It’s always nice when an end-buyer group comes out and says what they want, or addresses a promo-sized gap in their business.
According to Fresh Plaza, a produce industry podcast host said on his podcast that the industry hasn’t paid enough attention to merchandise and promotional products like other industries have, and companies like Nike have been doing a better job advertising produce than the dedicated companies.
“For over a decade, I’ve been preaching to the produce industry to discover their inner creative souls to design merchandise,” Patrick Kelly, host of the Produce Industry Podcast, said. “Oddly enough, the industry gives away so much merchandise at trade shows, by sending clients gifts, etc. All for free. Does Jamba Juice give away free T-shirts in their stores when you buy a smoothie?”
This is an industry bringing attention to the fact that it’s not doing as much with merchandise as it could be. This extends to trade show giveaways, as well as branded e-commerce platforms or company stores. It means farms, local mom-and-pop stores, or big retail chains like Jamba Juice.
Referencing Nike’s produce-themed products, Kelly wondered what compels these companies outside of the produce world to do this instead of the companies that are actually in that space.
“Let’s get creative and figure out what consumers want outside of our produce,” Kelly said, according to Fresh Plaza. “Trust me, it will bring your brand full circle.”
Not bad advice.
For his own part, Kelly designed a line of sneakers with printed images of fruits and vegetables all over them. That’s just one way that produce companies could integrate their products onto merchandise.
The rest is only limited by their own creativity, and up to you as distributors to offer a guiding hand when they might feel overwhelmed or not know where to start.
A whole industry is basically admitting to under-doing it with merchandise. If that’s not an exciting prospect for promotional products distributors, we’re not sure what is.
