Hard to understand how it all started with a coin that had the likeness of the Lydiam king on it. That was 2700 years ago! “Business Gifts” where a ruler brought tribute to another ruler they were visiting, may have had the giver’s crest on the gift, but actual mass produced logoed products began with the coin. Quickly following the coin were buttons and badges, which were essentially just a coin with an attachment on the back.
Coins needed to show denominations. Badges had to show rank and authority. Buttons became the first ID badges and the number of different items began to expand exponentially.
Then, the game changer! Merchants, using the same technology as coin, button and badge manufacturing, could produce “tokens” that the merchants gave to customers and prospects to encourage them to deal with the merchant. Some offered special services or extra value. They essentially were doing the job coupons do today.
But there was a problem. All the tokens looked about the same. Merchants wanted something different. Our industry was born! Human creativity came up with more and more items to carry messages and the total available continues to grow today.
A modern example of similar human creativity can be seen in the automotive industry. From inception until the 1970s, designers came up with exciting designs and trends that made each make and model stand out. Enter CAD (Computer Aided Design). As each automaker asked their computer to design the “best” car, they all started looking the same! When the same criterion is used, eventual selling price, passenger space, engine size, horsepower, wind resistance and a hundred other specs - the computer crunches all the numbers and except for the paint color, the cars look the same.
Now we have AI. Artificial Intelligence is already doing amazing things. In medicine it is doing a better job diagnosing skin cancer than the doctors. AI can write your marketing material, produce the content for your website and select the promotional items to present to your clients for consideration. But just like the auto industry experienced, give AI the same criteria and the results will be way too similar to make you stand out to your client! You may be left with only a downward price spiral to differentiate from your competitor.
A recent conversation with a friend and competitor in the industry focused on their belief (fear) that major online platforms will utilize AI to create a seamless way for businesses to select and have their promotional products produced. They will ship next day and most likely get free shipping too!
They may be right. But again and perhaps even to a greater extent, similar criterion will produce similar (or identical) results.
Another “bug” in the AI system is that “do it yourself” may be fine for certain tasks from mowing the lawn to fixing a broken window, but advertising, marketing, dentistry and toxic mold removal is better left to professionals. Consider that a plumber knows hands on what is important to them and would use that criterion to ask AI for help. But the real need to know is what is attractive to customers - not other plumbers!
For the near future, making sure that your clients know that you bring an essential part of marketing communication to the table, that you have knowledge about special deals that can make budgets go farther, that you will suggest a program that delivers a properly crafted message to exactly the best prospects and that will have you making sure everything goes properly.
Pumping your own gas is dangerous and people won’t do it; the internet is no big deal; Online shopping is too confusing; Bitcoin is a fad that won’t catch on and AI is just a novelty! Obviously those that embraced new aspects of life have profited. Those that refuse to acknowledge that things change, that new generations take over, and don’t realize that conducting business the same way is not an option, will find that more and more business is bypassing them.
Add to the electronic onslaught of AI creating competition along with benefits, that suppliers and the OEM they buy blanks from, are cutting out the middleman (that’s us!), it becomes obvious that reinforcing the value of your human expert involvement, usually at the same or better cost, is a bargain for your clients.
Gregg Emmer managed Kaeser & Blair’s marketing, catalog publishing and vendor relations for more than 30 years. Prior to arriving at K&B in 1991 he owned and operated a graphic communication company featuring promotional products and full service printing. Today Emmer’s consulting work provides marketing, public relations and business planning consulting to a wide range of businesses including promotional industry suppliers, venture capital and market research companies. If you are interested in growing your business (or privately commenting on articles) contact Gregg at gregg.promopro@gmail.com.