I have been in this industry for 52 years and observe one simple fact. It has been, and still is, a white industry. I will be challenged by many readers who may point out the few distributors and suppliers of color but, there are no statistics to lean on about the actual racial composition of our industry. My comment is observational. Being a salesman, I am good at making my own stats.
My stat, the number of people of color and other non-white communities who own a distributorship or supplier company, is nowhere near the percentage of the American population they represent. This is a case of industry evolution, but it may be time for an industry revolution.
My stat, there are a significant number of African Americans, people of Latin, Asian and subcontinent origin in our factories but, I don’t have a stat for their wages. Still, what I know leads me to believe these are minimal skilled jobs at, or close to, minimum wage. I live in South Carolina and followed my family here from the North, so I have a good handle on a huge factory and the composition of their floor labor. With a minimum wage of $10.00 an hour down here, a dad of a young family can gross $400 a week with no benefits. That is an annual wage for a working man that still leaves he and his family at the poverty level. I ran two different supplier companies before starting my own, so I have a bit of history on employees, minimum wage, benefits etc.
We did not get here because we are a racist industry, we got here because of indifference and the invisibility of our industry in commerce.
I think we have been indifferent to the world outside, with the exception of printing their messages on items that we bill them for. We help elect candidates, we help groups raise money, we help protestors communicate, we help government band, we help police, fire and rescue…we help, we help, we help but, we bill for our help. Are we blind not to see what we are assigned to do, where the products go? Have we reached into our hearts and souls to go beyond the revenue and reach out to do what every righteous person knows from the teachings of their faith?
There is a segment of our population that hardly ever receives a promotional product. Without buying power, there is no reason to lure the poor. Without social power and a voice, promoting to the poor has little appeal.
We have been invisible to the populace we serve. They do not know we may just have a future job or entrepreneurial business for them. We are invisible in career guidance, in business mentoring programs and to the minority communities as a whole. Yes, it is a generalization, but it holds true. That does not need to be. We can change that if we recognize that we have a role to play in bringing opportunity to those who need it most. We must try.
About our products
Do you have any idea how valuable a pen or pencil is to a family living on a minimum wage.? I saw it firsthand in the 60’s while teaching in the South Bronx with a Hispanic family chastising a 7th grader for losing his pen. Mom raged “we can’t afford to buy you a pen every time you lose one”. Just how many of the billions of imprinted pens we produce wind up in the hands of a poor child? Hardly any. We can help solve this need.
I think of Bombas Socks. You see them on TV. For every pair they sell, they donate a pair to the poor. Is it time our industry makes a concerted effort to get a pen to every child who cannot afford one. It is time to pour our overruns and misprints into the communities where school supplies are financial burdens. It is time to cover the heads of the homeless, it is time to step out of our cocoon and work with the diversity of America. It is time for us who create cause marketing programs to become a cause marketer. We can do good and…it feels good to do good.
I wonder how many orders have been taken in our industry for social protest and social justice themed tee shirts vs how many tee shirts have been donated to a group of kids in the poorest county in your state.
Over 2 million pens flowed through my Soundline office. The same for Jornik and other suppliers who volunteered to administer charitable programs. They were collected by The SAAGNY Foundation from suppliers and distributors (how about 75,000 misprints a distributor had to eat) and these pens and pencils went directly to impoverished communities in NY, NJ & CT. Thousands of pounds of showroom samples, misprinted shirts, soiled samples, hats, jackets, etc. went to an organization named Bridges, working out of the basement of a church. They distributed clothing nightly to the homeless living under bridges and overpasses. The SAAGNY Foundation was a road model but, sadly, there was not enough traction. Every single business can reach out today and address the disparity in who we serve vs. who needs to be served.
We must ramp up our heretofore feeble efforts to recruit minorities into our industry. Perhaps it is a PPAI task force to help shape a policy. Every reader knows how difficult it is to plant your feet as a commissioned salesperson. It takes no less than 6 months to see a revenue flow. So, a minority recruit has an even more difficult time of achieving success. Perhaps we need to gamble on the return a minority hire will give us and advance an early draw until they build their book of business.
We must step up our recruitment of skilled labor by seeking minorities graduating from high school and those who finish college.
I know for a fact that many PPCEF scholarship winners come from “wealthy” families. Is it time to consider directing some scholarships to where the financial aid is needed most? I know this will raise the ire of those who never believed in minority recruiting, etc., but we are having a wake-up call and we need to examine from within.
If all you can say after reading this is that it was written by a bleeding-heart liberal, you simply did not get the message. Our industry can do so much good if we have the desire and put our creative will to work. Here’s to instigating “good trouble”.
Joel D. Schaffer, MAS is CEO and Founder of Soundline, LLC, the pioneering supplier to the promotional products industry of audio products. Joel has 48 years of promotional product industry experience and proudly heralds “I was a distributor.” He has been on the advisory panel of the business and marketing department of St. John’s University in New York and is a frequent speaker at Rutgers Graduate School of Business. He is an industry Advocate and has appeared before the American Bankers Association, American Marketing Association, National Premium Sales Executives, American Booksellers Association and several other major groups. He has been a management consultant to organizations such as The College Board and helped many suppliers enter this industry. He is a frequent contributor to PPB and Counselor magazines. He has facilitated over 200 classes sharing his industry knowledge nationwide. He is known for his cutting humor and enthusiasm in presenting provocative and motivating programs. He is the only person to have received both the Marvin Spike Industry Lifetime Achievement Award (2002) and PPAI’s Distinguished Service Award (2011). He is a past director of PPAI and has chaired several PPAI committees and task forces. He is a past Chair of the SAAGNY Foundation, Past President of SAAGNY and a SAAGNY Hall of Fame member. He was cited by ASI as one of the 50 most influential people in the industry.