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S t r a t eg i es , L t d .
82
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NOVEMBER 2016
|
THINK
A
35-year creative career.
A thriving company. A
beautiful wife and business
partner, three grown kids and
three grandchildren. These are
the pieces of the wonderful
life Doug Dobbe, president of
Appleton, Wisconsin-based
distributor Strategies, Ltd.
(UPIC: STRAGS), credits to the
promotional products industry.
It all started in 1980 at The
Vernon Company, where 19-year-
old Dobbe was the youngest
person ever hired as a field sales
rep. At 23, he became a district
sales manager. After seven years,
he moved to Ad-Vantage Corp., a
local competitor.
“The owner, Ralph Schrank,
became amentor of mine,
teachingme about the strengths of
our mediumand how to combine
communiqués with promotional
products,” Dobbe says.
Representing Ad-Vantage on
a business trip to Stockholm,
Sweden, in 1988, he met Renae
Hobbs, then a regional sales
manager for supplier World Wide
Art Studios. They were married
the next year and decided to start
their own distributor company,
Nexus, in their basement in 1991.
The business took off and they
quickly outgrew the basement.
“I loved our original name,
Nexus. We wanted to be the
connection/bridge between our
customers and their customers,
but it proved to be a little ahead
of its time,” Dobbe says. “Even
though we spelled it with one X
like the dictionary, people thought
we were in the haircare business.
They confused us with Nexxus.”
Rename And Rebrand
“[In 2006] We took a good,
long look at our approach to
the business and came away
with the fact that we really
strive to be strategic with our
recommendations. We work hard
at finding the right product for
the right situation. We wanted a
one-word name and Strategies
seemed perfect. I enjoy the game
of chess and thought that using a
knight [for the logo] would help
tell our story of strategic thinking.
Simple, yet powerful,” Dobbe says.
Seven years later, in January
Doug Dobbe
and the team at
Strategies, Ltd.
are positioned
for promotional
success.
by
Julie Richie
Winning Moves