When Less is More

The PPAI Expo was last week. For those of us on the Branded Products side it was the litmus test of the new "brand." pavilion. And the test was---positive.

Last year "brand." was the Shiny New Toy--everyone was jazzed about it but we didn't have any real expectations. So we showed up and were agog at the results. Off the charts.

This year those expectations were on steroids. "Well, if it was great last year imagine how it'll be THIS time!" was the typical view. But after the 2009 we all had, was it reasonable to think that way?

There were fewer people at Expo. Of that there is no debate. How many fewer? I was walking around the main hall on the last day and eavesdropped on several conversations between exhibitors. I heard every number from 10% to 30%, and one guy said "50% less--for sure".

I'll visit with my good friend Smilin' Darel Cook, who runs Expo, sometime this week and I'm sure he'll give me the real number. But as they said in "Airplane!", that's not important now.

What IS important now is that despite the drop in attendance the mood of those who were there was decidedly upbeat. I said to someone that we were "culling the herd" and that means there were fewer tire-kickers and more program-developers. I had substantive conversations about real opportunities that were going to happen in a real timeframe.

This is decidedly more attractive than scanning hundreds of badges of distributors who don't have anything working. Give me fewer people with money over lots of people without it every time.

Now, let's drop down to street level for a minute and realize that the promotional products business has endured a 2009 unlike anything they've ever seen. Any glimmer of light will be perceived by them as a supernova.

But there was a mood of optimism by that group that their recent business wouldn't justify. Perhaps it was, like the Chicago Motivation Show, a "coalition of the willing" and the nay-sayers stayed home. I'm all for that.

The three days in the desert gave us all reason to believe that 2010 is more than the start of a new decade--it may be the start of a new attitude for a market that took more than its share of hits last year. Like all trade shows, it'll be six months before I can really say it was "good" or "bad" but I left two things in Vegas--my money (boo!) but also my negativity (yay!)...


Pete

2010: The Year we Make Contact?

It's January 1, 2010. Last night we got to say goodbye to the "aughts" or the "00s" or whatever we called the last decade. Onwards and upwards to the Teens (or at least it WILL be the Teens in 2013). And that got me thinking...

The past few years (though certainly not the entire "Aughts") saw a sea change in the way incentive program participants accessed their recognition/reward programs. We went from paper and voicemail to online access and tracking.

Everything got faster, and more intense, and it was all done in the name of "enhancing the experience" for the participant. And by and large it did. We went from 750 items in a catalog to Amazon's 10,000. We went from instantly-obsolete paper catalogs to constantly-updated online assortments.

The participant got gift cards, which put the power of choice in their hands, not in the hands of the company that recognized them. Even traditional programs morphed their offerings to better reflect the instant-gratification, unlimited option environment that Big Box and online retailers offered.

And the Retail Brands--the names that provided the spark that motivated participants--started openly questioning the established paradigm that they had used for 30 years to access the business. More of them went with master distribution, some exited altogether, and others reduced the resources devoted to selling the "B-to-B" segment.

It didn't take much to see a day where there were 25 or 30 brands with a dedicated effort and everyone else selling through their retailers or master distributors/marketing companies. And reps--practically everyone was burying them. "Dinosaur" was the noun of choice. "No role in the future". "Unnecessary expense". Welcome to my Nightmare.

And somewhere in all this those of us who have been at this racket for a while got lapped. We found ourselves questioning our model and whether we had any role to play in the future of the business. We wondered if the Supplier/Rep/Middleman/End-User path was either out of date or obsolete. Those of us on the Brand side were left unsure about our organization's commitment to the channel and whether we would have a job. Some found out the hard way. Others are still staring at the ceiling at night.

The Great Leap Forward (so to speak) has had winners. But I have this sense--sometimes stronger, sometimes more subtle--that a lot of us are wondering if we are the Future or the Past. As the participant is more empowered, can we keep pace? Can we reinvent our processes, or philosophies, our mechanics of distribution fast enough to remain relevant?

And can we get out in front of the wave far enough to figure out how to surf it properly? It's a function of age, no doubt, but sometimes I pine for a time when I knew more about what my role was today and what it was likely to be 2-3 years from now.

The Good News, and it is truly Good, is that Change provides Opportunities for those who are willing to rethink and retool. I believe that it's the perfect time to leverage what we know with who we know and from that create our future. I'm not sure what that is exactly, but I do know that there are plenty of bright minds that can, working in concert, influence how it goes.

2010 is the year I plan to make contact with the future. Care to join me?


Pete

PS: I'm offering "Ooh"points for anyone getting the three snide cultural references I made in the post...