-box companies entered the
office supply market, many small [com-
panies] reassured themselves that their
good customers would never leave them;
that customers appreciated their expert-
ise and personal service, and that they
loved placing orders the old-fashioned
way. They listened to industry experts
who told them to get rid of their bot-
tom-feeding customers and to do what
they were doing, only better, with their
loyal customers. Note that the number
of office supply dealers is a fraction of
what it was 30 years ago.
The promotional products industry
is at a watershed moment right now with
the internet set to disrupt our industry
the same way it has others. To ignore
that fact and say ‘keep doing what you
are doing, only better’ is futile. This frag-
mented industry with relatively high
margins is ripe for the creative destruc-
tion that is happening before our eyes.
Promo distributors that do not do
business the way their customers want
to—online, user-friendly self-service—
will be competing for a shrinking share
of the market. Those promo distributors
that do not improve at merchandising
and competitive pricing strategies will
go the way of Ben Franklin [stores] after
Wal-Mart came along.
What our industry needs are tech-
nology providers with the vision to cre-
ate ecommerce solutions that our cus-
tomers can use to place orders from
beginning to end, and to partner with
suppliers for good product data feeds.
Then distributors can go out and do
what we do best—build relationships
that count. And when customers want
to, let them transact their business with
us online.
Imagine if your sales force spent
more time helping customers create
marketing and promotion campaigns
8 •
PPB
• OCTOBER 2015
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