The Company Store: Surprise and Delight with Custom Branded Products
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Company Stores are a powerful mechanism to allow the promotional medium to do what it does best: celebrate special moments, surprise your internal (or external audience), reward performance, recognize business milestones, celebrate anniversaries, perpetuate the strength of your brand, develop brand ambassadors, incentivize your team, trigger sales, and mostly, to do so in a way that alleviates your administrative burden so that you can focus on other objectives. We call this the Art of Surprise and Delight. The promotional products (or ‘swag’) medium is a ‘make-things-happen-medium’ and the store allows you do to this effortlessly.
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The Company Store: Surprise and Delight with Custom Branded Products
- 1. THE COMPANY STORE The art of surprise and delight!
- 2. CLIENT & PRODUCT DIVERSITY On track to fulfill: 104,000 store orders this year Multiple Asset Management: our largest store has 1500+ marcom assets ecommerce flexibility: B2B & B2C Multiple Brand Management: experience working with multiple divisions under one brand umbrella Broad Industry Experience: oil & gas/energy, manufacturing, finance, non-profit, technology Diverse, High-Touch Clientele: franchisees, branch offices, sales representatives, field staff, c-suite
- 3. 23 years of store experience
- 5. 1800 EMPLOYEES 140 LOCATIONS HIGHFIVES! We wanted to make an impact … … and get people excited about the new name and mark … Robyn has the same focus we have on customer service. - Senior Brand Manager, Enable Midstream Surprise and Delight!
- 6. In the past, our guys didn’t have … … options … (now) … they get a card to choose their own special gift on the new Award Site for Safety - Creative Services Specialist, SandRidge Nomac: six years without a recordable! HIGHFIVES!
- 7. HIGHFIVES! 498 EMPLOYEE S 22 LOCATIONS It was exciting to see to our … … employees wearing their new branded apparel at the event. Everyone loves the products and services that ROBYN Promotions has provided us, including the creative consultation we received from the very beginning. - Talent Representative (HR)
- 8. HIGHFIVES! Positive! Positive! Positive! … … From the time we initially began … to the actual launching of our online company store, the process was positive, positive, positive! This thing had to run seamlessly and smooth; and (they) delivered, and did all the heavy lifting. Not only did our national sales team rave about the ease-of-use with our new store, but Bobby and his team provided data that enabled our Marketing department to save thousands of dollars due to more transparent budget allocation. If I ever have the need to produce an online store like this again, he will be the first person I call. - Margaret Gomez, Marketing Operations Mgr
- 9. FIVE KEY BENEFITS control branding central resource center control purchasing minimize admin SIMPLIFY ASSETS
- 10. 2 DESIGN OPTIONS BASIC CUSTOM
- 11. MOBILE FRIENDLY
- 12. MULTI-ASSET MANAGEMENT APPAREL PROMOTIONAL CAMPAIGN PRINT COLLATERAL STATIONERY VDP MISC FORMS
- 13. your company store! Face ` Backbone
- 14. 5 PURCHASING OPTIONS w/ approval Credit Card Cost Center Points Purchase Order Coupon Code
- 15. 2MERCHANDISING OPTIONS Inventory On Demand Group Buy hybrid too expensive limited options
- 16. 2 FREIGHT OPTIONS Myth: freight is too expensive Fact: freight expense is relative to the item being purchased (example: $5 shirt carrying a $10 freight cost is too expensive; $75 portfolio bag carrying a $15 freight cost is acceptable) Solution: eliminate freight as a concern on the front end Options: flat rate shipping; reduced freight costs at checkout
- 17. REPORTING
- 18. NEXT STEPS?
- 20. THANK YOU
Editor's Notes
- Company Stores are a powerful mechanism to allow the promotional medium to do what it does best: celebrate special moments, surprise your internal (or external audience), reward performance, recognize business milestones, celebrate anniversaries, perpetuate the strength of your brand, develop brand ambassadors, incentivize your team, trigger sales, and mostly, to do so in a way that alleviates your administrative burden so that you can focus on other objectives. We call this the Art of Surprise and Delight. The promotional products (or ‘swag’) medium is a ‘make-things-happen-medium’ and the store allows you do to this effortlessly.
- We are on track to fulfill 104,000 company store orders this year alone. Our stores allow for multiple asset-management, meaning: we can easily handle any branded item -digital or physical- that you desire to put on your store: branded apparel, swag, promotional products, signage, trade show items, brochures, print collateral, stationery, business cards, even digital files such as audio, powerpoint, video, variable data print. The key to a successful company store is to create a central resource center that allows your colleagues to easily access all of the branded materials you provide. We have both B2B (business-to-business) and B2C (business-to-consumer) experience with a strong emphasis on B2B. B2C innovation filters into our B2B stores as B2C generally drives the market with newly developed tools (think Amazon and ebay). We utilize this experience for all our stores. The internal audience (your colleagues) for a business to business enterprise expect their organization to provide strong tools that they are accustomed to (like Amazon). In all our efforts, we aim to create seamless transactions with an emphasis on beautiful design. Have multiple brands in your enterprise? Multiple logos or multiple divisions? No problem. We have a variety of options to allow you to control (100%!) all colors, logos, and brands for only the audience that you desire. CONTROL is one of our tenants for a strong store and brand control and logo compliance are the foundation. Options are flexible without being restrictive but can be as stringent as you desire. Our diverse industry experience helps us develop stronger tools and options for each of our customers. From safety programs to employee recognition to controlled variable data print: working with the demands of various industries makes all of our stores stronger. Diverse, high-touch clientele: unlike some promotional, print, and apparel companies - we SPECIALIZE in company stores. It is not a ‘part of what we do’, it is what we do. It has been our core-competency for 23 years. Prior to the internet, we managed company store programs out of catalog.s This is key because it means we have been working with a broad spectrum of every kind of customer for your store. When you create a store, you are creating a democratic program that appeals to everyone: from the CEO to the warehouse, from the customer service department to accounting to sales. There is not a single department that does not interact with the stores. This is important because our customer service team is trained to handle any type of call from any sector of your enterprise, regardless of title. We also understand RUSH and NEED-IT-NOW: it is our primary currency.
- Some companies will do stores because you require them to: you are spending money with them and need a store and they reluctantly will provide it in order to retain your business. With this model, your store becomes a necessary evil, not a priority and this is generally felt by the lack of innovation or lack of merchandising that your store receives. Stores ARE our core competency. It is what we do, it is not a ‘have-to’ it’s a ‘want-to’ and the priority of your store is built into every level of our company, from sales to customer service to inventory to billing to marketing, ecommerce, merchandising, production and research.
- Central distribution is one of the surprising secrets to a strong company store. You want to be able to easily get merchandise to all your colleagues, no matter where they are located. If our warehouse was located on the East Coast, then West Coast clients would have a substantial wait time for their merchandise. Central location makes it easier to get materials to your internal audience faster which responds to the demand of needing it now as well as the desire to help manage freight costs.
- When OGE Energy Corp. and CenterPoint Energy, Inc. merged their midstream businesses in May, there was a lot of buzz about this new $11 billion company. Part of the reason was due to the fact that it didn’t have a name. Well, that changed on July 30th, 2013. Launching a new brand and introducing the new logo can be a tricky thing… especially when it involves over 1,800 employees at 100+ locations in six different states! “We wanted to make an impact and get people excited about the new name and mark,” said Kirby Behenna, Senior Brand Manager. A conference call was scheduled for July 30th and employees from each location were invited to be a part of it. After some introductory remarks from the COO, Keith Mitchell, the team was shown a fantastic video that unveiled the company’s new name, logo and vision. Meet Enable Midstream Partners™, LP … This was just the beginning, though. Working with ROBYN Promotions, the Enable Midstream branding team arranged to have tumblers featuring the new logo delivered to all 1800 employees at 140 different locations immediately following the conference call. How’s that for a cool introduction? This wasn’t the end of the internal launch, though. It gets better! Inside the branded tumblers was a card inviting each employee to visit the brand new online company store hosted by ROBYN to order a complimentary t-shirt sporting the new Enable Midstream logo. Now, THAT is how you create some energy! “ROBYN shares the same focus we have on customer service,” said Kirby. True. How does ROBYN put all the pieces together to launch a campaign like this and make it look effortless? Check out "the rest of the story"! - See more at: http://www.robynpromo.com/enable-your-brand
- Safety is important in every profession, but let’s face it… guys working on a rig in an oilfield risk a lot more than getting a paper cut when they clock in each day. This is why smart companies like SandRidge Energy reward their employees on the rigs for being safe and not getting any DARTs (Days Away, Restricted and Transferred) from OSHA. In past years, the company rewarded employees who had zero DARTs with a nice gift, such as a high-quality jacket with the SandRidge logo on it. Coordinating the correct sizes for each recipient and shipping them to the right locations for the award dinner in each town proved to be a logistical headache for the company. Plus, not everyone wants the same thing, no matter how cool it is. There is a better way, though! “We saw how the ROBYN VIP Store lets each person choose their own gift, and we loved how it worked,” said Christy Kruchten, Communications Specialist II. “In the past, our guys didn’t have any options. This year however, they get a card to choose their own special gift on the new Award Site for Safety.” While SandRidge already has a corporate branded merchandise store to manage their collateral, this special programs store serves a specific program. Instead of being handed the exact same jacket as the other 200+ award recipients at the celebratory dinner, the guys are given a card with a web address and their own personal log-in information and told they can pick out whichever item they like the best. How is the employee incentive program working? The website just launched this week, but before the first celebration dinner was over, ROBYN was already receiving orders from award recipients who were logging-in from their smart phones. Gotta’ love technology! “It gives the guys options and we don’t have to track shipments to each location, which is fantastic,” said Christy. “We do a similar program with our new hires and I can see a special programs site like this working for them, too.” Simple, managed, turnkey solutions that are customized to meet your specific needs. It’s easy to see why so many of our savviest clients are utilizing our company stores in so many creative ways. And, if employee retention is one of your needs (as it is for every company!), check out this post about why this is such a smart way to reward your team! See more at: http://www.robynpromo.com/when-it-pays-to-play-it-safe
- Delivering Happiness with a Company Store When you think about “delivering happiness”, a financial institution probably isn’t the first thing on your mind. There’s at least one credit union, though, that has taken the DH message to heart. Meet GTE Financial, a phenomenal credit union in Florida with 498 employees in 22 locations that embraces this message from the top brass down. “We invest our passion daily to deliver a remarkable experience to both our members and fellow co-workers,” says Cindy Zapico, Talent Representative. “It is only natural for us to feel pride in our work and want to share our brand with the community. GTE Financial’s passion appears to be working, too! In 2013, the company was named one of the “Best Places to Work” and “Healthiest Employers” by the Tampa Bay Business Journal. They also launched an online company store and, true to their style, they brought the happiness. “The GTeStore provides every employee an opportunity to wear their pride on their sleeves (literally),” said Cindy. To introduce them to the new company store, employees were given a generous credit to purchase branded clothing of their choice. “Our employees were thrilled. We knew they would want to showcase their GTE Financial pride!” The new branded gear was worn by many of these folks at the all-employee “Delivering Happiness” event the company sponsored last month. Featuring presentations from Jenn Lim (CEO and Chief Happiness Officer at Delivering Happiness) and Erik Wahl (an incredibly motivating speaker and artist), the day was focused on bringing happiness to the customer, which starts with happy employees. By the looks of their hashtag, #GTEhappy, it was truly successful. “It was exciting to see our employees wearing their new branded apparel at the event,” Cindy said. “Everyone loves the products and services that ROBYN Promotions has provided us, including the creative consultation we received from the very beginning.” “Our desired outcome for every company store is to make a complex ordering process simple and fun!" said Bobby Lehew, CEO at Robyn. "We start by alleviating the organization’s primary pain points then we improve the customer’s store experience based on our cumulative 22 years of managing stores." "Every aspect of the process is carefully constructed based on the requirements of each company’s brand," he continued. "From hand-picked merchandise via SwagExpert, to designing a store that reflects a company’s culture, to launching the e-store in a way that brings surprise and delight to each user. GTE is an exceptional company and we are proud to have played a small part in bringing a smile to their 'happiness' experience." “GTE Financial’s unique and innovative brand continues to grow strong,” said Cindy. Next year, the company will be celebrating their 80th year in business. We can’t wait to see how they deliver happiness then!
- Positive! Positive! Positive! … … From the time we initially began … to the actual launching of our online company store, the process was positive, positive, positive! This thing had to run seamlessly and smooth; and (they) delivered, and did all the heavy lifting. Not only did our national sales team rave about the ease-of-use with our new store, but Bobby and his team provided data that enabled our Marketing department to save thousands of dollars due to more transparent budget allocation. If I ever have the need to produce an online store like this again, he will be the first person I call. - Margaret Gomez, Marketing Operations Mgr
- Does an online “company store” make sense for you? That’s an easy one… There are five key benefits to having a company store: - controlled branding: brand abuse is/was out of control, prior to a store many customers have little or no system of protection for the brand - simplifying corporate apparel and variable product (like business cards), prior to a store, customers would spent hours on apparel selection, proofing and ordering (sizes, variables like titles, etc) - it’s messy and far more complicated and time-consuming, requires too much administration - central location online and offline with ease-of-use: no organized central resource center online to direct colleagues to and no easy distribution for branded products - controlled purchasing: product purchasing is fragmented, no purchasing leverage for the organization - minimize administration: too much energy duplicated across multiple locations to create and distribute similar branded products
- Although the design of your online company store is typically one of the simplest parts of the process to implement, it is a critical component and might require some input from others within your organization. Most stores have a basic design option and an advanced design option. Basic design options do not imply they “don’t look good”, they are merely formatted with simple structures and simple design work, i.e., backgrounds that match your logo but fit within formatted templates. Custom designed sites are an ideal solution when brand consistency, particularly across multiple technology platforms, is important. For example, you may want your company store to reflect the exact image of your home page of your corporate website. We recommend this option most often as it eliminates confusion and makes the transition from the corporate intranet/internet site seamless. So the question of design comes down to two options: A simple design that looks good and matches your brand An advanced design that matches your company’s home page. Both styles of stores work well regardless of company size.
- All new stores are built on a responsive platform which means, even with complex, variable data print items, the process will work easily with your handheld devices and tablets. Easy to use, simplified for fast-ordering, and 100% controlled.
- Many of our customers start out with apparel and swag, or promotional products. Some want to just easily handle apparel, others want to handle only promotional products and apparel and others want a simpler way to handle the messy process of ordering items like business cards. If you’ve ever undertaken either business cards or apparel for your company, you know it can be a logistical nightmare: sizes, information, fit, collecting orders - the store allows for easy capture of all these details putting the power of ordering into the hands of the user yet completely controlled by brand managers. Your store might start small: a few shirts, a few gifts, but it is built on a platform that can handle variable data powerpoint files, video, audio, and virtually any branded item you can imagine. Think of your store as a potential resource center for all of your branded assets: digital or physical.
- Your company store is a central resource center. Our capabilities allow you to expand yours: from warehousing to gift wrapping or kitting campaigns and sales kits. Want to manage swag only? No problem! Just know: your store and your partnership with Robyn is robust enough to handle virtually anything that you would want to manage through your central resource center. The digital component of the store allows you to control 100% of the details on your store, allowing for all the controls yet all the flexibility you need, it is the face of your central resource center. Our physical support -inventory management, kitting, merchandising, shipping- is the backbone of your resource center. The backbone is crucial. The MOST IMPORTANT CRITERIA for your store is partnering with a provider that will deliver on time and accurately branded. The ecommerce is critical, the merchandising is critical, but all of that is immaterial if the goods don’t arrive on time and accurately. We work hard to keep all of our stores under a 0.50% error rate per month plus ship your in-stock merchandise without 24 hours (if you choose to stock inventory - you may opt to not stock inventory). Management monitors these metrics every month with our entire warehouse team.
- When building an online company store, it is vital to think about the various ways you want your visitors to be able to purchase items from the website. Purchasing options are wide and varied and with the right combination, your corporate store can offer great incentives and ease-of-use for your colleagues. The ROBYN Company Stores go beyond the basic checkout options. For instance, there are purchasing options that can help you track by department by providing a drop-down box at check-out that allows the buyer to select for which department she is buying. Below are some possibilities that exist on most company stores. Check which items you need to host immediately and then those items you hope to provide in the future: credit card or P-card purchase order with approval mechanism purchase order without approval mechanism points-based option gift certificates department codes / budget codes multiple shopping cart functionality Why is it important to consider this now? Not all vendors have all these capabilities. For example, you might want to make ‘purchase order’ an option but you want significant controls to come with it. With a ROBYN corporate store, purchase order options can be set-up with approval processes built-in. We even feature a mobile web app for approvers to approve an order quickly and conveniently. You might also want to offer a points-based system: allow colleagues to establish sales contests or accumulate points for excellent service to a client. On most stores, you can run an incentive program that will help achieve organizational goals. The store provides a low-cost way to manage your incentive programs with minimal administration. A coupon code is an excellent way to launch a store or celebrate a special moment. For example, for one customer, we launched a micro store just to celebrate their making the Fortune 100 Best Companies To Work For list. The company’s colleagues were able to choose the style, color and size of shirt they wanted by going onto this special company store website. There, they simply picked out the item they wanted, entered their names and coupon code and voila! - a free shirt distributed to all of their employees worldwide. Other ways to celebrate with codes: 1. Launch your store with a $30.00 coupon code (remember: swag helps build brand champions - celebrate with swag and perpetuate your brand).
- Sometimes, companies are hesitant to consider an online company store because they don’t want to tie up their money in inventory that could take months to actually use. While these smart marketers can see the benefits of the store (control of the brand, ease of management, multiple ways for visitors to purchase products, reporting capabilities, managed warehousing and shipping, etc.), they hesitate at the thought of purchasing quantities of product up front. Enter ROBYN’s “Promo On-Demand” Company Store Solution! Most people are familiar with the “print on-demand” concept: you simply print small quantities of a document or brochure as you need it instead of keeping thousands of copies on the shelf. “Promo On-Demand” is very similar in theory. ROBYN can build a company store that is 100% on-demand. You pick which products will be made available to your users and ROBYN’s digital team will magically put your logo on images of the products to showcase them on the website. ROBYN has strong relationships with incredible vendors who can produce thousands of different products in 24 hours, which means you can have these items in your hands within 2-3 days! Plus, you get competitive pricing on very low minimum orders. The Promo On-Demand concept can also be integrated with an inventoried company store. For example, you may have several products that are used frequently or need to be able to order just one and you want to keep them in stock so they are ready at a moment’s notice. However, there could also be a few products that your team ‘might’ want to use for special events. Rather than placing them in inventory, too, you can make these “on-demand” products that can be produced and shipped within a few days.
- Freight is a concern for all of our clients because freight is fuel and fuel is expensive. When we begin with you to consider your store, we walk through freight on the front-end of the process, to eliminate it as a concern or help mitigate your costs in the eyes of your internal clients. All freight is not outrageously expensive, sometimes it depends on the product. We have ways to aggregate orders (to save on shipping) to customize the website to mitigate freight costs at check-out and more. We offer both UPS and USPS services and, depending on the client, the product, and the time frame, we can successfully deploy options that will work for you.
- Consider reporting the bow on top of the gift of ‘surprise and delight’. The bow sums it all up in a nice, succinct way. It gives you ALL the details you need to manage your store. We customize each report by customer so that you have the confidence that what you are turning in to your accounting department is both approved by them and easy for them to manage. The full reporting gives you a window to monitor 100% of the activity on your store. We use reporting to help identify slow movers, to trigger thresholds for inventory so that you don’t run out of critical items, or to manage users and spending allocation so that the entire process is both easy to use and 100% accountable.
- What does the process look like once we begin building your store? First, we partner you with one of our key merchandising liaisons for your store (our ‘VIP Rep’), this person is skilled in the latest styles and options form the top manufacturers in our industry. Our VIP rep also is the liaison and advocate for you to our entire team: inventory, creative, research, manufacturing, distribution, accounting, and ecommerce. We also activate our customer service team to begin preparing for your store launch. Our customer service department answers questions from your colleagues and internal clients: questions about order status, size exchanges, inquiries about product, and questions on navigating the store or purchasing with their points or purchase order. The entire structure is meant to give you at least a dozen more team members to help alleviate the burden of managing materials. In a sense, we’ve just expanded your department and come alongside to help - it’s what we do best!
- Another important next step is to begin merchandising. We even have a new tool built specifically for this purpose: SwagExpert.com Our merchandising liaison (your VIP Rep) can source and shop for you (with your criteria and direction) or, you can browse through the myriad of options. SwagExpert.com even has a brands portal that allows you to shop by brand. We can even add brands as per your request: https://swagexpert.com/name-brand-swag