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31/03/2011 10:24:25 a.m.
Sands Promotions Celebrates 25 years of Growing Brands
Allambie Heights NSW (29th March 2011) - In July this year promotional product distributor, Sands Promotions, will celebrate 25 years in business serving the needs of corporate Australia.
The company took its first tentative steps as a screen-printing and badge making business in 1979 when Bill Sands started the company from a small terrace house in Pyrmont, an area close to the Sydney CBD. Bill Sands was a descendant of John Sands, the engraver and stationer who came to Australia in 1837 and set up a retail business in George Street Sydney.
Through various incarnations, and with operations in Melbourne as well as Sydney, including John Sands Ltd and Sands and McDougal, the Sands name became synonymous with quality, printing and stationery products, board game, calendars and commercial printing.
John Sands was the market leader in advertising calendars throughout the 1970’s and 1980’s and it was this division of the company that realized the potential of promotional products, then known as advertising specialties. Under the guidance of Reg Fuller and Howard Jones, John Sands Specialty Advertising grew rapidly to be a market leader. In addition to its extensive range of calendars it had formed strong relationships with Sheaffer Pen and the Hanna Match group to distribute their product ranges.
Meanwhile at Sands Badges, Bill Sands had landed the contract to supply name badges to Westpac after the bank had changed its name in 1982 from the Bank of New South Wales. Bill Sands had taken on a business partner, Steve Skalla, around this time and by the mid 1980’s had sold his shares and embarked on a new venture.
Back at John Sands the company had been sold and was taking a direction that did not include promotional products. With promotional products now in his blood, Howard Jones left John Sands and joined Sands Badges in July 1986, soon after the name was changed to Sands Promotions.
Today Sands Promotions is one of the most respected promotional product agencies in Australia. From the beginning Sands Promotions realised that clients were looking for more than just sticking a logo on a product indiscriminately. The approach has always been to develop an understanding of individual problems, a real interest in achieving results and a creative outlook to every request.
Sands’ approach has won twelve awards for creative excellence since the industry commenced formal recognition of such achievements in 1999. According to Howard Jones, Managing Director, they have been awarded for campaigns done for various industries including FMCG, alcohol, financial services, magazine publishing, retail and charities.
The company is located at Allambie Heights on Sydney’s northern beaches, at these premises it has product fulfillment facilities from which it manages client distribution requirements. Sands Promotions is the official merchandise supplier to the Australia Day Council of NSW and plays an active part in the local community.
Jones and Skalla claim to have the most experienced and stable team in the industry and that the company’s success can be directly attributed to this fact.
Sands Promotions is a founding member of the Australasian Promotional Products Association (APPA) and Howard Jones is a Past President and Life Member of APPA.
2/03/2011 7:09:25 p.m.
"Traditionally there's been a division between promotional products and licensed products in a consumer's mind. The pop-culture acceptance of items like John Deere caps, Ferrari jackets (or laptops) - never mind sporting franchises - blurs this. How can brands hope to gain this status in a consumer's mind?"
Contribution to Marketing Magazine
By Howard Jones
Interesting and challenging topic! Interesting from the perspective of both marketer and promotional product practitioner.
To gain credibility beyond a brand’s regular product line requires strong and consistent core values. In the case of John Deere their set of values was established in the 1830’s and has remained consistent ever since. John Deere himself had the motto “I will never put my name on a product that does not have in it the best that is in me”.
From a practical point of view the brand must first have a history and be consistent in its values. Over time it will have developed into a strong consumer brand in markets that have considerable degree of desire and intrigue.
For example Fender guitars, with a history that dates back to 1946 transformed music worldwide before it introduced a range of branded merchandise.
Ferrari have made desirable, race bred, cars since 1929 before they offered a notebook computer to those of us who can’t afford the real thing and Ford and Holden have done battle at Mount Panorama since the 1960’s to establish demand for the shirts, caps and jackets from passionate supporters.
It’s a tribal thing, unless you have an almost fanatical following for your brand then you can’t expect consumers to pay for merchandise. That in no way, however, denigrates the power of promotional merchandise as an advertising medium.
You don’t often get the opportunity to work with these types of clients and more often than not it is on a licensed agreement basis. In my 30 years in promotional products I am yet to work with a “tribal” brand, but who knows what lies around the corner.
As far as selecting the right company to handle your promotional products programs I’d look for the following;
• Innovation and Creativity – in products, the techniques in reproducing your logo and distribution.
• Systems – there is a lot that can go wrong in the process of delivering the correct promotional item to your brief, on time. Take particular notice of art proofs, sampling and delivery schedules.
• Obtain references or testimonials.
• Ensure the company you deal with is a member of APPA.
13/03/2006 5:44:56 p.m.
Pub: Australian Financial Review
Pubdate: Thursday 09th of March 2006
Edition: First
Copyright:
It's all in the name, quality and subtlety
Business Incentives
Chris Tolhurst
If you're going to offer a branded gift, make sure it's of lasting quality and isn't garish. You are what you give, says Chris Tolhurst.
Corporate gift giving is going upmarket, and it's in large part a result of the rise of business-to-business marketing.
Five or six years ago, inexpensive plastic rulers, erasers, pens and coffee mugs imprinted with a corporate name were the most popular gifts bought by Australian companies for their clients.
Now, according to a survey by the Australasian Promotional Products Association subtly branded polo shirts and other apparel items account for 60 per cent of all promotional products purchased in Australia and New Zealand.
APPA chief executive William Kestin says more corporate dollars are also being spent on expensive gift items, from MP3 players and computer memory sticks to designer-name golf wear and golfing accessories.
"The golf market is huge," Kestin says. "Lifestyle gifts have been the trend with gifts because decision-makers in business are inundated with mugs and other (cheaper) gifts."
He says corporate receivers of gifts are today "quite discerning" and the quality has to be high.
The APPA survey conducted last year by Sweeney Research, independently of the association, values Australia's promotional products sector at $1.56 billion, an increase in revenue of 35 per cent since 2002.
Kestin says the $1.56 billion valuation doesn't include any paper products except advertising calendars. He adds that the fast growth of the sector since 2002 suggests promotional products are winning marketing share from other forms of marketing, notably print and broadcast advertising.
Major players in promotional products agree.
The managing director of Sands Promotions, Howard Jones, tells his clients that advertisements are more ephemeral and can have less impact than promotional products.
"Advertisers these days are looking critically at where they spend and at the returns they get," Jones says.
"With promotional merchandise the cost per exposure diminishes over time.
"The better the quality of a promotional product, the longer it lasts and the more desirable it is to use, therefore the longer people will use that item and the cost per exposure diminishes over time."
Items like embroidered baseball caps, rulers and mugs are still a huge part of promotional product spending. But there is a trend towards companies putting their moniker on more exotic items - CD holders, modem cables, top-of-the-range fountain pens, travel tooth brushes and even packets of dental floss.
One trend in the sector is that companies appear to be consulting with promotional product firms earlier in their marketing cycles than they previously did.
Rather than simply "throwing" promotional merchandise at one-off sales campaigns, Kestin says more companies are consulting with promotional product firms on a long-term basis.
He says promotional product firms typically make their margins on the sale of products and, unlike advertising agencies, do charge for providing creative ideas.
"Most promotional product companies, especially if it is a big campaign, will supply the creative aspect of it at little or no cost to the client, so including them earlier in the marketing mix doesn't necessarily cost the client anything," Kestin says.
Jason Bradbury, managing director of the national promotions group Wompro, says the promotional product business in the United States is worth $US18.3 billion, according to a recent survey by a trade journal, and US trends indicate promotional items are taking market share from advertising.
According to Bradbury, the growth in business-to-business marketing is underpinning the shift to more expensive quality items.
"That is why there is a definite shift to better quality products," he says.
"People won't accept second-rate stuff; they won't accept split cow-hide from India: people want quality."
Wompro's major clients include Foster's and Ford Australia. Bradbury says the company is increasingly taking promotional items developed for the Australian market into overseas countries for these and other clients.
Jones agrees that apparel is the fastest-growing segment of the business, adding that clients are opting for subtle branding on the peak of the collar or on the cuff of a garment rather than heavier branding which often "turns off" the receiver of the gift.
"A promotional products company can recommend to clients when you can go big with the brand and when you have got to be more subtle," he says.
There is, of course, another reason why quality is on the agenda: the free T-shirt that falls apart at the first wash or the branded pen that does not work are very quickly counter-productive.
Explains Jones: "The quality of the gift - the style of it, the longevity of the product - is a direct reflection of the giver.
"If you give something that is cheap and nasty the reflection is that the giver is cheap and nasty as well."
31/08/2004 3:01:28 p.m.
Sands Promotions wins 3 Pyramid Awards at this year's Australasian Promotional Products Association Sapphire Show held at the Sydney Showgrounds August 12-14.
A Gold Pyramid for client Merrill Lynch and a Silver Pyramid each for Starlight Foundation and Mens Health magazine made this the most successful year to date for Sands Promotions. This brings our total haul to 8 awards since the inception of this competition in 1999.
28/05/2003 2:22:15 p.m.
Welcome to the Business Builders page at Sands Promotions. Here you will find examples of our latest client projects, useful hints and information about the best in Promotional Products, Business Gifts and Premiums from around the world.
We invite you to visit the site regularly and use it as a tool to help you plan effective and exciting promotions.
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