PromotionalMagazine.com recently had the opportunity to connect with two promotional product professionals, author Rick Ebel, former Marketing Communications Director for Promotional Products Association Industry (PPAI) now principal of Glenrich Business Studies and Dale Kirby, business columnist, consultant and current Director of Marketing for Promopeddler.com in a conversation about a booming industry which continues evolve and emerge as a respectable player in the marketing and advertising world.

KIRBY: You do a lot of research, what do folks (buyers) in the marketplace really think of promotional products?

EBEL: Well, they think enough to buy a lot of them. My guess is that when we finish up with our survey of distributor sales for 2007, we’ll be looking at around $19 billion.

KIRBY: Do you think the marketing value of promotional items has increased over the past five years?

EBEL: I think the value increases as other forms of advertising and promotion are found to be deficient in achieving what buyers want. Broadcast television, for example, hasn’t been delivering audiences, so buyers try something else. In many instances, promotional products marketing is that “something else.”

KIRBY: What do you attribute this to?

EBEL: Promotional products marketing is so versatile. There are so many uses or applications for the industry’s products or programs. In fact, some have nothing to do with marketing. I’m thinking of workplace applications—employee safety and productivity programs, for example.

KIRBY: I have made a stand in the industry that we need to call ourselves “Marketers” and establish our presence in the marketing and advertising world. What do you think of the new tag of calling ourselves “promotional consultants” in the marketplace? I think it is a step backwards.

EBEL: “Promotional consultants” refers to distributors. Some distributors are consultants—others are strictly sellers of promotional merchandise and have little inclination or capability for consultative selling. It all depends on a distributor’s capabilities and what their customer base demands.

EBEL: In an earlier question, I alluded to “promotional products marketing.” A promotional product, like a radio, is the message carrier. Promotional products marketing, like radio, advertising, is the process or medium.

KIRBY: Good point, but I am still stuck with the idea of a consultant. The dictionary describes a consultant as “an expert who charges a fee for providing advice or services in a particular field”. I don’t know anyone in our profession that charges for their advice. Even if we stuck with ‘I am in promotional product sales’ I think it is a better description then to consult. Any thoughts?

EBEL: My dictionary (Webster’s New World Collegiate) ignores the fee criterion and settles for “an expert who is called upon for professional or technical advice or opinions.” I have talked to distributors who claim to charge fees for creative services and proposals but, if true, they are probably in a small minority. However, I’d like to think that compensation for consultative work would be reflected in the distributor’s margins for the orders.

EBEL: Exactly what to call the industry’s sales arm has been subject to debate since 1963, when the then-Specialty Advertising National Association decided to replace the term “jobber” with “distributor.”  In terminology, trying to get a consensus can be a pretty elusive and frustrating exercise. Failing a consensus, I think individual distributor owners are going to call themselves whatever they think best describes their operations as they see it. Which is why today we see company names that are a) pedestrian, b) indicate the owner doesn’t take the business seriously, or c) downright pretentious.

KIRBY: You have watched the industry grow for 40 years. What have been the most important changes within this sector of marketing and advertising?

EBEL: People keep saying the industry is more professional today. I think they are right. I came up in the era of “trinkets and trash”. You don’t hear so much of that any more. Why? Because the industry’s salespeople saw the light, craved education and got from PPAI a strong professional development program. For that we have to thank people like Jim Albert, father of the original CAS program, Sid Shore, the master of ideation, and later distributors like Steve Slack and Russ Woodlief who were willing to share their formulas that made them so successful.

EBEL: Another major change has been the introduction of wearables to the industry. When I started, wearables meant carpenter’s aprons and painter’s caps that you’d get at the hardware store. Today that product category accounts for about a third of distributor sales. The real significance, however, is not the apparel category’s dominance of the industry’s product lines.  Perhaps even more important is that apparel has created new markets for distributors. As an example, the employee uniform market. Not too many years ago, uniforms were purchased mainly for the military, municipal public safety employees and gas station attendants. Nowadays, restaurants, banks and other retailers want their people dressed to connect with the establishment. Who would have ever thought that distributors would become the haberdashers of commerce?

KIRBY: I think PPAI has really helped in the perception of using branded product. Research, surveys and documentation have helped add value to a medium that was “unproven” because there were no quantifiable numbers behind it.

KIRBY: I think the attention to branding and educating small to medium business as to what to pay attention to and why, have been a fine jolt that helped the industry for many reasons. Consistency is so much of building a brand and keeping your employees in alignment with the corporate culture. This includes uniformity in look and feel to build confidence in the service or product so not to confuse the customer. Promotional products provide the merchandise to build upon this important concept.

EBEL: Branding is a complex subject, much more so than the casual observer might imagine. I learned that while ghost-writing a book titled Brand Compassing (for an ad agency). Promotional products are certainly highly influential in consumer receptivity of a brand. PPAI has done a number of attitudinal studies relevant to branding—the kind that say, I feel more positive about the brand of the company that gave me a promotional product than I do about competing brands.  I haven’t seen much in the way of empirical research, but I expect PPAI to get into that because that’s how we acquire more conclusive evidence to sew up our case.

KIRBY: What is the single most important thing you think we could do to elevate the profession of selling promotional products?

EBEL: Assume that what we’re doing now, however good that may be, is not the end in itself. Keep an eye on what the other guy is doing, particularly the newer media—they might be doing something better that we could borrow. Cross pollination leads to wonderful innovation.

KIRBY: Do you think we are headed in that direction?

EBEL: Somewhat. I think we're addressing our technology needs pretty well, particularly in production and art delivery. But when I look at a typical promotion, I don't see much in the way of originality like I used to. I'm talking about originality in promotional tactics--not in products or art. For example, we're all familiar with tactics like mailing the target audience a glove--to get the mate for a pair, the appropriate response is required. There was a time when the industry was experiencing a migration of people with interesting backgrounds—engineers, teachers, ad agency copywriters—a lot of creative types.

KIRBY: You think the people add the most interesting element to the profession?

EBEL: Well, certainly people are interesting. But I'm not thinking so much of their individuality or unique personas so much as the ideas and skills that accompany people representing a diversity of backgrounds.

KIRBY: I think you Rick, have added a lot to our profession. Your research and reporting have served as an eye opener, especially to those who might be jaded a bit in this field. This industry is here to stay and what fun to watch it grow up and gain a new respectability!