Don’t Let the Bad Economic News Get You Down

In case you haven’t heard, all economics is local.
May 6, 2008

By Richard Lebovitz

The current state of the economy reminds me of Joey’s favorite pick-up line on the TV sitcom Friends: “How YOU doin’? If I were to ask any Promotional Impressions reader that question about your business, I would probably get as many different answers as there are readers.

That’s because the sale of promotional products depends on a variety of factors, including cyclical and structural changes in markets; changes in advertising budgets and strategies; the promotional consultant’s knowledge, experience and attitude; the relationship with the client; and the state of the local economy.

If you take the time to map out the various factors, including any I may have neglected to mention, you’ll discover they fall into two camps: 1. Those beyond your control and that you can’t do anything about, and 2. those within your control and that you can do something about.

What you also may discover in the process of sizing up these factors that you may have more control than you think. For example, you can’t control the decline in employment but you can refocus your business on those sectors or subsectors where there remain opportunities for promotional solutions. This is a point we’ve emphasized again and again in previous commentaries, so we won’t dwell on it here.

In addition, those sectors in decline may still require different types of promotional products. You just have to fit the product to the need, and therein lies one of the advantages of being in the promotional consulting business. There are thousands of products available that can serve your clients’ promotional needs and can do so as effectively and, in most cases, less expensively than almost any other advertising medium.

In case your clients don’t believe in the power of promotional products, you have at your disposal a lot of supporting research from the Promotional Products Association Intl. For instance, last year PPAI launched a series of market focuses, one of which targeted Human Resources professionals and their use of promotional products in rewards and recognition programs. Here’s a sample of what the HR professionals had to say:
• 75% of those who had rewards and recognition programs in their company used promotional products in these programs
• 72% found promotional products either effective or extremely effective.

It’s not hard to find many other examples of the effectiveness of promotional products, including their appeal to all the senses, their staying power and so forth.

As for changes in advertising budgets, study after study has shown that companies that maintain their advertising during a downturn come out ahead of the competition at the end of the downturn. Though many companies ignore this conventional wisdom and cut their advertising and marketing budgets when times get tough, there’s some evidence that the cuts may not be as drastic this time around. In its recently completed “Signs of the Times” small business survey, FedEx Kinko’s reported that 92% of respondents indicated that they would either keep their spending the same or increase it this year.

Again, whether your customers and prospects keep the spending the same or change it in any way, there’s a promotional product and promotional product price point to provide almost any solution.

The challenge for you is to tune out the news reported every day at the national level and to tune in to what’s going on in your community. According to economic research firm SYNEVA Economics LLC, what is actually occurring in your economy is dependent on the particular mix of businesses and households and their interaction.

Writing recently in an article titled “How’s the economy in your hometown?” in USA Today, Barbara Hagenbaugh said, “While business owners and workers in parts of the country for months have weathered recession-like conditions … others have been doing well.”

Only you know whether your locale is one of the fortunate ones, but if it isn’t, don’t despair. As we’ve tried to show, there are many ways in which promotional products can play a role in bad times as well as good. 

To comment on this editorial or other promotional products issues, e-mail rlebovitz@impressionsmag.com.

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