K&B Corporate

.PROMO

June 2019

Inspiring Professional Promotional Products Buyers with Imaginative Ideas

The Top 100 Companies Spend $2.1 Billion on Promo

Tariffs

Are on Everybody’s Mind

Let’s Be Stadium Events Require Clear Bags

Personalization Digital Personalization Brands Bigger

Custom Packaging Presentation is Everything

Starbucks

Color Changing Cups Light Up Sales

www.kbbestbuys.com

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The Top 100 Who’s Spending What on Promos As mentioned in previous issues of IdentityEdge.Promo, spending for promotional products is in the billions each year. Its no longer a fringe advertising vehicle, its reliability has been studied and measured.

Everyone knows that a promotional product can serve to highlight any cause or ad need. From socially responsible events like mini marathons to company stores like Tesla, promotional products work.

Here to support that conclusion is a list of the Top 100 companies and what they are spending on promotional items. Ad specialties aren’t an afterthought, they are a core way for companies to make money.

Whether its to introduce a new product, increase market share for a product in your line, or to thank people for coming into your business, companies are using a variety of logoed items to make sales.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34

Pfizer General Motors Corp.

AT&T Corp.

PepsiCo Procter & Gamble Co. Sears, Roebuck & Co. IBM Corp.

Intel Corp.

Philip Morris Cos. J.C. Penney Co. Verizon Communications Walt Disney Co. SBC Communications Daimler/Chrysler Diageo Hewlett-Packard Co. Bristol Myers Squibb McDonald’s Corp.

WorldCom Ford Motor Co. Viacom U.S. Government Sara Lee Corp.

L’Oreal Sprint Corp.

Bayer Anheuser-Busch Cos. Target Corp.

Coca-Cola Co. Time Warner Nike Cendant Corp.

Novartis Toyota Motor Corp.

$85,700,000 $80,800,000 $58,500,000 $52,600,000 $52,200,000 $45,200,000 $45,100,000 $44,700,000 $44,000,000 $39,800,000 $39,400,000 $39,100,000 $37,000,000 $36,000,000 $35,900,000 $35,100,000 $34,300,000 $34,000,000 $33,200,000 $32,800,000 $31,900,000 $29,900,000 $29,600,000 $26,900,000 $26,400,000 $26,300,000 $26,100,000 $26,100,000 $26,000,000 $24,000,000 $23,600,000 $22,500,000 $21,800,000 $20,500,000

35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68

00 2018 Rank

Estee Lauder Cos. Johnson & Johnson Merck & Co. Nestlé Sony Corp.

General Electric Co. American Home Products Corp.

Mars Inc. Eastman Kodak Co. Microsoft Corp.

Tricon Global Kroger Co. Federated Department. Stores ConAgra Gillette Co. SmithKline Beecham Schering-Plough Corp.

Home Depot Unilever GAP Inc. News Corp.

Wal-Mart Stores Honda Motor Co. Morgan Stanley/Dean Witter & Co. Volkswagen Gateway General Mills Nissan Motor Corp.

Mattel Glaxo Wellcome Adolph Coors Co. Reckitt Benckiser Quaker Oats Co. Seagram Co.

$20,400,000 $20,100,000 $19,400,000 $19,300,000 $18,500,000 $18,400,000 $17,700,000 $17,700,000 $17,600,000 $17,500,000 $17,200,000 $17,100,000 $17,100,000 $16,700,000 $16,500,000 $16,000,000 $16,000,000 $15,900,000 $15,900,000 $15,800,000 $15,700,000 $15,400,000 $15,000,000 $14,800,000 $14,500,000 $13,600,000 $13,400,000 $13,200,000 $13,100,000 $12,800,000 $12,800,000 $12,600,000 $12,500,000 $12,400,000

69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100

Sherwin-Williams Co. Hershey Foods Corp.

AutoNation Clorox Co. Dell Computer Corp.

Visa International U.S. Dairy Producers S.C. Johnson & Son Colgate-Palmolive Co. Starwood Hotels & Resorts American Express Co. May Dept. Stores Co. Circuit City Stores Ralston Purina Co. Kmart Corp.

Revlon Alltel Corp.

Charles Schwab & Co. Pharmacia Corp.

Office Depot BellSouth Corp.

Wendy’s International Campbell Soup Co. Kellogg Co. Compaq Computer Corp.

R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Abbott Laboratories Cadbury Schweppes Albertson’s Limited Best Buy Co. Berkshire Hathaway

TOTAL

$12,100,000 $11,800,000 $11,700,000 $11,500,000 $11,500,000 $11,000,000 $10,800,000 $10,700,000 $10,600,000 $10,500,000 $10,300,000 $10,200,000 $10,100,000 $9,600,000 $9,600,000 $9,300,000 $9,200,000 $8,900,000 $8,800,000 $8,700,000 $8,500,000 $8,400,000 $8,300,000 $8,300,000 $8,200,000 $8,000,000 $7,600,000 $7,600,000 $7,300,000 $6,900,000 $6,700,000 $5,900,000

$2,108,300,000

10

16

The Top 100

Trending Tech Products

Our Annual Issue Featuring the Top 100 Corporations Purchasing Promotional Products

.PROMO

Contents 20 Let’s Be Clear 24

Personalization

26 30

Starbucks

38

AI

Sustainability

49 Tariffs

.PROMO

44

Custom Packaging

June 2019

Promotional Tech Products What's New, What's Selling & What’s HOT! Tech in recent years has been a super fast growing part of promotional products.

That’s because the Baby Boomers have relinquished their lead as being the biggest consumer and now the GenX, Millennials other generations have become the center of the marketing attraction. And don’t forget, people have had to become more tech savvy just to communicate.

And there’s more good news. The high tech promotional products being sold today are creative, sturdy, long-lasting, and in most ways approach the consumer style tech goods.

What are the most popular tech items promotionally? There are many...to many for us to name in this article so we’ll just give you the low-down on the HOT selling ones.

-USB Drives (there are hundreds of shapes and sizes; from trucks to tennis rackets) -Multiport USB Adapters -Mutli Function Power Banks -Phone Chargers--car, home, office -Phone Cases -Multifunction Phone Cases -Phone Stands -Phone Holders/Grips--like Popsocket -Earbuds -Watches--exercise, lifestyle and more -Wearables--items like backpacks that hold tech items, or exercise shirts/pants

Future Promotional Products Applications

Let’s Be

PVC Totes are IN, Fashionable & Quite Sturdy More and more places--especially stadiums and other large gathering areas--are cracking down on the types of bags that are allowed into their events. Safety is big and clear bags are in...but its also a time where you can get your logo seen by hundreds if not thousands of people, getting you the branding impressions you require.

But that’s not the only reason to consider clear PVC totes. They are stylish for sure.

Almost any style bag you now buy can be made in the same design, only with clear PVC. They range in all sizes, from small dobb style kits, tote bags to backpacks.

These bags are high quality but carry a relatively low cost. And there are many American-made options.

Click here to see the NFL’s Policy...

STOCK SHAPES

Personalization of Mass Produced Promo Products Is No Longer Expensive If you personalize your promotional products you will outsell your competition by a hefty amount. That’s been proven over and over again. By simply placing your client’s name on the product next to your logo, something special happens...

Digital Personalization Works BETTER

Digital personalization greatly increases the likelihood that people will carry your promo products more than ones with just your logo.

Makes total sense. Makes for far more impressions.

So whoa! You’re thinking it’s going to be super expensive requiring huge and intricate implementation...that will be horrible to manage and expensive overall?

It won’t be! We can handle it. We have the answers. Ask us about: --The Key Trends for personalization.

--The Challenges & Requirements for using personalization.

--How to Initiate, Design, Implement and Launch a personalized marketing strategy.

It’s Practical Produces More Impressions Creates LOTS of Brand Loyalty

Janet Mario

Petty Officer Williams

Used to be Expensive

Express-A-Button

Custom Packaging Elevate Your Promo Campaign to a Higher Level Presentation is 9/10ths of the game...or so they say. Why not up your game for a tiny bit more and really make a smashing success of your Promo Ad Campaign? Adding a beautiful four color process wrap changes everything and makes even an inexpensive item look great. This certainly increases its value and desire to obtain.

From packing t-shirts in custom shapes to special presentation boxes for pens, there are literally thousands of options that really enhance the initial reception of your promotional products campaign.

As you know most promotional products come in a clear bag, bulk packed. While that’s OK for many promotions, its better to spend a little more and make your ad campaign and logo stand out.

MILLIONS GRADUATE EACH YEAR

Starbucks Color-Changing Branded Cups Keep Selling Out

Starbucks is no stranger to branding having produced some really awesome promotions. Their success has come from launching a number of branded collections yearly. And naturally some of their promotions are related to cups.

We’ve seen some with floral prints or pink and rose

This promotion is game changing for the iced coffee market forever. Only available in-store, the 24 ounce reusable cups will cost you $16.95 for a pack of all five colors, which includes Rose, Citron, Sky, Apricot and Arctic.

When the cups turn cold, Rose changes from

cups on their tumblers. But in May 2019 Starbucks released color changing cups that they can’t keep in stores. And its eco-friendly!

light pink to a deep red. The cups take on an ombre design when the temperature shifts, making them perfect props for Instagram feeds.

This is part of Starbucks rewards program where once their consumer spends enough to get points they can redeem those points for merchandise.

Almost every newspaper and social magazine reported on the introduction--from USA Today, to People Magazine--there was plenty of hoopla and free press.

Plus, the attention received on line from all sorts of websites reporting on it was huge. We have this technology too and can put together a winning promotion for you as well. Whether its a hot or cold cup, we have instant changing products that people will talk about for a long long time.

AI Will Have Impact on Prom

Big Opportunities Will Arise to Measure Audiences and Promote Better Decisions about the Most promotional products buyers will soon have access to some sort of AI (artificial Intelligence) to help them make better branding decisions.

Like other emerging technologies, promotional products Buyers are understandably reluctant to try new and emerging technologies unless they feel totally comfortable in the payoff. And getting the mainframe time is still pretty pricey today.

But since promotional products often follows retailer patterns in terms of products, and marketing, we see that AI will have a very positive impact on the promotional products industry in the near future.

Use of AI will be a trend that mirrors what is happening in retail. Retail is using AI, for one, to predict consumer purchasing patterns. The same can be done for Promotional Products using a different set of variables.

Using AI in Promotional Products will--for one--allow personalization, which as mentioned in another article in IdentityEdge.Promo. Personalization always returns a higher value in terms of branding.

Best of all AI will enable Promo Products Buyers to make better decisions about products you will use in your promo programs. You’ll be able to input thousands of your customer’s data and AI will analyze better than any human could alone.

mo Programs

e Products You Use for Branding

AI has become an inevitable part of our lives...ranging from medical diagnosing to creating complex chemicals to 3D designs.

In the commercial and professional worlds AI has really gained marketshare...no more guessing...AI can really make valued observations about your business and how you should promote it.

Forecasting, analyzing data, trends, providing up-to-date information, and reducing variants that could cause your data to be wrong are obviated with AI marketing.

What can AI do? Lot’s of amazing things.

Sustainability Is a Big Factor in Garment Purchasing More than 16 million tons of textiles are discarded every year, with about 88% ending up in land fills. 60 percent of textiles are made up of synthetics, which are not biodegradable. As a result, Promotional Products Buyers are looking at sustainability. Its something regular consumers do when they shop for food, household applicances and clothing.

Quality, fit, style and other factors remain at the top of the list when buying promotional wearables...but more and more Buyers are considering sustainability as well. Its not only the right thing to do for the environment, but also will make your brand stay around longer. Better quality wearables provide many more impressions simply because they last longer.

How serious is this? Very.

Last year an Assemblyman from California, Richard Bloom, introduced a bill to address this issue. While it didn’t pass the research that it used as a basis for the bill was very interesting. Garments it seems, made of 50% polyester, shed plastic microfibers into our water supply when machine washed. Hand washing was recommended but that is not an option for many.

What’s the safest option? Cotton of course. But, with that being said there are so many wonderful blended fabrics out there that do the job cotton can’t. If you’re left in a dilemma about what fabrics to buy, speak to us.

HOT SPORTS GRILLS

UPDATE on Tariffs

The Industry’s Take on Mexican Tariffs Added to China’s In the first week of June 2019 a wave of ripples went through the global stock market when the latest round of tariffs were announced. Mexico, the USA’s biggest trading partner, was in the President’s gun sights with a threatened five percent tariff to take effect on June 10th. That tariff would escalate to 25% in the coming months if Mexico doesn’t work on controlling immigration.

MANY of the promotional products Suppliers in our industry have factories in Mexico. Most thought this would never happen because Mexico, unlike China, does not try to pilfer our product trade patents and secrets.

Some other thoughts to consider: With the rapid introductions of new tariffs there could be an issue brewing with US Customs. US Customs may not have the resources to administer these rapid changes...and that will certainly effect all industries, including promotional products.

But there may be a positive side for all of this: China and Mexico have been the epicenter for a majority of the products entering the USA. Many other companies in competing countries are now in a position to grab that market share. With the tariffs you will see other foreign companies stepping up to the bar to sell to the USA. Let’s hope they don’t get additional tariffs too.

This is our Special Edition.

Click on it to find a listing of every tariff and detailed information on how tariffs will effect your business.

CONTACT THE PROMOTIONAL

L PRODUCTS DISTRIBUTOR FEATURED ON THE COVER OF IDENTITYEDGE.PROMO