PPB November 2016

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among many clients that you are
merely a product person, not an
ideas person.
If you want to leverage your
creativity with your clients, you
have to do a lot more than just
announce it—you have to show it.
The first thing you need to do
is ask the right questions:
• What products has the client
used in the past?
• What has worked and what
hasn’t worked?
• What type of experience
does the client want their
target audience to have when
receiving and opening the
merchandise?
• What action does the client
want their audience to take as a
result of receiving the product?
• What does the client’s
competition do that makes
them insanely jealous?
After you know the answers,
you can review case histories,
share relevant stories and
produce spec samples with a
complete packaging and/or
delivery system to showcase
real creativity. More than
just saying you are creative—
which is meaningless—you
are developing the perception
among your clients that you
actually arecreative.
Remember, it doesn’t matter
what you think is creative,
it matters what your target
audience thinks is creative. If
you are going to use ‘creativity’
to set yourself apart from your
competition, do so carefully and
be prepared to prove it. Like art,
creativity is a subjective term
with many risks associated with
it, unless you can back it up.
Bill Petrie is founder and CEO
of brandivate, an executive
team outsourcing company
focused on the promotional
products industry. After
working on the distributor
side of the industry since 2000,
he opened the company in
2014. A frequent speaker at
The PPAI Expo and incoming
president for the Promotional
Products Association of the
Mid-South (PPAMS), Petrie
is also a PromoKitchen
chef. Reach him at
.
• 844-251-8544 (toll free)
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