April 17, 2012 • Share PPB Newslink • Send News To JamesK@ppai.org

PPAI Leads Branding Leadership Forum At AAF Nashville Convention
In PPAI’s ongoing efforts to educate buyers and consumers on the power of promotional products, your Association joined with American Advertising Federation (AAF) Nashville ADDY award winners on April 13 to present a branding leadership forum during the annual AAF Nashville Convention and District 7 ADDY Awards. Read more AAF

TradeNet Acquires Fellow Supplier Ad Dimensions
TradeNet (UPIC: TRADENET), a supplier headquartered in Gardner, Kansas, has acquired Independence, Missouri-based Ad Dimensions (UPIC: ADCUBE). Ad Dimensions supplies its Ad Cubes, Slinky adhesive notes and Stik-On Notes to the promotional products industry. Read more TradeNet

The Forum Releases Research Paper Examining Employee Retention Best Practices
A new report from The Forum: Business Results Through People draws on lessons learned from Northwestern University’s study on the link between organizational characteristics and employee attitudes and behavior, to show clear ways to reduce employee turnover, attract talent and become an employer of choice. Read more The Forum

ePromos To Introduce Rotuba’s SNIFTY Line To The Promotional Products Industry
ePromos Promotional Products (UPIC: EPROMOS), a distributor headquartered in New York, New York, has announced that the company has partnered with Rotuba, manufacturer of the SNIFTY line of scented pens, to the promotional products market. Read more ePromos

Supplier Custom HBC Is Sold; Custom Chocolate Sets Up Separate Operation
Waconia, Minnesota-based Custom HBC (UPIC: hbcspec) has been sold to an investment group with other promotional products industry holdings. The company reports that the sale process is expected to close within the next few days. Read more Custom HBC

Norwood & BIC Graphic Cross-Trains Inside Sales Staff To Service Both Brands
Last year, Norwood & BIC Graphic unified its field sales teams serving the two brands. Last week, it announced that it had completed expanding and cross-training its inside sales teams to sell and support both product lines as well. Read more Norwood & BIC Graphic

PCNA Expands Its Executive Team With Senior Vice President Of Sales And Market Development Position
Polyconcept North America (PCNA) has created a new position within its executive team—senior vice president of sales and market development—and hired on Ron Neugold to fill it. Read more PCNA

PPAW Becomes A SAGE Affiliate
The Promotional Products Association of Wisconsin (PPAW) has partnered with SAGE, joining the company’s SAGE Affiliate program. This relationship provides PPAW members a variety of SAGE services and discounts. Read more SAGE

Balvenie Rare Craft Roadshow To Make A Stop At R.S. Owens
Chicago, Illinois-based R.S. Owens & Co., Inc. (UPIC: RSOWENS) is hosting the Balvenie Rare Craft Roadshow on May 2 during a stop on its tour across America. Read more R.S. Owens

April Is PPEF Donate Your Lunch Money Month
This month, the Promotional Products Education Foundation (PPEF) is asking you to commit to lunchboxing your mid-day meal once a week and donating your saved expenses to the Foundation. When you contribute $5, $10, $20—whatever your lunch budget allows—you’ll be supporting PPEF’s many scholarship programs. To donate, click PPEF.

Nominate Your Choices For Three Prestigious PPAI Awards
Three important awards categories—the PPAI Hall of Fame, the PPAI Distinguished Service Award and the PPAI H. Ted Olson Humanitarian Award—in the PPAI Awards and Recognition Program are now open for nomination. Read more Awards

PPAI Visits FedEx’s Memphis Headquarters And Shipping Hub
Recently, members of PPAI’s staff and leadership team traveled to FedEx’s world headquarters in Memphis, Tennessee, for a semi-annual review of the PPAI Business Partner program and business meeting. They toured the facility and discussed the state of the program and strategic business plans for the coming year. Read more FedEx

How Did Your Company Fare In The First Quarter Of 2012?
In order to give you a market snapshot for the quarter, PPAI is once again tracking quarterly performance in the promotional products industry. So, please take a minute to answer this short survey about your 2012 first quarter sales performance. Your response will help the promotional products industry provide you with a much-needed accurate measure every quarter. The metrics you provide are confidential and will be presented only in aggregate form in an upcoming issue of PPAI’s supplier update or PPB Newslink, and by e-mail to you. Respond by April 30, 2012, and you’ll be entered in drawing for a chance to win a Kindle Fire. Click here to start your survey.

Register Today For PPAI’s Line Up Of Educational Webinars
Throughout the month of April, PPAI is offering a variety of webinars to help industry professionals expand their skills and broaden their industry knowledge. Read more Webinars

PC’s April Issue Explores The No. 1 Sales Essential
Inside this month’s Promotional Consultant, find out why you can’t fake it and make it when it comes to product knowledge in Part 4 of our series on how to become a second-nature salesperson. The issue also examines the one trait that’s common to both great debaters and great salespeople—and sales expert Troy Harrison tells you how to find it. PPAI’s digital-only magazine for distributor salespeople includes these articles and more in the April issue. If you are not receiving PC in your inbox every month, subscribe free today.

PPAI Petitions Health Canada On CCPSA Writing Instrument Exemption
On April 16, PPAI reached out to Health Canada to support a recent petition by the Writing Instrument Manufacturers Association (WIMA) requesting the exclusion of general purpose ballpoint pens from the Canada Consumer Product Safety Act (CCPSA). Read more Health Canada

The Dodd-Frank Act May Impact Promotional Products Manufacturers
The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform And Consumer Protection Act, signed into law in 2010, requires publicly traded companies to disclose the source of certain conflict minerals. These can often be found in pens, golf balls and other items that are part of the promotional products industry. Read more Dodd-Frank

PPAI’s CPSIA Webinar Series Focuses On How CPSIA Affects Promotional Products’ Decoration
Tomorrow, PPAI’s series of webinars examining how the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA) affects the promotional products industry, focuses on how the act impacts the decoration of promotional products. Read more CPSIA

AIA Corporation (UPIC: ADVINADV), a distributor headquartered n Neenah, Wisconsin, has added a number of new staff members to its team. (From left) Kara Main joins the company as a marketing services coordinator, Sabrina Audette as receptionist, Teresa Buss as collector and Eric Myers as a customer service representative.

Kim Coen has joined Polyconcept North America as a field sales manager. Coen will represent the company to distributors in Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont.

Promotional Product Professionals of Canada (UPIC: ppac) has hired Claire Martin on as customer service specialist. Martin will handle member inquiries for the Saint-Laurent, Québec-based association.

Club Colors (UPIC: CLUBCO), a distributor based in Schaumberg, Illinois, has promoted five members of its sales team. Jon Gursky has been promoted from sales operations manager to corporate sales manager, Leslie McNutt moves from sales lead to collegiate sales manager, Jason Heiss and Ankur Gandhi are transitioning from sales lead positions to senior account manager roles, and Matt Queen is the company’s new strategic collegiate account manager.

Ash City Worldwide, headquartered in Richmond Hill, Ontario, has brought on Wendy Fraser as the company’s new communications manager. This is a new position at the supplier.

Avenel, New Jersey-based supplier Vantage Apparel (UPIC: vantage) has promoted Marci Newsom (left) and Jeff DePalma to regional sales manager. Newsom will be responsible for the West Coast region, while DePalma will manage the East Coast and Canadian regions.

NEPPA’s Spring Expo Breaks Attendance Records
On March 26-27, the New England Promotional Products Association (NEPPA) held its Spring Expo at the Mohegan Sun casino in Connecticut. The show attracted strong numbers for the association, with more than 550 distributors—the largest attendee figure in NEPPA’s history. Read more NEPPA

In addition to its own high-quality assurance procedures, SAGE also ask suppliers to personally verify all of their product information and pricing to make sure it’s accurate and current. This means distributors can rely on the information provided in SAGE Online and avoid those unpleasant conversations with suppliers or customers. When using SAGE Online, distributors clearly see the products that have been verified—they are marked with the distinctive “Verified by Supplier” logo or the red “V” on the product list. Users can limit their search to just show Verified products only. Check out the SAGE benefits available through a PPAI membership here.

Does Price Buy Love?
A look at how high- and low-end promotional products influence consumers and buyers using PPAI’s latest research study, “High End, Low End: Which Promotional Products Work Best?” Read more Price

Five Minutes With Dino Zaharakis
What were you doing when you were 12? Dino Zaharakis was inventing promotional products. Like a science project come to life, Zaharakis developed prototypes and conducted torque and center of gravity analyses before developing his product—the DZDock, a stand for iPhones, iPads and other tablets and e-readers that’s union-made in the U.S. from anodized aluminum. Read more Zaharakis

Sweet Summertime
Summer is America’s favorite season, with nearly a third of the population (31 percent) choosing it as their very favorite time of year, according to Rasmussen Reports. Spring came in second place, followed by fall and winter, respectively. Luckily for the sun-loving majority, there are 99 glorious days of summer stretching from Memorial Day to Labor Day. It’s a season filled with jaunts at the beach, cookouts, canoe trips and more. Whatever the outing or event, promotional products should always go along for the ride. Check out these summertime products that are sure to make your clients swoon. Read more Summertime

Brrrrr!
The weather may be hot now, but it will be cold and blustery again in no time. The July issue of PPB will feature cold-weather apparel to help distributors get ready for winter-time promotions, so send product descriptions and high-resolution images to Tama Underwood by April 27 for a chance to be featured.

Calendar Central
Calendars abound in the July issue of PPB—from wall and desk varieties to magnets and appointment journals. To submit your new calendar styles for consideration, send product descriptions and high-resolution images to Audrey Sellers by April 27.

Honing In On The Hispanic Market
It’s a gargantuan market that only continues to grow. PPB wants to know your strategies and tips for reaching this market, along with your case studies of successful promotions geared toward Hispanic audiences. Please contact Audrey Sellers by April 27 to be included in an upcoming article.

What Would You Do?
The purchasing department of a client with whom I do a lot of business approached me about giving them a rebate. I’ve never worked with the purchasing department of this company, only marketing and a few others. They said our sales will increase with their blessing but drop to zero if we don’t play ball. Should I do it? And if so, how should it be structured?

What’s Your Answer? E-mail answers along with your name, title and company name to Question@ppai.org by April 30 for possible inclusion in an upcoming issue of PPB magazine.