Making a positive contribution to the communities we serve has always been central to our shared vision for an organization, and, after 3 years building Branded Logistics, we’d reached a moment when it was important and necessary to look up from the business-focused tasks at hand and survey where our philanthropic contribution might provide the greatest possible reach and impact.
While all the product lines we represent are highly respected in the marketplace, the OtterBox Mission of “We Grow to Give” most closely aligns with our own thoughts about wanting to make specific and noteworthy contributions to the communities where we live and do business, and we were looking for a vehicle to put ourselves on track for doing just that.
As a newer Supplier to the Promotional Marketing industry, we’ve made a conscious effort to align our time and resources with those Distributors, Service Providers and fellow Suppliers in the marketplace who most closely share our mission:
Spread the Most Good Possible
in the markets you work and serve.
While we welcome business from all Distributors our proactive search for Distributor-partners lends a healthy eye toward supporting the efforts of those in our industry wanting to make a difference in the world beyond merely making money. Distributors, if you’re already doing so, we want to know about it in case we can help, if you’re a Supplier or Service Provider doing the same, please share your knowledge with us - we want to do more and collaboration has a way of amplifying our collective reach; together we can do better.
If you participate in any of the numerous Promotional Products Social Media Groups or platforms, you’ve seen requests from Distributors looking to understand which Suppliers have a Social Good component to their businesses, and requests for products within this Category are at a seemingly all-time high. There never seemed to be a more opportune time to fill the need for this kind of movement than right now, and we were able to capture lightning in a bottle by gathering some of the biggest hearted people on all sides of our industry to get involved.
@PromoCares was born to connect people and great causes.
We’re not sure if it was good fortune, luck, or fortuitous timing, but including Chris Salvaggione, (our partner from Otter Products) as PromoCares came to life was a key moment in Branded Logistics role in the evolution of this movement. The mission of the OtterCares Foundation served as a lighthouse for Branded Logistics as we found our way to our own PromoCares story, and Chris inviting us to participate in their #closed2open campaign was a turning point for us as we looked for ways to marry our mission to the business.
As we worked in conjunction with many others in bringing PromoCares from idea to opportunity, we realized how important it would be to include our employees in the decision making process when it came to the way we personally would support the movement.
Because the closed2open campaign followed so closely on the heels of the PromoCares summit, it felt like good karma - our chance to prove our commitment to the cause.
More importantly, it gave us the chance to share our vision for what this kind of commitment to the community should mean to us as a Company - getting everyone involved was the best way for us to prove to them what it meant to us.
By taking time to focus on something other than our day-to-day work, we not only completed a project to serve the community - we more importantly brainstormed a process by which to turn our community service into a recurring part of our everyday work, and arrived at our 1st project - the desire to place Buddy Benches onto school playgrounds in those communities where we live, starting with Fort Collins, CO.
We’ll share more about Buddy Bench and the ways this project might benefit the community in the days and weeks ahead. In the meantime, perhaps you’ll find some inspiration for your own #PromoCares effort watching how our story unfolded. If you’d like to learn more about the ways Branded Logistics brings the @PromoCares mission to work every day and ways to get involved, please contact either of us!
Jonathan Irvin, Founder & CEO: jonathan@branded-logistics.com
Roger Burnett, Inspiration Department: roger@branded-logistics.com
Roger has spent 20+ years making complex concepts more understandable for both buyers and sellers alike, and has devoted the majority of his recent career to writing and executing sales and marketing plans for early and mid-stage businesses. He is a student of organizational behavior and the disciplines successful selling organizations use to achieve the greatest reach, even in instances of scarce resources. He loves the outdoors and seeks memorable experiences whenever possible. Contact Roger at roger@branded-logistics.com or 810-986-5369