MARKETING PROMOTIONS AND MUSINGS FROM THE VENDOR SIDE

We have been a very reliable vendor. We have been blessed with some very large orders. We pride ourselves in taking very good care of our customers. However, business like ours is a relationship business. People like to buy from their friends. The people with the most power generally make the buying decisions in the GWP category.  No matter how good your prices and service are, this means less than relationships. “New Buyers always have old friends.” In order to give the business to an old friend it is necessary to prove the present vendor is not doing a good job.  Normally a huge chargeback is given followed by the business being rewarded to the friends. This adds insult to injury. Not only do you lose the account you also lose a lot of money.

Travel Bag With Free Samples

The enclosed bags were given away as a “Gift With Purchase” online. They are travel cosmetics bags. They were given away chocked full of travel size samples. It was a great way to encourage sales and future sales of samples products.

"Crystal Clematis" cuff bracelet

I Live in New Hope, Pa. Every year we do a “Gift With Donation” for the New Hope Historical Society. It is always given away  for a contribution during their annual “Garden Tour”. The design always matches the theme of the tour. It’s usually a flower because it’s a garden tour. This year the theme is clematis. We have done the enclosed crystal and pearl clematis cuff bracelet. The gift always generates lots of good will and good fun.

http://www.newhopehs.org/2011gardentourbracelet.html

I design, manufacture and donate a lot of custom items for non profit fundraising in my community. They give them away as a gift with donation.
Last May I was in Italy and broke my ankle. I was taken to the Italian Hospital. It was worse than dreadful.
We don’t appreciate American health care until we experience worse in other countries. When I got home, my orthopedist made me take an ultrasound before he operated. He found a blood clot. Luckily this saved my life. I was operated on @ Doylestown Hosp. in Doylestown, Pa. It was like being in the Ritz Carlon. The care was fabulous.
Since I was on blood thinners for the clot a nurse came to my home every other day to draw blood. The care was amazing. I wanted to do something special for Doylestown Hosp. It was total synchronisity that my nurse was one of the people heading up “The Designer House” which is a fundraiser for the Hospital. I designed and manufactured the “Gift Of Life” bracelet for them. It will be given away as a gift with donation. Designer House gets about 8000 attendees over a 1 month period. We hope to raise a lot of money using the bracelet. My Gift To Doylestown Hospital for saving my life.

“Life Is A Gift”

Every so often customers decide perhaps they would save money if they imported from China themselves. For retail products this may make sense.
The average mark up from first cost to retail is at least 10X.
For GWP Premium products the mark up is normally 10%-40% of Landed Duty Paid. It does not make sense for the retailer to import these products for the following reasons:
1-They would need an entire import department.
2-They are normally charged higher prices
3-They need to either set up their own offices in China or hire a Chinese Trading company. It has been my experience that defects are most prevalent when working with trading companies because they need to hide profit and it always comes out of the product.
4-Cash Flow..cost of product, duty and freight need to be paid immediately.
5-samples and sample shipping need to be paid for up front.
This is why there is very little direct import of GWP items from China by retailers. Even retail importing has declined. Most retailers have found it is easier to use their vendor’s expertise and money to finance their business.

we have always done a lot of custom packaging. Our packaging website is
www.packagingpromotions.com   Everything looks better in packaging. Even people. Packaging is a silent salesperson. It attracts the customer and elevates the retail buy because lots of product can be put together. There were years when we did 150,000 holiday boxes or baskets with one famous retailer. The retail buy in was $100-$300. They were displayed on etagiers that you could see from the mall entrance.  By December 1 retailers are out of vendor holiday gift sets. Cosmetics companies do not like to deliver too many because they are not so profitable and the retailer sends them back after the holiday. These days most retailers are not doing holiday store containers any longer.
The last 10 days before Christmas are the biggest selling period of the year. I have been getting calls from cosmetics companies to do quick containers for last 10 days.
These days everyone opts for some kind of a bag rather than a box or basket. They take less room behind the counter, are easier to make custom gift sets , make more retail dollars per sq’ and are cheaper to buy and ship. We get a ton of last minute business because we do it quickly and creatively,

We can design, develop and deliver almost any product. We do it quickly and creatively. We do it with best quality and best prices. We are a marketing company that manufactures products that help our customers sell their products better, by giving away our products as a Gift With Purchase. Our marketing promotions are based on best selling trends and best perceived values.  We do perfect products in beautiful packaging. Everything is designed and developed specifically for each customer.

From time to time buyers decide they would rather do business with a retail bag company, or a retail jewelry company. Companies that import and stock lines of  specific product. Or perhaps a new buyer has vendors who they dealt with before when they bought retail product. Often, these companies start a GWP division. Normally hiring an ex buyer who has connections with a major group of stores. They are always more expensive and often are slow to react.
Their buying power is often smaller than a GWP company because they place smaller numbers of a lot of items rather than large quantities of 1 item. Retail companies often look bigger. GWP companies are often smaller by design, but may actually move larger business.

We do a lot of fundraising events. Many are donated. The enormous ones are done at almost no mark up. Every year we do items for several fundraising events for Breast Cancer Research. Over the years we have helped to raise millions for non profit charity organizations. Putting good energy into the universe always comes back. Since it never comes back from where you put it you need to put it everywhere. There is one customer who always comes to us for a quick and cheap BCRF promotion. Whatever I quote them, they always want it cheaper..their orders are small and they expect you to buy special insurance and purchase EDI software. They would never do any other business with us because they have preferred vendors. We continue to do the BCRF promotion for them because it’s a great cause and the universe always gives back. So when somebody asks us to do a product for a fundraiser, we do it not because we expect more business but because it’s a good cause.

We do some business with a pharma company that does a famous skincare line. I was asked to do a bag for a line that they wanted to sell to physicians.
I did some art for them and made some samples. The color was grey. Every Time I made samples the team was not happy with the shade of grey. They also were not happy with the luster of the fabrication. They requested swatches. While I have thousands of swatches, the order was not large enough to do a custom dye. Grey is also a color that is not commonly stocked in so many shades. As for luster, they did not want the container to be feminine and most lustrous fabrics are somewhat feminine. They also wanted a quick delivery, so they could launch the line ASAP. I did and redid the art. I made and remade the samples. They liked my bag design and construction and samples..but were not finding just the right shade of grey and the right luster. After making at least 6 samples, sending 2 dozen grey swatches, I told them I was all out of options. They thanked me for my honesty and went elsewhere in search of the right color grey and the right luster. I have no idea whether they ever found it but they had all my art and samples so they did not have to start from scratch. The buyer thanked me for my honesty and said she looked forward to working with me again. Most likely this is just another example of not being able to please everyone on the committee. I’m am not sure if they ever found the right shade of grey, however I am sure they did not get delivery of their bag to launch the program ASAP..another case of the pantone color being more important than making money for the company.