Enjoy The Process

Sometimes people make things harder than they need to be.  I for one want to make a system out of everything I work on.  If I’m going to invest my time to figure out how to do something, I want to make sure it can be replicated and others can achieve the same success as me, if not more.

 

Unfortunately, the system view comes at a cost.  It costs us extra time, effort, and learning.  The thought of taking yourself through the entire process again in the form of documentation is painful.  More work….Ahh!  I’ll never be done what I’m supposed to do and finish the documentation.  So we lose heart and leave future success to chance, versus documenting our experience and teaching others. In order to overcome this dilemma we need to shift our focus from all the things we need to do, to all the benefits our work will provide us and our team members.  Taking the first step is the hardest part.  Don’t worry about perfection.  Start your documentation as if you are writing it to go in the trash can. 

 

I was excited to learn about team members how are starting documentation and also jumping into things that need immediate fixing.  J.J. and Jim have started documenting and training on their Set-up and Closing procedures.  They will be following this up with role reversals and schedule shifts to confirm all aspects of the system are understood and can be replicated.    Jenn and Kelly have jumped in head first to improving our Marketing.  They are investigating Tradeshows, developing WOW type email flyer concepts, and exploring the exciting world of social media.   

 

The last paragraph of our Strategic Objective states that “every area of the Company has a set of documented systems”, “procedures help facilitate training and reliable delivery”,  and “team members are empowered to make decisions”.   What it doesn’t say is that this is a heck of a lot of work, but you can have fun doing it.   Thank you to these team members for embracing our vision and making road to success more enjoyable.

        

Jim Socci, President

Change Marketing

Change Your Market

Change Marketing is imperative for the 21st century and the name of Artistic Toy's campaign that informs marketing professionals how to think differently in terms of the products they are using and the messages they are sending to their customers.

Marketing is an attitude, not a department, and your client's marketing message is represented in everything they do from answering the phone to arriving at their next appointment. If they are not considering the psychological and emotional impact of routine business activities they are missing extremely valuable opportunities to connect with clients and prospects.

It is a well known fact that people buy more for emotional reasons than objective rationale. You need to know the ways to connect with the emotions of your target audience. Studies have shown that businesses who can emotionally connect their lead generation and lead conversion activities to their customers experience three times more business from those customers. Ever imagine why McDonald's would choose to fill their "happy" meal with lots of fun toys and games?

While the economic down turn has slashed marketing budgets, I challenge you to help your clients think differently. Develop successful strategies that emotionally connect before they re-invest in the same, worn out methods they were using before. It is change that has proven to drop to your bottom line.

Artistic Toy will be featuring sales tips and creative product information focused around our popular line of reversible puppets to help you engage your clients in the Change Marketing conversation. We will feature 7 products over the next 14 weeks focused on emotional triggers in the most popular industries. We challenge you to join us and change your market.

Character Ad Challenge

One of the biggest barriers to selling plush toys is overcoming the intimidation factor.

"You want me to walk into my client's office and present a toy as a viable marketing strategy. That’s crazy…. Who would use such a bold and outrageous tactic? I have very serious clients who will throw me out of their office if I presented a childish gimmick."

This objection and consequently misconception is rampant in the minds of Promotional Product Distributors and their clients. That is why Artistic Toy has launched the Character Ad Challenge.

We challenge you within the next 30 days to review your favorite industry or business journal and tell us which advertisements you found with a reference to a Character. Last month I got my first copy of the Harvard Business Review and you may be interested to know what I found. See our new web page Characters In Marketing to review the results.

This type of market research is exactly what you need to overcome any hesitation you may have about presenting plush toys. The experience you gain from this search will equip you with confidence in your quest to build character and generate orders that can change your future. Everyone that participates in this challenge will find new lead opportunities and magazine results posted on our Characters In Marketing webpage. This webpage will soon become a place you can visit to see hundreds of advertisements with examples of characters being used in marketing. This will be a great foundation for you to present new ideas to your clients or prospects with confidence.

It’s the 21^st century, and to remain competitive you must innovate and you must commit to learning what it is you don’t know. You must continue to self-educate in order to see more clearly so that you and your business continue to grow. Be eager to learn, do something intentional to grow every day as you move closer to reaching your potential.

Artistic Toy is committed to principles that will help enable your organization to achieve its growth potential. We value your time and thank you for taking the Character Ad Challenge.

To participate in the Character Ad Challenge:

Send an e-mail to esocci@artistictoysmfg.com including the Publication Name, Publication Date, Page Number, and a brief description of the ad. Then check our Characters in Marketing webpage to see all submissions.

A New Year Filled with New Additions

Typically each new year at Artistic Toy begins with meeting our new and current clients at the ASI - Orlando and PPAI - Expo in Las Vegas. This year we have had some exciting additions which is why you didn't see us at these trade shows. On December 5, 2009, the owners of Artistic Toy received their newest member of the family. His name is Maxwell David Socci. This Character came 30 days ahead of schedule, he was 17.25 inches and 4 lbs, 11 ounces. While we have some bigger toys in our line, we have nothing that resembles his beauty. This character is not for sale; however, we will share him with you anytime. He is particularly active from 11pm to 4am, so he would be happy to see you during those times. They say your life will never be the same when you have a child, I will verify that is an understatement.

In preparation for our first new addition, we made some more additions to our extended Artistic Toy family. On Monday, December 14, 2009, we added two new people to help us in our reception and administrative support areas. Our team carefully selected two candidates who represent the type of "characters" we look for at Artistic Toy. They are self-motivated, have leadership experience, and have an authentic charisma that attracts people to them.

It is my pleasure to introduce to you Amorie Rivera and Brooke Donaldson as our new team members. They have been trained to help you with most customer service and sales related questions like product configuration, timing, minimums, pricing, website, samples, catalogs, and quotes. If you have anything they can't help you with, they know who to ask to get you the answer.

So while we welcome our new additions to the family, our team is focused on giving you great service you can expect from Artistic Toy. In order to ensure that customer service does not slip through this transition period we decided that participation in the January trade shows would distract us from focusing on our most important assets -our employees and current customers!!!

Thank you for your continued business and we look forward to seeing you later this year.

CUSTOM PLUSH TOYS - No Re-Quote Necessary

On December 18, 2009 the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) voted to extend the 1 year STAY on 3rd Party Independent Product Testing and General Certificates of Compliance (GCC) required to be performed and provided as part of the 2007 Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA) law. The STAY of enforcement on this component of the law is in effect until February 10, 2011.

PLEASE BE AWARE THAT YOUR PRODUCT QUOTATION OR ORDER DOES NOT INCLUDE TESTING OR CERTIFICATE OF COMPLIANCE COSTS.

Artistic Toy focuses on product safety from concept design through final production. If you need higher levels of assurance to protect your stakeholders we will provide separate price quotations for 3rd party safety testing and GCC's.

See www.artistictoysmfg.com/toysafety.html for more important news on safety testing procedures, sample reports, and FAQ's.

CUSTOM PLUSH TOYS: Re-Quote Now

Due to the Consumer Product Safety Commission's (CPSC) scheduled expiration of the one year STAY ending on February 9, 2010, Artistic Toy has included Independent Product Safety Testing as part of all product price quotations after December 16, 2007. All custom toy products quoted and ordered after this date will be manufactured after the February 10, 2010 effective date. The further implementation of the CPSIA law will require third party testing for a large spectrum of promotional products.

DELIVERY REMINDER: Due to the Chinese New Year all custom plush toy orders received and approved on or before January 29, 2010 will deliver standard by sea to customers in April 2010. (See article Key Decision Dates to Navigate the Beginning of your 2010 Sales Cycle for details on Chinese New Year.)

We are notifying all customers who have open price quotations for Custom Plush Toys to check back in with clients to see if the project quoted is expected to be in the purchase plan for 2010. If the Custom Toy project is a 2010 possibility, we recommend that our distributor customer's contact us (info@artistictoysmfg.com or 888-288-TOYS) to request a re-quote immediately, so that all the required independent safety testing costs can be confirmed and communicated back to the client for inclusion in the final purchase decision.

All open price quotes or pending orders including Artistic Toy stock inventory product line will not need to be re-quoted for Independent Safety Testing. Products manufactured before February 10, 2010 will not require the Independent Product Safety Testing; however, do still require compliance with all other toy and CPSC product safety standards. During 2010 clients can expect to see a gradual increase in stock inventory product prices as older inventory is depleted, and new inventory is manufactured with the required third party safety testing costs.

Independent Product Safety Testing procedures and costs vary due to the complexity of the product design and could range from $500 to $2,500 based on the components of the product. (See article CPSIA “STAY” or “GONE” for more details on how to approach safety testing with your client.)

CPSIA “STAY” or “GONE”

One major pain point that could cause frustration for salespeople in 2010 is the February 10, 2010 CPSIA “STAY” or “GONE” decision by the CPC. Many manufacturers and distributors will be lobbying for the CPSIA "STAY" extension that is expiring in February. Every industry discussion group I have attended indicates that the STAY will be GONE effective 2/10/10, which means the full requirements of the law will go into effect.

All Children’s and Child Care products manufactured after 2/10/10 will require an independent laboratory safety report before it is distributed. Products distributed without approved safety reports will be subject to substantial fines. This is important to salespeople who are thinking about selling stuffed plush toys this year. While your target market is clearly designed to reach audiences over 12 years old, the CPSIA may not support that decision if your promotional strategy looks like duck and quacks like a duck, it’s probably a Children’s Product or Childcare item.

Here are a few of things to expect from your trusted industry suppliers:

1. Increase minimum order quantities to offset the fixed cost of safety testing.
2. Safety testing now a standard component of product unit cost.
3. Separate line item analysis for toy safety testing.
4. Manage product safety from design to delivery including coordination with testing laboratories.

In order to battle this frustration, Artistic Toy will assist salespeople with strategies and case studies to look beyond the plush toy product and see into the exciting world of Character Marketing (TM). A Character Marketing (TM) campaign will provide salespeople the unique selling proposition to provide reasons to increase order sizes and further substantiating the testing costs. Challenge yourself to have a forward thinking approach to the fact that the STAY is GONE. You can seize this opportunity to discretely raise the bar for your client's advertising campaign. Instead of facing this challenge as a road block, use it as a tool to increase the purchase decision beyond a singular product and look at the broader campaign.

While facing the new safety requirements you should also be aware of some of the other challenges that will arise:

1. Increased delivery timing because more samples and approvals will need to be received before products are moved into production.
2. Toy Safety testing is required to be performed by an accredited laboratory.
3. Every product component must be individually evaluated for testing creating a variable price structure for independent toy testing. On average, prepare your client for spending approximately $1,000 to $2,000 for this testing.
4. Pricing for testing varies significantly between accredited safety laboratories.
5. Work with a supplier that understands the testing requirements and the design elements of your product so they can explain to your client's legal departments the requirements and negotiate with testing laboratories so you are not overcharged or delayed in production timing.

This is your opportunity to expand your client relationship and dig deeper into their business strategy. Call Artistic Toy if you need help developing a program that quacks as loud as AFLAC and won’t be stopped by CPSIA.