Taking the initiative to ensure safety and responsibility throughout the entire supply chain not only protects the brand equity of end-buyers, but also secures our livelihood in the promotional products industry. Sure, you could continue to gamble by ignoring product safety and responsible sourcing in order to achieve short-term gains, but the safe bet is to invest in the policies and procedures to protect the entire supply chain…
Read MoreTag: Product Safety
Rationalizing Your Way Out of Responsible Promo Sourcing
To justify taking the easy way out and not having the harder, more educational conversations with their customers, both suppliers and distributors tell themselves all kinds of lies: “My customers aren’t asking for it,” “My competitors aren’t doing it,” “It’s too expensive” and “No one has been caught.” What they may not realize is that these lies are costing them business…
Read MoreGlobal Trends in Product Transparency
On November 23, 2015, the world’s largest food manufacturer, Nestle, disclosed publicly that slave labor was being used to produce its seafood sourced from its supply chain in Thailand. An investigation had shown that Thai fishing operators lured migrant with false promises. The migrants were sold systematically and then kept in bondage and degrading conditions…
Read MoreCan’t Wait for Tomorrow
Paul Bellantone and I walked to dinner after the first day of PPAI’s 2015 Product Responsibility Summit and talked about the same thing we always do: the best concerts we’ve seen recently. (Foo Fighters and the Smashing Pumpkins, for the record.) We also talked about the summit and the state of promotional product safety. Standing…
Read MoreThe Time is Now
There is no question that the subject of product safety and compliance has begun to be mainstream in the promotional products industry.
Read MoreWe’re Not Going to Change It
At the 2015 PPAI Expo, FreePromoTips.com will be receiving a technology award for our website. We are honored that what we do for suppliers, distributors and the industry is being recognized by PPAI. This is also a positive for the supplier and distributor companies that understand and support what FreePromoTips.com does.
Read MoreIt’s Tested, Right?
Trust, but verify. Three simple words that form the best advice I can offer when talking about sourcing safe product from suppliers in our industry.
Read MoreLet Me Google That For You
On more than one occasion I have taken the easy road and asked a question of a colleague rather than do a little simple work with a search engine to find the answer for myself. Sometimes I get a quick response to my question that looks more like alphabet soup; “LMGTFY: Let Me Google That For You.”
Read MoreSo You’ve Got a Recall. What Now?
It wasn’t very long ago, working as a promotional products end-user client that I thought of product safety as pretty much a black and white issue. Products were either safe, or they weren’t. If you’re sourcing and buying promotional products, and keeping up with the increasing discussion and awareness of product safety and compliance in our industry, you likely know that’s not the case.
Read MoreBusiness Lessons from Mickey Mouse
I recently returned from a few days at Disneyland. My wife and I agreed to be chaperones for Grad Nite. On Grad Nite, Disneyland is open until 2 a.m. with just high school graduates and their chaperones. (It sounded like a good idea at the time.) I’m sure this goes on at locations all around the country, but being from Southern California, Disneyland is the place to be.
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