On October 16, 2013, Weepuline LLC, Leslie, Mich., the exclusive worldwide manufacturer of Weepuls, announced the transition from BIPO to Weepuline LLC is complete. Tom Blundell, former BIPO owner and inventor of Weepuls, sold BIPO in December 2012 to longtime associate Don Grace, who named the new entity Weepuline LLC. Blundell sold BIPO after accepting a job with Tate Publishing, a Christian book publisher, and moving to the Philippines.
The relationship between Blundell and Grace goes back nearly 30 years. Blundell sold the Weepul product to Grace, an entrepreneur in England, for a number of years before helping Grace set up Weepul manufacturing. Since the late 1970s, Grace manufactured and sold Weepuls in England and throughout Europe, staying out of the U.S. market by agreement with Blundell.
Since becoming the sole manufacturer of the only product that can legally be called a Weepul, Weepuline has revolutionized the product for the U.S. promotional market. According to Don Grace, the creative aspect is vitally important to Weepul’s promotional power.
“First, we’ve asked Michael Crooks, one of the top creative minds in U.S. promotional marketing to join our team and assist distributors,” said Grace. “Crooks’ creative expertise will give distributors the ability to take creative, thematically relevant concepts to their clients. Second, by employing the latest technology, we can deliver stunning four-color imprinting and shapes limited only the imagination.”
Grace noted that the technological advancements allow Weepuls to be the promotional tool that wears many hats. “While we can literally puts hats on Weepuls, the idea of ‘many hats’ goes even further,” Grace said. “Weepuls are equally at home as a fundraising tool as they are helping a company launch a new product. The fact that we can literally put any product in the hands of a Weepul means that Weepuls can be made thematically relevant to any company, event or message.”
Crooks, a 30-year advertising and promotional marketing veteran and industry speaker, believes what sets Weepuline apart is the level of creativity the company brings to bear on behalf of distributors.
“Distributors should think of Weepuline as their creative department,” Crooks said. “My job is to help distributors develop a relevant use for Weepuls to support their clients’ promotional programs. We’re going way beyond slapping a logo on a product. Combine the emotional connection Weepuls make with people with a thematically relevant message and you have breakthrough promotional power in the palm of your hand.”
The Weepuline catalog is available at www.weepuls.com. In a break from the industry standard of using email, Weepuline will use Facebook to communicate ideas for product use, strategy and tactics.
“No one needs more email,” Crooks said. “Our desire is to help distributors who are truly interested in distributing Weepuls and establishing repeat clientele. We’re building a Weepul community and Facebook allows the sort of two-way communication that is required to accomplish that. Plus, Facebook is a lot more fun than email.”
For more information, visit Weepuline’s website or Facebook page. You can contact Crooks at (517) 589-0008 or [email protected].
