http://www.trinkettalk.com The business of trinkets Sat, 14 Nov 2009 05:32:19 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Everyone is looking to save as much as they can with the bad economic news.  Every bit helps and now more than ever your clients are more aware of piece prices and also any charges associated with orders.  The same holds true in the regular world as consumers look to ... http://www.trinkettalk.com/2009/11/14/two-tiered-memberships-lead-to-angry-clients/ Day after day the news is littered with instructive pieces describing how all of your daily transactions should be conducted as if you are at an auction.  Whether you are at an electronics store or online shopping for some clothes the economy is so bad you are supposed to be ... http://www.trinkettalk.com/2009/10/16/competitive-bidding-hurts-more-than-profits/ With jubilation on Wall Street this week comes the ridiculous news stories and hype of the economic return of the US.  The stark reality is the winds pushing against reasonable growth are far stronger than the tailwinds the markets can provide today.  There is some good news at first glance ... http://www.trinkettalk.com/2009/10/15/the-invisible-shoe-is-already-dropping/ Despite the veiled attempts by the various associations and groups to paint the current situation as improving the destruction of the industry continues.  Depending on which source the official 2008 sales were down either a little or a lot but there are few suppliers within the industry reporting even mediocre ... http://www.trinkettalk.com/2009/10/12/implosion-continues-in-the-trinket-industry/ A little more than ten years ago when a major ASI supplier first introduced recycled products made from reclaimed rubber the industry collectively ignored the offerings.  Although the brand name was nationally recognized there was very little interest in the products and within three years the offering had vanished from ... http://www.trinkettalk.com/2009/05/18/increased-costs-downfall-of-recycled-products/ The economy is struggling and retailers are closing all across the country.  The cost of acquiring a new customer continues to exponentially increase as retailers fight the battle of not only getting customers to choose their stores but to shop at all.  Despite this one major retailer has demonstrated how ... http://www.trinkettalk.com/2009/05/12/major-retailer-provides-lessons-in-poor-customer-service/ During times of strong economic growth the often insidiousexpenditure associated with providing samples for customers gets overlooked.  Across many industries the general policy of the early part of this century was to ship first and ask questions later.  Entire internet communities sprung up to take advantage of these freebies and in ... http://www.trinkettalk.com/2009/04/30/the-high-cost-of-product-samples/ One of the largest growing segments in the trinkets industry in the last twelve months has been the gift set.  What manufacturers have figured out is that customers and distributors are constantly struggling to put together packages of items sourced from widely varied sources.  By pulling these all in house ... http://www.trinkettalk.com/2009/04/25/build-custom-product-packages-for-promotional-success/ I hear this question asked all the time, what do plastic resin codes mean that I see on the bottom of a plastic bottle?  Every single plastic bottle you see in your day to day life will have a resin code stamped on the bottom which will tell you whether ... http://www.trinkettalk.com/2009/04/14/what-plastic-resin-codes-mean/ The number of retail brands crossing into the the corporate channels continues to accelerate.  However the number of retail brands pulling out of the corporate markets is also on an upswing as failed launch after failed launch continues to doom otherwise successful companies. Ping made a splash a few years ago when they ... http://www.trinkettalk.com/2009/04/09/retail-brands-crossing-over-to-corporate-channels/