What am I talking about in the title – put simply… “buying Knowledge once and selling it a thousand times”.  During a meeting this week, the business gift industry in general was discussed and to put it bluntly – there are people who appear to be trying to mix up a decent, well organized industry up for self gain.  I am told that this is something that one person in the industry believes. It would appear that a “guru” in the US lives by that very statement – “buy knowledge once, sell it a thousand times” and someone is trying to apply it over here.  At the time it made me feel very uneasy and still does as I write today’s posting.
I am not opposed to the theory, the idea and I would almost agree that this is a very shrewd and clever idea that a business can use and become very successful at. However, I do not believe that every company could use it and apply it to their business or industry and I certainly feel that it must be used carefully, thoughtfully and with a full assessment of all the potential repercussions.
The knowledge I am referring to is empowering people who do not sell business gifts and promotional items as their core business to do so. This may seem like something very innocent and straightforward. I have no problem with companies diversifying and making more money, competition is good and keeps us all on our toes and thinking of news ideas. What concerns me is the scattering with which this selling of knowledge happens, no thought, just mass distribution of the sourcing tools for selling business gifts.
Promotional Gift selling is not a deeply guarded secret – but it cannot be done half cocked. It needs experience and a huge knowledge base to win respect and good reputation. It is price led and being established in the industry gains price advantages. You must have a very well oiled back office set up. We are dealing with client’s logos and branding guidelines – it is extremely vital that these are “looked after”. We are having items printed, engraved, embroidered, blocked. Proofing, deadline making, problem solving all happen every day. This is a “full time job” for every member of an entire company, not something that a member of staff can dip into for a couple of hours and make a decent profit – the problems this would cause would be frightening.
I am worried about this? No. Do I have concerns? Yes. At Steel City Marketing, we have worked at gaining knowledge and experience, we have great price points and work hard at achieving these. This is unfortunately one person’s ideal and one person’s ultimate gain or agenda. Will it work remains to be seen.

This entry was posted on Friday, October 24th, 2008 at 11:47 am and is filed under Campaigns. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.