INDUSTRY NEWS
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SAAGNY,
Promo Marketing Enter Tradeshow Agreement
Robert Schwarz,
CAS, president of the Specialty
Advertising Association of Greater New York, Inc. (SAAGNY)
announced today that the association’s board of directors has entered
into an agreement to have Philadelphia, Pennsylvania-based business
services provider Promo
Marketing (UPIC: PromoMkg) conduct the sales and marketing program
for PROMOTIONS EAST, the association’s premier tradeshow.
“We are very excited to have an industry publisher and service provider
working with us to market and sell the show,” says Schwarz. “We are
grateful to have had PPAI’s assistance for the last three years.”
Matthew Barnes, publisher of Promo
Marketing magazine, says his organization is pleased to be
involved in this aspect of the show. “We look forward to pairing
our experienced sales and marketing resources with the industry’s most
successful East Coast event," he says.
The agreement with Promo Marketing and its parent company, North
American Publishing Company, will last four years, through the 2012
show.
Alvin Clayman Enterprises Changes Name
Kansas City,
Kansas-based distributor Alvin
M. Clayman Enterprises, Inc. (UPIC: 7462) has announced that,
effective October 15, its company name will change to Clayman
Promotional Group. Alvin Clayman Enterprises was founded in 1968 by
Alvin Clayman, who retired. His children, Ben Clayman and Jamie Clayman
Loud, now manage the company.
The name change coincides with a relocation to 3200 Merriam Lane,
Kansas City, Kansas, 66106. All phone and fax numbers will remain the
same. The new web address is www.claymanpromo.com.
Dunbrooke’s Reebok Partnership Extended
Independence,
Missouri-based supplier Dunbrooke
Apparel Corp. (UPIC: DUNBROOK) and Reebok International Ltd. have
extended their partnership through 2011.
“Dunbrooke has been a partner of Reebok since March 2006,” says Alisa
Buckner, merchandise and marketing coordinator. “The underlying success
of the partnership is due to the fact that Dunbrooke has positioned
Reebok as preferred branded apparel. Our line of Reebok is priced
competitively, and free embroidery every day has made this partnership
a success.”
Under the terms of the partnership, Dunbrooke will continue to
serve as the exclusive manufacturer and distributor of all Reebok
branded apparel, headwear and bags for the promotional products
industry and continues to be the exclusive manufacturer and distributor
of all co-branded apparel for the NFL, NBA and NHL professional sports
leagues.
Norwood Permanently Relocates Souvenir To Minnesota
Indianapolis,
Indiana-based supplier Norwood
Promotional Products (UPIC: NORWOOD) is permanently relocating its
Souvenir® Writing Instruments operation to the Red Wing, Minnesota,
facility.
The Souvenir facility in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, was catastrophically
affected by the June floods and has been operating out of the Red Wing
site since then. Norwood conducted an evaluation of available sites in
the Cedar Rapids area but found the Red Wing facility most suitable.
Marketing Manager Margit Fawbush adds that rebuilding the original
facility was not considered. “Since there was no plan to rebuild the
levy, we faced several challenges. The plant is 200 yards from the
Cedar River -- too close without the proper safeguards -- and it would
have
been irresponsible to put our business and employees at risk again and
possibly face another interruption,” she says.
“This is a good opportunity for Red Wing -- we will be adding more than
100 new positions to accommodate their production capacity,” says
Tim Dunford, general manager of Red Wing’s operations. Norwood
estimates the transition will be complete by the end of November, and
the company is offering opportunities and relocation assistance to all
associates willing to move to Red Wing or another Norwood site.
Tru Art Earns Forest
Stewardship Certification
Iowa City,
Iowa-based supplier Tru Art
Advertising Calendars (UPIC: TRUART) has been accredited with the Forest Stewardship Council’s (FSC)
chain-of-custody certification. Tru Art is one of the first calendar
printing companies to earn this designation from FSC, a nonprofit
international organization that promotes responsible management of the
world’s forests.
“Society is increasingly aware of the need for all of us to be good
stewards of our natural resources,” says David Bywater, MAS, Tru Art
president.
“The FSC certification helps define our commitment to manufacturing
products that meet stringent environmental, economic and social
standards. Meeting the FSC criteria helps us fulfill our
responsibilities and the demands of a growing number of distributors
and end users for calendar products made with best practices in mind.”
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PPAI IN
ACTION
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PPAI Research
Discussed At The
Motivation Show
PPAI was one
of several organizations talking about its latest research at an
industry press conference during The Motivation Show last week
in Chicago, Illinois, as reported in Motivation
Strategies, the show’s daily publication.
PPAI President and CEO Steve Slagle, CAE, shared news of PPAI’s annual
sales volume survey, which includes data on types of products sold and
the top buyers of imprinted products by industry.
Slagle also shared news of the Association’s efforts to educate
legislators about the value of promotional products as
relationship-building tools, particularly in restricted industries such
as insurance and pharmaceutical fields.
PPAI Chair Talks Green With Convention
South
Stan
Breckenridge, MAS, PPAI Board
chairman, expressed the value of promotional products in eco-friendly
business campaigns in a September article for Convention South.
“From mugs made of corn plastic to recycled denim pencils, the endless
list of eco-friendly products provides a plethora of options to make
any event a green one,” says Breckenridge.
PPAI Sponsors Study On Business Gift-Giving Views
Debate is churning in corporate circles about
the true definition of business gift-giving and its actual
effectiveness. With business
gifts accounting for 18.6 percent of distributor sales in 2006, PPAI asked Louisiana State University
and Glenrich Business Studies, a research firm based in Oregon, to
investigate the business gift market and learn what sales and marketing
executives think about the value of business incentives.
A questionnaire mailed to 6,000 people revealed that, overall, buyers
find business gifts to be very effective. Of the respondents who
measure their own results of business gifting, nearly 60 percent of
this group claimed that the bestowal of gifts was either “effective” or
“very effective.”
More about the study can be found here.
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PRODUCT
RESPONSIBILITY
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Product Safety
Group Seeks Input On
Lead Limits
The Consumer
Product Safety Commission (CPSC)
invites comments on several portions of the new Consumer Product Safety
Improvement Act (CPSIA) which relate to children’s products containing
lead. Click here
to see the items on which the commission wants
comments and information.
This is the promotional products industry’s opportunity to voice
concerns about certain aspects of this new law, which went into effect
in August. Under the terms of the law, a children’s product is defined
as being appropriate for a person under the age of 12.
Please submit all comments and information to Anne Lardner at AnneL@ppai.org or 972-258-3041 no
later than October 12. Staff will
compile all comments and information and forward them to the Office of
the Secretary for the CPSC.
To access the CPSIA law in its entirety, click here. To view a
recent
webinar produced by PPAI on this subject, click here.
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PEOPLE NEWS
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Clegg Industries Boosts Team With New
Hires
Michael
Bistocchi has rejoined Gardena, California-based supplier Clegg Industries (UPIC: CLEGG)
as vice president of sales after spending the past six years with Los
Angeles, California-based distributor PromoShop Inc. (UPIC: pro).
Industry veteran Jennifer Grigorian
has been hired as vice president of marketing and merchandising. Most
recently she was director of advertising and marketing for Monrovia,
California-based supplier Sweda
Company, LLC (UPIC: SWEDA).
Peter Lichtenstein
has been promoted to inside sales manager, and Sasha Pirrie has been hired as West
Coast regional sales manager covering Arizona, California, Nevada,
Oregon and Washington. Pirrie previously worked as an outside sales rep
for New Kensington, Pennsylvania-based supplier Leed’s (UPIC: LEEDS).
STORMTECH
Adds Winter To Sales Force
Burnaby, British Columbia-based supplier Stormtech USA Inc. (UPIC:
slabster) has hired Michael Winter
as a sales rep for Iowa, Kansas,
Missouri and Nebraska. Winter has more than 30 years of experience as
an independent sales agent, selling to promotional and retail dealers.
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| ACCOLADES |
Business Card, Inc.
Awarded For Printing Excellence
Tullahoma, Tennessee-based Business
Card, Inc. (UPIC: CARDS) received five FREDDIE awards in several
categories for industry excellence from the Worldwide Printing
Thermographers Association (WPT). Winners were announced in June at
WPT’s annual conference in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
The FREDDIE award recognizes companies for their use and application of
the thermographic, or raised printing, process. This year’s contest
drew nearly 400 entries in 19 categories.
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CHARITABLE CONTRIBUTIONS
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Charles
River
Apparel Partners With Global Charity
Medford,
Massachusetts-based supplier Charles River Apparel
(UPIC: CRA) is working with with Gear4Good, a program that reuses
donated outdoor gear and apparel, to help supply trekking porters,
search-and-rescue teams and at-risk youth with outdoor gear. Charles
River Apparel recently donated hundred of jackets to be used by by
villagers in Nepal during cold and rainy months.
“We support a wide variety of charities in the United States, and we
are
proud to be broadening our giving with the support of an international
charity,” says Vanessa Keefe, Charles River director of
marketing.
Gear4Good is part of the non-profit organization The Mountain Fund, which
assists impoverished mountain communities around the world with healthcare, education and human
rights.
“In Nepal, poorly paid porters lack clothing to keep them warm and dry
while carrying loads for tourists up the steep slopes of Mt. Everest,”
says Scott MacLennan, founder and Executive Director of The
Mountain Fund. “Charles River Apparel’s donation will help ensure that
hundreds of working porters do not suffer.”
T.Z. Case Gives Time, Products To Breast Cancer Event
La Verne, California-based supplier T.Z.
Case (UPIC: CASES4U) is donating its time and promotional products
to The Susan G. Komen Foundation
Race for the Cure, September 28 in
Newport Beach, California. The event draws more than 30,000 spectators
and race participants, primarily women 18-50 years old.
Employees Donna Call and Millie Requena will work in the booth for
Planet Beauty, one of T.Z. Case’s retail beauty case customers and a
corporate sponsor of the event for the third year in a row. The
supplier donated unprinted professional beauty cases to be given away
at the Breast Cancer Survivors banquet and in the booth.
“Breast cancer has touched almost everyone’s life in some way,” says
Call. “I volunteered because my mom was a breast cancer survivor for
more than 20 years before she passed away. We at T.Z. Case are honored
to be able to help with the event this year.”
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WHAT WOULD YOU
DO?
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A distributor asks: “When an
important client or big account needs a creative solution, how do you
effectively braintorm and get employees generating ideas?”
What's your answer?
E-mail answers along with your name, title and company name to Question@ppai.org by October 31 for possible inclusion
in the January 2009 issue of PPB
magazine.
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| CONTRIBUTE
TO PPB |
Write On
After wearables, what takes
up the biggest chunk of the promotional products industry? Writing
instruments. You can scope out a noteworthy arrangement of ballpoint
pens, fountain pens, novelty pens, pencils, highlighters and markers in
the January 2009 issue of PPB.
For possible inclusion, send product
descriptions, high-resolution images and case studies to Audrey Sellers by October 17.
Heads Up
Want
to put a lid on your next promotion? Then don’t miss the
January 2009 issue of PPB.
It’s loaded with the beanies, caps, hats and visors your clients crave.
Suppliers, October 17 is the
deadline to send headwear descriptions and high-resolution images to Audrey Sellers for consideration.
PPAI Needs Your Campaign Promotions
The presidential election
process is under way, and we’ve seen some creative campaign stickers,
buttons and other promotional items. The PPAI public relations
department is developing a collection of these products. As you produce
these items, please send at least one sample to Anne Lardner, senior
manager of communications, 3125 Skyway Circle North, Irving, Texas
75038. For details, e-mail AnneL@ppai.org
or call 972-258-3041.
PPAI Award Winners
In The Cyber Spotlight
Want
the scoop on PPAI award winners? Who are they? How did they win? Why
did they compete? Find out what it takes to bring home the gold (and
silver and bronze) by learning from those who’ve already done it. Every
month, PPB will interview a
different award recipient. Go to www.ppbmag.com
and click on Online Exclusives to see their stories.
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| THIS MONTH'S PPB |
Consistency Does Not
Equal Fairness
We’ve all
heard the workplace mantra, “Whatever you do, ensure that employees are
treated fairly and consistently.” The manager’s dilemma emerges,
however, when fair seems to collide with consistent, and someone has to
figure out which way to swerve.
Branded Apparel Do’s
And Don’ts
In the world of fashion, there’s a wide spectrum of
hits and misses. There are people who get it -- they’re on trend with
every
button snap and coat zip. And then there are people who get it all
wrong. Maybe they wear weird-fitting polos or horribly logoed oxfords.
As promotional products professionals, you’re more responsible for
these apparel achievements (and blunders) than you might think -- it
all
depends on the garments you pitch to your clients.
Backing Up Isn’t
Hard To Do
The mantra to prevent loss of important data created with a computer is
“Back up, back up, back up.” Even if some of the worst disasters
strike -- a natural disaster such as a fire, a machine disaster such as
a
hard disk crash or a human disaster such as accidentally deleting
files -- regularly making backups and storing at least some files
off-site
will greatly reduce recovery time.
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| PPAI NEWS |
Aastad Receives
PPAI Distinguished Service Award
PPAI will honor Carol D. Aastad, MAS, with its 2009 PPAI Distinguished
Service Award at The PPAI Expo
2009 in Las Vegas, Nevada, on January 14. Nominated by PPAI members
and Association staff, this PPAI award recognizes members who
generously give their time and energy for the benefit of the
Association through volunteer service and leadership.
Aastad is a former division manager for Lewiston, Maine-based
distributor Geiger (UPIC: geiger)
who recently retired after 29 years in the promotional products
industry. Aastad served on the PPAI Board of Directors for five years
from 2000 to 2005. During her tenure, she served as Chairman of the
Board for the 2004-2005 year.
“I am so thrilled and consider it an honor to be named the winner for
2009,” says Aastad. "I will always cherish the friends I have made, and
I leave with many fond memories of my years as a PPAI member and a
Harlan-Davis, Forrester-Smith and Geiger employee. I cannot think of a
better way to celebrate my retirement than to have the pleasure of
accepting this award, and I am deeply appreciative.”
You can read more about Aastad in the January 2009 issue of PPB magazine.
Imprinted Sportswear
Show, PPAI MarketShows Coming
To Fort Worth
Building on the success of PPAI MarketShows
Atlanta, MarketShows Fort
Worth, co-located with the Imprinted Sportswear Show October 3-4,
will offer members the same opportunity to make new connections and
increase their knowledge of imprinted sportswear.
To help suppliers along the Texas coast with business recovery efforts
after Hurricane Ike, PPAI offered them a booth at MarketShows Fort Worth free of
charge. As of last Thursday, at least four suppliers had taken
advantage of the offer, including Houston, Texas-based KTI Networks/KTI Promos
(UPIC: pendrive). Click here to read
more.
MarketShows is a
fantastic opportunity for distributors to connect with new suppliers
and experts in the imprinted sportswear field and to learn more about
the two industries. MarketShows
exhibits are open 10 am to 5pm Friday and Saturday, and education
sessions are at 9 am and 1 pm both days.
Attendees must qualify for a free UPIC
to attend MarketShows Fort
Worth. To register
online, click this.
On-site registration opens at noon Thursday and at 8 am Friday and
Saturday.
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| THE INDUSTRY SHOW |
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Industry News Online
In Video
Catch some tips for standing out among the competition and find out how
you can build traffic at a tradeshow on the latest Industry Show.
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