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Thursday
August 25, 2011 Let the Countdown BeginFiled under: Members, News About ASI, Research Everyone has their own definition of what makes a great place to work. For some, it’s salary all the way. For others, it’s great benefits or a fun corporate culture. To learn what rates in our industry, Counselor magazine conducts an annual Best Places to Work survey. And starting today, you can check out the countdown of the top 85 companies employees deemed “best.” Every day we’ll reveal another set of companies on the list, leading up to the big No. 1 “reveal” on Monday. To check out the countdown, visit the home page of ASI’s website. How’d we do it? A total of more than 4,000 employees answered an in-depth survey conducted by outside research firm Quantum Workplace. Counselor Editor Andy Cohen said three themes run through the 85 companies that made the list: teamwork, recognition and fun. Inside Counselor, which should hit your mailbox soon, you’ll discover story after story of winning corporate cultures that benefit employees, customers and the bottom line. As Andy says, “The employees and management are so engaged – not just with their jobs, but with the whole organization – that they’re willing to do anything for customers. Roles are defined, but those roles are meant to be broken – always for the betterment of the company.” While researching for the Best Places to Work issue, three Counselor editors drove cross-country in a rented SUV visiting a number of top companies and no doubt keeping an eye out for America’s craziest roadside attractions. To see videos, picture galleries and blogs by Melinda Ligos, Andy Cohen and Joe Haley, click here. What do you think makes a superior place to work? Let me know by posting a comment or e-mailing me here. I’m also on Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube.
Monday
August 22, 2011 Schoolhouse RockFiled under: News About ASI, Research, Using Ad Specialties Over the next few weeks, nearly 50 million students will head off to approximately 99,000 public elementary and secondary schools, along with about 19 million college students bound for halls of higher learning. In the face of such huge numbers, it’s no wonder the education market rose to No. 1 in the industry for the first time, according to ASI’s State of the Industry 2011 Distributors Report. Education accounted for over 12% of total ad specialty revenues – or about $2.16 billion – in 2010. The report, highlighted in a special annual issue of Counselor magazine, offers great advice on tapping into the lucrative books-and-pencils market. One suggestion: Volunteer at a school first, sell later. There really is no end to the products that can help schools, sports teams and clubs raise much-needed money and boost school pride. You can even get an actual model made of your school! For a “Joe Show” video demo with some fascinating stats you might be able to use in your own sales pitch, click here. To read the press release we issued about the state of the industry report, click here. An interesting side note to consider is the uptick in corporate sponsorship of schools, clubs and teams, with most guidelines allowing for sponsorship as long as the product itself is educational in nature. USA Today says schools in about half a dozen states already sell ads displayed on school busses as a way to counter education budget cuts. Other states are considering allowing it as well, which is not a bad way to raise revenue during tough times. Other highlights of our State of the Industry report include:
Lucky for those who hate being sick, but not so lucky for the health sector, there was no spread of swine flu, which positively impacted sales in 2009 of logoed hand sanitizers and related products, according to Larry Basinait, our executive director of research services. Also, industry sales overall fell in 2009, so health care didn’t necessarily decline, but its portion of sales was lower. What’s been your experience this year in education and other top markets? Let me know by posting a comment or e-mailing me here. I’m also on Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube.
Thursday
August 11, 2011 Brave New World for Sales ProsFiled under: Industry Initiatives, Member Benefits, News About ASI, Research ASI took another giant step forward this week with an announcement about our upcoming launch of ASI SalesPro for suppliers. Powered by Oracle exclusively for the ad specialty industry, our latest sales and marketing tool will help suppliers close more sales and increase profits. We’ve spent a year developing ASI SalesPro and committed millions. It’s money well spent. The plug-and-play business platform will integrate Oracle’s cloud-based technologies with all of ASI’s products to create a unique, highly secure platform. ASI SalesPro will feature:
To be the first to receive ASI SalesPro when it becomes available sometime in the fourth quarter, e-mail salespro@asicentral.com or call 800-546-1226. For a video demo, click here. Receive ASI’s new CRM complimentary as part of your CreditConnect Prospect Hunter subscription, or as a stand-alone product. If you want more information, click here to read our press release. And stay tuned for launch details on SalesPro and the upcoming launch of ASI SmartSales – a customized Oracle-powered technology platform designed exclusively for distributors and decorators. If you’ve seen the demo of either SalesPro or SmartSales, let me know what you think by posting a comment or e-mailing me here. I’m also on Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube.
Thursday
August 4, 2011 Company Picnics Are Back, BabyFiled under: Media Coverage, News About ASI, Research, Using Ad Specialties Remember the company picnic? Maybe you attended one thrown by your dad’s company and marveled at seeing him tie-less, downing a beer with seldom-seen work buddies and playing baseball with the boss. We wondered about the current state of a time-honored summer tradition, so we conducted a survey to find out. Larry Basinait, our executive director of research services, polled 400 companies and discovered 41% of respondents planned to throw a company picnic sometime this summer. And 8% said they’re hosting a picnic for the first time or the first time in recent years. For many, it’s a reward to employees for all their hard work during recent tough times. Since no employee gathering would be complete without giveaways, we also learned 41% of respondents always give away ad specialties to attendees, and 28% sometimes do. Of those who give out items, 51% give away T-shirts; 44% give away recreational items like frisbees, games and toys; and 32% give away caps and headgear. All told, companies responding to the survey spend an average of $4,116 on their company picnic. That’s a lot of hot dogs and inflatable slides. We issued a press release on our results, which you can read here, and more than 150 outlets picked it up, including United Press International and a Wall Street Journal radio report broadcast on Pittsburgh’s KQV-AM, which you can listen to here. One amusing side note from the survey concerns activities respondents said their company planned, which included everything from dunk tanks and egg races to drinking games, jousting and even medical testing. Whatever it takes to motivate employees! Let me know if you attended or hosted a company picnic this year by posting a comment or e-mailing me here. I’m also on Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube.
Tuesday
July 26, 2011 Vampires, Superheroes … And Ad Specialties?Filed under: Industry Initiatives, Media Coverage, News About ASI, Research, Using Ad Specialties Whether you’re a geek or a Gleek, you probably saw news reports on Comic-Con, a gigantic comics fanfest in San Diego. As CNN reports, promotional products were an undisputed “star” of the 42,000-strong annual convention. Conventioneers collected free T-shirts and tote bags along with branded buttons, sunglasses and other souvenirs promoting popular franchises like True Blood, Twilight and the upcoming movie Captain America. Click here to view the CNN report (wait past the inevitable commercial) and to take a look at numerous examples of imaginative ad specialties in action. Cape and alien mask optional for viewing. On another “good news” front, I recently saw a blurb about a “prop drop” for the popular TV show The Office. The Greater Scranton Chamber of Commerce, a real organization in a real city where the fictional TV show takes place, asked local businesses to bring in promotional products touting their companies for possible display on the desks of characters like Dwight, Pam and Jim. They asked for pens, mugs, magnets and the like in triplicate to be sent on to the show, which is about to embark on its eighth season on NBC. So next time you tune in, look closely at desk items to see what ad specialties you can spot. All of this is boffo news for our industry, which Counselor Promogram just reported enjoyed the sixth consecutive quarterly increase in Q2 revenues. Ad specialty industry distributors increased their revenues by 5.9% in Q2, with sales totaling $4.6 billion, rising by $257 million compared to the same period in 2010. This follows a sales gain of 7.6% in Q1. According to the survey conducted by our executive director of research services, Larry Basinait, the majority of surveyed firms are also forecasting continued growth during the rest of 2011. The number of distributors anticipating an increase in sales this year is four times greater than those that expect a decline. That’s a great big “woo-hoo” for all of us, especially on the heels of a very successful gathering in Chicago. Let me know which Office character you resemble and what you think of our latest survey by posting a comment or e-mailing me here. I’m also on Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube.
Wednesday
July 20, 2011 Windy City Kickoff for ASI SmartSalesFiled under: ASI Shows, Industry Initiatives, Member Benefits, News About ASI, Research, Using Ad Specialties ASI chose its Chicago show – the biggest industry event of summer – to offer a sneak peek of its biggest technology investment in years: ASI SmartSales™ . The Oracle-powered tech platform is a customized solution for maximizing sales and revenue opportunities. Click here to watch the SmartSales video for yourself. Read the press release we dropped to the industry here. ASI spent millions researching and developing SmartSales, a high-tech sales and marketing tool to help distributors and decorators close more sales and increase profits with modules dedicated to sales management, marketing campaigns and revenue-generating capabilities. ASI expects the rollout of the new service to begin in the fourth quarter. Expect an announcement shortly about an upcoming customized Oracle-powered technology platform designed exclusively for suppliers. We paid a lot of attention to the security aspect of this new business platform, leveraging Oracle’s cloud-based technologies with all of ASI’s products to create a unique, highly secure platform consisting of a hybrid implementation of cloud and locally hosted software and databases. The new technology will include the core ASI services vital to members’ success, allowing them to access ESP for comprehensive product sourcing from 3,400 suppliers; ASI ProfitMaker, which provides ERP and financial management capabilities; ASI LogoMall; their own company websites; exclusive ASI research; and the latest professional development resources available for BASI/MASI certification. ASI distributors with ESP who are interested in being the first to receive ASI SmartSales when it becomes available should e-mail smartsales@asicentral.com or visit www.asicentral.com/smartsales. Members who want to sign up for ESP and ASI SmartSales should call their ASI account executive at 800-546-1350. The video demos were just one of the many highlights at ASI Chicago, which takes place through Thursday at McCormick Place convention complex. If you’re at the show, I hope you’re enjoying yourself. If you had a chance to see the video, let me know what you think by posting a comment or e-mailing me here. I’m also on Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube.
Friday
May 27, 2011 Stay Hungry, Stay FoolishFiled under: News About ASI, Research, Using Ad Specialties As recent college grads set off on their quest to become masters of the universe, I’d like to pass along some tidbits from a 2005 commencement address given by Apple CEO Steve Jobs at Stanford University. Jobs, now worth about $5.5 billion, never graduated from college. He started Apple from his parents’ garage when he was 20 and by following the self-imposed mantras below, became one of the greatest American success stories of all time:
Great advice for grads now entering the working world. Lucky for them, hiring is finally on the rise, according to the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE). For the first time since 2007, employers report a double-digit increase in their spring hiring projections, the NACE reports. ASI’s crack research team got to thinking about the job fairs those grads are hitting, hopes in one hand, diploma in the other. And so we surveyed HR pros about ways they’re using promo products in their search for new talent. Results of the new survey found 56% of responding HR staffers say promo products imprinted with a company’s name or logo convey a positive image when distributed during job fairs and other recruiting efforts. Of those surveyed, 55% choose pens and 41% use logoed items like T-shirts, calendars and high-tech accessories in conjunction with hiring. We spoke to an HR expert about what else companies can do to grab the best grads’ attention, and she said to think creatively – and think geek, employing technology like QR Codes on event giveaways for tracking and analytics. Hand out unusual and useful branded items like an iPhone cover to drive word-of-mouth conversation and branding exposure, says Jessica Miller-Merrell, CEO of Xceptional HR. Be original, interesting, useful and, if at all possible, interactive. When Jobs closed his commencement address, he gave the grads one last bit of advice, which stayed with him after he spotted it on a Whole Earth catalog in the 1970s. Above a photo of an early morning country road on the final catalog’s back cover, it read “Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.” Those are words to the wise, no matter what your age or position. If you heard any sound advice from college speakers this year, let me know by posting a comment or emailing me here. I’m also on Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube. |
