Branding Education: The Six Cornerstones of All Successful Brands

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			Character Branding: The Six Cornerstones Of All Successful Brands (Part 1 of 4)
			Everyone loves a good brand and knows when they encounter one. Few people understand how that brand is built. Join Jim Socci and Gary Kaskowitz to understand the basis for which goods brands are formed and how these principles can help you and your clients make fiscally responsible decisions that create lasting brand impressions. Consistently the annual PPAI study on Promotional Products Distributor Sales reports that Brand Awareness is the number one and number two reasons why clients are buying Promotional Products as a component of their annual advertising spend. Key Learning Objectives: Understand the common misconceptions about branding Identify ways to use branding knowledge to set yourself apart from competitors The three purposes of brands and how they are used PRESENTER: Jim Socci President of Artistic Toy and Dr. Gary Kaskowitz, Marketing Professor at Moravian College DATE: Wednesday, November 6, 2013 TIME: 1:30 pm CST DURATION: 1 Hour COST: FREE for Members $20 Non-Members POINTS: 1.0 CAS

Branding Education: Learn to Speak the Inner Language of Your Clients

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Character Branding Series 2 of 4: Learn to Speak the Inner Language of Your Clients What motivates you and your clients? Every brand has a core story that when told properly is the emotional fuel that takes them to the top of their industry. No one likes to be sold anything; however, we all love to buy. Getting in touch with your client's core story, emotions, and psychology is what takes a marketer or salesperson from good to great. The only thing holding us back or pushing us forward into our dreams and the story we have about why we can't have it or what we are willing to do to get what we want. Join us to tap into the internal motivation of your clients. Key Learning Objectives: The Four primary drivers that motivate your clients Understand your customer's psychology and yearnings better than they do How to use metaphor and symbolism to communicate your client's core story PRESENTER: Jim Socci President of Artistic Toy and Dr. Gary Kaskowitz, Marketing Professor at Moravian College DATE: Wednesday, December 11, 2013 TIME: 1:30 pm CST DURATION: 1 Hour COST: FREE for Members $20 Non-Members POINTS: 1.0 CAS

Branding Education: Incorporate the Power of Story for Sales Success

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			Character Branding Series 3 of 4: Incorporate the Power of Story for Sales Success
			All human beings are hard wired to listen, share, and create stories. If you look around you will find some of the most successful people in the world are outstanding story tellers. Every company has to tell an amazing story if they want to become the success the owners envision. The bad news is not everyone knows how to tell a story that is remembered and repeated for years and years. The good news is this creates an almost limitless opportunity for Marketing Consultants to improve sales success by helping businesses tell their brand story better. Join us to learn ways to improve your story telling. Key Learning Objectives: Introduction to storytelling tools and techniques Proper story structure for sales success Effective use of the "Hero's Journey" to sell more products PRESENTER: Jim Socci President of Artistic Toy and Dr. Gary Kaskowitz, Marketing Professor at Moravian College DATE: Wednesday, January 29, 2014 TIME: 1:30 pm CST DURATION: 1 Hour COST: FREE for Members $20 Non-Members POINTS: 1.0 CAS

3125 Skyway Circle North, Irving, TX 75038

Branding Education: Create Your Own Character in the Market Place

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			Character Branding Series 4 of 4: Create Your Own Character in the Market Place
			Does your brand energize a community of raving fans? Are your customers telling their friends and family about what you said or are they sharing some of your core beliefs? If the answer to this is yes, then you have established a true Character Brand. Character is the mental and moral qualities that distinguish a person or organization. The most successful people and organizations consciously define their character. Join us to see how defining ones character positions you and your client’s to be a recognized leader in the market place. Key Learning Objectives: How to create your Brand Manifesto Techniques to make your brand the thought leader in your industry The Success Mind-set PRESENTER: Jim Socci President of Artistic Toy and Dr. Gary Kaskowitz, Marketing Professor at Moravian College DATE: Wednesday, February 19, 2014 TIME: 1:30 pm CST DURATION: 1 Hour COST: FREE for Members $20 Non-Members POINTS: 1.0 CAS

Artistic Toy Undue Influence Statement of Policy

STATEMENT OF POLICY

Our company has various responsibilities under the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA) for ensuring children’s products meet the requirements of the CPSIA.

Testing and certification of children’s products are important parts of the process of compliance. By law, we must not apply undue influence on what the law calls “third party conformity assessment bodies” which are the testing laboratories we use to conduct the testing of those children’s products, to produce favorable testing results for us.

The law does not provide a definition of “undue influence.” It is our company’s policy that any action or statement that undermines the credibility and validity of the testing process used for the certification of children’s products is undue influence. If you have any doubt, report it.

All reported incidents of possible undue influence will be promptly and fully investigated.

TRAINING

It is our company’s policy that we will train all employees who interact with testing laboratories to make certain no one engages in actions or makes statements that will be considered undue influence. If we change our undue influence policy, we are committed to retraining all employees regarding those changes.  In accordance with the requirements imposed upon us by the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), all employees who are trained will be required to sign a statement attesting to their training attendance.

PROCEDURE

If you witness or are aware of what you believe is an incident of undue influence, it is your responsibility to report it.  Every effort will be made to keep a report confidential, but remember, all of us have the responsibility to report undue influence, even though it may be difficult or uncomfortable to do so. Further, be assured, we will not tolerate any retaliation against you for reporting any incident or participating or cooperating with any investigation of an undue influence report.  You should report it to your immediate supervisor. If you are uncomfortable with reporting it to your supervisor for whatever reason (for example, that supervisor is involved in the incident of possible undue influence), Betsy Socci, Owner, bsocci@artistictoy.com is the designated individual in our company for investigating any undue influence. You may also report an incident to any officer of the company if you feel that is the best course of action.

Don't let Product Safety Be Your 800 lb Gorilla

·       Artistic Toy is Safety Testing Guaranteed!   Don't ignore the 800 lb Gorilla in the room with your client.  See recorded webinar below  and our Supplier Product Safety Checklist to earn your PPAI Aware designation.  (1.0 MAS)  

Join Jim Socci Artistic Toy President on Wednesday, May 28, 2014 at 2pm EDT for a 60 minute webinar to help improve communication on product safety and share best practices.

Register here for replay of PPAI Webinar:  CPSIA Supplier - Distributor Communication
http://eo2.commpartners.com/users/ppa/session.php?id=13145

Direct Download:
http://eventcenter.commpartners.com/se/Meetings/Playback.aspx?meeting.id=313221

Product Safety Checklist

        There are 4 required elements/courses that make up the PPAI Product Safety Aware program - 3 specific courses and 1 elective. Your course qualifies as an elective. The other 3 elements/courses must be taken by all participants and there cannot be any substitution for those 3 elements/courses whereas electives are just that – a participant can choose from any of our corporate responsibility courses for their own elective.

·         Once a person completes the program the individual becomes a Product Safety Aware Ambassador and their company is then recognized with the Product Safety Aware designation. 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Artistic Toy Welcomes Jim Burrow, MAS to Sales Team

CONTACT:

Jim Socci, Artistic Toy

484-788-0888x101

jsocci@artistictoy.com

                                                                                                                                                                                                           

Artistic Toy Welcomes Jim Burrow, MAS to Sales Team

Putting Feet on the Street in Texas

Allentown, PA April 24, 2014 – Artistic Toy Manufacturing, Inc., is honored to welcome Jim Burrow, MAS former PPAI Board Member and President of industry supplier Dart Manufacturing to their sales team.  Jim has served on the Company’s Advisory Board for the last two years and has decided to help expand Artistic Toy’s footprint in Texas and Oklahoma.   

Jim Socci, Artistic Toy, President, said, “Our industry is all about relationships and we are fortunate to have an advocate like Jim Burrow on our team”.  Burrow will be calling on key accounts, exhibiting at regional shows, and getting the Company actively involved in Houston Promotional Products Association (HPPA) and Promotional Products Association Southwest (PPAS).     

Jim Burrow commented, “This is a win for me and a win for Artistic.  I’m excited to reconnect with many of my long time industry friends while at the same time build up the sales in this region so that it can be transitioned to a multi-line representative in the next 12 to 18 months.”

About Artistic Toy

Artistic Toy designs, decorates, and manufacturers stuffed toys used for corporate advertising.  Unlike other toy companies they only sell through a network of independent distributors and promotional consultants. They sew and stitch stuffed toy prototypes in the U.S. that go on to be mass produced in overseas factories.  They also warehouse and decorate thousands of different styles of stuffed animals that are delivered in a matter of days. For more information visit www.artistictoy.com and find them on Twitter @artistictoy, Facebook, YouTube and Pinterest.

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