PPB October 2016

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get results, and save time and
money in the process.
• Promotional consultants
partner with you to promote
and protect your brand.
• Promotional consultants
are industry experts and
marketing pros.
We, as an industry, cannot solely
rely on PR firms and advertising
campaigns to change the perception
of our industry fromone of selling
novelties and knicknacks to one that
helps change brand perception and
engage intended audiences.This is
our job as professionals.
Unless we, as industry
professionals (suppliers, distributors,
multi-line reps, decorators and
everyone else involved), change how
we view ourselves, no advertising in
the world will help.
We need to focus on why we
do things, not just what we do.
We need to think of ourselves as
problem solvers. We need to learn
to speak the language of brand,
message, market, value, culture and
experiences. We need to learn to
listen to our clients’ stories and help
them tell their stories better.
We also need to stop presenting
clients with promotional solutions
based solely on the fact that those
solutions are blue, in stock and
on sale.
As an industry, we need to start
asking our clients better questions:
• What does the company do?
• What makes them unique?
• What is your brand about?
• If the project is internal, tell me
about your company culture.
• Who are your clients and what
do you want them to focus on?
• What is the purpose of giving out
a promotional product?
• How will it be given out?
• What are you trying to
achieve by handing out the
promotional product?
• Are people going to be traveling
with this gift?
• Will people at different job levels
be receiving this gift?
• Do we need different gifts for
different levels of relationships?
• Who makes the final decision?
• What are your motivations
for proceeding?
• What else am I missing in order
to help you be more successful?
• How will success be measured?
If you notice, budget is not a
question that should be asked until
we are well within the conversation.
Our focus should be on needs
assessment and helping our clients
achieve their goals.
Another itemon sale 99.9 percent
of the time does not help achieve
that goal.
These are not just questions
that distributors should be asking;
suppliers should be asking them
too. Suppliers should believe and
drive into their company culture
that they are just as much a part
of the advertising industry as their
distributor clients. Their job is not
merely to be decorators of stuff,
but to ultimately help the client
achieve their goals.
To that end, supplier
communication should be focused
on telling success stories and how
particular products have helped
achieve real goals for real clients.
Distributors should communicate
those successes to the suppliers and
the suppliers shouldmarket those
successes without divulging the
individual end-buyer name unless
this has been previously agreed upon.
In the end, we all need towork to
get better at what we do. Everyone
in our industry should be reading
marketing blogs and learning to
speak the language of advertising. We
need to show that we belong within
that industry as a viablemedium
to engage audiences, drive brand
initiatives and add value. If we can
do that, the Get In Touch! campaign
will succeed and be worth themoney
we are investing in it as an industry.
However, if we do not change, and
do not demonstrate our value in the
market, how canwe expect people to
take us seriously?
Ben Baker is president of
Your Brand Marketing, a strategic
engagement marketing firm
that believes in brand, message,
market, value and culture.
Reach him at
.
Get Involved
PPAI’s Get In Touch!
campaign is a five-year,
multimillion-dollar branding
initiative designed to increase
awareness and improve the
overall perception of the
promotional products industry
while communicating the
importance of the promotional
consultant, thus resulting in a
larger share of advertising dollars
for the industry. PPAI members
can get involved by providing
case studies, a key component
of the initiative. Contact Kim R.
Todora, PPAI public relations
and buyer outreach manager,
at
We, as an
industry,
cannot solely
rely on PR
firms and
advertising
campaigns
to change the
perception of
our industry
from one
of selling
novelties and
knicknacks to
one that helps
change brand
perception
and engage
intended
audiences. This
is our job as
professionals.
| OCTOBER 2016 | 25
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