If we’ve talked at all about safety, then you’ve heard me say that there really isn’t any product that is safe. I mean 100 percent safe, guaranteed, every time. From every manufacturing plant, in every country, whether originally shipped by air, or on water, and then delivered by train, truck, or parcel service, it is a given that NO SUPPLIER can say with 100 percent accuracy that product failure hasn’t crept into the supply chain. Product safety is relative. Two orders for the exact same item can have safety variations based on country of origin, the factories, the workers — even based on what might leach from other products shipped alongside.
That’s why I talk about product recalls as a “not if, but when” eventuality. If you stay in the promotional products industry long enough, you will endure a product recall. The best way to survive that recall is to plan ahead. That means having a documented set of procedures in place for tracking product from concept to finished goods to ensure supply chain transparency. That way, when a product fails, distributors can be proactive and can get the word out on a recall. At the same time, they will also be able to retrace the product path with suppliers to ensure whatever it was that produced the failure won’t happen again. Your clients expect their trusted vendor partners to be proactive and responsive, and to take all necessary steps and precautions to protect their brands. Distributors need to get the defective product out of the market efficiently and they must also communicate what the plan is to do that, as well as to make sure there’s no repeating the same product development and delivery mistakes. Once is, most assuredly, enough, on that front.
That’s why I was so disappointed (but not surprised) to see the SOI Research results on promotional products industry commitments to increased product safety. Seems there is a willingness to “talk the talk” — some 90% of industry distributors say they feel product safety is important. However, when it comes to “walking the walk”, not so much. More than a third of promo suppliers that distributors source from didn’t spend any money on product safety measures in 2018. While the median amount suppliers spent on product safety in 2018 was $2,000, 51 percent of suppliers spent $1,000 or less. That pittance won’t even get you two chemical tests from a third-party lab. Even more shocking — this year looks even worse. Nine out of 10 suppliers report they don’t have any plans to ratchet up product safety investments in 2019.
There are industry distributors committed to product safety, of course, but they have long been the exceptions. Interviewed as part of the research, Kim Bakalyar, chief compliance officer and director of vendor relations at PromoShop said, “Large clients have their own strict regulatory protocols that we have to follow, but the majority of smaller clients rely on their distributors to be proactive in delivering a safe and properly documented product.”
For the many distributors that don’t have product safety budget dollars available, they put their end-users at risk by only counting on suppliers as the strategy to source responsibly.
Shamani Peter, COO of Axis Promotions and frequent speaker at industry safety conferences contributed to the SOI study saying, “The cost of staying up-to-date on safety measures can be out of reach for some distributors, which limits their ability to compete for bigger clients. But safety is a culture, and the values must come from the top-down, with CEOs and COOs being willing to pay for the necessary systems and protocols to deliver safe products and grow the business.”
Bakalyar says PromoShop is proactive on safety. “We’re performing random testing on stock products, calculating costs for testing on custom orders – a fee that’s passed on to the client if the requirements are beyond federal standards – and preparing reps to communicate with customers in advance to avoid frustration, confusion, and unwanted surprises.”
Does this top-down management support and proactive mindset on safety sound like something your clients would expect from your shop? Research shows that some end-users don’t know the right questions to ask, but your competitors may have the answers before your clients even ask. The time to be ready for a product safety failure is before it happens, because you may not get a chance to explain it later.
Jeff Jacobs has been an expert in building brands and brand stewardship for 40 years, working in commercial television, Hollywood film and home video, publishing, and promotional brand merchandise. He’s a staunch advocate of consumer product safety and has a deep passion and belief regarding the issues surrounding compliance and corporate social responsibility. He retired as executive director of Quality Certification Alliance, the only non-profit dedicated to helping suppliers provide safe and compliant promotional products. Before that, he was director of brand merchandise for Michelin. You can find him volunteering as a Guardian ad Litem, traveling the world with his lovely wife, or enjoying a cigar at his favorite local cigar shop. Connect with Jeff on Twitter, LinkedIn, or Instagram, or reach out to him at jacobs.jeffreyp@gmail.com.