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Industry Leaders Forecast Opportunity Amid the Challenges for Products Businesses in 2010
November 04, 2009
By Donna M. Airoldi
Incentive, recognition and promotional products businesses will continue to face challenges next year, but a proactive approach will allow firms to capitalize on emerging opportunities in the recovering economy. At least according to the feedback from this year’s Special Markets Dialogues meeting, which took place in late October in Myrtle Beach, S.C.
Each year a broad-based group of market leaders who deliver reward, recognition and incentive solutions meet to assess the state of the market and to identify key opportunities for 2010. The event is facilitated by Pete Mitchell, director of B-to-B sales for Samsonite Corporation.
Key takeaways from this year’s meeting include:
•The market will still be a challenge going into 2010, but it’s important for businesses to position themselves for the recover now.
•The industry needs a common voice across suppliers, distributors and associations to address the legislative and regulatory environments facing the industry.
•New opportunities exist, but providers must reassess the way they deliver merchandise and/or services to their clients in a strategic way, and shift their business processes to the “new” realities.
•The value of incentives and promotional products must be demonstrated to clients as an investment rather than as an expense.
“For resellers in our channel, they need to look at types of programs they sell to customers and ask, ‘What else can we be doing?’” says Mitchell. “I’m a big believer in that we focus too much on getting new customers instead of maximizing the spend of customers we already have. You need to become viral in the organization where you have entrée. It’s not just that you have a relationship with one person, you also need to know the HR guys, the person who runs safety programs in the plant, the promotions products person if you sell branded merchandise, and vice versa. Why would they not spend their money with someone they already trust?”
As for how to demonstrate the industry’s investment value, Mitchell says the industry is competent on overall strategy on rewarding and recognizing outstanding performance, whether for employees or customers, but we need to be more proactive in getting that message out, “otherwise, we’re viewed as an expense, not an investment, and after that, we’re easily cut from the budget. We can’t have that.”
Attendee Paul Bellantone, vice president of PPAI, noted, “There are lots of boundaries that have traditional separated the segments of our industry, but the meeting highlighted the fact that these barriers are really softer than we think. There are gray areas in between, with a lot of crossover, and that’s always enlightening. Some companies had bright spots, and a lot were picking up market share right now by working hard and being aggressive. They’ll be more successful when the economy turns around.”
Mitchell has been running the annual meeting since 2005, when he took it over from founder George Kling, who retired after more than 50 years in the premium incentive business. “I had attended the meeting for a number of years,” says Mitchell. “I made a few changes in terms of the way we meet and the types of people at table. It’s a little more broad-based, with people from both the promotional products and incentive sides involved, along with some customers.”
About 20 people attended, including Jimmy Beyer from Helix Global Solutions, Greg Canose from Award Marketing Services, Norma Knollenberg of Top Brands, Dave Peer from Hinda, and Ron Buchan from Partners for Incentives.
Attendance is by invitation only, and this year’s group was smaller than in previous years, says Mitchell, adding that that worked to the group’s advantage, with the ability for deeper and more detailed discussions. “We won’t have more than twenty-five next year.”
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