We rarely, if ever, publish a blog or information that is completely self-serving. This is not part of our belief or practice as a business - we believe our success is built upon the success of those we work with and interact with on a daily basis.
Since we began tweeting five weeks ago, we have rapidly grown in our following through Twitter, and appreciate every single one. Our business practice has always been to reach out and assist those selling our products, using our products or developing creative solutions that have nothing to do with our products.
Our main product is a service, supporting our business associates and communities in building and developing their brand and generating interest and income through the promotional product industry.
We are able to do this through awareness and mindfulness of the industries we work in, monitoring trends, listening to our clients, listening to our employees, treating customers with respect, being humanistic, offering a level of transparency through social media and of course, laughter.
We are able to behave in this manner for several reasons. Clothpromotions Plus is a family owned company that treats all of employees with dignity and respect and maintains a culture of family through each and every position within our company. We believe in a lateral hierarchy. Each and every employment position is equally important. Without the sales department - there is no business, without the production department - the sales people have nothing to sell, without the operations people - the production and sales people would have no guidelines or procedures, without the cleaning staff - no one would have a pleasant work environment.
A vertical hierarchy is where the porter answers to the desk staff, the desk staff answer to the administrator who answers to the manager who answers to the area supervisor who answers to the vice president who answers to the COO. We certainly understand and follow a certain "pecking order," yet no employee is fixated on titles and everyone understands that their productivity impacts everyone else. This respect our employees share for each other allows us to convey this to our clients and business associates.
The backgrounds of our founders and operations people is diverse and knowledgeable in many areas. We have backgrounds in business, sales, branding, government, non-profit, health care, technology and psychology. Decades of combined education and experience intermingle daily.
I post, write and monitor this blog. After graduate school, I worked in mental health. With almost 10 years in the almost every facet of the psychiatric field, direct practice, fund raising and health administration world - I took my skills and background to the marketing and advertising world. Much of marketing is based in human psychology and sociological trends. It has been my training and career to monitor those trends and observe human behavior. I discuss this to not tout my experience or career history, but to validate our place in the advertising and promotional products realm.
We use educated and measured means to listen to the needs of our industry and to provide individual and mass information back. If this results in any growth and success of our distributors or their clients then we feel proud and accomplished. If this results in our own growth and success as a company, than we have more than done our job.
As a company, we incorporate advertising, technology, business and psychology backgrounds - as human beings, we incorporate communication, relationship building, listening and responding.
As you read our blogs, you will see how we incorporate our marriage of backgrounds. We will never posit ourselves as a company that simply believes we know what our customers want; we will be a company that is progressive in meeting the needs and wants of a growing customer base that demands individualized attention and knowledge of our market.
Clear vision with Clothpromotions.
Monday, August 17, 2009
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Do Not Begin Your Day Until You Read This
On Time, Perception and Being Present
Two businessmen, each en route to important business meetings, have left their houses. Two business men walking down the sidewalk in early morning New York City. Each man wearing identical, brand new, Barney's suits, new leather shoes and a leather briefcase. Both men briskly walking to make it to their important business meetings as the sky opens up and begins to pour rain all over them.
In the rush to leave the house, neither man checked the weather nor took an umbrella with them. Now they are getting drenched, with 20 minutes to reach their appointments, no time to go back and change, and completely getting soaked in the middle of the sidewalk with no businesses or overhangs to gain cover. Barney's suits, leather shoes and leather briefcases getting ruined.
Eventually, one man's face turns bright red and is trying to hail any taxi going by or run into any business. He raises his fists to the heavens and begins to curse the rain, the clouds and God himself! He is furious and justly so. Perhaps more furious for not being prepared, although it may take a day to cool off and realize that.
The other man, also trying to hail a cab, looks up at the rain and smiles. He smiles, shakes his head, looks down at his watch and his clothes and thinks to himself, "well this is just swell." He begins to sing Singin' in the Rain to himself and jumps in a puddle.
Both men run into each other at the corner of the street, chasing the same taxi. They flag it down, nod in agreement to share and head off. To find they are going to the same place and in fact were meeting with each other.
Time, the suits, the taxicabs, the briefcases, the meeting place, the umbrella sitting next to their doors, and the rain itself - had no agenda to disrupt those particular businessmens' days. The rain did not choose who to fall on. Time did not choose to speed up or slow down for anyone. So what was the difference that lead one man to chuckle and sing and the other curse and fume?
Being present and perception.
As people we should take a moment daily, to step back and realize that we are only viewing the world through our own pair of eyes. We base our thoughts and feelings and reactions to a situation on our memories or our beliefs or predictions of the outcome. We rarely, as people, base our perception of a situation solely on what is exactly occurring as it occurs. Or being completely present and mindful.
Take moments to just smell the scents, touch the objects around you, realize their proximity to your body, listen to every sound around you, taste the food, inhale the air and look at the immediate surroundings in relation to your physical presence, right now.
Do not think about the time, what you must do tomorrow, what happened a week ago. Do not think about what you missed, or what you hope to accomplish. Do not focus on the demands upon you or wondering if you paid that bill. None of those things can be changed by your worry or thoughts or feelings alone.
Simply, take stock in the present and where you are and what you experience and what you see and what you can accomplish, right now. The issues you think about or worry about, will not leave if you stop concerning yourself with them.
The time you take to be present, will certainly assist you in being more mindful in accomplishing those tasks or correcting issues on your mind.
Clear vision with Clothpromotions.
Two businessmen, each en route to important business meetings, have left their houses. Two business men walking down the sidewalk in early morning New York City. Each man wearing identical, brand new, Barney's suits, new leather shoes and a leather briefcase. Both men briskly walking to make it to their important business meetings as the sky opens up and begins to pour rain all over them.
In the rush to leave the house, neither man checked the weather nor took an umbrella with them. Now they are getting drenched, with 20 minutes to reach their appointments, no time to go back and change, and completely getting soaked in the middle of the sidewalk with no businesses or overhangs to gain cover. Barney's suits, leather shoes and leather briefcases getting ruined.
Eventually, one man's face turns bright red and is trying to hail any taxi going by or run into any business. He raises his fists to the heavens and begins to curse the rain, the clouds and God himself! He is furious and justly so. Perhaps more furious for not being prepared, although it may take a day to cool off and realize that.
The other man, also trying to hail a cab, looks up at the rain and smiles. He smiles, shakes his head, looks down at his watch and his clothes and thinks to himself, "well this is just swell." He begins to sing Singin' in the Rain to himself and jumps in a puddle.
Both men run into each other at the corner of the street, chasing the same taxi. They flag it down, nod in agreement to share and head off. To find they are going to the same place and in fact were meeting with each other.
Time, the suits, the taxicabs, the briefcases, the meeting place, the umbrella sitting next to their doors, and the rain itself - had no agenda to disrupt those particular businessmens' days. The rain did not choose who to fall on. Time did not choose to speed up or slow down for anyone. So what was the difference that lead one man to chuckle and sing and the other curse and fume?
Being present and perception.
As people we should take a moment daily, to step back and realize that we are only viewing the world through our own pair of eyes. We base our thoughts and feelings and reactions to a situation on our memories or our beliefs or predictions of the outcome. We rarely, as people, base our perception of a situation solely on what is exactly occurring as it occurs. Or being completely present and mindful.
Take moments to just smell the scents, touch the objects around you, realize their proximity to your body, listen to every sound around you, taste the food, inhale the air and look at the immediate surroundings in relation to your physical presence, right now.
Do not think about the time, what you must do tomorrow, what happened a week ago. Do not think about what you missed, or what you hope to accomplish. Do not focus on the demands upon you or wondering if you paid that bill. None of those things can be changed by your worry or thoughts or feelings alone.
Simply, take stock in the present and where you are and what you experience and what you see and what you can accomplish, right now. The issues you think about or worry about, will not leave if you stop concerning yourself with them.
The time you take to be present, will certainly assist you in being more mindful in accomplishing those tasks or correcting issues on your mind.
Clear vision with Clothpromotions.
Thursday, July 30, 2009
The Market for Marketing
I was recently reminded in a business telephone conversation that distributors sell specific products to specific businesses. I use the term "reminded," as I had forgotten that a vast majority of distributors of advertising specialty products envision a specific client and the specific product match for that client. Our company follows a bit of a different philosophy than this concept. I do not believe our philosophy is unique, nor is it divergent from the majority of thinkers. However, a certain marketing idealism seems to vacate during these trying economic times or in settling with the idea that any order is a good order.
For your direct consideration:
(Source: http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/marketing.html)
There appear to be many Sellers in the distributor arena and far fewer Marketers.
Speaking directly as a company, Clothpromotions Plus (CPP) has invented itself through the expressed needs of a marketplace. Expressed needs indicating it is what the industry desires, whereas implied needs indicate what the Vendor imposes upon the industry in hopes they will desire.
CPP had researched the industry (industry defined as the entire product and service business world), and discovered something, EVERYONE WANTS THE SAME THING in a "marketing" product or campaign: Quality product, low cost, maximum value for exposure, usability, function, branding, high return on investment (ROI), universal appeal and usefulness. Most business marketers will certainly also tell you, an individual targeted marketing campaign is always more successful than throwing a wide net and hoping you catch something.
Sure, we could sell any imprintable item. We could SELL any imprintable item. We chose to market.
We use our product to brand ourselves, we use our product to give away at tradeshows, we use our product as our business card, we use our product daily on all the items it is useful for, we use our product to sell our product.
CPP is marketing a concept, that corporations, universities, non-profits, wholesalers, manufacturers, health care agencies, distributors and everyone that is in any type of business or service industry is seeking and expressing. Businesses desire and express needs for high ROI.
We are marketing a product that primarily functions as a marketing tool. Moreso, we market the idea that our product everyone in America and beyond can use multiple times a day (and actually will use), will remain in an individual's possession for over one year and up to ten years (the longest thus far we have seen), brands a company's name and message and exposes that brand to the user of the product multiple times a day, and is less than one dollar total cost of said product. Now divide $0.50 by 365 (days in a year) and then by 5 (average number of uses per day). Your answer should be $0.000274. This number indicates that each exposure will cost the company that uses this marketing item $0.000274.
That is what we market, the concept of using an advertising specialty item to MARKET an end user's brand, and result in a sales conversion.
My advice to distributor's is market to your clients, do not sell. Anyone can sell with enough moxie.
Meet the client's expressed needs, listen to your client, discover what they want to occur with spending their money and match them with the appropriate techniques and campaign to deliver a truly value added service. Assist your clients to assist their business. You will walk away a hero, every time.
Clear vision with Clothpromotions.
www.clothpromotions.com
For your direct consideration:
Marketing Definition-
Management process through which goods and services move from concept to the customer.
As a philosophy, it is based on thinking about the business in terms of customer needs and their satisfaction.
As a practice, it consists in coordination of four elements called 4P's: (1) identification, selection, and development of a product, (2) determination of its price, (3) selection of a distribution channel to reach the customer's place, and (4) development and implementation of a promotional strategy. Marketing differs from selling because (in the words of Harvard Business School's emeritus professor of marketing Theodore C. Levitt) "Selling concerns itself with the tricks and techniques of getting people to exchange their cash for your product. It is not concerned with the values that the exchange is all about. And it does not, as marketing invariably does, view the entire business process as consisting of a tightly integrated effort to discover, create, arouse, and satisfy customer needs."
There appear to be many Sellers in the distributor arena and far fewer Marketers.
Speaking directly as a company, Clothpromotions Plus (CPP) has invented itself through the expressed needs of a marketplace. Expressed needs indicating it is what the industry desires, whereas implied needs indicate what the Vendor imposes upon the industry in hopes they will desire.
CPP had researched the industry (industry defined as the entire product and service business world), and discovered something, EVERYONE WANTS THE SAME THING in a "marketing" product or campaign: Quality product, low cost, maximum value for exposure, usability, function, branding, high return on investment (ROI), universal appeal and usefulness. Most business marketers will certainly also tell you, an individual targeted marketing campaign is always more successful than throwing a wide net and hoping you catch something.
Sure, we could sell any imprintable item. We could SELL any imprintable item. We chose to market.
We use our product to brand ourselves, we use our product to give away at tradeshows, we use our product as our business card, we use our product daily on all the items it is useful for, we use our product to sell our product.
CPP is marketing a concept, that corporations, universities, non-profits, wholesalers, manufacturers, health care agencies, distributors and everyone that is in any type of business or service industry is seeking and expressing. Businesses desire and express needs for high ROI.
We are marketing a product that primarily functions as a marketing tool. Moreso, we market the idea that our product everyone in America and beyond can use multiple times a day (and actually will use), will remain in an individual's possession for over one year and up to ten years (the longest thus far we have seen), brands a company's name and message and exposes that brand to the user of the product multiple times a day, and is less than one dollar total cost of said product. Now divide $0.50 by 365 (days in a year) and then by 5 (average number of uses per day). Your answer should be $0.000274. This number indicates that each exposure will cost the company that uses this marketing item $0.000274.
That is what we market, the concept of using an advertising specialty item to MARKET an end user's brand, and result in a sales conversion.
My advice to distributor's is market to your clients, do not sell. Anyone can sell with enough moxie.
Meet the client's expressed needs, listen to your client, discover what they want to occur with spending their money and match them with the appropriate techniques and campaign to deliver a truly value added service. Assist your clients to assist their business. You will walk away a hero, every time.
Clear vision with Clothpromotions.
www.clothpromotions.com
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Top 10 List of Top 10 Lists
Top 10 Lists capture our attention, are typically easy reads and are the cliffsnotes of online articles.
Even better than Top 10 Lists may be the "Five Reasons..." or "10 Best..." lists.
To keep with the purpose of this blog, here is your Top 10 Lists 10 points on experiencing the Top 10 list (have you been counting how many times I have typed the word "list" ?):
10. As you simply start reading, you already feel a sense of accomplishment, beginning your journey toward #1.
9. Breaking the #10 reason allows you to feel as if you are well on your way.
8. At this point you are seeking something more substantial, as you get closer to #1. And you will, because #8 is quite witty, if you think about it...
7. Usually a filler.
6. Reintroduces the concept that you are working down to more interesting reasons that a Top 10 list is valuable to your time.
5. Halfway there! Now the Top 10 List becomes a Top 5 List and 5 becomes the new 10. Usually the most self aware point in a Top 10 List.
4. Slap your own face! #4 Is usually quirkier than #1 even. At this point attention spans require a boost or a good punchline.
3. Final countdown. Lists that count down rather than up usually indicate that the #1 is the pinnacle of the list. When you count up from #1, they all seem equally important.
2. Holy smokes! Anticipation is more exciting than acquisition. At this point, being filled with the knowledge and cleverness of the past 7 points makes #2 the #1 tugger of emotions. The #2 point cannot outdo the #1 point in any list, yet it should lead on from the past 8.
1. People read Top 10 Lists because they offer quick, quirky points that keep people's interests and avoid the time needed to review an entire article or blog. #1 is the punchline of the entire list and usually is non sequitur.
Stay tuned for equally introspective lists to save you time!
File under Satire.
Clear vision with Clothpromotions.
Even better than Top 10 Lists may be the "Five Reasons..." or "10 Best..." lists.
To keep with the purpose of this blog, here is your Top 10 Lists 10 points on experiencing the Top 10 list (have you been counting how many times I have typed the word "list" ?):
10. As you simply start reading, you already feel a sense of accomplishment, beginning your journey toward #1.
9. Breaking the #10 reason allows you to feel as if you are well on your way.
8. At this point you are seeking something more substantial, as you get closer to #1. And you will, because #8 is quite witty, if you think about it...
7. Usually a filler.
6. Reintroduces the concept that you are working down to more interesting reasons that a Top 10 list is valuable to your time.
5. Halfway there! Now the Top 10 List becomes a Top 5 List and 5 becomes the new 10. Usually the most self aware point in a Top 10 List.
4. Slap your own face! #4 Is usually quirkier than #1 even. At this point attention spans require a boost or a good punchline.
3. Final countdown. Lists that count down rather than up usually indicate that the #1 is the pinnacle of the list. When you count up from #1, they all seem equally important.
2. Holy smokes! Anticipation is more exciting than acquisition. At this point, being filled with the knowledge and cleverness of the past 7 points makes #2 the #1 tugger of emotions. The #2 point cannot outdo the #1 point in any list, yet it should lead on from the past 8.
1. People read Top 10 Lists because they offer quick, quirky points that keep people's interests and avoid the time needed to review an entire article or blog. #1 is the punchline of the entire list and usually is non sequitur.
Stay tuned for equally introspective lists to save you time!
File under Satire.
Clear vision with Clothpromotions.
Monday, July 27, 2009
Qualities of Promotion...A Mild Intro
As initial blogs may go, this will be no different. It will not be the same either.
There is much information, education, opinions and general clutter surrounding the world of promoting, branding and advertising oneself or one's business interests.
How that translates in real life and how real individuals and businesses adhere and follow through with the wealth of information and motivation, is typically an entirely different situation.
Blogs are simply re posted or discussed around the water cooler or through FB or emails back and forth. Articles typically are used in the same way. (I am guilty)
Twitter is similar, yet allows us hands on, direct contact and immediate responding to those posting (pending it is original work). (again, guilty)
How many people walk out of a Tony Robbin's session feeling as if they can conquer the world? ...Calling family members, re-thinking their lives and careers and empowering themselves to the point of euphoria and catharsis.
And what happens in no less than, 2 days later? I cannot speak for everyone... but pep-talks are temporary and if everyone was as motivated and successful and life changing and life affirming as our friend Tony Robbins... we would not need Tony Robbins.
He is a template, I am not directing anything in regards to him specifically.
Isn't the point that we all want and have the ability to experience that energy sprouting from within us, compelling us to take charge of our lives and create the world as we would have it??
I have read many articles on both sides; fear of failure to move forward in life, or fear of success that life may actually work out.
Either way - the main motivation appears to have fear involved and the hypothesis would be that we may be perpetually living in response to avoiding the fear, rather than proactively running the show.
We are, collectively, interacting on a more personal basis (albeit electronically) with each other and even celebrities (biggest Twitter example: @aplusk). Our best resource is our self.
Promoting oneself is promoting the uniqueness of oneself. The differences and the interests of others is always more interesting than routine familiarity. I am not suggesting an anarchistic approach to marketing, I am not denying adding a little bit of it either.
Persistence, common sense, practicality, and usefulness - are the qualities to have when promoting. The uniqueness of the brand, product or person - will inevitably shine through.
Clear vision with Clothpromotions.
There is much information, education, opinions and general clutter surrounding the world of promoting, branding and advertising oneself or one's business interests.
How that translates in real life and how real individuals and businesses adhere and follow through with the wealth of information and motivation, is typically an entirely different situation.
Blogs are simply re posted or discussed around the water cooler or through FB or emails back and forth. Articles typically are used in the same way. (I am guilty)
Twitter is similar, yet allows us hands on, direct contact and immediate responding to those posting (pending it is original work). (again, guilty)
How many people walk out of a Tony Robbin's session feeling as if they can conquer the world? ...Calling family members, re-thinking their lives and careers and empowering themselves to the point of euphoria and catharsis.
And what happens in no less than, 2 days later? I cannot speak for everyone... but pep-talks are temporary and if everyone was as motivated and successful and life changing and life affirming as our friend Tony Robbins... we would not need Tony Robbins.
He is a template, I am not directing anything in regards to him specifically.
Isn't the point that we all want and have the ability to experience that energy sprouting from within us, compelling us to take charge of our lives and create the world as we would have it??
I have read many articles on both sides; fear of failure to move forward in life, or fear of success that life may actually work out.
Either way - the main motivation appears to have fear involved and the hypothesis would be that we may be perpetually living in response to avoiding the fear, rather than proactively running the show.
We are, collectively, interacting on a more personal basis (albeit electronically) with each other and even celebrities (biggest Twitter example: @aplusk). Our best resource is our self.
Promoting oneself is promoting the uniqueness of oneself. The differences and the interests of others is always more interesting than routine familiarity. I am not suggesting an anarchistic approach to marketing, I am not denying adding a little bit of it either.
Persistence, common sense, practicality, and usefulness - are the qualities to have when promoting. The uniqueness of the brand, product or person - will inevitably shine through.
Clear vision with Clothpromotions.
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