Marketing is the most important sector of building success in your business. Marketing involves a number of different factors in order to be successful; it is more than just selling the product or service. But marketing may have a number of different definitions. Most of these definitions encompass presenting our product or service to the public in a way that gives them the option of saying yes or yes to our offering in more than one way. Marketing involves placing our image in the form of our name, trademark or logo in front of the prospective buyer so that they think of us when they have a desire or need for our product or service.

Marketing explains to the prospect what our company does, where we are located and why the prospect should consider our company. I suspect that there are many different definitions to marketing, but I believe this is the most simple: “Marketing is pre-selling the prospect by placing enough positive information before them so they agree to listen to our presentation.” Marketing is not just the making of the sale, but more importantly the positioning of our firm to be considered for the sale. Then there are a number of factors that we must address to complete the sale.

WHAT DO OUR FIRMS SELL?

Most of our firms will offer a number of different processes that can be used to identify our offered products. The array of different identifications will range from rotary engraving, laser engraving, screen printing, hot stamping, pad printing and a host of other processes.

But that process which has many advantages for the client and our firm is sublimation. Sublimation has given us the ability to create remarkable graphics and transfer that special image to the client’s chosen product with striking clarity.

COLOR SELLS SUBLIMATION AND SUBLIMATION SELLS RECOGNITION PRODUCTS!

The most important factor in marketing sublimation is that we can reproduce any graphics fast, in full color, and with an exact duplication of the client’s graphics. The future of recognition will be the extension of the reproduction of graphics on items that were once thought out of the realm of recognition products. The process of sublimation gives us the ability to give our stores the expertise to perform for our clients a great look even with a small quantity. We can do one item in multicolor—what an advantage over years past—and the turnaround time is almost immediate.

Of course, there are those whose logo, known as a mark at the trademark division of the federal government, is one or two colors. So what would be the reason for marketing to these clients our full-color sublimation? These people sometimes are stuck with a logo that has tradition but lacks the modern touch of color, and we can bring them the color they lack. Our ability can enhance their logo with graphics which can make their recognition product a creative piece of graphic art and highlight their image or logo.

When we are marketing our products, we will come to realize that our clients are looking to market their brand. They have come to protect their brand, logo or name with great expense and often extensive litigation when it has been breached. They want to market as many items as they can with their identification as a promotion of their product or service. Thus, when we can marry their logo identification with the process of sublimation, we have what our prospects and clients are looking for. The marketing of our product is made easier when we use the process of sublimation—because it sells.

Marketing sublimation is one of those processes that is unique in that it sells itself as it solves a need. That need is to personalize the product in small quantities. When marketing sublimation, I have found that there are several techniques that will help in our marketing plan.

We have found that we need to have our prices posted and organized in our catalog and showroom. There is something about having our prices posted that builds confidence with our prospect. If we have to figure the unit prices in front of the prospect or if it is not posted, then the prospect may lose confidence in our sales presentation. And once we lose the confidence of the prospect, it is hard for the prospect to surrender their money in exchange for our product.

KNOW WHEN ANOTHER PROCESS IS BETTER THAN SUBLIMATION AND KNOW WHY

There is a distinct point when sublimation is not the best process to market, and we need to know that in advance. When a large volume is needed, it may be better to use screen printing, hot stamping, pad printing or decals. But for most quantities under 250, at one delivery time, sublimation is your answer.

When we are pricing volume orders, we must change our mind set. We have preached for years that we need to know the cost of doing business and maintain a certain profit margin—which is true. However, when we sell volume, we must change from unit profit margins to maintaining an hourly margin of profit from each of our employees.

Let me explain. In order to be competitive in selling sublimation, we need to have a pricing margin for small orders, and then we need to know how to price our sublimation products when we have a volume order. Otherwise, we may lose orders to the larger national catalog firms that have considered this truth. Of course, we must know where we want the focus of our business as it relates toward specific markets.

SUBLIMATION OR SUBLIGRAPHICS—BE UNIQUE

When marketing your sublimation products, set your firm apart by being different. Some of you will ask the question, “How can I be different with the process of sublimation?” We asked this same question a few years ago, and Nora, my wife, came up with an interesting theory of combining graphics with the process of sublimation. She created the word for our service called Subligraphics. You might want to consider tagging a phrase that would set your service apart from the competition.

Nora thought that the real secret was the graphics that could be reproduced by the process, and then we turned our investigative secretary, Charlotte, lose to obtain an official trademark of this word, which took her nearly two years. But A-1 Awards, Inc. owns the name Subligraphics and to this point we have given permission to nine other firms in the United States to use this word in the promotion of their sublimation product offerings.

The process of obtaining a United States Trademark can be a very trying and time-consuming ordeal. We wanted to be different when we were selling our sublimation process, and when we coupled the process with our creative graphics, then Subligraphics was born. Nora developed the term for our service because it gives us uniqueness. Like our good friend Chuck Loveisky, CRS, has said for years “It pays to be unique.” Of course, his firm is named Unique Promotions & Awards in Schaumburg, Illinois. Chuck and Rick, his son, practice what they preach. When selling any of your products, services or processes, go to the next level and bring a uniqueness to the adventures of buying from your firm.

In any event, adding the service of sublimation can enhance your overall product presentation, which can affect your bottom line significantly!