California is an amazing place. I live just north of Los Angeles, within striking distance of the ocean, the mountains and the desert. Recently, while most of the country was freezing, we had spring-like weather in the 70s. My biker friends around the country were envious of me out riding my motorcycle.
But it’s not all great in California.
Once you get past the awesome weather and landscape, we see a very stormy economic picture. Many states are facing similar financial issues that will have to be dealt with. Our new governor has decided he has one answer—ban the use of promotional products.
If you haven’t heard, California Governor Jerry Brown has issued a memorandum directing all California state agencies and departments to immediately stop purchasing “free giveaway and gift items—such as key chains, coffee mugs and squeeze toys” as part of his “continuing efforts to cut costs and tackle the state’s budget gap.”
The problems of our economy go far beyond the money that is spent on promotional products. And what is not being said is how effective these products are in promoting the messages that are important to get out. Increasing the profile of key state programs with the help of promotional marketing in turn increases the programs’ revenue and brings in the funds the state needs. And what about the taxes our industry pays and the jobs we create? The ban is short-sighted and unfair to our industry.
Rick Greene, the past president of SAAC (Specialty Advertising Association of California) commented in a FreePromoTips article, entitled Come Together… Right Now, that what’s worse than Brown’s blatant buffoonery, worse than the insulting phraseology (“pieces of plastic,” “tchotchkes,” “freebies,” “swag”), worse than the actual ban itself (working with any state government is a challenge at best and an exercise in low-bid frustration at worse) is the news coverage of this “story” by station KCRA in Sacramento. Click here for the KCRA TV in Sacramento report that stimulated this ban. This report is very demeaning to our industry.
Our industry is under attack! We have had the “Pharma Ban,” “Killer Bags” and now this “California Promotional Products” ban. In 2008, FreePromoTips did a story entitled What Do Promotional Products Have in Common with Illegal Hand Guns. Click here for this outrageous attack on our products being penalized for being effective marketing tools.
Some may say if California can’t pay for the products they purchase, it probably isn’t an irresponsible act to ban their purchase for now. But the issue isn’t really the product. Bill Simon from ID Builders notes that, “Selling is all about looking at the buyer’s problem and using what you have to help them solve their problem.” He goes on to say that, “Governor Brown’s true problem is not the purchase of ‘giveaways’ (a term I detest in and of itself, but that is a subject for another day). His true problem is that he has no idea of the value his state received when they invested in these products.”
Simon continues, “If our industry cannot convince Governor Brown (or any other government agency, in California or any state) of the value in printing the messages that appear on their highway billboards (e.g., “Buckle-Up, It’s the Law”) onto a useful product that people will keep (e.g., inexpensive key tag to remind people of the law constantly), then we are only in the business of ‘selling products.’ If this is the case, we dug our own grave at this point by failing to adequately communicate value.”
It’s long been my position that we need to change the perception of what we do. One of our distributors company’s many slogans is “We Don’t Sell Stuff… We Provide Solutions!” There is no better time to start hammering that message home than now. The storm is here. It is clear we need to start working to change the perceptions of this industry or risk watching our industry and livelihood continue to be eroded because of ignorance about its true value.
