Kirby Bear Special - Why Am I Green?

GREEN has different meanings to different people. Some people think if you are GREEN you must be inexperienced. Other people think that if you are GREEN you are made of recycled materials.

I’ve been promoting businesses for over 15 years and I am made out of ALL NEW MATERIALS for your Safety. I am bulk packed and do not use any foam packing peanuts when I travel. It is through my experience that I have been able to conclude that I am a GREEN product because people will not throw me away. Similar to my other plush toy character friends, I don’t run out of ink, I’m not easily broken, and I always find a great home for generations of enjoyment. Some of my cousins are now collectibles and others have executive offices around the world.

So if you are thinking of ways to make your advertising GREEN, think about me and remember what my old friend Kermit the Frog said, “It’s not easy being Green”.

Sincerely,


P.S. I’m interested to know if you think I’m GREEN worthy or not. Anyone who posts a comment on the blog and votes on the poll will receive a FREE – 24” version of me with an imprinted t-shirt with their next order.

Click Here to Leave a Comment

How to Sell a $50,000 Plush Toy Program

On April 22, 2008, Artistic Toy hosted a FREE webinar on “How to Sell a $50,000 Plush Toy Program". This webinar introduced the concept of Character Marketing and how stuffed plush toys can be used in your marketing campaign.

"If a picture is worth a thousand words, a character toy is worth millions to your brand."

The response to the webinar was overwhelming with 184 attendees pre-registered and 96 in attendance. I know many of you could not make it. Please follow the link below to get the recorded playback.

If you’re not sure if you have time to listen to the webcast, please consider what others have said:

“Good job...I found the time spent will be worth it."

“Thanks for the webinar. I'm interested in the questions to help establish clear objectives with clients.”

“Thanks for such an informative and enjoyable event today."

“It was very informative and I hope to work with you on several large companies.”

“It was a pleasure attending the Web Conference.”

88% of attendees stated that they would like help mapping current customer’s to the character marketing applications discussed in the webinar.

94% of the attendees stated they were interested in learning more about our new Interactive Toy solutions that guarantee measurable results.

If you are looking for the responses to the FAQ’s Click Here.

If you want to Replay the Full Webinar Click Here.

If you want the Slide Presentation Click Here.

Please post a comment on this blog or email info@artistictoysmfg.com to get started using stuffed plush toys in character marketing campaigns.

Upon Request – ASI Social Network: Artistic Toy Credit Policy and Procedure

Based on the 28 comments to Josiah’s (ASI/285446) Deposit and Payment In Full… topic posted on the ASI Social Network Forum it is good to see that most distributors are collecting deposits or payment in full before accepting orders from customers. I was excited to get requests from Anita Patterson and Donna Weaver to see Artistic Toy’s credit policy. I hope distributors find this policy helpful and let me know if you have suggestions or comments.

Standard Language on Quotes to Customers:

TERMS: 50% DUE WITH ORDER, NET DUE ON SHIPMENT. TERMS ONLY EXTENDED TO CUSTOMER WITH MORE THAN 3 ORDERS. TERMS GRANTED ONLY WITH APPROVED CREDIT. CUSTOMER WITH TERMS WHO DO NOT PAY WITHIN TERMS WILL LOSE TERM PRIVLEGES.

WE ACCEPT: AMX VISA MC DISCOVER

CARDHOLDER NAME: __________________________ CUSTOMER SIGNATURE: _______________________

CARD NO: _____________________________________ EXP DATE _____

SECURITY CODE ________

Customer message sent along with Sales Order Confirmation:

We received your purchase order acknowledgement. Attached is a Sales Order Confirmation, please call us if you have any questions.

The following information is critical to ensure efficient processing of your order:

1. No product proofs will be started until 50% deposit is collected.
2. No Credit Terms are extended to customers with less than 3 orders.
3. Invoice balance is due on date of shipment.
4. Customers with credit terms who do not pay within terms will lose term privileges.
5. Customers who pay by credit card at end of term will be assessed additional 2% credit card processing fee.
6. Order cancellation is subject to minimum 25% of total order.

Best Regards,

Accounts Receivable


Notes and Explanation for Policy Requirements:

After a customer has 3 orders and approved credit application, then we extended Net 15 day terms. Why not Net 30 day? We have found that customers have different interpretations for Net 30, meaning payments generally arrive closer to 45 days. To avoid confusion our terms are Net 15 with a 15 day grace period. On day 31, customer will receive a 10 Day Free Demand Letter from the collection agency and lose future term privileges.

This policy is not perfect, but it does eliminate a lot of stress with collections and cash flow. In situations when the orders ship to customers outside the United States or have a value in excess of our own financing abilities we require a Letter of Credit or payment in full before shipment.

Key Implementation Tip:

We have found that these policies and procedures to be most effective when communicated with customers upfront before a quote is prepared. This eliminates any confusion and gets the money issue out of the way in the beginning. Sometimes it’s better to tell a prospective customer, “While we would like to do business with you, we might not be the right fit for you.” If the customer and vendor are going to disagree it is better to agree to disagree early in the process. We all have choices on who we want to do business with and I continue to maintain that “The Customer is always right, just not always right for me.”

Artistic Toy Launches Interactive ToyTag™ at ASB Winter Conference

It’s almost Spring and the creative minds at Artistic Toy have come out of hibernation. On March 1, 2008 we introduced our Interactive ToyTag™ to 600 distributor and exhibitor sales people at the American Solutions for Business Winter Conference in Minneapolis, MN. The response was overwhelming with show guests lining up 6 deep waiting to register to see which of the $80,000 worth of prizes they had won.

You may have heard of the popular brand of stuffed toys called Webkinz™. Well the product development teams at Artistic Toy and Ego-ID have taken the concept of web based toys in a different direction. A key problem identified by many marketing and financial professionals is that it is difficult to measure return on investment or return on objective when utilizing traditional promotional products.

That is why Artistic Toy and Ego-ID have partnered together to deliver a new application for Ego-ID’s successful brand of Dog Tags™ and developed the Interactive ToyTag™ by Artistic Toy. The tags are applied to Artistic Toy’s products. The tags have unique variable data printed codes on them redeemable for prizes on-line. The adorable soft cuddly toy is your initial prize given to a suspect for spending 1 minute collecting a few pieces of contact information. Then instantly they have become a winner of another fantastic prize. This prize however is not an ordinary prize; it is a NO RISK OFFER that separates the suspects from the prospects. The primary purpose of the prize is to provide a call to action for your visitor to see if they would like to move to the next step in building a business relationship with your company or its partners. Typically, this is something that cannot be achieved with an ordinary promotional product give-away.

If you think this is something you would like to present to a customer please send us an email to info@artistictoysmfg.com and we will send you marketing material and detail information about how to sell and present the Interactive ToyTag™ in your next marketing campaign. If you saw the ToyTag™ product at the American Solutions for Business Winter Conference and have any feedback please post a comment.

Jim

Artistic Toy Exhibits at the Promota International Show for the Second Year in a Row

Several distributors asked me why we decided to get into the UK market. That is a good question and it took me some time to sort through my business plan to find the real reason why Artistic Toy is in the UK. “We want to be different!” Artistic Toy is a different kind of Company with the ability to build its character anywhere in the world. Our product offerings and value proposition is different than what is currently available in the UK market.

When you work with Artistic Toy, it is a partnership relationship from the start. Our goal is to be remarkable because our fear is that if we are not helping you develop new, different, and creative marketing applications for your Customers, Artistic Toy and its Distributors will be invisible in any market.

When you partner with Artistic Toy you can expect remarkable things like:

1. InstAQuote™
2. ArtisticAlerts™
3. Above and Beyond Guarantee
4. Inspected by Helen™
5. The Perfect Match System
6. Over 10,000 Different Toys and 750,000 Toys in Stock
7. Safety First
8. Create Your Own in 24 hours

Please email this subject line “I’m interested in The A-Team of Distributors” to learn more about this amazing partnership opportunity. Also, join us in developing the hottest product to be launched to the UK market next year. Remember to cast your vote in the blog poll.

Sincerely,

Jim

PPAI Expo - Were You A Big Winner?

Wow.... What an awesome show! It is always difficult to measure the return on investment from trade shows but when you gather over 961 prospect names in 2.5 days we certainly increase our chances. Almost 200 prospects provided us specific information related to customer projects. Thank you for taking the time to exchange ideas and discuss opportunities. We are obsessed with reaching out to everyone. We have spent the last week carefully reviewing each scan and business card to make sure we have accurate contact information.

I suspect some distributors are frustrated with the amount of time it takes to get requested information from suppliers. I also suspect some distributors are frustrated with the over abundance of communications and information received from suppliers. Is there achievable balance here? Do you have any suggestions, techniques, or comments? If you have a tip or opinion please post a comment to this blog or participate in our "DISTRIBUTOR FRUSTRATION" pole.

The BIG Winners in Vegas are:

1. Nancy Gordon - Creative Specialty Promotions, Inc. - Paramus, NJ

2. Susan Raymond - Shamrock Specialities - Whitehouse, OH

3. Glenn Aultman - Allstar Corporate Promotions - San Antonio, TX

Each of the above people will have their choice of either $400 Cash, an iPhone, or 100 pcs of our 9" Peter Bear w/imprinted t-shirt. Winners need to post their selection on the Blog and we will contact you to schedule delivery.

We appreciate your interest in our Company and want everyone to leave Las Vegas feeling like a winner and with tangible concepts and products that will help them this year. To that end we are offering a promotion to all of our 961 participants. Please order a FREE "Best Selling Pack" and select some of our Valentines Day, St. Patrick's Day or Easter hot products listed below. Please also view the thousands of other items we have in stock for this holiday season. If you decide to take advantage of this offer please reference promotion code "PPAIX08"

3" I Love You Heart or 8" Bear w/ Heart

3" Rabbit w/ Wings or 8" Rabbit

5" Shamrock or 8" Leprechaun Bear

Good Luck this selling season and we look forward to working with you soon.

Sincerely,

Jim Socci

ASI Orlando - iPhone Winner

Thank you for visiting us in Orlando at the ASI Show. I hope this was a good start to your 2008 selling season. The response rate to the iPhone promotion was tremendous. More importantly the exchange of ideas, conversation, and relationships built with customers exceeded my expectations. I have done over 20 tradeshows in the last 2 years and this was by far the best. We gathered over 340 distributor salespeople's names.

Unfortunately, we could only pick one winner for the iPhone because I only saved $400 when I switched to GEICO.

The Grand Prize Winner of the Apple iPhone was:

Tony O'Donnell - Imagemark ASI / 230137

Last night I decided there had to be something more I could do for everyone that stopped at the booth, so I decided to add 2 additional categories.

The 2nd Prize Winner - Free Self Promo Toy Pack (S2142) - Martha Lohman - M M Grinann & Company ASI /214646

The 3rd Prize Winner - Free Custom Toy Sample - Matt Browning - Surge Promotions - ASI /238600

In the spirit of creating of win-win atmosphere at Artistic Toy, I want to thank everyone who stopped by our booth and invite you to become a registered member of our website. In exchange for joining our preferred network of distributors you can order our BEST SELLING TOYS PACK (S2138). Please enter promotion code ASIORL08 to redeem this item for free.

Good luck this year and I look forward to working with you!

Jim