From elementary schools in Key West, Florida, to high schools in Anchorage, Alaska, parents, teachers and administrators across the country are all working hard to improve the performance of their students. Wherever performance is measured, awards are, or should be, handed out, and there are three different groups of decision makers (parents, teachers and administrators) that awards store owners should make it their business to get to know. Make a point of talking to the mamas and the papas.

The Size Of Academic Achievement
Everyone with a set of eyes and a pair of ears has either seen or heard about the budget cuts that public schools coast to coast have had to make. Armed with that knowledge, at first glance, academics does not appear to be an appealing market to target. And looking at the sales to this market purely as an end in themselves, perhaps it is not. After all, even if a business were to capture all of a school’s academic awards, how much volume is that really? How much profit can be made off of those awards? It is easy to see how a shop owner might convince themselves that the profit potential isn’t worth the effort, but would they be correct?

Photos Courtesy of Marco Awards Group.

They would not, according to Joe Cappetta of Marco Awards Group in South Windsor, Connecticut. He says that any awards store that pursues the school systems and education branches in their town will definitely find a nice supplement to their sales with academic awards. He’s not alone in that opinion.

“A lot of shops just focus on the sports, but the academic market is also large, and selling those awards can lead to good things,” says Gerald Singer of Classic Medallics in Mount Vernon, New York.

How large is the academic awards market? According to Dawn Sackett of JDS Industries in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, the term ‘academic market’ traditionally refers to the non-athletic achievement in schools (from grades in each individual subject, to drama, choir, band and fine arts to attendance and citizenship, etc.), and that dichotomy of academics and sports applies to every level of education, from elementary school to college.

Providing some numbers to help visualize the scope of the market’s size, Kristina Lowe of Unisub in Louisville, Kentucky, shares some of her research, and tells us that according to U.S. government data, more than 75 million North Americans between the ages of 5- and 25-years-old are students. They attend more than 85,000 schools, all of which have extracurricular activities, academic requirements, faculty and staff deserving of recognition and appreciation. Therefore, they can all become an important part of your sublimation business.

Obviously, that represents an incredible amount of potential for motivated shops. Adding to it, Ed Hunt of Continental Awards & Trophies (The CAT), located in Bartlett, Tennessee, points out a portion of the market that many forget about, “I saw one day on a bumper sticker, ‘My child goes to a Christian school.’ Well, you realize that is a huge market: the private school business. There are Catholic schools, Jewish schools, Muslim schools; just about every religion you can think of has a school. There are also prep schools and military schools. We’re used to focusing on the public school market, but with all of the budget cuts they are suffering right now, we’ve got to look at the private school market. I’ve got grandchildren in private school, and the average tuition is somewhere around $15,000 per child. If you’re paying that kind of money, the parents can probably come up with another few bucks for medals or trophies.”

Say Hey To The PTA
There are many, such as Cappetta, Singer and Sackett, who point to the size of the market as sufficient reason to pursue sales of academic awards. There are also those who say it is best to look at sales in the academic market not as an end only, but also as a means. Ask yourself, who goes to PTA (Parent-Teacher Association) meetings? Parents and teachers, right? Yes, but not just any parents and teachers. These are the parents and teachers that pay close attention to the state of their students’ school and educations, and they like to get involved. The same can be said of the teachers at PTA meetings.

“If a retailer has a specific school in mind to sell to, the next steps are simply identifying who the decision makers are and getting a foot in the door with them,” says Sackett.

Ever hear that saying, decisions are made by the people that show up? Every PTA meeting is full of decision makers, and not for academics alone. These are the types of people who get involved in all sorts of different groups and know all kinds of people. In other words, they generate word-of-mouth marketing. Making the sale to this group is really about getting a foot in the door, a door that once opened could lead to further sales to the school (sports awards, personalized apparel, pens and pencils, etc.), as well as any other group or association the PTA members may be a part of—and remember these are the kinds of people who love to join groups and network.

Photos Courtesy of JDS Industries, Inc.

There are additional benefits to building a strong relationship with the PTA. After all, when it comes to applying pressure to the people who allocate budgets, no group is likely to be more persuasive than the parents, for no other group is likely to care as much. Also, there are many PTA groups that have their own budget. If the school itself will not invest in an academic awards program, maybe the PTA will.

Lowe adds, “It is important that parents see your product line. Parents are extremely proud of their children’s involvement in academics and will purchase products for themselves, such as a picture frame for their desk at work, to display pride in their children’s accomplishments.”

Do as much homework as possible before meeting with the PTA. If the PTA has a president or a council that leads it, do what you can to obtain their names and photos, and then create a few samples to bring to the meeting. When you hand an award to a parent with their child’s name and photo on it, there is a good chance the award will sell itself.

Creative An Avenue Of Pursuit
Of course, targeting the right group of people is just the beginning. You still have to close.

In addition to social networking, Singer says that shops cannot go wrong with catalogs. “Distribute the catalogs to different teachers, and don’t assume that it’s one person who makes the decisions. Go to the music department, the drama department, etc., and find the individuals responsible for those programs. Sometimes a shop will get lucky with someone in the administration department, but more often than not it’s necessary to make contact with these different departments. Of course, any shop that has a relationship with sports coaches can start there.”

It is also important to remember that schools are a very important part of the community, and any volunteer work with them will go a long way towards building strong relationships and allowing you to educate them about the different types of awards available to them.

“To make a successful sales pitch in the current atmosphere of reduced budgets in the school systems, be sure to place emphasis on how your company can help the school, whether that be on price, value-added services, or simply making your expertise available to them,” says Sackett.

She adds that it is important to remember that academia happens in situations outside of the classroom, too. Do not forget to make contacts at camps, churches, libraries and other local groups that may support and encourage academic achievement.

Work with the PTA and school administrators on introducing academic awards in addition to traditional awards for the most popular subjects. Hunt says that The CAT has had a great deal of success selling awards that recognize effort, participation and improved attitudes. The key is to be creative.

“We’ve all noticed the pinch that has been the result of government cutbacks in funding schools over the last few years,” says Sackett. “The key to getting or keeping school business is to think creatively, and to be willing to help them solve their problems. If a storeowner has contacts in local organizations, he should consider coordinating those groups with the schools to sponsor awards for academic achievement. The organizations get local publicity and good will, and the schools get to reward excellence in their student body. Since the store facilitated the connection, they will get the sale. Just because the budget is tight, that doesn’t mean we can’t find solutions where everyone wins. There is truth to the old adage that every challenge is an opportunity in disguise.”

Photos Courtesy of Unisub.

Awards: The Newbies & The Overachievers
Once awards store owners have their foot in the door and begin to discuss the actual awards the schools will present to their students, they will have a great selection to choose from, including new awards that are increasingly creative as well as classics.

Describing the market as being very vertical with a brief season, Cathy Garcia of PDU in South El Monte, California, says that in her experience, retailers are pretty savvy when it comes to academic awards. “They are always looking for new, hot products they can offer to their customers.” She notes that there are two primary icons used in this market: the lamp of knowledge and the spelling bee. “Suppliers have used these two icons to build award components from plaque mounts, Spelling Bee and Lamp Bobble Heads, other academic resin figures, plastic figures, risers, assembled trophies and lots of Mylar pieces in different varieties. PDU has added a new academic 2” medal for this year and a 2” 3D lenticular, full-color Mylar.” She adds that there never seems to be enough new items for this market.

As for new awards from The CAT, Hunt states, “We offer several resins for that market, figures such as the lamp of knowledge.”

In an attempt to sate recognition retailers’ appetite for new items, JDS has added many new academic awards over the last year, says Sackett. “The Laserable Flame Medal series has 20 different academic medals from music to science and attendance to drama. Each medal is available in gold, silver and bronze. They all have a black coating on the back, so they can be laser engraved or mechanically engraved. The 2” Full Color Mylar Insert line has eight academic designs as well as many for athletics.”

JDS has also added a new line of Oval Inserts & Insert Holders that can be customized for any need a retailer has, says Sackett. “This makes them perfect awards for things like academics, because the retailer can design the insert to fit the consumers’ specific award requests using sublimation or laser engraving. The insert can be attached to a resin or a trophy figure-holder designed specially to hold the oval shape. The inserts are available in laserable or sublimatable materials.” Sackett adds that both the Laserable Flame Medals and the BriteLazer™ Medals from JDS have a large selection of academic options.

Marco Awards Group has introduced new items as well. “We have a couple of individual graduate resin statues, male and female, which are great for any type of graduation. We also have several resin series coming out that incorporate the lamp of knowledge, which is our best-selling image for the academic market,” says Cappetta.

Of course, in a market like academics, there is also a strong preference for tradition, and many schools like to stick with the same types of awards they have presented in the past.

For PDU, Garcia says their Basics line sells year after year. She adds, “The Lamp of Knowledge plastic figures (of which PDU offers four different looks), Spelling Bee figure and the resin Lamp of Knowledge. Retailers are also using lots of plaques with custom plates for this market.”

Singer says, “Medals and pins are our best sellers for the academic market, and they have been for quite some time. They go together. Those are followed by our resin academic products. We also specify the academic subjects, and we offer a wide variety of subjects.”

Among those many subjects, Singer says, “Reading, math and science are all big sellers, as are English, literature and spelling. From there, you go into fine arts, music and drama.”

He adds that they also sell awards for good citizenship, student of the month, attendance and the honor roll, among others. For those awards, Singer says the lamp of knowledge is the symbol of choice.

The CAT offers medals as well, and Hunt says that one of the advantages to using medals for academic awards is that they are inexpensive yet still have a high perceived value. Of course, it’s not all about the medals; ribbons matter, too. “We have ribbons that are specific to a type of award, such as honor roll or student of the week.”

Noting that plaques are the best-selling Unisub product for the academic market, Lowe points out that sublimation allows for custom color designs. “Designs that will appeal to the school market should include the school mascot or logo and the school colors. The ability to add photos and personalize the products will also be significant. Full-color personalized products make excellent plaques and congratulatory gifts, and they offer a unique way to recognize academic excellence.”

Get To Know The Folks
Participate in PTA meetings and any other school activity that you fit into your schedule, and you will see results. Talk to parents about the variety of academic awards offered, and they will come to the realization that their children could earn those awards. Tell them the story about the difference an award you presented made in a child’s life. The mamas and the papas will want the same for their kids.