Brown & Bigelow Acquires CPI Promotions
As Counselor first reported this week, Top 40 distributor Brown & Bigelow (asi/148500) has acquired Milwaukee-based Caliendo Promotions & Incentives. Financial terms of the deal, which was made public yesterday, were not disclosed. Moving forward, CPI will retain its name and formally be called CPI Promotions, a division of Brown & Bigelow.

“CPI brings a roster of Fortune 500 clients,” said William D. Smith, Jr., president of Brown & Bigelow. “We are very excited to have an organization with the creativity and reputation of CPI Promotions join the Brown & Bigelow family.”

Per the terms of the deal, Cary Caliendo will maintain his position as president of CPI Promotions. Founded in 2002, CPI has focused on acquiring large national accounts and has served clients like MillerCoors, Kohler and Dish Network.

“I started CPI with the goal of being the most unique hybrid company in the industry,” said Caliendo. “Our unique services and creativity allowed us to land some of the top premier branded companies in the world. When the opportunity arose to partner with a powerhouse like B&B, the first thing I thought was how great this partnership would be for our clients. The blend of professionals and fun personalities at Brown & Bigelow is a perfect fit.”

Ranked by Counselor as the 27th largest distributor in the industry, Brown & Bigelow reported 2012 North American ad specialty sales of $60.8 million, a year-over-year rise of 0.5%.

This is alphabroder's second deal since equity firm Littlejohn & Co. recapitalized the company in 2012 and assumed control of its board of directors. The company acquired Imprints Wholesale (asi/62486) late in 2012. Including the addition of Ash City, alphabroder now has more than $1 billion in annual sales. "This strategic acquisition is another important step in alphabroder's continued evolution over the past 18 months," said David Simon, managing director of Littlejohn & Co. "We look forward to additional opportunities to support alphabroder's future growth as it seeks to build its portfolio."

Zappos CEO Delivers Inspiring PPAI Expo Keynote
Las Vegas-based Zappos mainly sells shoes. But Tony Hsieh, the company’s founder and CEO, believes Zappos is the furthest thing from a shoe seller. “We’re a service company that happens to sell shoes,” Hsieh said shortly after striding onto the stage yesterday as the keynote speaker at the 2014 PPAI Expo. “We decided that we wanted our brand to not be about shoes, but about delivering the very best customer experience. That’s our brand and I'm pretty confident we can sell any item with that as our foundation.”

Hsieh, wearing jeans and an untucked flannel button-down, delivered a soft-spoken yet powerful speech to his riveted audience. Touching on how to build a hyper-motivated and productive workforce, as well as how to service customers in a memorable way, Hsieh said he believes companies can only be successful today if they have an untraditional approach. “Companies need a vision that has a higher purpose than just revenues and profit,” said Hsieh, who built Zappos into a $3 billion business and is the author of Delivering Happiness. “You should work every day to chase your company’s vision, not the money. Money can’t be the primary motivator.” 

To Hsieh, the most successful companies are the ones that have a clear corporate culture and are dedicated toward always feeding that culture. “Our number one priority in our business is culture,” he said. “If we get that right, everything else will work out. Your culture is your brand, whether you like it or not. You have to be willing to hire and fire based on corporate culture and whether people fit into that – not whether they’re simply good at what they do. Sometimes, that’s not enough. Everything in your business –everything – should align to those stated values.”

Hsieh spoke on the first day that the exhibit floor was open at the PPAI Expo, which continues through Friday. Follow Counselor Editor Andy Cohen on Twitter at @asi_andycohen for updates and product highlights from the PPAI Expo. 

The Joe Show: Growth Potential
In this episode of The Joe Show, Managing Editor Joe Haley shows off several new items that’ll help grow your sales opportunities in 2014. Looking for a great travel industry item? How about a product perfect for senior centers? Need an idea for a fun self-promo campaign?

Click here to watch this new-products episode of The Joe Show.

Want more videos? Subscribe now to our YouTube videos.

NFIB: Small Business Optimism Improving
Increased capital spending and greater job creation in December raised business owner sentiment, according to the latest NFIB Small Business Optimism Index. The National Federation of Independent Business’ new reading of 93.9 indicates a slight growth in optimism from November to December, while demonstrating back-to-back monthly gains in small-business confidence.

“The surge in spending, especially on equipment and fixtures and furniture, is certainly welcome and is hopefully not just an end-of-year event for tax or other purposes,” the NFIB wrote in its report. “This level of spending is more typical of a growing economy.”

Data shows the manufacturing, construction and professional services sectors are making promising improvements, though consumer spending on services has dipped. Overall, for 2014, small-business owners are feeling more positive when it comes to sales expectations as 88% predict higher sales, which is an increase of five points over November data. The reading was at its highest level since early 2012. Adding to the good news, business owners hired more staffers in December than they had predicted in the NFIB’s November survey. Small businesses grew by an average of 0.24 workers in December – the highest reading since February of 2006.

The optimism crosses over into the promotional products industry, according to Matthew Watkins. The CEO of LogoSurfing Promotional Products (asi/246818) added three new outside sales reps in 2013. “We feel that they are now fully trained and expect a significant increase from our outside sales team as well as our continued growth with online sales,” he said. Watkins is targeting the medical industry, as well as corporate accounts. He feels that corporate accounts will prove to be the best return in 2014.

Kirby Hasseman, owner of Hasseman Marketing & Communications (asi/221824), is very optimistic for 2014. “We have shown consistent growth over the past three years and are projecting to match or increase on that trend,” he said. “Our largest growth markets have been manufacturing, education, finance and retail. Those are the vertical markets we plan to continue in.”

Holiday Retail Sales Up 3.8%
U.S. retail sales increased by 3.8% this holiday season, a top research group said this week, an improved but still unremarkable performance that could hurt revenue forecasts for top retailers. The National Retail Federation announced that retailers took in $601.8 billion during the holidays, falling just shy of the organization’s forecast of 3.9% for the season. The total is an increase over last year’s 3.5% growth for holiday sales.

A number of reasons were cited for the so-so results. The holiday shopping season for 2013 was six days shorter than the year before, compressing shopping time and moving retailers to offer earlier Black Friday sales. Heavy discounting among retailers also cut into profits. Data firm ShopperTrak showed in-store traffic fell sharply by 14.6% this season. A recent pessimistic note from Morgan Stanley analysts said that the 2013 holiday period is “turning out worse than any since 2008,” adding a slowdown in the first half of the holiday season “proved too deep to recover from.”

Several top retailers have issued negative forecasts that have hurt stock prices and driven away investors. Teen-oriented stores fared the worst, with disappointing reports from American Eagle, Zumiez, Buckle and others. Key retailer, Target, suffered through a weak December after news broke that customer credit cards were possibly compromised by hackers. American Apparel (asi/35297), which sells in both retail and wholesale channels, reported sales in stores open at least one year slipped 6% in December year-over-year.

The retail market accounts for more than 4% of promotional product spending, according to Counselor State of the Industry research.

Counselor Q&A: Launching A Mobile App
In Counselor’s latest Q&A profile, Motivators’ (asi/277780) eCommerce Manager Bill O’Shea explains how the New York-based company developed and launched its own mobile app. Motivators introduced its app in April 2010 and the company saw benefits almost immediately. For example, by October of that year, the distributor’s Web traffic had increased by 87%. “Because we’re an online business, it’s important to stay at the forefront of technology,” said O’Shea. “Creating a mobile app helped us to do so.”

Of course, launching an app took planning and a willingness to adapt. It took Motivators six months to research, design and test its app before its release. A few more months passed before Motivators offered an update to the app – a major upgrade that allows people to buy promotional products right from their mobile devices.

What can you learn from Motivators’ experience? Should your firm consider launching its own app? Read this January Counselor Q&A to find out. Click here to see the profile.

Counselor Honors Distributor Choice Award Winners
At a ceremony during ASI Orlando, Counselor unveiled this year’s Distributor Choice Award winners – the industry’s top suppliers in 60 product categories. Seattle-based iClick (asi/62124) won the top award as 2014 Counselor Supplier of the Year, leading a group of 42 total companies that were honored. This year’s awards also included two new categories – children’s apparel, won by alphabroder (asi/34063) and party products, won by WOWLine (asi/98360).   

Click here to see the entire group of award winners, as voted on by distributors.

ASI Radio: Trade Show Tips
On this week’s Tuesday Morning Program, the hosts gave callers advice on how to successfully work a trade show. How can you navigate a show floor to reach the most suppliers? How can you shoot creative product videos, in a matter of seconds, to draw more interest from prospects? What can you plan for in advance to make the most of your trade show time?

Click here to listen to the complete call-in segment. If you missed any part of the radio show, a recording is now available at www.asicentral.com/radio. And, remember to join us on Tuesday, January 21, for our next broadcast. Log on at 10:30 a.m. ET to listen to the show and hear your voice on the air.

In The News
Gill Studios (asi/56950) has introduced The Bum Box, a light, easy to carry box seat that supports up to 264 lbs. To get more information on the product, click here to watch a video.

People On The Move
Idea Custom Solutions has hired Jay Busselle as director of sales. Busselle will support the company’s digital media sales initiatives in the promotional products space.

THE ASI SHOW

THE CATALOG DOCTOR: A PRIVATE CRITIQUE WITH ASI’S CATALOG PRO
ASI Dallas • Tuesday, February 4

Exhibiting at ASI Dallas? Make sure to set up your free consultation with ASI’s very own marketing and branding expert, Tom Augeri. During your private session, you'll discuss sound strategies to improve your print and online ads, catalogs, e-mail and digital advertising. You’ll leave knowing:

• How to identify and reach your specific buying audiences with your marketing collateral 
• How to communicate your unique selling proposition 
• How to write marketing copy that will compel clients to take action
• How to approach your online and print marketing campaigns (they’re different)
• How to choose effective visuals 
• How to measure the success of your marketing and advertising efforts

Click here to set up your time to meet with the Catalog Doctor on Tuesday, February 4, at the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center during ASI Dallas.

Follow The ASI Show on Twitter and become a fan on Facebook today!