Print Solutions Magazine, August 2004 -- Grand Slam Ideas, Page 2

Teddy bears may be cute, but do they help sell products? That's what Bob Ragazzo asked one of his clients, a medical products company. At a trade show last year, the company handed out teddy bears to nurses in attendance. Ragazzo, account executive with distributorship Bradley Marketing Group, Hauppauge, N.Y., wondered if the giveaway helped the company land sales. The firm wasn't sure.

Then Ragazzo questioned the medical products company about the new product it was rolling out at this year's show. "The promotional piece should associate with the product and what makes the company different from its competition," Ragazzo says. He learned the main selling point was the product's reliability, so Ragazzo suggested the company hand out 8-inch stuffed collie dogs, wearing shirts with the product name and logo, instead of teddy bears. "It's the Lassie theme," he says. "Lassie is associated with dependability."

Ragazzo picked the right product for his customer because he asked the right questions. Account executives at Bradley Marketing Group use a 7-step strategic process to help customers choose promotional products that serve as targeted, cost-effective marketing vehicles. They talk to customers about their goals, select a target audience, craft a theme for the promotion, set a budget, choose a promotional vehicle, decide how to distribute the product and measure the results.

A prime example of a successful promotional products campaign was one Ragazzo created for a laboratory products company. "They are positioned in the market as a high-end company, and they couldn't get people to focus on their new mid-range product," Ragazzo says. He helped the company reach out to company executives, laboratory staff and academics with a "steak on a pizza budget" theme.

The company mailed pizza boxes to prospects. Inside each box was a round mouse pad featuring a 4-color picture of a pizza and the name of the product. Also included was an Italian menu, with text about the lab industry and new product. Ragazzo and the client hired a technical writer to create the text.

The company mailed 2,000 pizza boxes and attained higher than a 7 percent response rate. Ragazzo initially was concerned about his promotional product selection when the customer told him a professor in Toronto complained the pizza theme trivialized important lab work. "But the company said, 'No, that's great! We finally got the guy to call and set up a sales meeting with him,'" Ragazzo recalls. Sales for the mid-range product exceeded the company's expectations by 20 percent, he says. "Were we solely responsible? I don't claim to be, but we definitely helped," he says.

4 Tips on Selling Promotional Products

1. Avoid the "what's hot?" mentality, says Bob Ragazzo, account executive with distributorship Bradley Marketing Group, Hauppauge, N.Y. "Promotional products are a misused medium," he says. "Instead of just buying stuff you see vendors display as hot new products at a trade show, put some time into selecting items for your customers." Buying Frisbees® to hand out at a trade show in Minneapolis in January might not be wise. But the same customer may buy them in July for its company picnic: It could flip over the personalized Frisbees, place paper plates inside and serve lunch on them. After lunch, employees could toss around the disks.

2. Pay attention to packaging. Ragazzo sends prospects a self-promotion in a black box with a tool and a message about the importance of marketing tools. When he recently called a company to see if a contact received the box, the assistant said no. Ragazzo sent another one. He called back, and again the assistant said she didn't see the box on her boss's mail pile. When Ragazzo reached the contact, he said, "You're the one who's been sending me those tools!" The black boxes intrigued the man so much--and stood apart from the business and oversized envelopes he typically receives--that he opened them right away. "I got my message across and had a conversation with him," Ragazzo says.

3. Know the client's budget. There's no point thinking about products without knowing how much the client can spend. Knowing this shortens the list of potential products and design features.

4. Look for creative ideas. Here are four places to start: 1) Your own team--brainstorm with your staff and manufacturers. 2) Retail store windows--window shopping can spark creative ideas. 3) Trade shows--jot down good ideas seen at exhibitors' booths. 4) Designers--they can translate concepts into eye-catching, effective images.

One of Terry Allen's customers wanted to market products and services to apartment dwellers, but the company didn't want to blanket a wide area with its promotional post card. It had a select group in mind--residents in four or five luxury apartment communities who pay more than $1,500 monthly for rent. "The client targets a small group in a small area, and that's what makes the project a challenge," says Allen, president of Service Info Systems, a distributorship in Fort Worth, Texas.

The solution was short run digital printing. Allen provided 4-color 5 x 7-inch post cards printed on 10-pt. stock. The post cards were coated on the front and featured photos and banner copy. The back of the cards was personalized with residents' addresses. The cards were digitally printed on a Xerox DocuColor™ 2060.

Allen oversees numerous post card mailings for the client, ranging from very short runs to mailings with approximately 11,000 pieces. Those that require shorter runs are produced digitally, while higher volume mailings are printed on offset presses and personalized with ink jet printers. In addition to volume, quality dictates the production method. "The digital post cards aren't ad-agency quality, but they get the job done," Allen says. "It's a good, low-cost marketing piece that's easy to get out."

Just as important as the product itself is the service the distributorship provides. "The client tells me who they want to target, and we dig up the addresses," he says. This can be time-consuming. Recently, the customer wanted to target 30 properties in Minnesota, one with as few as four tenants and another with 800. Service Info Systems compiled the addresses and provided an accurate mailing list, from which the customer could build a solid database. It's this service, coupled with the right printing method, that wins loyalty.

6 Tips on Selling Digital Printing

1. Remember that information is paramount. The options for high-quality, 4-color digital printing with variable imaging seem to increase daily. The technology is fabulous, but Terry Allen, president of distributorship Service Info Systems, Fort Worth, Texas, warns against getting so wrapped up in the glitz that you forget the most important element--information. "I got a nice post card from a manufacturer in the mail," he says. "But where was their web site? Where was their email?" Allen says the company neglected to include this important contact data. "What's the point of sending out a piece of mail without this information?" he says.

2. Market digital printing for test runs. Because digital printing is ideal for short runs, it's a great application for trials of direct mail and marketing campaigns. For instance, if a customer plans to mail 20,000 pieces that will be printed offset, the company could mail 300 to 500 digitally printed pieces first to gauge the response.

3. Determine the selling points. Distributors often find that prospects are unsatisfied with aspects of their current printing projects, such as slow turnaround and inflexibility. Determine which benefits of digital printing--variable data, quick turnaround, no need for warehousing--will best serve prospects. Market the technology accordingly.

4. Get clients to sign off on proofs. It's important to show customers color proofs and have them sign off on them before sending jobs to the printer. Some distributors also include lists on the back of proofs that specify the documents' correct sizes, quantities and paper stocks.

5. Stick with deadlines. Because many digital printing projects are tied to direct mail campaigns, newsletters or other time-sensitive materials, it's important to meet deadlines. If such promotions or newsletters arrive late, your customers have thrown their money away.

6. Learn about the equipment. Distributors should regularly attend digital printing seminars and read trade magazine articles to stay abreast of changes in the technology. In additions, distributors who don't own digital printing equipment can turn to vendors for help with samples and technical assistance.

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