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Wednesday
July 15, 2009 Remembering Lenore GoldbergFiled under: Community, Members There are many wonderful people in this industry, but Lenore Goldberg was a very special one. This week, I join her family, friends and colleagues in mourning her passing. I met Lenore nearly four years ago, during a continuing series of discussions between SAAGNY and ASI. She was president of SAAGNY, and we quickly established a trusting relationship that meant a lot to me and, I think, to her. While we didn’t always see eye to eye, we never hesitated to pick up the phone and call each other to air our concerns, listen to other viewpoints and then resolve whatever was in the mix at the moment. When I last saw her, Lenore and I discussed life and how it sometimes seems so short — I had just lost my father — and we hugged and shared how pleased we had been to have met. Lenore, of Premiums Plus Inc. (asi/299013), located in Fort Lee, N.J., served SAAGNY in basically every role after she was elected to the board in 2000. She was director, secretary, treasurer, vice president, president-elect and president. In the formal announcement of her passing, Jonathan Riegel, president of SAAGNY, said that “Lenore set the standard for leadership and we will continue to strive to maintain that level of integrity and fair-mindedness.” I couldn’t have said it better. She was warm, straightforward, competitive and caring. In a world that sometimes seems to have too many fakes and too much fiction, Lenore was a striking example of fresh honesty wrapped inside a real charmer. She’s the kind of person you’d have as a neighbor, if you were really lucky. Lenore was a strong supporter of The SAAGNY Foundation and its many charitable events and programs and served as a Foundation Trustee. An avid golfer, Lenore was especially proud of her three holes-in-one and was the recipient of several outstanding golfer awards. The SAAGNY Foundation will be naming their annual golf outing in her memory. Donations in Lenore’s name may be made by mail to: The Melanoma Research Foundation, 170 Township Line Road, Building B, Hillsborough, NJ 08844. Acknowledgement to be sent to: Stanley Goldberg, 4 Horizon Road, St. G2, Fort Lee, NJ 07024, or through www.melanoma.org.
Tuesday
July 14, 2009 Counselor Survey Shows Higher Employee MoraleFiled under: Community, Research What is your company doing to boost morale? Counselor magazine’s second annual In fact, employees at industry firms gave such high marks to their companies this year, Counselor expanded its list from 50 top companies to 60. Our editor-in-chief, Melinda Ligos, says that while many firms have had layoffs, remaining employees feel valued and are confident in their company’s leadership. For the full list of 60 companies, read the press release here. The companies highlighted are coming up with innovative strategies for motivating their employees, such as more generous 401(k) packages and benefit plans and creative and engaging programs. One company even created a “fun time committee” that regularly plans unique corporate outings, like golf contests and local concerts. Final rankings among the top companies, including the number-one firm, will be announced in the September issue of Counselor, where you can learn what ideas leading industry employers are putting into motion to increase staff retention, satisfaction, productivity, creativity and sales performance. Let me know how your company is trying to boost morale – post a comment on the blog or email me here.
Monday
July 13, 2009 Digitally Speaking, for Sex and the City and Wedding CrashersFiled under: Guest Blog, Using Ad Specialties Marketers across all industries are asking themselves the same question, “How Integrating digital elements into promotions is not an exact science, nor is it a straightforward process, however there is a methodology to deploy the best programs. Each promotional concept, incorporating digital, needs to be approached from a unique angle with consideration of the product, the audience and the end goal. For example, when our team was creating promotions to market the Sex and the City movie, we thought of a partnership with Mercedes. It was the perfect pairing to highlight the upscale feeling of New York City and bringing people into NY Fashion Week.
Similarly, the Budweiser and Wedding Crashers promotional program ‘Trailer Crashers’ was extremely successful because the concept of ‘crashing the trailer’ allowed consumers to participate in the key concept of the lead characters of the film by interacting with the property.
Good luck with your marketing efforts and feel free to post a comment now about your experience with the digital marketing world. – Gordon Gordon Paddison is the founder and principal of Stradella Road, a consultancy providing marketing strategies for brand and entertainment companies, and he is the keynote speaker at this year’s ASI Power Summit. Gordon will share his best practices and industry insights on how to leverage new media for your marketing promotions. He has experience marketing over 200 movie titles, including The Lord of the Rings Trilogy, Wedding Crashers and Sex and the City.
Wednesday
July 8, 2009 New Features for ESP Online – Better Catalog Search and P.O. ToolFiled under: Member Benefits, Members, News About ASI
New features include: • Catalog Searching – Distributors can search for items found in the latest editions of Spectrum, Select and Gift Book catalogs on the ESP home page. • Improved Decorator Search – Distributors can search for decorators based on embellishment type and by distance-radius from any local zip code. • Enhanced Client Projects Center – Distributors’ clients are now accessible by name through an A-to-Z clickable list, and client projects can now quickly be searched by type of item. • Updated Purchase Order Tool – ASI’s industry standard purchase order now automatically fills in the net cost, based on the quantity being ordered, reducing errors. • Safety Notices – Active consumer product safety warnings are now displayed in the “additional information” area. For more in the press release, click here. In addition, many of ESP Online’s 32,000 users continue to participate in the exclusive ASI Supplier Ratings System, allowing distributors to rate their experience with a supplier among six categories using a five-star scale. Users can also view how many distributors have rated a supplier, similar to Amazon.com. If that weren’t enough, you won’t find higher quality images anywhere else in the industry. Almost all of them have white backgrounds and they’re all high resolution, and you can also change images and showcase them to clients as virtual samples. And, don’t forget, in the PromoCafe, ESP users can chat with other members of the ESP Online community instantly. There are multiple chat rooms for discussing a variety of topics and users can also send instant messages and can create buddy lists to maintain frequent contacts. For a free demo, visit www.asicentral.com/esp, and post a comment on the blog now about your experience using ESP to grow your business. Also, for videos of ad specialties for your clients, visit my YouTube channel here.
Wednesday
July 1, 2009 How Can I Enhance my Print Catalog Online to Grow Sales?Filed under: Guest Blog, Industry Initiatives, Member Benefits When it comes to catalogs, suppliers want to know how many to print and Distributors continue to use print catalogs and find them effective for generating sales and getting the word out about the products they offer. There’s no doubt that catalogs work. And now there’s a way for suppliers to enhance exposure digitally for their print catalogs – through ASI’s Digital Express service. The new service acts as a 1-2-3 marketing punch to boost exposure through ASI’s Email Express and through ASICentral.com’s catalog library. It works like this: ASI takes a print catalog and creates an online flip Suppliers should also make the online Digital Express catalog a big part of their website by putting it front-and-center on the home page. Companies invest a lot of time and effort to make a catalog great, so why not highlight it all year long on your homepage? The Digital Express service also provides an interactive searchable format, enabling distributors to search for the exact item they’re looking for. I’ve also suggested to every supplier who has signed up for Digital Express so far to include the link to their online catalog in the signature line of their emails. That way, every single time they send an email to a distributor, their online catalog is right in front of their potential client. Digital Express really is a unique service that helps suppliers increase leads and helps distributors find items for their clients faster, and at a time when you need it more than ever. For more information on the Digital Express program, or any other digital product, please do not hesitate to give me a call at 1-800-546-1295 or email me here. I’m more than happy to help you out in any way. Click here for examples of the digital catalogs (use your ASICentral.com email and password). – Dan Dienna is ASI‘s advertising director for catalogs and electronics. |
Best Places to Work survey indicates higher morale at industry firms. Interesting, considering the difficult economic times.
can I capitalize on social media and actually integrate it into my marketing so it works?”
