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Written by Dale Kirby
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Tuesday, 08 January 2008 12:45 |
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This article was originally featured in the Janury 2008 issue of PPB, Promotional Products Business. PPB is the Official Business Monthy Promotional Products Association International. It’s time to raise our glasses and toast to being allowed into the esteemed marketing club.
Let’s discuss our evolving industry and forge a name for us and what we do. By “us,” I mean the entire promotional products industry. Ever since I started in this business nearly 20 years ago, I have felt a stigma when explaining what I did for a living. My secret passion has been to help establish our industry in consumers’ and buyers’ minds, and show them we are in the business of marketing and advertising—and we’re not the industry’s ugly stepchild.
I have enjoyed many careers, and I love marketing and branding. Even while serving as brand manager for recording artist Jewel, I actively sold promotional products as a rep for a major industry company.
Changing The Massage Message
When I was well into my third career as a massage therapy entrepreneur, I felt it was time to take another path. I had helped the world of massage therapy establish itself in the marketplace simply under the name massage without the need for defensiveness in the face of public confusion about what it really offered.
How did I help? I became a massage therapist and started my own massage business. I combined my healthcare and business knowledge to become a marketer and educator in the field of alternative health. On a regular basis, I positioned myself and my message on TV and radio and in print with informative articles, including a business column for Massage Magazine. I traveled across America giving business seminars, and was part of a Hong Kong ribbon-cutting ceremony opening that country’s premier spa featuring some of its most respected massage therapists.
After 12 years, it was mission accomplished. Massage was standing up for itself and on its own without the cover of a health club or hair salon. It was time for the next wave of entrepreneurs and educators to carry the torch.
Entering The Promotional Products Industry
Now, what was I going to do? If I could help make over massage’s shady persona, I could do it with other businesses. And so it began. I had a dream; I just wasn’t sure how to implement it. But an opportunity soon appeared.
A new division of a high-end baggage retailer was beginning to put its logo on its products and selling them in large quantities to corporations. This job was my entry into the industry, and it was easy enough to explain to people—“I sell corporate gifts.” But, it wasn’t long before this firm merged with a company that sold advertising specialties. “What was that?” I remember asking. Lapel pins, ribbons and pencils—oh my! “What have I gotten myself into?” I wondered.
I made the transition, and my new business card announced that I sold “marketing merchandise.” I always liked that description. Still, inevitably at social functions, people would ask, “And what do you do?” Halfway through my explanation, they would say, “Oh, trinkets and trash.”
And there it was again—an awkward but pregnant pause, followed by, “Uh, not exactly.” Our industry had been labeled, and I could see it was a hard hole to dig out of when you’ve been marginalized by the trinket comment.
Oh, to have an easy way to explain what we do! I know one thing for sure—we do not consult. We sell what we believe in. To find the best marketing solution, we listen to our clients and draw from our varied backgrounds and experiences. We research trends and products with proven results, and then pitch our best bets. You know what this is called—marketing.
Yes, we are marketers and branders. Many of us are a single, short step removed from the recipient of our marketing efforts.
Offering A Challenge
Last year when the Portland Business Journal compiled its yearly list of the Top 50 Marketing Firms, I wondered why Promopeddler.com wasn’t listed. I questioned our absence after the list was revealed, and I made certain our local business journal understood exactly what we did as a company.
Early this spring, I received an e-mail from the newspaper asking for our information so we could be considered for the list. Not only were we included, but we also placed No. 8 in the Top 50. I think this is a big win for the promotional products industry and an early sign of things to come.
How can we as an industry do more to affect this change? There are 41 business journals across the U.S.—see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_City_Business_Journals. These newspapers are located in different cities, and each one compiles a list of the Top 50 Marketing Firms in its area. I know if we submitted our promotional products company’s revenue in the marketing category along with a short description of what we do as marketers, we would make the list in city after city.
I feel the waves of change as our industry continues to shift and move. It is up to each of us to help shape our future and redefine what we do. I challenge you with a call to action: Let’s see how many promotional marketing companies we can get on the local business journals’ Top 50 Marketing Firms lists.
I’ll shout our success from the rooftops in the summer of ’08. Why? Because marketing is what we do best. PPB
Dale Kirby is director of marketing for Sherwood, Oregon-based distributor Promopeddler.com. Kirby is a member of the Oregon chapter of MPI and has more than 20 years’ experience in the promotional products industry. She can be reached at www.promopeddler.com.
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Last Updated ( Tuesday, 18 March 2008 17:07 )
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