PPB January 2021

6 Ungettable Gets. I think customers are craving what I call “ungettable gets.” For example, an artist friend reached out and asked me how we could work together. She crafts in mosaics and I work in plastic things from China. Why can’t we create designs connected to brands in mosaic patterns as gifts? We can! Let’s partner with artisans. Getting— or making—original art versus producing the same thing for everyone is not only extra special, but it allows us to do what I call “kidulting”—to bring out the kid in each of us. That is memorable. 7 Choice. The future is going to be driven by giving customers a choice of what they want versus what you think they want. Giving every customer the same thing in the future will be a fail. 8 Hyper-Customization. Love the brand or hate it, Nike gets it. Check out the “Nike For You” online store at nike.com/ nike-by-you, where the customer can choose frommany of the shoe styles, upload their own design on the shoe panels and get the order delivered in two to five weeks. I believe the promotional products industry is well positioned for this type of brand experience. 9 Trends Analysis. We must get out ahead of trends. Ice hockey star Wayne Gretzky once said, “I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been.” Imagine if you were the company that bought a web address such as "WorkFromHomeKits.com" in early March 2020? Other trends today include exercise, wellness, on-demand, smart offices and workspaces, remote work, social media influencing fashion, home as the new domain, learning and crowd-pleasing, and a focus on employee happiness. 10 Artificial Intelligence. With access to AI, we will know exactly what products a certain demographic will favorably respond to. Once we have that data, could suppliers, distributors, clients and search engines work together to cull it down into meaningful information? Imagine a new search revolution where we search beyond product and price. What if we could conceivably search for products that 30- to 35-year-olds who work in accounting in California would really appreciate to the degree that they will give you their time, information and possibly business? AI can help the industry tackle the challenges that come with gifting. In the future, there will be personal experience and gifting platforms in our space. This is quality at scale versus quantity at scale. Again, the same thing for everyone will go the way of the dodo bird. 11 Product Life Expectancy. Imagine a future where products have a “life expectancy” statistic associated with them. Envision a time when distributors could tell clients that one mug is $9 and lasts for a year and another mug is $35 but lasts for 10 years. I know where I would invest my budget. 12 Sustainability. Long-lasting quality matters to our customers, their employees and it better matter to you. Sustainability is the future of our industry because it equals less landfill and a higher regard for our products. 13 Fresh Terminology. The words “specialties” and “promotional” are already becoming outdated and will be replaced in the future. Maybe our medium will be called “tangible media” or “product media.” 14 Bài bài la (bye bye) China. Most everything we have learned about our industry’s relationship with China may be wrong for the evolution of our industry. The reliance. The quality (or lack thereof). The knockoffs that drive us to focus on price. The tariff wars. We will source smarter and differently in the future. 15 The Maker Revolution . Crowdsourcing platforms like Kickstarter are where we can pull in more exciting entrants and products into the industry. Etsy, a marketplace of 2.5 million makers, artisans and creators, is another answer. New products have always reinforced our industry’s security. But how are distributors going to source or create in the future? In coming years, the lines will blur as distributors bring products to life and create alliances with FEATURE | The Future Of Promotional Marketing 52 | JANUARY 2021 |