During the past week I have been having conversations with members from the east coast to the west coast about the state of the industry in Canada. Most have told me that sales are on par with last year and that the current economic decline has not had a substantial impact on them yet.<\/p>\n
Many in the industry had sales increases up to October that will help them thru the current downturn and a number of the distributors I spoke to had worked at improving their profit margins coming into 2008. One of the lessons learned during the last recession was the need for distributors to ensure that their client base is diverse, so that when one sector is in decline they can rely on sales from other industries.<\/p>\n
In some areas of the country distributors have told me they are still busy and their clients are still buying but they all agree that there is a serious concern about the first quarter of 2009.<\/p>\n
There are many common trends in the industry right now, for a number of distributors I spoke to they are finding their clients are spending more money on employee recognition programs this year than they have in the past. A large number of these companies have cut back on yearend parties and are putting more money into gifts for their employees.<\/p>\n
One of the most notable trends in the selling cycle is that the sales process itself is taking much longer than in the past. And more than ever before clients must be convinced that there is a real value in the marketing and advertising dollars they are investing.<\/p>\n
Recently we released the “Advertising Specialties Impressions Study” which compares the Cost per Impression of specific advertising specialties to various other media. If you have not read this study I encourage you to read it now, the information in this study is the best way to justify to clients their investment in advertising specialties during these tough economic times.<\/p>\n