OK, now that THAT'S over...

Greetings from Tampa, site of the 42nd (43rd?) IMRA Marketing Conference.  We convene here in Sunny Florida in the midst of a Life-Changing Event for me.  But enough about the end of my term as IMRA's President--there's stuff to deal with!

On Monday (23) I will facilitate a "town-hall" meeting to discuss issues relevant to the marketplace and our places in it.  After a pretty good 2011 we've seen a slowdown so far in 2012 (and most people I'm speaking to concur).  And during times of challenge our market LOVES to engage in baseless speculation about the future of our business. I plan to exploit that paranoia to the fullest during the session.

There's all manner of Boogeymen out there, waiting to strike.  May I call the roll?

• Amazon.  Left for dead, I'm reminded of Emperor Palpatine, who once said "Now witness the firepower of this fully-armed and operational battle station!".  So it may be with them.  Reports of their demise may have been exaggerated...
• Suppliers.  "Bueller?  Bueller?"  There are fewer of us out there and the prospects for more of us are receding into the sunset.  The "multiples" are in ascension and all of us who actually work for the brands will be threatened by their existence
• Uber-suppliers:  But even the "multiples" have nightmares.   Theirs are about those enormous wholesale distributors who are only now discovering our business.  Know who D&H is?  You will...
• Promotional Products Distributors--how can our customers be Boogeymen?  When they aren't really our customers. Instead, they have become time-sucking zombies that take our time and effort but return very little.  It's become Waiting for Godot expecting them to represent any significant business.

Add this cast of characters to the Usual Suspects (gift cards, internet sites, "Amazon-esque" experiences) and you get Trouble, with a capital "T" that rhymes with "G" and that stands for "Gigantic Product Assortments" (I know, "pool" was more elegant but we have few issues with pool in our channel.  Sue me).

So if I'm lucky (and good) I'll whip this into a lather that will hopefully lead to some answers and not just a whining session.  Last year's "town hall" was the beginning of a true dialog between the significant players in our business.  We need more of these, and more often.  If I succeed in getting back-and-forth, then I think we'll all be winners.

So, I'll set my newly-installed pacemaker to "stun" and enter the fray.  I'll try to get back and recount how it all went...

Pete 

PS:  Levon Helm died this week.  While I'm not a big fan of The Band, I thought about his narration of the 1983 movie The Right Stuff.  Here's the ending, which I'm hoping I'm not spoiling for anybody who doesn't know anything about the US Space Program.  Fast-forward to the 3:56 mark to hear Levon end one of the greatest movies of the past 30 years (with a rousing score by Bill Conti at the end)...