IMAGINE LIFE WITHOUT calendars. Days, weeks and months would run together (more than they do now). Recitals would be missed and birthdays forgotten. Sporting events would be poorly attended and turn times would never be met. The importance of calendars in the flow of daily life is hard to miss. For this reason, the products have remained a promotional favorite and show no signs of letting up.
OLDIE BUT GOODIE
Calendars are one of the oldest and most celebrated promotional products, and with good reason. “They provide such high visibility, as [they] are referred to countless times a day by the user,” explained Jeff Taplin, vice president of sales and marketing at PlannerStore, Lewiston, Maine.
Calendars provide many unique ways for advertisers to set themselves apart from their competition, according to Christine Smith, marketing and business development manager at MeadWestvaco, Sidney, N.Y. “Advertisers are looking for ways to distinguish themselves; therefore, they’re looking for ways to customize products,” said Smith. “This may be [accomplished] with the addition of a wrap or an insert to tell their complete marketing story, or it may be the creation of a completely custom product.”
Taplin agreed. “Because [calendars] are printed, custom pages can be added that really tell the company’s story and provide more information than a typical promotional item,” he said.
Taplin provided an example of how the custom capabilities of calendars can prove lucrative for distributors. “We have an association customer who purchases small pocket planners and adds 64 pages of custom, industry-relevant information on them,” he explained. “The customer then offers this planner for free to new members or those who renew each year. The planner is so popular, it has become [the customer’s] key membership driver and has driven membership renewal rates up by 45 percent.”
Another great benefit of calendars is the high exposure the items offer advertisers. “People use their calendars everyday. Each time they do, they are exposed to your advertising message,” said Smith. “As a working part of a person’s daily routine, calendar advertising is like buying space on the recipient’s desk, wall, briefcase or pocket.”
THE TECHNOLOGY QUESTION
It is no secret that traditional means of planning and tracking dates and times—the use of ink or graphite to write into big, white blocks on a calendar’s face—has drastically changed with the popularity of electronic devices that perform these tasks. To address the always lingering, all-important “what-about-technology” question, consider the following: Do calendars continue to stand, rest or lie on desk tops in every imaginable business? Have they remained mounted on walls in boardrooms and taped to those in classrooms? Are they still magnetized to refrigerators and/or metal desk drawers the world over? If the answer to these questions is ‘yes,’ expect a calendar in the mail. It is obvious that although technology has taken center stage, traditional calendars are far from being obsolete. “Electronic scheduling on PCs and smart phones has brought a renewed attention to dated products,” said Taplin. “Calendars and planners are far more portable and reliable than their electronic counterparts.”
And, who hasn’t heard of (or experienced) the countless incidences of electronic organizers and computers crashing at inopportune times—a disaster tantamount to a failed safety mechanism on a nuclear weapon, at least for those whose lives depend on electronic gadgets. “People are either reverting back to paper planners or using them in conjunction with their electronic organizers,” added Taplin.
Distributors interested in selling the items should look no further than MeadWestvaco’s pocket, desk and full-color wall calendars. “Our staple Ready Reference line is the most popular, as people tend to follow the ‘same-as-last-year’ philosophy for their calendars,” noted Smith. “They tend to find a product they like or get used to a product format and they like to stick with it.”
That’s the other thing about calendars. They have a high repeat order factor. Taplin said calendar and planner orders repeat for eight years on average. “Their annuity potential is unparalleled in the promotional industry,” he said.
PlannerStore also manufactures a variety of pocket and desk planners. “Calendars are great for practically any industry. The average person has 2.5 calendars they refer to on a daily basis,” said Taplin. “Calendars should be the first promotional item any distributor tries to sell a client. They are so commonplace that many sales people overlook them, but once you start selling calendars, you’ll never stop.”
With sales increasing each year, Taplin said calendars show no signs of slowing. “We find more and more companies are looking to do something different than the standard promotional item. Something less gadgety, and planners are perfect,” he noted. “Also, because custom pages can be tipped in, customers are able to create more value than by having just a standard logo-imprinted product.”
TURN OVER A NEW LEAF
Small upgrades, such as four-color printing on planner covers rather than foil stamping as well as digital printing options, keep calendars in the game year after year. “We have the capability of creating a custom wall calendar for as few as 100 units [with digital printing],” noted Smith.
Smith further pointed out a major part of her company’s focus is on customers that are introducing new products or services. “[Calendars] provide them with an entire year to advertise their new product or service,” she explained. “They typically shadow print their name or product name across every open page spread of the calendar, and include additional pages to tell their complete marketing story. This has been very successful for new product introductions.”
Industries that generally welcome calendar sales include medical, real estate, financial, food service, agricultural and manufacturing, according to Smith. “Everyone uses at least one calendar in their daily routine, so fortunately, we have not really found a market that does not buy calendars,” she said.
When selling, Taplin advised distributors to push the custom capabilities of calendars. “No other promotional product can provide as much promotional real estate as a planner with custom tip-in pages,” he said. “Make the custom page content relevant to the end-user and you will have a surefire winner that will repeat for years and years.”
Smith agreed, adding: “Create a product that will help your customer distinguish themselves from the competition.”
Certain that there will “always be a strong need for dated products,” Smith said MeadWestvaco is “putting measures in place to ensure that we position ourselves to service that need.” Some of those measures include a well-rounded product line with products of varying prices, as well as improved customer service procedures. “There are systems in place to service the needs of our customers in a timely and efficient manner,” she said.
Taplin summed up calendars’ place in the promotional products industry: “They will never go out of style. What’s old is new again,” he concluded.
