It’s interesting how businesses start out — and even diversify — sometimes. Often, it’s just out of necessity. Russ Truluck, CEO of Inform Systems Data Documents Inc., Arden, North Carolina, remembers when he first added promotional products to his product line. A print customer didn’t have the items they needed for a trade show. After insisting he could handle it, Truluck and his team started digging into the promotional space. That was more than 20 years ago, and it changed the trajectory of his career.
Print & Promo Marketing: When and how did you first start selling print and promotional products together, and why was this the right move for your business?
Russ Truluck: Twenty three years ago, one of our largest business forms and label customers showed up at their largest trade show — and this is a high line office furniture manufacturer that is well known — and around 40%-50% of the promotional items they had ordered from a well-known national firm did not show up. Those items were not ready and that had been very poorly communicated to our customer. I remember them asking me, “Are these type of items something you can do?” Jokingly, I told them, “Since it does not require a great deal of long division, or even splitting atoms, I can research this,” and asked for 90 days. They granted it, and George Willis, my business partner, and I began digging and even visited several suppliers who we work with to this day (although some have gone through M&A situations and others have changed their names). Our main focus was to cull the manufacturers whose products did not meet our quality needs and those who worked “both sides of the street,“ where they might be ASI under one name and selling directly under another. We honed our resources down
to 50 or so potential suppliers, and our venture into promotions and apparel — the fastest-growing segment of our company’s business — began).
PPM: Can you tell me about [another] promotional campaign you’ve worked
on that blended both print and promotional products?
RT: A medical school within a large southeastern university was looking for a nice item to provide alumni and donors. In conjunction with the assistant alumni director, we determined a three-piece wine set housed inside a wooden, engraved box would be a nice gift. We worked with Bookwear in Minnesota to come up with a simple, but outstanding, packaging design in a cover and interior letter that allowed the gifts to be mailed, or sent by UPS or FedEx.
PPM: How did you choose the particular collection of products for this application?
RT: We worked with an established supplier for the wine kits and were aware of Bookwear from email communications.
PPM: How did the combination of print and promotional products specifically solve the customer’s needs?
RT: It allowed them to do nothing more than address the item to the recipient and send it.
PPM: Did you run into any roadblocks working on this campaign? If so, how did you overcome them?
RT: Our only roadblock was the one that we all frequently encounter, which is decision by committee. A couple of people originally did not like the particular idea and solution. [However,] in the end those couple of folks ended up being some of the most pleased because we delivered an excellent solution under budget.
PPM: What advice would you give distributors looking to work on a similar project?
RT: Qualify everything — purpose, quantity, and budget, so you can offer a concrete solution. This type of project with a college or university can easily take on a life of its own, and with more college or university employees used to not being at the school because of relaxed physical attendance requirements during COVID, it can be difficult to get a committee together, even with video conferences. Although some questions may be painful to ask, you really need to zero in so you do not spend time, one of your most important unrecoverable assets, chasing your tail, so to speak.
Are you a distributor that blends print and promotional products, and want to be included in an edition of Print & Promo Marketing’s “Convergence Corner” series? Email content director Brendan Menapace at [email protected].
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