Off the Cuff: Wallowing Won’t Help Your Business

INDUSTRY OUTLOOK

Off the Cuff: Wallowing Won’t Help Your Business

October 04, 2011
By Mark L. Venit, MBA, Contributing Writer

Yes, the tough economic times remain with us. Yes, we’ve experienced price increases, occasional shortages of goods, high unemployment levels, a moribund housing industry, extreme drought in some areas of the nation, significant price increases on gasoline (about a buck higher than last year at this time, but for the moment trending downward), contributing to higher fares for inbound freight, and all the other daily challenges of being in business in times like these. The biggest impact of a sick housing market for our industry is the shrinkage of the construction trade, traditionally a major buying sector of our products. Tourism, another major lead-rich environment for our businesses, also is sluggish — but relatively level with last year.

There’s no need to dwell on what you already know and have been dealing with for the past few years. All that said, there are some silver linings to consider and opportunities to be found if you look for them — or more to the point, create them or adapt to them in ways that your competition is not.

Yes, we’re enduring yet another recession — the worst in generations — but the decorated apparel marketplace is once again proving itself relatively resilient to the dreadful realities of the economy’s overall performance.

The Good News

1. Unit volume for custom decorated apparel has remained relatively stable in most industry segments during the last three years, save for a more discernable decline in the retail sector.

2. Overall demand for custom work is stable. People still want what we sell. Some buyers may trade down a notch or two to shave costs and stay within budgetary restraints, while others seek better quality, and new and different goods. Demand for moisture-wicking goods continues to grow, albeit slowly. Athletic teams and leagues are still replacing their teamwear at all levels of the market. Demand for garments geared to more fashion-conscious women is experiencing growth, mainly at the expense of more basic goods; the silver lining, however, is that customers are willing to pay more for higher-styled, higher-ticket garments.

In companies and government entities where decorated apparel is the official uniform on the job, the number of workers may be down, but those buyers still need to outfit the remaining staff. Schools still are buying at stable levels. Where special events are concerned, customers, fans, and participants still want to show their pride, support and loyalties — and they want to do so on their decorated apparel.

3. Some industries actually are experiencing growth, such as the medical and healthcare fields, where that sector of the economy has seen perennial improvement during the last two decades. And as our population continues to include a larger percentage of older workers, retirees and those needing increased medical attention, healthcare remains a growth industry.

Professionals — from doctors and lawyers to accountants and technological workers —still are working hard at their practices and businesses, which still love our products. (When was the last time your company marketed to professionals?)

4. Interest rates are at near-historic lows, though tightened federal regulations make getting loans problematic for many. For those companies and individuals with good credit, though, the low interest rates are helping them buy more and better equipment to increase their market advantages and drive down labor costs.

When The Going Gets Tough…

What are most companies doing about the rough times? They’re doing what’s predictable: playing by the rules of conventional wisdom, the norms of which are to cut back on employment (an intelligent thing by any standard) and hold the line on expenses where possible (another good thing). What many of them also are doing is carping, whining, crying the blues and wallowing in sorrow.

The downer talk certainly is understandable, but it won’t change the situation beyond its functions of venting, commiserating and serving as an underpinning for a bad self-fulfilling prophesies regarding what we can — or cannot — do about our daily challenges. The logic for many is that the forces responsible for the challenges we face in today’s marketplace are far beyond our ability to impact them, or, as Abraham Lincoln framed it in his Gettysburg Address, “far above our poor power to add or detract.”

Upon leaving academe in the seventies, I went into the business of selling securities, insurance and business pension programs. The head of the agency I worked for in Philadelphia, the late Sid Friedman, became a major influence on my life and career. At the outset of my rookie year, I, along with other fellow rookies, took to whining about the challenges of selling. Sid didn’t like negative buzz in the agency and would abruptly end our sales meetings when some of us started whining.

He’d say, “OK, girls (we were all men), just wallow some more. And when you’re done wallowing, then call me in to help you succeed and I’ll tell you — again — what you need to do to go out and make some real money.”

It took awhile, but I finally “got it.” Sid taught me my NASDAQ license “was a license to print money,” and I could make my own destiny by eschewing complaining and simply making more calls, getting more appointments and submitting more proposals — the result of which was getting more sales. At the end of my first year, I was the agency’s top rookie salesman and received a healthy reward along with an ego-boosting plaque.

Those lessons have stayed with me. What Sid’s counsel means today in this industry is that you don’t cut back on marketing; you increase it. You don’t keep throwing money at what isn’t working, but you must change what needs changing — be it the media you’re using, the message you’re promoting, the packaging of the sale or worrying about what your competitors are doing and changing the rules of the game to your advantage. Today, I can laugh about the times when Sid would resort to calling us “girls.” But he cured me of wallowing syndrome forever and for that I’m forever grateful. Wallowing didn’t get me anywhere, nor will it accomplish anything good for you.

So, is any company in our business growing these days? The answer is a resounding “yes.” I can point to companies from coast to coast in both the United States and Canada that are having banner years.

Why? As Len Namauvich, CEO at Primo Designs in Springfield, Ill., lays it out: “We refuse to participate in the recession!” That sentiment is echoed by Gary Littlefield, CEO of Sportop Marketing, Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada. “We’re going after accounts we never thought we could capture — big ones and [ones] all over the country — and we’re winning them,” he says.

Despite a sagging economy in Florida, Sharad Mehta, CEO of Screenworks USA, in Orlando, Fla., notes, “We were up last year, we’re up even more this year, and we’ll do even better next year.”

All of these companies occupy the realm of seven- and eight-figure sales. But what set them apart from their competitors are their constant and constantly revitalized efforts at sales, marketing, customer contact and advances in technology and production efficiencies — both in turnaround time and per-employee productivity. They also send their employees to trade shows and seminars, hire consultants from time to time, engage trainers in management and technical skills, devote resources to improving their decorating offerings (specialty inks, 3-D embroidery and other high-margin offerings, among other things), pick the brains of their suppliers’ reps at every opportunity, and stay wired to their key accounts in person and on the phone throughout the year.

Hopefully, this column will help you tune out wallowing. Hopefully, it also will influence what you see when you look in the mirror.

Best wishes for a positive finish to this very tough year.

Mark L. Venit, MBA, is president of Apparel Graphics Institute LLC, Ocean Pines, Md., which provides management and marketing consulting and proprietary research to apparel graphics companies throughout the Americas and Europe. He also is the chairman of ShopWorks Software LLC, a provider of industry-specific business software. Venit teaches pricing, strategic marketing, salesmanship and other business management topics at the Imprinted Sportswear Shows. His newest book, “The Business of T-Shirts: A Textbook for Success in Marketing and Selling Decorated Apparel,” debuted in March. To learn more about the book, visit thebusinessofTshirts.com. It costs $40 and is available from GroupeSTAHL, or from Venit. You can contact him at markvenit@cs.com.

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