Welcome to the promo playbook, the podcast where
suppliers come to win in the promotional products
industry. We're your hosts, Lisa Faustik and
Adrienne Barker, bringing you insider insights,
expert strategies, and no fluff advice to help
suppliers navigate the promo channel like pros.
From marketing to distributors to mastering software
onboarding, we cover it all. Whether you're new
to the industry or ready to scale up, this is
your playbook for success. Let's get started.
Hey, everybody. Thank you for joining us again
at the promo playbook. This episode, we're welcoming
Brittany David from Snugs. We're so excited to
have her here. She's the chief revenue officer.
I'm joined by my co -host Kim Ballerine today,
and we'll be asking Brittany a series of questions
and getting into her big, beautiful brain about
how she sees the industry. So Brittany, would
you mind giving our audience your story, your
background, how you got into promo and where
you are today? You bet. So I went to Texas A
&M University and I was interning at Verizon.
So I graduated in the early 2000s back when you
graduate. And if you didn't have a job, you looked
on Monster or all sorts of things that don't
exist today, trying to figure out what you were
going to do to get out of your parents' house
to make some money. So my easiest solution was
to go back to Verizon and do DSL engineering,
which my brain works pretty mathematically and
science and all the stuff. So I was doing ones
and zeros. But I did not love doing that. I thrive
where things are creative and interpersonal.
So I went to do event planning for the Gaylord
Texan out in Grapevine, Texas, and then moved
over to the Hilton Anatole doing events there.
Well, along the way, Sage was doing their show
at the Gaylord Texan and was looking for someone
to help with their events in the marketing sector.
And I liked what I was doing, but figured why
not go work for a company that nobody understands
what this industry is because it's totally hidden.
And on top of that, no one really even understands
what Sage is because back then Google was barely
even a thing. I feel so old now, but it's like...
trying to describe that Sage was kind of like
a Google and this industry that nobody knew where
to get products from, but great people over there.
So I was at Sage for about five years and then
moved over to Snugs, picked up, left Dallas,
moved to Salt Lake City 15 years ago. So started
off on the sales team doing national sales there
and then became the VP of sales, worked on sales
and marketing. which has led me to the position
I'm in now. And I love the industry, and I love
Snugs, and I love the team I get to work with,
both here and customer -wise. So, yeah, enjoying
it. Awesome. That is a great story. And I love,
you know, that you're a woman, really, and a
leadership role in promo. That's really exciting.
Can you give us a little context related to Snugs?
Like, what's your overall sales volume in the
industry? Where do you fit within the landscape
of suppliers? Yeah, so we ended 2025 just over
92 million So when I started I think we are around
28 or 29 million doing mostly lanyards and personal
care with lip balm and sanitizer and then throughout
the years just innovated into Different lines
we could bring on ourself like aromatherapy Mints
kind of like little ads and then back in 2022
acquired, Sweden So it was huge in drinkware
and bags and some other categories that we loved
and figured instead of trying to do it all from
scratch, maybe we can get our way into it with
partnering with them. So now, yes, nuts is pretty
much like soup to nuts promo from pens and bags
and drinkware and low priced items, higher priced
items, brands, definitely evolving every single
seemingly day. But yeah, it's been a journey
and, you know, what we look like today will probably
still look different six or 12 months from now.
Cool, cool. That's awesome. So 2022 bought SWEDA.
Yeah. Yeah. So you saw, I think, an opportunity
to expand your assortment by acquiring another
company, which is exciting. One of the questions
I had for you, because I was around the time
of the pandemic, like, how did the pandemic change
the way you Do business and go to market and
even you know, you're you're the landscape of
your employees How did that pandemic affect you
and snugs? Yeah, the pandemic was chaos right
and we went from a company where about half of
our business was lanyard and trade show related
and half of our business was personal care and
so we got completely flipped upside down where
If people weren't having events in person, they
didn't eat a lot of lanyards, but everybody in
the whole world wanted sanitizer. And fortunately,
we made sanitizer and we still make sanitizer.
So it was quite a process of figuring out how
to be ahead and try to predict what customers
are going to need next with what we had or where
we were going to source it. So I think one thing
was During that time we were super reactive to
well, where are we going to find more alcohol?
Where are we gonna find thickening agents like
carbomer and sanitizer? Holy cow, we're gonna
run out of label media who was thinking about
that and so much was reacted to demands where
I think our team has come Become a lot stronger
on trying to anticipate what could be the next
challenge, right? We don't have a crystal ball,
but we know that if we communicate with each
other um trying to kind of figure out what these
things could be to have a better discussion as
soon as we can and then align on all hands on
deck instead of having everybody work in silos
of it's their job it's all of our job especially
when we get into crisis mode and it's really
helped us drive innovation right so we had sanitizer
but who knew that people would use lanyards with
two hooks on them to create things to hold their
masks on at the time, right? And just like so
many suppliers, how could we get into PPE, whether
we were making masks or different things like
signage that we hadn't been into, but that was
truly value driven. So yeah, I think we've created
great kind of works working together with. our
current team, but also with other partnerships,
whether it be other suppliers that we lean on
or collaborate with, and really fostering those
relationships where, yes, we're competitors,
but we all can be friendly and play in the sandbox.
And how can we truly collaborate to make all
of us stronger versus being in single channels?
I love that. viewpoint, and I'm so glad you brought
that up, the partnership aspect. Kim, I'm going
to invite you to sort of share your thoughts
on what you've seen in terms of partnerships,
suppliers working with each other. You know,
what are your thoughts on that? Yeah, well, I'm
going to put a pin in that only because I actually
wanted to follow up. I have a follow up question
actually on the pandemic, because I'm curious
if you're seeing this too. you know, I love the
innovation and sort of your product line and
having to sort of flip things a little bit. And,
you know, you're always being reactive, but at
the same time, how are you being creative to
fit the solutions and finding solutions to the
immediate problems, whether it's sanitizer masks,
but from a even broader industry perspective
with like technology, any of that, I feel like
maybe I feel like the pandemic helped on the
speed up technology in this industry. And I'm
curious if you, you know, if Snugs saw that,
and if you've seen even some of your internal,
now as we look at some of the trends happening
today, even from print on demand to the online
gifting platforms to companies that are sort
of. almost merging or a dual supplier distributor
type relationship. My gut is that because we
are so dispersed through the pandemic, we relied
on technology that really forced this industry
to almost take three giant steps forward, as
opposed to maybe half steps prior. Do you feel
that same way? Oh, totally. I feel like tech
is kind of survival of the fittest now. And for
people who can't keep up with those demands,
they're going to reap what they didn't. So if
that makes sense, I think that if you, if you
can't keep your tech game strong, you fall behind
exponentially faster. And one thing is just consumer
driven expectations. As consumers, we expect
things to be fast. We expect them to be easy.
We expect them to be accurate. We don't want
to talk to someone about the things that we don't
want to talk about. And so I think that in general,
the way we behave is so tech -driven, whether
it's right in front of your face, realized or
not. So with that, even from speed to be able
to respond to customers, but all the way through
profitability too, right? I think the way that
we eliminate touches or we find out how can we
keep up is you've got to be able to improve your
processes. And so much of that is IT driven.
I think it's a lot easier to access data right
now where AI was a thing we talked about two
and three years ago when it was robots and this
thing in the future and what is it going to look
like in Ready Player One. And now every day,
I think they just released a new version of Chat
GPT. I think it's 5 .4 yesterday or today. And
how quickly that's been evolving and just figuring
out how can you become an expert at something
you used to have to pay somebody to be an expert
at by being able to understand prompting and
different tech pieces. So even from, I guess,
education. on that and educating yourself. Like,
obviously, I didn't study AI in college 20 years
ago, but I sure have become a student in the
last probably 6, 12, 18 months because that is
evolving and it's something that I need to know,
I think, to be responsible for my job and as
an innovator, but also in the world. And I think
that until people feel that somewhere externally,
whether it's a push from a job or whether it's
something as a consumer, I think there's going
to be a huge divide in how people have adopted
and embraced and learned to utilize it versus
pushing back. And it's this evil thing. It's
taking all of our jobs. I think you got to let
that narrative go pretty fast and figure out
how you use it for the better and not for the
worse. Yeah, technology. I mean, we are promo
companies that are not just utilizing technology.
The people who are promo companies that are also
tech companies are the ones that I see winning
right now. And I think even in a traditional
model with supplier, distributor, end user, I
see a lot of pushback on online companies who
they don't care how the supply chain works. If
they can utilize technology and whether that's
ad spend and marketing and targeting different
customer bases, they don't care whose customer
it is. They just want to be able to provide solutions
in an innovative way. to create their own business
models. And so even on that distributor side,
we see a ton of e -commerce companies just brushing
it right now and ones that maybe you hadn't even
heard five years ago. So I don't think that means
that there's this major disruption in the channel
and old school distributors, how we see them
are going to go away. But I do think you have
to be able to provide value. And I think how
you utilize technology. is a huge value proposition
just across the board right now. And I asked
that too, because a lot of our listeners are
suppliers just starting out and they're trying
to either they are just entering the promo space
and your traditional sort of retail wholesale
brand, or they've been in and they're trying
to figure out how to scale. And our council is
always like, you want to get the least amount
of touches, like to make it worth, you know,
worth the time, with the effort that makes it
more profitable. And so we were always sort of
preaching, you know, back end, like, what does
your back end look like? What does that order
management look like? How are you receiving orders?
How are you communicating? And what does that,
what does that tech stack look like? And sometimes
I think, you know, depending on where you are
in your journey, you're like, well, You know
Susie can just take the order and handle it and
yes, that's true to a certain degree and then
it becomes not sustainable and I think technology
has just You know when I got into this industry,
you know ten years ago if I looked at from a
process from a Into ten years ago and I look
at it today. It's There's so much change and
most of that change has come in the last like
four years so I just wanted to ask that follow
up question because that is something we talk
to our supplier partners about all the time is
that tech stack and automation and embracing
technology and looking for partners, right? You
don't have to always build it yourself. What
partners are out there in the industry that can
give you that technology edge. And so that goes
back to your question, Lisa about partnering
with other people in the industry. being able
to sort of bring those different pieces out there,
you know, whether it's a tech platform, you know,
and a supplier or distributor, you can link with
technology, everyone can link together for the
I like to say for the greater good, you know.
Yeah, yeah. So so connecting those dots, you
know, we do have some software clients in our
portfolio like cover and out gauge where they
have really cool products that you know, could
work with suppliers and distributors. And we're
sort of working on how do we get everyone to
talk to each other and be open -minded and listen
to the amazing things that are happening. So,
for my follow -up question to you, Brittany,
what can you share, like peek behind the curtain
that Snugs is doing in the tech world to innovate?
Yeah, I mean, I think one thing that isn't necessarily
innovating today, but that I would highly encourage
and that we take use of is promo standards. I
think that integration and APIs are imperative.
And while that doesn't solve everything, it is
a source to be able to have a set of data that
we're trying to standardize, right? That suppliers
and distributors can consume. We're using AI
and probably every facet of our business, right?
It was easy, relatively speaking, to create marketing
or use it for the very surface levels. But I
mean, from order entry to artwork to ease of
business to chat. And I think when people think
AI, they think taking the human out of it, which
isn't completely true of how we're automating.
We're not looking to. take people out of it.
We're trying to expedite the things that don't
really need a human built into it and utilize
humans better and smarter to add value where
they can. And so I think we're looking at from
reporting and it's not just utilized in IT, where
I would say even my perspective several years
ago is how is IT driving this part of our business?
What do we need to understand from IT? And really
it was just understanding the capabilities better.
And while they might spearhead some project management,
we're utilizing it in every single department.
And it's insane if you can get leadership together
and just start the discussion and build some
curiosity where people are taking it just to
improve our business. So it's pretty cool. But
yeah, I mean, I would say AI, AI, AI is what
we're living, breathing every day that is helping
innovate on tools that we didn't have six months
ago or 12 months ago. Great, great. Thank you
for that insight. And Kim and I are in full support
of promo standards also. Although it is out of
reach sometimes for new suppliers coming into
the industry, we work towards that. There's got
to be a way. We're shocked at how many people
still email their orders to suppliers and suppliers
then rekey the whole order into the system. But
that's a topic for another day. That's a loaded
one. Yeah, yeah. We work really hard on that,
on opening people's minds to the benefit. You
know, like get that under your belt first. Like
get ready and build your foundation kind of thing.
So I love hearing all that tech innovation. I
think one of the things that we love about Snugs
and about, you know, your visioning is your partnerships
with other suppliers. So we were wanting to ask
you to share, like, what are some of the most
successful partnerships you've instituted in
the past couple years, either with brands or
other suppliers, things that you feel comfortable
sharing? Yeah. You know, it's interesting, I
think, on... Often the brand side and the supplier
side is it usually starts from a relationship
you built that you weren't building to try to
get anything out of it. There are people that
were friends or people along the way that you
aligned on values or conversations that you had
in the past that have just evolved. So I would
say a great supplier that's in the industry that
they are a supplier that you would find in Sage
or ESP that we also offer their products is totally
bamboo. And David Chen and I had been friends
for forever. We had been on this kind of brand
partnership and kind of some supplier to supplier
partnerships. And for him and where their company
has we all the same customers to some extent.
Right. But we don't all have the same customers.
And so it's one of those, you know, is there
an opportunity for us to help grow their big
their brand that's also beneficial to them? that
doesn't interfere with what they're doing. And
so we were able to partner with them. That's
a win -win for our customers, their customers,
our brand, their brand. It's been awesome. We
also have, I guess, the honor of partnering with
Thermos. So we did that pre -pandemic. They are
an outstanding flagship tried and true brand
in retail that has just kind of stood the test
of time. And we see them having fun retro designs,
tried and true designs and innovation on drinkware
technology or colors or different things that
they have great people. They understood. promo,
and so it was easy to jump into a relationship
that's mutually beneficial with them. They don't
want to be in promo. They don't want to tackle
artwork and all of the crazy things. I think,
Kim, you said earlier, coming from the research
side, retail and promo could not be any more
different when it comes to marketing and go -to
-market strategy and buybacks and contractual
obligations, margin. you know, all of those different
intricacies. So we put a major emphasis on bringing
on brands that align with snubs in promo, probably
in the last year. So we just launched puffin,
which are kind of like rinkware can coolers that
are so cool. And the people over there have got
to be the nicest people that I have interacted
with and have utmost integrity and understand
the business. And it's easy to have conversations
of how we could partner with them. Or we entered
into a partnership with Nomadic, which has super
cool luxury high -end looking backpacks and travel
gear with amazing design and detail and have
been super fun. They're in our backyard in Utah.
And so I think finding the right people and being
able to align on expectations of the gate. I'm
a very transparent person. I will never play
to try to pretend I'm the smartest person in
the room or that I have all of this secret sauce
that nobody can figure out. Right. So the easier
I think you can stop playing a game and truly
be able to talk about numbers and be comfortable
about margin and understand what expectations
to figure out if it aligns or if it doesn't.
And you don't take it personally if it doesn't.
I mean, we've had plenty of conversations with
brands where it didn't work out. And I think
it is so good to know that upfront rather than
to play a game or a guessing game of where you
should be and then let a partner down that they
could have aligned with somebody else that would
have worked out better or likely both of them.
But I would say just being able to have transparent
conversations and trust in the beginning makes
navigating contracts and alignments and expectations
so much easier. And it makes it extra easy to
have cool brands and cool people with cool products.
So it's been fun. Yeah, I think the transparency
piece is key. And Kim and I have been working
on that too, in terms of helping our partners
know what their costs are. Understand what your
product costs so that we can help you keystone
the pricing. for either a supplier partnership
or the industry. And we can't stress that enough
to our listeners that know where your landed
cost is. That's a great place to start. Kim,
you've put together some great strategic partnerships.
What have you seen as roadblocks to success through
that? I mean, I agree with Brittany. excuse me,
a lot of it is just the transparency, right?
Not every partnership is a perfect partnership
and that's okay. You can still be friends. Like
we are in an industry of just relationships everywhere.
But I think being upfront on what that expectation
is both on the supplier side and on sort of the
brand side or the supplier distributor, like
wherever you are sort of in the food chain is
really important. you know, sometimes their margins
aren't there, right? And I think that's sort
of the biggest difference on retail brands getting
into promo is they're very used to that retail
price, wholesale price, 50 % boom. Like, what
do you mean I have a sliding scale? What do you
mean you need less than this? What do you mean
I've sold to you and then you sell to somebody
else and then they sell to somebody else? No,
no, no. I sell the one person that goes to the
end user, right? So there's a lot of layers in
that. But I also think just being very upfront
on expectation on both sides. It's not always
just the supplier that has to be upfront, but
the expectation as the brand of, well, what are
you hoping to get out of this market so we can
level set together? And then the other is being
a full partner. You know, I have, you know, I've
worked with suppliers, Gemline, I've talked about
on this, you know, on our podcast, we went to
market through Gemline, who is a fantastic partner.
And I'm in contact with them constantly. But
I know they work with brands that they talk to
once a year. And I'm always like, God, like,
that's so interesting that you only talk to,
you know, this brand once a year or certain brands
once a year. I think that's a missed opportunity.
and you really want them to be an extension of
your team, right? Like to me, I always felt like
they were part of my team. Like we were all together.
We would get on our phone, we knew personal stuff,
but we would get down to like brass tacks and
that's where you could have those honest, transparent
conversations, which, you know, I am the same
way, Brittany. I'm like. If it's not going to
work, it's not going to work. And that's great.
That's fine. We're still good. I can still get
up with drinks later. Let's just not spin our
wheels on a contract that we're going to spend
three hours on to still say no. So I agree. I
think that transparency, and really at the end
of the day, people buy things from people they
like. So being forthright and excited about a
partnership is what's going to get everyone else
excited in the chain too. Cool, cool. Great,
great comments. Couple things to add to that
I think is timing. Sometimes timing might not
work. Transparency isn't there. You can't put
the square peg in the round hole, but a year
later, two years later, could be a totally different
story. So building, maintaining relationships,
as the three of us know in the industry, is the
main thing. And then inventory management. We've
worked with clients that just couldn't get the
inventory mix to work, didn't have the tech set
up to manage multiple channels pulling from the
same inventory. What does that look like? And
promo isn't the one to get rid of your old inventory
in. We need fresh... up to the moment, accurate
inventory of relevant products. That's what we
champion with our partners, and I'm guessing
you do the same, Brittany. So for product development,
I've always thought about the way Kim and I think
of these supplier partnerships as a way for our
industry to keep fresh, because it's so hard
for a new company to break into promo. you know,
to gain a foothold, to get noticed. So we see
a lot of times the supplier partnership as that
path to brand building. How do you see that,
Brittany? Yeah, it's interesting because I think
as we look at product development, we look at
it in our normal channel, right, of just bringing
in product that we either manufacture or decorate
or we look at the retail side and they... work
a little bit differently, where if a brand doesn't
have brand equity, to me, they're not a brand.
I just sat in on a conference yesterday, and
it was the founder of Liquid Def talking about
his story and how they were created. But if it
was just another water company in a can, it's
the marketing and the brand that gained them
a following. They're still selling water. Right.
There's nothing special about their water, no
offense, like with death, right? It's the marketing
and that excitement that then drives value and
consumer buy -in and love for a brand that's
created. So people who come into the industry
as a brand, but they're not doing well in retail,
they don't have a customer base, they don't have
recognition, they don't have this following,
it's a lot harder to pay. promo with having all
of the different margins in it to make money
for a brand that doesn't have brand equity. And
so there has to be, in my opinion, a focus on
those brands focusing on their brand, their operations,
what their value propositions are, the product
they deliver, the marketing to allow the promo
side. to kind of just be in tandem on their recognition,
being able to push them and find them to the
right and buyer ultimately, etc. On the innovation
of, I guess, more traditional promo, it's hard
because we are a lagging industry, right? Very
rarely do you see something created in promo
that is that innovative that you haven't seen,
right? You go to China, China doesn't innovate.
It's the people on the design team that are like,
let's tweak that or let's use these color palettes
or let's put a patent because you could utilize
this type of product and kind of tweak some things.
So I feel like promo is lagging on the innovation.
So those who are quick to follow on what is trending.
whether it be TikTok or somewhere in retail,
to kind of be a fast follow is usually where
we find more of that innovation that people buy
into and being able to source in a very smart
way. Because, yes, you have opportunities for
higher value and higher priced items, but the
majority of what this industry still sells is
usually pretty inexpensive. And as things get
tighter, whether it's the economy, you still
have very value driven products out there that
I truly think can provide value. It's not that
they're just cheap and crappy. They just might
be a lesser cost depending on budget, which doesn't
mean there's not a huge opportunity or other
higher priced items, too. But especially as you're
talking about items that are traditionally given
away and not necessarily the merch that is then
repurchased, I think that there's different price
points to be cognizant of. What is your what
is next? like your sort of sweet spot for your
customer in terms of price point. Yeah, our number
one selling product is a white tube lip balm
that sells for under a dollar. And so we have,
I mean, still you're under a dollar, under two
dollar items that are giveaways far exceed from
the volume. It's interesting, too, because we've
seen a major shift in drinkware, where drinkware
used to have, I would say, pre pandemic and probably
even up until the early 2020s. um higher priced
items great margin and then all of a sudden the
door opened and people looked at PPAI and ASI
and looked and hey apparel is the top category
slowly there behind is drinkware and it seems
like anybody who was smart and paying attention
said we should look at drinkware if we weren't
already in there and so then you had so many
other suppliers offering drinkware instead of
just right you would traditionally think of.
So I still think that there's a huge opportunity.
We have like bags and drinkware in areas that
are still higher revenue, but less volume piece
count wise. So. Great, great insight on that.
So we love the topic of innovation and promo
and we work on that a lot in finding brands and
innovators and inventors who have new products
that we can bring to the industry. So that's.
really fun, but to your point, is very difficult
to build that brand and get that foothold. So
we love seeing that suppliers are more and more
working together. And then for a supplier, they
don't have to bring in the inventory themselves.
If it's a good partner, it gets drop shipped.
It's all good. You know, it's a win -win across
the board. But we're going to switch gears away
from that to the on -demand discussion. So, you
know, we think about, Kim and I think about on
demand in the way of MOQ of one, but also up
to many. So we've seen, and I think you touched
on this earlier, Brittany, that the space is
getting crowded. E -commerce companies, tech
companies, everybody's rushing in to be able
to function in a... on -demand space that built
its own channel separate from promo, you know,
for the past 20 years, really, with, you know,
Zazzle and Shutterstock and companies like that.
So tell us what your vision is for that space.
Like, how do you see that affecting Snugs and
the industry overall? Yeah, so MOQ of one, POD,
we talk about all the time and have been talking
about all the time. And for us, it's that conversation,
I guess, of how do you make One Piece profitable?
Or how are you okay with not having One Piece
profitable and using it as, but we believe that
it is a good entryway to something else that
is profitable. I really currently don't see anyone
in promo winning at MOQ of One. The conversations
I have is it's a necessary evil. And for me,
I'm like, is it that necessary? Like, or are
you hoping that it's a gateway drug to something
else? I think the companies that are going to
win at MOQ of one are tech companies where their
product, whether it's vertical and they're truly
manufacturing it with no margin cuts in between
or whether they don't own the inventory and they
are truly just a tech platform. Because as soon
as you start putting in different cuts with margin
like our supply chain has, you immediately cut
it down. You're looking at landed good cost.
Then you're trying to eliminate what is an entry
or an artwork or what are all of those costs
associated with it. And there's only so much
that you can cut out on top of that as a marketing
strategy, right? Is it truly a necessary evil?
So it's a byproduct of what someone's looking
for, or are you truly trying to push that as
your value proposition? So I mean, they had conferences
a few weeks ago about this, everybody had talked
to you about it. We do offer some products that
are M .O .Q. of one that makes sense. Like if
you're selling a two or three hundred dollar
cooler or two or three hundred dollar bag, it's
a lot easier to look at that than one lip balm
that cost eighty cents. Right. And so even by
decoration method and the technology that rips
from an order entered straight down to, you know.
where it's printed. And I hear that conversation
a lot from screen printing and decorators that
are on kind of they're kind of in the promo side,
but really they focus on maybe having a screen
print shop to really figure out how to utilize
technology for those one -offs. So do I think
there's space for it? Yes. Do I think people
love to have one piece? Yes. Would I love to
have someone give me a million dollars tomorrow?
Also, yeah. That's because you want it. I don't
know that everybody needs to offer it. I think
if it can be a competitive advantage, amazing.
That's what we are looking at is can we make
it make sense? Is it a competitive advantage?
I think we have a lot more questions than we
have answers, but we have a lot of people looking
at it from IT to myself to operations to figuring
out. Where would we want to play in it? Is it
stuff we want to manufacture? Is it stuff that
we want to outsource? So I guess lots of dialogue,
Lisa. Lots of dialogue we've been having for
a long time to decide if that aligns currently
or if that aligns future state to where we are
as a business or should we be focusing on other
things that give us value that don't put us behind
the curve? Mm -hmm that aren't a distraction
like you could see it as a distraction Potentially,
you know or right some folks have said is it
all hype right now, you know, like what where
is it? And how did this sort of alternative universe
of on -demand companies? Build that channel successfully
and profitably and what can we learn from them
or what? How can we be them or how can we partner
with them? So all really interesting topics to
be niggling on and picking apart. Well, and it's
just further merging of the retail world and
the promo world, right? It's your expectation,
right? Thank you, Etsy, for the MOQ of one and
thank you, Amazon for the immediate free shipping
with, you know, get everything in 24 hour concept.
So I do think we're seeing more of that merging
of the consumer trends. You talked earlier that,
you know, It's more of a lagging industry. You're
not necessarily having something new come to
market, this huge innovation out of promo. But
I do think over the past couple of years, we're
seeing more of that convergence of the consumer
trends and promo. I remember we first started,
it was black, white, Navy. That's the drinkware
options. Nobody wanted color. Now, everybody
wants color. You're like, wait. I'm sitting pink
and purple and blue and black and silver. All
those two at company, that didn't happen five
years ago. So I think just that the low minimums,
MOQ of one, is just a byproduct of some of that
too. And programs and people wanting to order
online through stores, I mean, I can definitely
make a case of relevancy. And I understand where
the demand is. I think it's, can you play there?
Do you want to play there? Can you make money
off of it? Does it make sense? So many questions.
Yeah. And we look at too a lot the hyper personalization
aspect of it, adding somebody's name and variable
data. And then that even takes that consumer
experience even more into promo where someone
gets it with their actual name on it. So we're
keeping our eye on that. So believe it or not,
we're like 45 minutes already into our podcast.
Did that fly by or what? So I had some other
questions for you, but I think I'm going to maybe
we'll have you on another time. But I'd love
to jump ahead just. a little bit about you, Brittany.
Tell us about your family. Do you have pets?
What's your world like? What's your life like?
I have one pet. I have a ragdoll cat named Wicket.
I am a dog person. I inherited a cat because
I dated a guy a while ago that liked cats, and
I traveled too much to have a dog, and so it
was a happy medium. This cat is freaking awesome.
love them to death. I always thought there were
crazy cat ladies and hopefully I don't become
one of them. But yeah, just one little pet and
it's just me. Oh, that's cute. We both have dogs.
Kim and I have multiple dogs, which is a good
thing or a bad thing. I'm not sure. Yeah, I'm
not either. How do you like them online, Brittany?
Like, what do you do for fun? What are your hobbies?
I love yoga and I actually became a yoga teacher
a few years ago. So I love just getting into
that piece of it. I love the breath work associated.
I love the movement. It is just for me, it's
such a healthy habit and it is such a good way
to balance not only like work and busy life,
but also perspective of just pausing and kind
of getting back to some pretty basic things.
But Yoga is probably one of my favorite things
that I do in my spare time. I like to ski. Our
snow has been terrible this winter in Utah. The
East Coast got it all. I was like, you need to
come out East to visit us because we have pretty
high snow. I'm jealous. But I am. I also love
live music and I love going to concerts. So I
am excited that since we've had no snow, that
means hopefully we will have lots of sunshine
and room for outdoor concerts all summer long.
Yeah, because you made a big move to you. So
you said 15 years you've been in Utah. Yeah.
You know, I thought I'd be here for two or three
and it was a stop along the way somewhere and
decade and a half later, here I am. Yeah. Yeah.
Well, the skiing has been great in the Northeast.
Kim and I, you're both looking at our backyards
with still like four feet of snow in them. It's
crazy. So how about D? Are you a big reader?
Do you like to read? I do. I gosh, I just finished.
I finally listened to the Mel Robbins book. Let
them read another book. I do a lot of audible
and right now I just started kind of turning
into more of the autobiography. So I've got a
whole bunch that I had saved from, I guess, spare.
I think the Prince Henry one. Michelle Obama.
But yeah, Marie, like I've got a whole list that
I'm getting into next. I kind of go through compartments,
but the books that I'm reading kind of bedside
right now. I just started Under the Dome, which
I had started a while ago. Stephen King book.
And then I just didn't finish. And so my brother
was teasing me at Christmas. He's like, gosh,
freaking finish a book. And then there's a book
called The Food Lab. And I read it before it's
by this guy named Kenji. He's the chef. And he
grew up I think somewhere in Asia and his parents
were like lawyers and doctors and his whole family
was going into this pattern. And he as a kid
worked in a kitchen and loved food and the science
behind it. So it really goes through and it talks
more about the science behind ingredients and
why things work. Like you could boil an egg,
but should you put salt in the water or not?
How long should you put it in for? Do you need
an ice bath afterwards and not just tips and
tricks, but really getting into The science of
how food is created how you it's to me I'm a
big nerd and it's really fascinating to learn
that kind of that sciency piece. That's cool.
Yeah That sounds fun. Yeah, how about you Kim?
What do you have on your table these days? All
right. I'm gonna buck the trend because I am
NOT a huge reader. Okay Yeah, I mean, I like
I do have one that I just picked up the things
we leave unfinished, which my daughter gave me,
which I've heard is very good. It has been sitting
not on my bedside, but next to my computer on
my desk for about four weeks now. I will eventually
get to it. And I am a Hildebrand fan because
I love Nantucket and they're quick, easy beads.
So If I'm not engaged in the first 20 pages of
a book, I set it down. And I have been known
to go almost all the way through books and just
be like, I either am not starting to like the
ending or something, and I cannot finish it with
a couple chapters left, which my girlfriends
are like, how can you do that? Nobody does that.
I was like, I don't think about it again. I didn't
like it. And I moved on. But you got halfway
through it. I was like, and I didn't like it.
So I stopped. So yeah, it's not my, I'm getting
more into it now that I don't have a lot of children
at home, but I had four children and I have four
children, but they're now older when they were
younger. If I had like an hour, it wasn't reading.
It was just like, yeah. Well, thank you, Brittany.
I love the yoga aspect. I feel like our industry
is so frenetic, chaotic, you know, all these
things going on that peacefulness, meditation
and yoga are all good things to kind of like
just bring the mind back to, you know, a level
set. So thank you for sharing those insights
with us. I love this conversation. I would love
to have you on again. Audience, thank you for
tuning in. We're going to wrap up now because
we're getting close to the hour. So stay curious,
stay successful. We'll see you next time on the
promo playbook. Thanks, everybody. Thanks for
tuning into the promo playbook. If you found
value in today's episode, be sure to subscribe
and leave us a review. Got a topic you'd love
us to cover? Connect with us on LinkedIn. We
want to hear from you. Until next time, stay
smart, stay strategic and keep growing your supplier's
success.