I'm starting this journal to talk about the industry I love and to hopefully inform you the reader what our industry is all about.
My name is Ken Kelsey and my industry is Promotional Products previously known as Advertising Specialties.
I have been working with Promotional Products since 1972 along with my wife of 43 years and our daughter. Our company name is KelseyPromo. The business has helped us put our two daughters through college and has given my wife Barbara and I the opportunity to travel to many parts of the world.
Promotional Products are useful products with an advertising imprint. Examples are t-shirts, pens, calendars, tote bags, golf products, awareness bracelets, display products, coffee mugs, glasses, business gifts, jackets, food gifts, polo shirts, key rings, corn plastic mugs, minimaps, and thousands more products that are sold around the world every day.
In upcoming journals, I'll talk about what we need for artwork and cover some of the many unique products in our industry.
Friday, September 16, 2005
Friday, August 19, 2005
Calendars... Ad Billboards
Today we got a large repeat calendar order for an electronics wholesaler in Detroit. They have been buying calendars from us for over 25 years. They send them out to all their customers who then put them on the wall of their office.
Thus we have a billboard on the wall of a customer with the electronics wholesaler's very large ad on it. They also put the logo of one of their vendors on the calendar. The vendor then pays a portion of the cost. This is called co-op advertising.
When companies give out calendars on a regular basis, their customers get use to having them in their office. If it does not come to them in November or December, they'll call and ask 'where is my calendar?'
Calendars and the idea of recording dates and time have challenged and inspired every culture throughout history.
An individual calendar on display is one of the most effective advertising vehicles available today. No other form of advertising commands the valuable wall space within the home or office and covers more advertising fundamentals than advertising calendars.
Calendars come in many shapes and sizes. Everybody needs and uses a calendar many times per day.
First of course, monthly wall calendars, your billboard advertising on the wall of your customers, that they will ask you for. Usually one page per month or one page for two months and has pictures.
Desk calendars, small calendars that are mailable and stand on a desk.
Full year wall calendars, great for sending to large offices. Good for keeping track of employee vacations and days off.
Full year decal calendars, one is a strip of about 1" wide and 10" long, goes on the top of your computer monitor. They're very popular. Can be put into a no. 10 envelope and mailed. Also decal calendars come in many other sizes. All are full year calendars.
Commercial calendars are large, some are monthly, some are three months and some are a full year. They all have big numbers, and usually are used in factory settings. Mosy commercial calendars do not have pictures.
Pocket calendars come in weekly and monthly versions and very different prices. From very inexpensive to leather pocket calendars that cost $25.00 or more.
Today, most everyone in the Western World uses the Gregorian calendar. However, there are still 40 different active calendars worldwide.
Sunday, April 03, 2005
When Mistakes Happen...
Read this on Seth Godin's Blog
Noses cut to spite faces department
Petra Rankin shares this story:
I went for a drive to pick up some business cards from my local printer. When I got there, I was handed four boxes of very shiny business cards, even though I had specifically ordered matte. I had specified matte a number of times because it was very important to me, and he was also charging me a premium price for the matte laminate.
So I told the person who was serving me that they were not matte, and I was told in response “yes they are.” (!)
Given that these cards were so shiny I could almost see my reflection in them, I asked to speak to the manager. He come out and agreed that they were not matte, and also agreed that I had asked him a number of times to print matte cards, but he would not lower the price of the cards. I offered him what I thought the cards were worth given they were a misprint, but he was too proud and said I couldn’t take them!
So he is throwing away 1000 perfectly good (albeit shiny) cards, because he didn’t want to accept a discounted price for a mistake!
I wonder how many other small business people operate their business like this? They would rather have a big loss than accept a small one?
(PS She just wrote me and said the printer called her at home, told her had changed her mind and even offered to drive the cards over if she'd just pay the discounted fee.)
find Petra: Achieving Our Potential (And Beyond).
Posted by Seth Godin on March 31, 2005
My Response to this story...
This kind of situation has happened a few times in my 33+ years selling promotional products (promotional products are useful items [t-shirts, pens, calendars, mugs, portfolios, etc.] with a imprint that are given out to promote something or someone).
Maybe something is wrong with the order... wrong item, wrong item color, wrong imprint color, mispelling of a word, missing some of the copy... mistakes happen and then I have to find a way to take care of the problem.
The easy way out would be to offer the customer a discount and cut my losses, like was done in the story above. But that's exactly the wrong thing to do. The printer should have offered to re-do the cards and make the order right.
In Petra's case, her business cards were on the wrong stock and she really wanted a matte finish "because it was very important to me". She did get a discounted rate, however... do you think that every time she gives a card away, she might look at the card and think, narn (or something else), it's on the wrong paper.
Now then, when she is almost out of cards and is thinking about buying more. She thinks about the mistake the printer made on her previous cards (and remembers the attitude of the employee) maybe just maybe she will think that she had better find a new supplier this time, someone who will listen to her instructions and give her what she is paying for.
We would never let a customer keep an order that has anything wrong with it. Customers who have product they have accepted with some flaw, always remembers... something was wrong!
I know, I have gotten new customers, who have said "my previous distributor made mistakes and I don't trust them anymore".
It's better to lose a little money on one order than to lose a customer forever.
Noses cut to spite faces department
Petra Rankin shares this story:
I went for a drive to pick up some business cards from my local printer. When I got there, I was handed four boxes of very shiny business cards, even though I had specifically ordered matte. I had specified matte a number of times because it was very important to me, and he was also charging me a premium price for the matte laminate.
So I told the person who was serving me that they were not matte, and I was told in response “yes they are.” (!)
Given that these cards were so shiny I could almost see my reflection in them, I asked to speak to the manager. He come out and agreed that they were not matte, and also agreed that I had asked him a number of times to print matte cards, but he would not lower the price of the cards. I offered him what I thought the cards were worth given they were a misprint, but he was too proud and said I couldn’t take them!
So he is throwing away 1000 perfectly good (albeit shiny) cards, because he didn’t want to accept a discounted price for a mistake!
I wonder how many other small business people operate their business like this? They would rather have a big loss than accept a small one?
(PS She just wrote me and said the printer called her at home, told her had changed her mind and even offered to drive the cards over if she'd just pay the discounted fee.)
find Petra: Achieving Our Potential (And Beyond).
Posted by Seth Godin on March 31, 2005
My Response to this story...
This kind of situation has happened a few times in my 33+ years selling promotional products (promotional products are useful items [t-shirts, pens, calendars, mugs, portfolios, etc.] with a imprint that are given out to promote something or someone).
Maybe something is wrong with the order... wrong item, wrong item color, wrong imprint color, mispelling of a word, missing some of the copy... mistakes happen and then I have to find a way to take care of the problem.
The easy way out would be to offer the customer a discount and cut my losses, like was done in the story above. But that's exactly the wrong thing to do. The printer should have offered to re-do the cards and make the order right.
In Petra's case, her business cards were on the wrong stock and she really wanted a matte finish "because it was very important to me". She did get a discounted rate, however... do you think that every time she gives a card away, she might look at the card and think, narn (or something else), it's on the wrong paper.
Now then, when she is almost out of cards and is thinking about buying more. She thinks about the mistake the printer made on her previous cards (and remembers the attitude of the employee) maybe just maybe she will think that she had better find a new supplier this time, someone who will listen to her instructions and give her what she is paying for.
We would never let a customer keep an order that has anything wrong with it. Customers who have product they have accepted with some flaw, always remembers... something was wrong!
I know, I have gotten new customers, who have said "my previous distributor made mistakes and I don't trust them anymore".
It's better to lose a little money on one order than to lose a customer forever.
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