The promotional merchandise industry’s next generation has their say

The next generation in merchandise
The promotional merchandise industry’s next generation has their say

This April Erin Butler, one of our Promotional Merchandise Consultants, joined the first British Promotional Merchandise Industry (BPMA) NextGen meeting to have her say about the future of the industry.

Young merchandise professionals, from both distributor and supplier companies, gathered together with BPMA representatives in London’s Great Connaught Rooms to discuss how best to work with Millennial marketers.

Explaining why the NextGen group was set up, BPMA CEO Jon Birrell said: ‘As an industry we need to ensure we are keeping up with the current trends, communicating in the right channels and using the right messaging to engage with the new generation of marketers.’

The idea for the NextGen group was born at an industry networking event earlier this year. Companies around the table were celebrating key milestones in their well-established businesses, but also considering how times are changing. One of the action points was to reach out to younger merchandise professionals, to find out their views and perceptions of the industry.

Jon Birrell explained: ‘We discussed what the group around the table would look like twenty years from now, with the new intake of staff into our industry in a very different economic climate – and a world where the so-called ‘Millennial’ generation communicates and engages in new and diverse ways. After all, it was only twelve years ago when the first iPhone was launched and social media kicked off!’

Taking action on these ideas, the NextGen meeting was set up as a way to gather the views of young merchandise professionals. Topics discussed included training, the best way to get our message out to clients, preferred event formats, and what our industry could do better.

Erin Butler, Promotional Merchandise Consultant at Bounce Creative Designs, said: ‘We talked about how sales techniques have changed in recent years, and how the typical ‘salesy’ approach and cold-calling is no longer the best way to go. It’s usually better for an Operations person to approach clients and advise them, rather than push a product.’

‘This is exactly how we have always worked at Bounce Creative Designs, because we work across all areas rather than having separate teams of people who quote, process orders, etc. It was good to discuss this, and also to think about the best approach to dealing with younger clients, who often prefer email communications and instant results.’

Abidur Rahman, CEO at Bounce Creative Designs, added: ‘The NextGen group is about getting young people’s perspectives on how our industry is changing, and how we need to adapt to give them the type of service they are looking for.’

‘It makes sense to leverage the knowledge of young professionals working in our merchandise companies, to give us insights into how best to work with marketers from the same age group. If there are new and better ways to do things, at Bounce we are always open to that.’

Following the first NextGen meeting, the BPMA are planning to take actions based on the findings, and will reconvene later in the year to see how these changes are being received.