The Promotional Idea Showcase - Summer 2000 - Updated Quarterly

Does your organization have a company store program? If not, you might be missing out on a valuable employee-retention tool that can also provide worldwide brand awareness. With technology and ease of communication, a company store audience-once restricted to employees-can now be expanded to include the whole world. Don’t believe it? Just ask the people at Hormel Foods. Its 28-page Spam catalog is one of the hottest things going, offering the familiar blue-and-yellow logo on everything from boxer shorts to snow globes. Program Types Typically, company stores offer merchandise in a easy-to-order fashion to your employees and, if your brand can support it, the public. There are three basic types of company store programs: 1) an actual physical location, 2) print catalogs, and 3) online stores. Some organizations (even the state of Iowa has a line of logoed merchandise) use one or two forms of company store. Others use all three. Even if your firm only has a small glass display cabinet of logoed products, you have a physical location. Do you have a one-page list of products you stuff in with paychecks? You technically have a catalog program. Then there’s online company stores, also called e-catalogs, which have been around since about 1995. As confidence in the Internet grows, they’re gaining popularity. If your firm doesn’t yet have a Web site or Intranet, you probably don’t have an online company store. In fact, no matter what kind of program you have (or have in mind), your counselor can make it more polished and productive. Employee Stores Employee stores perform different functions and have different goals. “Some companies believe that the store is a strict service to the employees and will operate on a break-even basis,” says Cynthia Helson, director of communications for Employee Services Management Association (ESM). Others see them as a profit center. If you’re running an actual store or physical location, here are some things to keep in mind: Do some planning. Consider two things when starting an employee store. First, determine your goals, just as with any business venture. Second, do your homework. “Call a professional association and ask questions,” says Bob Crunstedt, executive director of the Honeywell Employee Club, which runs the firm’s company store. “Get as much information as possible before you make final decisions.” ESM can offer advice like how much square footage you’ll need. And don’t forget to talk to potential customers about what they want from an employee store. Who’s minding the store? Counselor Phil Martin provides racks, display shelves, a store manager and more for a client’s employee store. “We were given the store space and electricity. In turn, we provide the service and favorable pricing on items,” he says. Companies and their counselors can determine together who will purchase the store’s inventory and the payment methods to be used. If the counselor owns the inventory, he’s usually heavily involved in the operation and can help determine what products will sell best. Discuss this at the program’s outset. Interest-free payroll deduction on big-ticket items is popular with Honeywell employees. The store also accepts department charge numbers. “It’s easier for the group that wants to buy logoed items to take on a business trip or for meetings,” Crunstedt notes. Payment pitfalls include: Who will carry the employee’s credit? How much credit will be allowed? Who will be responsible for delinquencies? Promote it. Remember to promote the store in order to stimulate sales – and talk about new products. Promotions at Honeywell’s stores depend on inventory/stock levels and liquidation of off-season goods. Counselor Barbara Dail furnishes clients who want to promote their stores with flyers and special prices, as do many counselors. Catalog Programs Printed catalogs are highly popular, though they can sometimes be pricey. It depends on the scope of the program, number of pages, use of color, etc. A one- or two-page payroll insert may be all that’s needed for your firm. An extensive program, particularly one appealing to the general public, may call for many more pages and a yearly update. The unofficial motto for establishing print programs is, “Big enough to meet your goals, small enough to stay in budget.” Counselor Ken Goldman sees a huge upswing in firms using internal catalogs. “A lot of it has to do with casual [office] attire,” he says. “They like the feeling of belonging – to have that logo on their shirt” Some suggestions for catalogs: Familiarity breeds sales. Catalogs have universal appeal. They’re familiar and portable, allowing an employee’s family to use them, too. Although consumers are gaining trust in Internet shopping, catalogs will always reach your entire potential market if you have the right distribution method in place – be it mailings, paycheck stuffers, inter-office mail or including them with orders to reach your customers. And remember that many employees – like supervisors and field reps – don’t sit at computers all day. Using an online catalog without a corresponding print version may limit your sales potential among those most likely to want such items – and with the money to purchase them. Design details. Whether logoed samples are photographed or logos are electronically placed onto images, catalogs should showcase products with high-quality images. You and your counselor should first determine what’s being sold, then draw up a contract outlining products to be featured, says designer Timothy Owens, who’s been creating catalogs for 25 years. “We try to get the images as large as we can within the [catalog’s] parameters.” Information in a catalog or brochure must be properly organized. Users want to findproducts and matching descriptive text quickly and easily, Owens says. Owens also carefully considers the catalog’s market and discusses appropriate designs with the client. Companies may want to provide the artist with printed promotional pieces used in the past. “A lot of companies try to keep a family look, so I’ll take either their corporate colors and use them in the piece, or a design element they’ve used in the past,” he says. These days, clients often want to do something totally different or incorporate elements from their Web site. Ordering information. Catalog recipients should have several ordering options. Martin’s customer-service department takes catalog orders. “We have toll-free lines and toll-free fax – and direct e-mail as well – so they can e-mail orders or questions,” he notes. Your counselor’s company store services can be tailored to your needs. In any case, most counselors recommend drawing up a binding agreement for the program from the outset to avoid any confusion. If your counselor provides warehousing and fulfillment for your company store program, discuss packaging and shipment options. Imprinted gift boxes, gift wrap and other packaging ideas can tie into a program theme or boost a company’s image. Online Company Stores Many company stores have gone high-tech via the Internet. Proponents of online company stores cite several benefits: They’re less expensive to produce than print catalogs. It’s easy to change products and put items on sale. It’s cheaper to use e-mail to promote the store and acknowledge orders. Web sites can provide interactivity for the user, like seeing products in different colors. In three to eight weeks, you can get a program up and running. How? Some distributors use customizable templates. Counselor Jennifer Dillaman-Minnerly programmed four templates for corporate stores. Here’s what to ask about: Site administration. As with other company store programs, your counselor can manage the site. “We can set it up so that it doesn’t cost you anything ... so that it becomes a profit center for you or a simple cost center,” says counselor Jon Kaufman. Some of Dillaman-Minnerly’s clients save administration fees by controlling the site in-house, but it’s easier for her to do it. “We don’t charge very high administration fees, because we’re doing the entire program as a whole for them,” she says, explaining that orders are directed to her office and warehouse for fulfillment and same-day shipment. Stock and ordering. Clients can invest in shopping-cart technology, where the customer clicks through the site to purchase. Or, they can have an order form that can be printed out and faxed or e-mailed in. For companies where employees aren’t at computers during the day, he suggests a free-standing kiosk or workstation containing a computer with fast Internet dial-up. Online catalogs require less stock because it’s easy to put up a notice on the site indicating that a product is unavailable. “With the Internet catalog, you can change prices; you can try to drive sales,” says counselor Malcolm Alexander. He keeps clients’ sites vital by having monthly specials to entice users to visit frequently. Public access. If you choose, an Internet store can be viewed by the public and/or connected to a company’s Intranet. Password-protected areas can prevent the public from accessing areas for use only by employees. Web stores can do good business with affinity audiences. “You’ve developed the site and it works... why should you limit it to the company?” Alexander asks. He recently did a gift-certificate program for a popular Internet magazine. With a subscription, users were e-mailed $10 to spend in the company store. “It was great for them. It got their name out there. They saw a substantial sales increase,” he notes. Product Selection Company store programs can provide a central place for departments or subsidiaries to buy promotional products. For instance, the sales force at one of Dillaman-Minnerly’s accounts can order lower-end items from the online company store, with the employer picking up the tab. Using a company store to order promotional products assures the logo will always be correct, which can be helpful for companies with multiple subsidiaries or branch offices.Your counselor can help with product selection. Basic wearables like golf shirts, T-shirts, sweatshirts, jackets, caps and hats are generally good sellers. Other popular items include ballpoint pens, sports bottles, mugs, calculators, can holders, tool sets, watches, coolers, lunch bags, totebags and duffle bags, to name a few. Some stores include small collectibles, like lapel pins, or specialty items like children’s clothing. Products should be reasonably priced, but that’s usually not the key issue. Remember, employees will have a higher level of expectation when buying from the company. Also, selling some logoed brand-name products adds to the perception of quality within the store, says Alexander. For example, if you offer Swiss Army knives and Champion sweatshirts, it’s natural for customers to perceive that all other products are of the same quality. With proper planning, you and your counselor can be busily counting orders as they come in, and your company store – whatever form you decide to use – will meet your goals. Cynthia Ironson is features editor for Imprint.