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And growing a small business. The Small Business Show is the official podcast of Garuda promo and branding solutions.

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Hello, everyone. You're listening to the Small Business show.

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My name is Suare Ho. You can also call me a promo guy.

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Today, my guest B-B-B-B Brendan Menapace.

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Brendan is a content director for Print and Promo Marketing Magazine, an industry

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publication that caters to print and promotional product distributors.

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For the last nine years, he has been in charge of the Headline newsletter, where Ppm

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features unique case study from around the world of branded merchandise news relevant to

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distributors and the business.

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If you follow me on social media, any news that I share probably come from the Headline

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news that Brandon has shared.

1:05

I'm very excited for this show, but before that, welcome today, Brandon.

1:09

Thank you so much for having me. I'm excited to be here.

1:12

Yeah, I got so many questions to ask you, but I really wanted to find out how did you get

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into the promo covering the promo and print industry?

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And as a journalist, what do you like most about writing what we do?

1:26

That's a really good question. I think I kind of stumbled into it the same way that I'm finding out a lot of people are,

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which was I came out of college with a journalism degree.

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This is a tough industry to find a job in.

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I luckily found what at the time was north American Publishing Company.

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Now it's rebranded as NAPCO Media under the Printing United Alliance umbrella.

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And it was really just a trial by fire to learn everything about promo.

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I didn't at the time really know anything about it aside from being on the end user side.

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I'd get T shirts and promo things just like everyone else, including my first day on the

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job, getting a branded water bottle and things like that at my desk.

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And since then, I'd go to the industry trade shows.

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I'd speak to so many people that suddenly when my colleagues were explaining things to me,

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it was overwhelming.

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And then suddenly after going to a few trade shows and really just kind of paying

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attention to things, you realize, like, oh, I actually understand this now.

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It rubs off by osmosis. So that was really how I found myself in the industry.

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And since then, I've continually am learning every single year that I've been here at all

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of the shows and all the conversations I have with people, I'm still learning so much.

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And from a journalism perspective, I just love finding, why does anyone gets into this

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industry?

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Because they love finding a good story and finding interesting people with interesting

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stories.

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And there are so many of those in promo and all the promo adjacent industries every single

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day.

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That's really what I want to do with Headlines, is be educational and provide information

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that promotional products distributors and other promotional products professionals can

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find helpful in their business.

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But also to entertain you.

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If you're not having fun reading it, why are you going to read it?

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And that's not to say that every single story I write is supposed to be funny and fun,

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because obviously that's not the case.

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But really take the educational and the business facing content and make it something that

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people enjoy reading.

3:43

Thank you so much for sharing, Brandon.

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You really literally do make my job easier.

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It makes me happy. There's so many industries that you cover if you haven't read Brandon's newsletter.

3:56

Someday he would talk about what he loves, which is skateboarding, and other times he

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would talk about golfing, he would talk about the mover and shaker in an industry.

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It covers so many different things.

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And what I want to focus on, Brendan, is I know that there are pieces out there by Fast

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Company Magazine who talk about, we don't want swag anymore.

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They keep using the word swag. So for people, for a company who are thinking about promotional product, it's just

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wasteful, something that you kind of give away.

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So what would you comment on that?

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And how, in your word, do you think companies should be considering using promotional

4:28

products?

4:34

Sure, yeah. That's a great question, and it's something we've been covering for years now.

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My colleague, Sean Norris, when he was in charge, he did a really great deep and long read

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know, they call it the trinkets and trash pejorative towards the industry.

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It seemed all the time this narrative pops up and of course, the industry is concerned

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about all this.

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You go to any trade show and you see so much about limiting waste, recycled materials, all

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things like that.

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And before I even get into that, really, what people have learned is they just need to be

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smarter with their promos.

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It's a very easy conclusion to jump to, to say, oh, yeah, promotional products are the

5:10

problem.

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People don't want these. People are just going to throw them away.

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That's not true. It's a very oversimplified conclusion.

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People are going to hold on to something if you give them something worth holding on to.

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It's as simple as that. I have countless products that I hold onto, and it's not because of any obligation to hold

5:30

onto them.

5:36

Something like a high quality water bottle that's an everyday use.

5:41

A piece of apparel that you can tell is made well, constructed, well, the imprint or

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embroidery, whatever decoration method they use, if it's well done, you're going to want

5:41

to hold onto it.

5:51

And if you do something we were talking off air about Carhartt as an example of a company

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that has sort of rebranded itself beyond just its original target audience.

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Carhartt's a great example. You can use a premium brand like this or create this premium aesthetic, and people will

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hold onto that item that's just using apparel as an example.

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This extends, obviously, to tech. This extends to every other facet of the promotional products industry, where if you take

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that extra time to really look at what end users want, you can look at retail, you can

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look at the things people are buying from a direct to consumer basis and let that

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influence your decision.

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And again, coming at this as someone who is purely just a consumer, I have that sort of

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double mindset of being someone who reports on the industry, but also someone who just

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exists in the world and gets branded products.

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So I know what I would like.

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And that's something that you can tell is madewell.

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You can tell the distributor, put a lot of thought into this, and the supplier has a

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quality product that's really as simple as that.

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Yeah. Brandon, thanks for giving me such a great answer for it.

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And to the car example, cart didn't choose to go to Streetwear.

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It's actually a different organization called Carhartt WIP to pitch them because they know

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that skateboarder, you probably know, likes to wear carhartt.

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They like the oversized jersey.

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So kind of protect them, kind of feels cool. And also, I got to throw in there for the you know, it's so popular right now, but Stanley

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almost discontinued that product, which they actually do, but an influencer picking up the

7:28

tumbler, and they are reselling the Stanley tumbler.

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And then ultimately, Stanley actually couldn't keep up with production.

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Now everyone everywhere are running all standard tumbler.

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So for a brand to recognize who their target audience will be and actually answer this

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question to themselves, what do they really want?

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The answer to that piece is if you're not focusing and not understanding what your

8:00

audience want, yes, they will go to trash.

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But, for example, like, the award behind me is a piece of paper.

8:12

If I give it to you, Brandon, you probably don't relate to because your name is not on it.

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Think about runners. They have beat up T shirt that they have ran a marathon 15 years ago.

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They still wear it every single day because they can connect to it emotionally.

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But if you give it to me, it doesn't serve the same effect.

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So we have to go back to the company or the marketer sometime to ask them, who are your

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audience?

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Why do you think that these items or gifts are related to them?

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Yeah, that's exactly right. You made a really good point there about the sentimental value that's obviously, I'd say

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just as important as objectively the quality of a product.

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Like you said, a ratty T shirt from a charity, five K.

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If you didn't run that five K, it's probably worthless to you.

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But if you did and you have really good memories attached to it, you remember training for

9:00

it, you remember doing it with your friends, you're never going to get rid of that.

9:07

You're absolutely going to hold on to that forever. And even if it disintegrates to the point where it's a rag, you're going to hold onto it

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because you can't bear to get rid of that.

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And it's almost like parting with the memory.

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And the other point you made with the Stanley tumblers, almost getting rid of that

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product, sometimes it is just luck.

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Sometimes you can't predict what I've written about this before.

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Sometimes products just become hits on social media and there's no real logic to it.

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There's no boardroom full of people crunching numbers and doing moneyball to decide which

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product is going to hit on social media next.

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Sometimes it is just luck of the draw and that's something you can't predict.

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But it absolutely happens, like you said.

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Yeah, it's funny that how the promo sometimes is on the front line for the trend.

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Sometimes they are taking what's popular and jumping onto the trend.

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For example, I'm probably giving out my age right now, so 90 is cool again.

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So if I pull out all the wardrobe when I was young and then I'll be popular again, they

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are going back to the style again, going, this changes again.

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So maybe it will bring up brands that have been forgotten.

10:20

Right. So I see all Nikes are doing right now is to reintroduce some of their popular sneaker

10:20

style in the United States.

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They don't even need new shoes anymore.

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So just bring out the nostalgia and people will pay up for it.

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So it's funny and it's difficult sometimes to watch the trends and connecting.

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So the question will be for companies who are out there, who wants to jump onto the trend,

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how would you advise us to look at what's available to us and then what kind of trend we

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could probably insert our brand onto and to get more awareness out there?

10:56

I think that's a tough question.

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Looking at things like social media, all these influencers, like you said, who are posting

10:59

things, it's tough because things just move so quickly anymore, a trend will take off and

10:59

then by the time people have warmed up to it, that's old news.

11:15

It doesn't have the same effect as it did before, but looking at what younger people

11:15

especially are doing and trying to not necessarily replicate it, but adopt it, you look at

11:15

the way a lot of people in I've written extensively about the fast food industry taking

11:15

cues from streetwear drops.

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Brands like supreme and palace with these limited drops with only a few items, maybe six

11:36

to ten items, that there are higher quality.

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And even uniform items that they have in the restaurant are not the stuffy uniforms you

11:46

think of in the past.

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They're T shirts with modern silhouettes, but as you pointed out, all very reminiscent of

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the 90s.

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Everything's boxier and baggier again, but they're cooler.

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That's the way to put it. And I think the best way that a brand can do that, to look outside of apparel, it's hard

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to predict, I'd say, but just try to look at what people are doing, look at what they're

12:04

buying, look at what they're receiving, and see how you can integrate that into your own

12:04

business model.

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Because everyone, all distributors, clients, they want to be the ones with the coolest

12:25

products, they just might not know what to ask for.

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And that's where, I think, distributors can be an extraordinarily valuable asset, to be

12:33

the ones who can say, this is where the demand, this is what people want, this is what

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works for this particular vertical.

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Remember von Dutchwood used to be cool.

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Everyone wants to dress like a trucker.

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So I actually have clients in the tech industry.

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They come to me. I wanted to dress like a mechanic, a trucker.

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So just so happened, I worked with actually auto body shop.

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So I gave them their entire uniform with the trucker hat branded with patches, things like

13:02

that.

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They were really happy. So I think as a distributor sometimes I look at different industry maybe construction had

13:09

this, maybe my tech client has this, maybe my nonprofit client had this can I mix them up

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together?

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And sometimes I could be jump on to something that is unique sometimes because what

13:20

happens in other industry another different sector might not think of so I like to mix

13:20

things up a little bit.

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That's why you mentioned all the collaboration right when you maybe classical fans and you

13:33

could also jump on the new trend that could be a YouTuber actually my daughter follow a

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YouTuber called Tucson Violin they are going on the world tour right now.

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So these are two young guys play violin they could afford to sell branded merchandise for

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$50 t shirt and it's sold out everywhere they go.

13:59

Yeah, absolutely and that's another thing all the YouTubers and social media people, all

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of the platforms like YouTube and Spotify have built in company stores, so to speak, in

13:59

the platform where they can sell products directly.

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So you can even look there's really nowhere where you can't see what people are buying

14:13

these days and where the demand is.

14:20

It's everywhere. Yeah, since you touch on that, I do wanted to ask you this question a brand would think

14:21

that promotional product is something that they will purchase and give away but speaking

14:21

on that a lot of companies actually jump on the bandwagon, get higher quality product, get

14:21

it well made to become branded merchandise.

14:40

Can you touch on that? And can brand if they execute it properly to increase revenue having the right brand of

14:41

merchandise.

14:47

Again, I'm plugging our own headlines newsletter a lot but these are things that we've

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written about a lot.

14:54

The way that I've worded it is that everyone is a lifestyle brand.

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Now, if you're a restaurant, if you're a shoe store, you're not just that.

15:05

There's no such thing as just one thing you've seen.

15:09

Companies like Chipotle is a great example of this, that it's a fast food place or fast

15:09

casual.

15:16

However they want to build themselves. But they started a whole standalone online store, I think it's called Chipotle Goods,

15:18

where they've been selling T shirts, all sorts of apparel products, all sorts of other

15:18

products, and continually refreshing their own inventory and doing cool things like making

15:18

a shirt with a QR code that, when you scan it, it might go to something different.

15:39

Depending on what they're currently advertising.

15:42

Or doing something like, oh, we used a bunch of avocado pits to create the dye for this t

15:42

shirt.

15:49

They're doing things that are eye catching, and others are.

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Now not to say that Chipotle was necessarily the front runner on this, they're just an

15:53

example that I'm using.

16:00

But all of their competitors now in that space are seeing that.

16:04

They're seeing that it works. And rather than maybe just sell a T shirt every now and then, they now have their own

16:05

branded store.

16:13

And that's a separate online store. And this is a separate entity completely, because now they have to be an all encompassing

16:15

lifestyle brand because attention spans are so limited in a social media age, you have to

16:15

be top of mind all the time and just plugging your core product doesn't do enough, even

16:15

something in sports.

16:37

Sports is another good example here of something we as society obviously pay a ton of

16:37

attention to.

16:45

But it was the Coyotes in the NHL that they hired someone specifically to be I can't

16:45

remember the exact title they gave him, but basically be a brand director for everything

16:45

that's not about the sports.

16:59

The actual on ice action almost has nothing to do with this.

17:03

He was creating really designer quality gear like apparel and all sorts of other

17:03

merchandise that was to appeal to people who might have never watched a Coyotes game but

17:03

might live in Arizona and have that local pride.

17:19

And they want to show off the brand of the Coyotes, not the team, the Coyotes.

17:24

And that's also something you're seeing. Think about yankees hats.

17:27

Dodgers hats. These are teams that have transcended their on field persona.

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They are now brands. And that's going to be something I think, that we're going to see a lot more of again,

17:34

especially in the social media age.

17:42

You get a shirt on the back of if you go to the game, you get a shirt on the back of your

17:42

seat, you're sharing pictures of it, and everywhere you go, you want to be like whether

17:42

your team wins and you're at a parade, you want the cool shirt that maybe no one else has.

17:57

You want these grails, whether it has like a vintage look to it, something that looks and

17:57

this kind of goes back to what we were talking about in terms of finding something that

17:57

people want to have, creating something that it's a brand, it's not just a team.

18:13

As a very long winded response to your question, I'm sorry.

18:16

Well, we all want to be an individual.

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And I think a brand needs to do their job to understand who we are.

18:25

Why do we connect to your brand? It doesn't matter if you're a sports team, if you are a school, if you are a know, there

18:27

are people who support you.

18:34

That's why you're still in business, right?

18:36

But you got to think outside the box to help them support you.

18:40

Like your example, Brandon. If I go to a nonprofit Galler, for example, they give me some type of merchandise, then

18:41

with my cell phone, all of us are mini journalists, right?

18:52

And we share to our social media.

18:54

Even if I only have ten followers on whatever, right?

18:58

Then I could influence I think every one of us can influence ten people.

19:02

They're really close to you, maybe your spouse, maybe your kids.

19:06

What if you could use that promotional product or branded merchandise to ask your

19:06

supporter to become your mini ambassador, and then they influence ten other people?

19:17

So how would that translate to your marketing effort?

19:21

How would that ROI becomes you?

19:24

Because a lot of people sometimes will argue with me, what's the ROI that I could get on

19:24

promotional product, right?

19:30

When we buy Google Ads, we could see our stats right away.

19:33

So I think it's more vague, but if you do it right, you can see, like, for example, if you

19:33

get the finals, right, when you go to favorite teams, you're going to post a picture,

19:33

you're going to send it to your friends.

19:46

And when you finish a concert, when you buy a concert T shirt, you're going to wear it to

19:46

work, or if it's allowed the next day.

19:53

So actually spreading the word. Or for know, people ask you, who supporting with that logo?

19:59

Then I will become the media ambassador and tell others what I have experienced and why

19:59

they should be focusing on what I believe in too.

20:08

So I think we have to keep that in mind.

20:11

And Google online ads might not just do that.

20:15

Yeah, I think you hit the nail on the head when you said that everyone can be an

20:15

influencer.

20:20

It's a relative term. You don't have to have a million followers for someone else to notice what you're wearing

20:21

or holding or using and think, that's cool.

20:28

What's that brand? Just a few months ago, I was at a wedding, and I noticed someone had a power bank looked

20:30

I'm like, that looks nice.

20:35

I recognized the brand on it, and now I'm obviously very close to this world, but someone

20:35

else who isn't will now think, oh, what's that company?

20:43

They'll google it. That's the ROI you're talking about.

20:47

And that's just at a table full of six people.

20:49

It doesn't have to be on stage in front of 1000.

20:53

And that's, I think, really what every promotional distributor wants to do for their

20:53

client is they want to create a product that gets eyes on it.

21:03

That gets people talking because then you're talking about the brand.

21:06

And yes, it's much harder to quantify than something like that allows for Google

21:06

Analytics, where you can see exactly how many eyes you got on a product.

21:17

There's a bit more of trust that a T shirt is going to get that attention, but it

21:17

absolutely does.

21:24

We're all looking at what everyone else has and what they're using, and if something is

21:24

interesting and noteworthy and just looks good, it's going to rub off on someone.

21:35

Yeah. The reason that I never, ever use the word Swag, which stands for stuff we all get, is I

21:36

think promotional product and especially branded merchandise can be a limited edition.

21:47

So people like to be special, right?

21:51

We all like to be special. If I am the top seller for the Million Dollar Club, I wear this jacket.

21:57

Or if I've been through the IMN challenge, I get this tattoo, right?

22:02

Or sometimes they put tattoo for the IMN logo because I've been through that.

22:06

So I am special. I am the unique, elite group that we like to think so with the same budget.

22:12

I sometimes will tell my clients, you don't need to get the maximum amount of items that

22:12

you get.

22:18

What if you could create a special experience for, let's say, your top ten or top 20?

22:22

So make it really special, make it unique, and then you can actually build trust.

22:27

And plus, they will give you more business if you do it the right way.

22:31

Oh, 100%. Everyone loves an incentive for that.

22:34

And there's a reason that the things that Nike and Ralph Lauren made for Olympic athletes,

22:34

we can't get all that.

22:41

Nor should know. They worked their whole lives for that.

22:44

But that goes back to the streetwear discussion we were having before, where people are

22:44

really incentivized when they find out there's only a few items.

22:57

That limited drop mentality has been adopted by so many people.

23:00

That streetwear style, where it's the same as old commercials like Call now because

23:00

supplies are running out, you're going to pick up the phone, or you're at least more

23:00

likely to pick up the phone in that regard.

23:12

So still goes back to what we were saying about the sentimental value, where if you got,

23:12

let's say, your company gave you an award or piece of apparel or any other branded product

23:12

that shows that you might have hit a sales landmark or just some landmark at your job that

23:12

was really worth celebrating, you're going to hold on to that?

23:36

And that is something for everyone else to strive for too.

23:39

They're going to want that. And maybe if you're a nonprofit and a certain tier of people who donate get a special gift

23:41

of some sort, that's going to be an incentive.

23:53

And then because not everyone got it, if, let's say, the 15 people they're influencing on

23:53

social media see that, they think, wow, how'd you get that?

24:03

They start asking questions and then they might donate to that nonprofit because they want

24:03

the bag or the sweatshirt or the award, whatever it might be I.

24:13

Really like that example. So sometimes I will get clients ask me we only have let's say $500 which in some campaign

24:14

it could be small so what?

24:23

I would actually challenge them, I will ask them do you guys have any social media

24:23

following?

24:27

Chances are most companies nowadays do have, I would say buy something really nice branded

24:27

for $500 and do a sweepstakes on your social media.

24:37

Ask for the call to action that you want, maybe sign up for newsletter, maybe buy

24:37

something or maybe just share it to a friend.

24:45

I can't tell you how many times that I have shared to all my friends and email everyone

24:45

just to try to win something that is $10 rally.

24:52

So think of that. I think that's a limited quality too and then if the persons who want you can actually

24:54

make a lot of marketing campaign, a lot of PR for that.

25:03

So you don't have to have a million dollar budget to get people attention you just have to

25:03

think like what do people really want and wanted to see?

25:11

And you give it to them. Yeah.

25:13

And you brought up a great point about the social media call to action anytime.

25:18

You can blend those two worlds, because as the world becomes more digital, physical

25:18

products still have a huge role in that.

25:25

But if you can combine online integration of people going to your website, going to your

25:25

social media page by using a physical product as part of it, that's great.

25:34

That's perfect blend of the two.

25:37

Yeah. Especially you can ask people to do user generated content.

25:42

For example, I follow Rogue Fitness.

25:45

They always have challenge that. If you can lift or if you can challenge that we have and post it on the social media, the

25:47

winner will get actually, a special T shirt.

25:55

So many people provide user generated content using the brand.

25:59

So think of that as your marketing plan.

26:01

Can you create some type of challenge? People love challenges nowadays people love challenges, absolutely.

26:06

And create a hashtag and campaign over it and have people actually, if they can use your

26:06

actual product and services.

26:13

Now, other people because we don't like ad, we know when we see an ad, right away you can

26:13

smell it.

26:20

From a mile away? Yeah, as soon as we can.

26:22

But if someone else is using or answering questions that we might have, then I will pay

26:22

attention.

26:27

Like how do other use this product and service and I want to learn more about that.

26:32

So if you can find ways to generate that using the incentive of promo item, then you're on

26:32

to something nice.

26:39

Here 100%. And that's where QR codes have been really valuable too.

26:43

Because you can print those on a product, whether it's apparel and you can integrate it

26:43

into the logo.

26:47

It doesn't have to just be a square. You can change what that directs to all the time, every day, if you want to.

26:53

It could be whatever you're advertising right now.

26:57

Brandon, I have you on the show. I have to ask you this question.

27:00

We're getting close to the holiday season.

27:03

What kind of trends do you see in the holiday?

27:06

And let's focus in the business community.

27:09

What kind of corporate gifts do you think must have all the sector that we should consider

27:09

in 2023?

27:16

Well, anyone who has been reading us for a little while now is going to probably know what

27:16

I'm going to say here.

27:21

And that's kidding. Kidding has been huge ever since.

27:26

I'm going to use the pandemic as a real watershed moment, probably, but it's not exclusive

27:26

to that time period.

27:32

But that was a time when people needed to reach whether it was employees or customers,

27:32

they needed to reach them remotely, to use a word I've grown to hate.

27:44

It was unprecedented. That was when companies would maybe you're a new hire.

27:49

They were sending you a branded kit with something like a T shirt, water bottle, all the

27:49

things that I received on my first day at the job.

27:57

But in a branded box, where the branding experience starts from the second it gets dropped

27:57

off in the mail.

28:04

Similarly to QR codes, as the world reopened and shifted back to normality, that stuck

28:04

around and people really saw the value in combining a printed product like this box, where

28:04

you can have branding on all the sides of this.

28:20

Whether it's a bag, whether it's a box, whatever vessel it's delivered in, it's an

28:20

unboxing experience.

28:27

First and foremost, we're talking about YouTube.

28:29

That's a huge thing. But then inside of it, you can have products that complement each other.

28:34

There could be food. I've seen companies do a S'mores kit for their recipients.

28:40

They've done pieces of apparel that work together and there's pair of sweatpants and a

28:40

blanket for as things cool off and people are hanging out at home.

28:50

In conversations that I've had with suppliers, distributors and buyers, those kits have

28:50

just been so popular.

28:58

So finding products from across the whole spectrum of what could be considered a

28:58

promotional item in this industry, wrapping it all up, literally, maybe even with a bow,

28:58

with a package that has your customers branding on it, so there's no mistaking where it

28:58

came from.

29:17

Yes, all the products inside will have a logo on it, most likely to some degree, but it's

29:17

a whole experience.

29:24

And I think that's what really a lot of distributors and end buyers want with their

29:24

campaigns, is that it's an experience.

29:31

Yeah, I really like that. And I think to add on to that, if your product and services solve a problem, can that kit

29:32

actually give the audience a taste of the actual experience?

29:43

Maybe you're going on an expensive cruise.

29:46

Can that. Box, give them some thinking of that.

29:50

Or in the case of LinkedIn, I noticed that people who switch jobs and they actually pose

29:50

what they receive from their new employer the first day.

30:00

So how would that do to your recruitment process?

30:02

And people who are on the edge of thinking about maybe switching also, wow, they get this

30:02

really nice box and really nice compared to other things that we do.

30:11

I know young people, they would rather take less money sometime to have work in a cooler

30:11

place or something that they really stood by and stand for and really proud of.

30:23

I'm working with this organization because they in line with my value.

30:27

A lot of times people actually take less money working for those organizations.

30:31

Yeah, that's absolutely right. You're 100% correct there.

30:35

And you can tell your brand story through this.

30:37

You can show that you're a company that cares about its employees or its customers,

30:37

whoever might be receiving this kit.

30:45

And you can show a bit like you use the cruise as an option.

30:48

You can show a bit about what you do, whether it's a hotel could do something like send

30:48

slippers in a robe, just kind of remind you of the luxury experience you have there.

30:58

And from an employee standpoint, it does show you're part of the team.

31:03

You have these shirts, you have the hat, you have the water bottle.

31:06

You have something fun like bags of popcorn, things that just are fun.

31:11

They're good, they're nice show.

31:13

We care about you as a person.

31:16

You're part of the team. You're valuable, you're valued, all consumed by the brand.

31:21

You can't look at any part of it without thinking of that brand positively.

31:27

Brendan, it might be a difficult and hard question for you, but I wanted to see if you can

31:27

give us one case study for a brand that you follow, that you think doing everything right.

31:38

And can you also talk about what they have done to make you come to this conclusion?

31:43

That is a really difficult question.

31:46

One of the ones that stands out to me recently, the company Rivian, which is an electric

31:46

vehicle company, they had a really will have a pretty tough uphill battle with other more

31:46

established it's hard to disrupt the automobile industry.

32:05

That's impossible.

32:07

And even the electric vehicle side of it.

32:10

The first thing you might think of is Tesla or a Prius or any number of the more

32:10

established automobile brands that are into electric vehicles.

32:20

Now, what Rivian did was they did what I mentioned a few minutes ago and really become a

32:20

lifestyle brand.

32:28

Even if you don't have this car yet, people are interested in, they do bags, they do

32:28

apparel, they do all these things that it's very carefully curated with color schemes.

32:39

Everything is reminiscent of the main product, which is the car.

32:43

So you can't get a piece of apparel without still tying it back to the car and I think

32:43

what they did is they built now a community of people who are really excited about this

32:43

brand, whether they're driving that car or not.

32:59

So that's something that stood out to me through limited releases and a very cohesive plan

32:59

of merchandise with branding that isn't overt, but it's visible.

33:12

But it's not overt. It's still extremely fashionable.

33:14

The logo placement is something you see in a designer brand.

33:17

That was something that stood out to me of, like, yeah, they really nailed that one.

33:21

Yeah. I think being fashionable and really studying your audience is key to success, because

33:22

people always ask me, what should I buy?

33:31

What should we get? I will ask them a question.

33:34

Who are your target audience? Tell me more about who they are.

33:37

Because the idea is not used to work.

33:39

Swag right. You want to be limited.

33:41

You want it to be catered to people who will be your customer anyway, because not everyone

33:41

can be your customer.

33:48

And so why spend money to market, to people who don't even consider your brand?

33:54

So, for the you know, they they know their audience.

33:58

They wanted to cater to them.

34:00

It's a different unique experience for driving our car, having our experience, and come

34:00

try us out.

34:06

So I think that's a great example. Brandon, thank you.

34:09

Yeah, it's the high perceived value.

34:11

Everything, even if it's not an expensive item, it carries with it a perception of

34:11

quality.

34:17

Yeah, it really goes back to what you said.

34:20

It's a lifestyle. People who ride Hollies will always just ride holly's.

34:25

And people who drive a Jeep or drive whatever that they do, that's the brand.

34:29

And you can break them away. It's their lifestyle choice that they choose.

34:33

It could be the software that you use.

34:36

You cover a lot about sports. Maybe they only play that sports team.

34:41

And all the brand merchandise in the house is that sports team.

34:45

Maybe that's where you went to college. And can you, as a company, become that brand?

34:50

So I think if you can answer that question and know who your target audience will be and

34:50

cater to them, not only you could get more awareness, you can actually make more money

34:50

doing that, too.

35:01

Yeah, absolutely. The St. Louis Cardinals did an emo night, promo night, and they had an original piece of artwork

35:03

of the Cardinal with the emo bangs, and it said in the My Chemical Romance font, but it

35:03

said Cardinals, I think.

35:20

I can't remember the exact font, but it was such a good original thing that you could see

35:20

people go into the ballpark if they didn't care about the Cardinals at all, just to get

35:20

that T shirt.

35:30

And I'm not a Cardinals fan. I'm a Phillies fan.

35:33

I am anti Cardinals sorry, St.

35:35

Louis fans, but I wanted that shirt.

35:38

Yeah, that's a good example. Even they're not sending to the target audience, I know you cover it, so you probably on

35:40

the newsletter.

35:45

But even people who are not interested, maybe they don't know about your industry at all.

35:50

But if you have a nice product, people take notice.

35:54

It's the entry point. Yeah, exactly. It's the entry point for them.

35:57

So, Brandon, I know that there's a lot more that we could talk about that could go on for

35:57

the next 4 hours.

36:05

But for listeners who might want to reach out to you or to follow you and learn more about

36:05

what you're doing, what would be a good way?

36:12

Well, you can find the Headlines [email protected].

36:17

We have all of our content there. There's also the free product search for distributors who register with us.

36:23

And in the short term, you can visit us at the Printing United Expo.

36:27

We will be there in Atlanta. That will be October 17 through the 20th.

36:32

I'm sorry, october 18 through the 20th.

36:35

You'll find us there. You can find our sister publications there.

36:38

We'll be running all around the floor. If you are there and see me running around, please stop me and say hi.

36:44

Thank you so much, Brandon, for coming on to the show today.

36:47

I learned a lot. I'm so happy to be here.

36:50

Thank you for having me. Thank you for listening to the show.

36:54

If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe to the podcast and share with your friends

36:54

or colleagues who might benefit from the conversation.

37:02

Any questions or feedback, feel free to reach out to me on LinkedIn.

37:06

I'd love to connect with you.

37:08

00 p.m.

37:13

Pacific Standard Time. I'll see you next time.

37:20

You close.