Branded Matters

The Mozilla Store

I'm fired up about FireFox 3. I wasn't a big user until this latest release. I love it when technology blends speed + simplicty + sophistication in a single app. Making it my default browser gave me the excuse I needed to comment about a much lesser known Mozilla product: the Mozilla Store.

As a frequent reviewer of many corporate stores (swag stores, promo stores, branded products: whatever you want to call them), I found that the Mozilla store equals their powerful browser's traits: the site is simple to use and, like the LinkedIn Store, it is fun! I love how they incorporated the official FireFox 3 t-shirt into a contest. The store's design is very consistent throughout. Coolest of all, both at checkout and on the front page, you can subscribe to a newsletter that promotes new items (or probably helps move discontinued branded merchandise - all the stores we create have a marketing competent like this built in - most stores fail because they do not promote their merchandise). Following are a couple of take-aways from the Mozilla store that you can use to build a smart store for your branded products:

1. If you build it, they will come - once. Maybe twice. It takes consistent marketing (usually in the form of newsletters or flyers or both) to keep a store healthy
   
2. Remain consistent, even with the little things (like fonts) throughout the site
   
3. Make navigational buttons and purchasing options big but keep descriptive commentary small, this causes the eyes to drift to the most important aspects of the screen: the purchasing buttons
   
4. Mozilla pulled it off better than most I've seen, but if you can, do not photograph your branded products flat, always either place them on a person (employees, fans, etc.) or a mannequin
   

Congrats to the Mozilla crew for a creating a smart reflection of a brilliant browser.

Company Stores: Outsourcing your warehouse and fulfillment

An excellent article appeared in Operations and Fulfillment magazine written by Ron Cain and Andy Dishner (both with TMSi) entitled, "Outsource Your Logistics Without Fear". Since Mitch and I do industry training on how to set-up and manage company stores, I am often asked about outsourcing the warehousing functions such as inventory management, pick-pack-and-ship, and storage.

Ron Cain and Andy Dishner reference a study done by Georgia Tech University that discusses how transportation and warehousing remain "the most commonly outsourced business function." The article defines how you should go about picking a 3PL and the steps you should take to both qualify and start working with a trusted partner. I cannot add much to their rich content, I must only add a comment that is unique to our business. Since we work in a creative industry, one of the key points I emphasize over and over is that the deliverability of final goods is the ultimate barometer for a successful program. The technology is important. The creativity is key. But the physical process of getting branded products to their final destination point trumps everything. You can nullify all your creative efforts by not getting the final product where it needs to go or by not getting it there on time. I emphasize this painfully obvious point because I find most people are less interested in this "back-end" process than the front-end (creative, product selection, etc.) and they could not be making a worse mistake. If you do plan on outsourcing your fulfillment, whether you are a company trying to handle your program yourself or whether you are a distributor (like us) managing branded products for your clients: creating a smooth relationship with a competent 3PL will ensure you get to keep the business you've worked so hard to get. If you are thinking about outsourcing your transportation or warehousing, read Ron and Andy's article!

Best Places to Work in the Promotional Products Industry

ASI's Counselor Magazine listed Robyn as one of the top 50 Best Places to Work in the $19 billion dollar promotional products industry. It's an honor to be the only Oklahoma based business who made the list! Thanks (again) to my colleagues at Robyn for making this a great place to work.

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