PPB May 2017

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Welcoming The Next Generation
As part of its participation in the American Marketing
Association’s 39th annual International Collegiate
Conference, held this March in New Orleans, Louisiana,
PPAI President and CEO Paul Bellantone, CAE, moderated
a panel discussion on promotional products marketing.
e panel took questions from students in the audience and
spoke on the various business and career paths within the
promotional products industry.
I attended this session at the AMA International Collegiate
Conference and found it very bene cial. Often times, when
students are considering where to take their marketing
degree after college, they are under-informed about
promotions. We were given a book [Kirby Hasseman’s
Delivering Marketing Joy] in the session that I have since
read cover-to-cover. I will de nitely be focusing my career
on promotions upon graduating this May!
MORGAN TIGHE, Southern Illinois University-Carbondale
Breaking Out Of Your Niche
e April issue’s Question column explored
how distributors can get out of a tailspin
when the niche they’ve specialized in is on
a downward cycle.
On niche market specialization, there are
several areas to investigate in addition to
those mentioned [in the article]:
1 If your market niche has been one
company in an industry and if it is
a larger company, you might try getting
internal referrals. In a course I taught, I
asked the class if they controlled all of the
purchases of promotional products in that
company. Most of the group felt that they
did get all of the business from that client.
I suggested that prior to the next class
meeting each person do a little research
with that client to see if other departments
or other locations had requirements. e
most vocal member of the group was
convinced that he had all of the business
but took up the challenge and returned to
the next class with a surprising result. His
contact said the company had a number
of subsidiaries located two oors above
his o ce and provided the name of a key
contact. Our distributor class member
went upstairs to visit with several key
people and within six months gained six
new clients who, as a group, purchased
three times as much as his old client had
purchased in the prior year.
2 Most of my consulting clients over
the past 25 years failed to exploit their
neighborhood. Most towns and cities
have a department in their government
responsible for bringing new business to
their locations. Most towns and cities list
their major clients on their websites. Many
distributors consider these lists as a good
source of leads for new business.
BARRY HULTS
President
Hults Consultants
Bridgeville, Pennsylvania
8 | MAY 2017 |