Build a Powerful School Fundraiser Program

Discount cards, candles, chocolate bars, cookie dough, entertainment books, magazines, and scratch cards. Been there, done that. And gaining profit from these goods means initially buying more products at cheaper bulk-prices and trying to sell them all for greater return. Wouldn’t it be better if the product was unique and generated more return on its own?

Fundraising Step One: the mascot.
Schools are identified by their mascot, such as the Buckeyes or the Scarlet Knights. Almost every school has a mascot that is displayed on sports jerseys, school banners, school apparel, and might even be a “live” costume mascot. What about using them for fundraisers too?
Plush toy mascots could not only generate profit for the school’s organization but also generate school spirit. Chocolate bars and discount coupons have no association to the school – customers may forget about that candy bar that was so quickly consumed, the useless wrapper that was thrown away, and the cause for which those few dollars were spent. Plush toy mascots are directly connected to the school, especially when accompanied with t-shirts that display the school’s logo or event that is being fundraised. So customers are getting a product that promotes the school’s activities as well as the school itself.
Consider a school whose mascot is the bulldog. Say the distributer buys 100 plush bulldogs, which will cost the distributor about $5 each. That equals $500 as the initial cost for this fundraiser. To generate profit, they might sell these bulldogs for $10. That’s 10x100 = $1000, which means $500 profit. For even more profit, the school could either sell more or increase the customer purchase price. Or they could read on…

Fundraising Step Two: extra effort = extra return.
Want to put in a little more oomph into the fundraising process? The results will prove to be well worth the extra effort.
I want to introduce a new idea for those same plush toys… the Interactive Plush Toy: Add a tag on each of the toys and you now have a mascot plush toy, a t-shirt with the school’s logo, and a tag that is redeemable for discounts at participating local businesses.
Extra effort: Organizers of the fundraiser will need to recruit some local businesses to be a part of their fundraising event. The tags on the mascots will be redeemable at one of the participating local businesses. The prize could be a free slice of pizza or 50% entrée at a new restaurant – whatever the businesses have agreed to offer.
Extra return: The customer is getting a toy and a discount offer at a local business. The event’s fundraising profit increases. The involved businesses are getting increased traffic at the cost of, say, just a few slices. Everyone profits!
Of course, with this new added feature, the mascots can be sold at a higher price.
The bulldogs will still cost $10 for the school ($500 initial website cost) if the school buys 100 toys. However, now sell the little mascots for $25, which adds up to 25x100 = $2500. That means $1500 profit. You just increased the return of your fundraiser! Now, why not go a little further?

Fundraising Step Three: 100% no cost to you.
Get a business to fully sponsor your fundraiser. Their logo can go on the t-shirt: “Sponsored by…” The local business will pay the initial costs of the mascots and on-line redemption program. In the case of the bulldogs, that’s $500 + $500 for website. All the t-shirts will have an advertisement of the business, and a portion of the tags (whatever percentage the business approves) will be redeemable at that location.
The cost for you is $0. The profit for you is 20x100= $2,000. The profit for the promoted business is increased traffic via the tags and increased awareness via the t-shirt ad space. Sounds like a win-win situation.

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Maybe you want to hit a long ball to be a top performer this year? Use Character Marketing to go for the green with precision and you can become a Top Performer in 2008.

You have less than 100 selling days left this year. It’s a tough call…you can wait for customers to call you with a big order or you can attack the fairways with a plan to get one customer worth $10,000 to $50,000 of new business this year. In today’s sales environment the “grip-it and rip-it” approach of finding new business typically never finds you on the fairway. Consider attending one of Artistic Toy’s FREE webinars on ways to build new business with precision shots that are guaranteed to get you noticed.

Click HERE to see list of upcoming webinars.

Join us to discuss topics like creative prospecting kits, character marketing campaigns, and new interactive toys that can produce immediate measurable results for your customers.

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