Based on the published dated of 7-06 one could assume that we were overcome with an abundance of patriotism over the 4^th of July weekend. The MCM team including our dog Rufus even marched in the local parade and we watched our share of fireworks.

Patriotism is a good reason to buy promotional products made in the USA but if you read our 6-30 company newsletter you will see that a series of global economic events is making this move even more compelling.

When the current recession began in 2008 with companies around the globe reducing staff and cutting back on inventory. This immediately resulted in a ripple effect of longer lead times and a marked decrease in customer service. Pricing also became very aggressive and there were calendar year end bargains.  At the end of Q1 in 2010 the first signs of a recovery appeared. The strongest growth was reported in China. 

The Chinese growth has much to do with more and more internal growth as their economy is being driven by their own consumption as opposed to exports. Chinese wages are rising and this means their prices are also rising. The ripple effect here is that US goods are becoming more competitive. Toss in the added freight costs and longer lead times and promotional products that are made in the USA are becoming much more competitive. The Chinese government has also begun to let their currency float. 

Let us help you make the most competitive choice. Call us at 888-344-6060 or e-mail us at sales@mcmproductions.com

Arianna Huffington and Ashton Kutcher are considered two leading edge experts on Blogging and Tweeting. The Advertising Specialties Institute’s Advantages Magazine recently interviewed a number of people in the industry and our own Ken Block aka,”Kenny Blog”, spoke about search engine optimization and its role in blogging. 

Check out the article in Advantages Magazine. 

Behind the scenes, our web site uses a very new “Blog Powered” approach. Instead of pages with 20, 30 or 50 photos of products, we try to tell you a story about a single product in 250 words or less. Each of our pages is created for very a specific query, which helps the search engines get you exactly what you are searching for. Then we do our best to tell you about the product and how to attain the greatest impact with it. 

If you don’t see what you are looking for, drop us a note at sales@mcmproductions.com and we will get working on it immediately.

MCM Productions is a Promotional Products, Advertising Specialties distributor located  in Park City Utah UT.

 Our clients and suppliers are now located around the globe and with advances in information technology, it became self-evident that location is no longer a major decision factor. It is all about quality, creativity and service. MCM is still very active with our first clients from 1988 and new clients from around the globe are engaging with us on a regular basis through our web site.  

On our arrival to this mountain town we quickly became a part of the Park City community with new clients such as local marketing – communication firms, local schools, sports clubs, ski teams, event planners, resorts and the world renowned Sundance Film Festival. 

MCM has also become a key sponsor of the Park City Sailing Association and has been a mentor to teams in the Utah Entrepreneurial Challenge, including mentoring the winning team in 2009. We also launched our On-line Fundraising initiative with the Park City Youth Lacrosse Organization. It is spreading around the country at the pace of this high speed sport.

MCM is also a member of the Park City Chamber and the Park City Lodging Association.  

 Whether you are right here in Park City UT or are anywhere else on the globe, MCM’s founder, was named the Advertising Specialties Institute Person of the Year 2009, is ready to put the MCM team to work for you. Take a tour of our innovative “blog – powered” website and then give us a call at 888-344-6060 to learn more about our consultative approach to promotional products and advertising specialty items.

More news on inventory. Back on January 8^th we blogged about the shortages that we were experiencing, along with the cause and effect of them. With several months of more history we are ready to declare that this is more than a short term blip. 

There are many signs that tell us this phenomenon will be around for more than a few more months. The shortages are a piece of complex puzzle. Companies see inventory as cash that is tied up. In a down market companies shrink inventories to raise cash and to improve the financial calculation known as ROII (return on inventory investment). 

At the same time companies have trimmed their work forces to reduce operating expenses. There is always a decline in efficiency and customer service when the work force is reduced. 

When the entire supply chain is stressed by less raw materials on hand, less production workers, less manufacturing shifts, less employees to administer the process, the compounding result a challenge. 

Since we are all impacted as supply chain partners each of us must incorporate this into our planning process. Our expectations of what previously happened needs to be tempered. At MCM we have a good pulse on each supplier and we will do everything possible to help you keep your project on time and on budget. Call or e-mail us to discuss your next project and your timeline. We are here to help. 888-344-6060

Swag, schwag…, I had not really heard the term until I began working as a volunteer at the Sundance Film Festival in 2005. Even then I related it to the bags of bling that were given to the stars. Working behind the “ropes” I saw with my own eyes the thousands of dollars of expensive brand name products in swag bags, that were given away to help build brand recognition.

Fast forward to 2010 and we are meeting with a new client who is a member of Gen X. He jokingly referred to our founder as the “Swag Hag”. We got a good laugh but then realized that there is an entire generation that calls promotional products swag.

Call it what you like, swag, promotional products or giveaways, a strategically selected logoed product will yield a high rate of return. I won’t bore you with all of the studies, but if you want, e-mail me and I will send them along. You can also click on Industry Studies and view them on our web site.

Think back to the days when you went to a birthday party. You left with a bag of party favors. Today when you attend a fund raiser, a golf tournament or a corporate event, you will leave with your swag.

Whether you are building a new brand, enhancing an existing one or kicking off a new campaign, we will show you the right swag that will get the job done.

Give us a call at 888-344-6060 and ask for the “Swag Hag”. She will get a big laugh.

If you have been watching the snowboarding Olympic trials or you are just a fan of the sport, you have heard the slogan, “I Ride For Kevin”. The quick version: Kevin Pearce of Norwich Vermont was an Olympic hopeful in the half pipe. On 12-31-09 he suffered a serious head injury during one of the trials in Park City UT.

On Sunday night 1-3-2010 we received an e-mail from The PR agency that does work for Burton Snowboards, who is Kevin’s sponsor. Burton wants to help the snowboard community to show its support for Kevin who is now in critical condition at a Salt Lake hospital. The message, “Can anyone help design and deliver stickers that say, “I Ride for Kevin” to be in Mammoth Lakes CA by Thursday 1-7-2010 for the next round of the Olympic trails?”

That’s right, it’s Sunday night and the yet to be designed sticker need to be delivered in Mammoth on Thursday. Through the remarkable efforts of a brand manager at Burton, our favorite sticker supplier and a bunch of late night work; the now famous stickers arrived in time for the event.

It was one of those times when we all felt like we were part of something very special. The day before the stickers were to arrive, Kevin’s condition was upgraded from critical to serious. On Sunday 1-10-2010, we had just returned to the mountain where the accident occurred and we turned on the TV to watch the event at Mammoth, We were elated to see many fans and riders wearing their, “I Ride For Kevin” stickers.

Every one of those hours of hard work quickly became much more meaningful.

PS: As of Friday2-12-2010 the latest update on Kevin shows him making progress at the Craig Hospital in Denver where he was recently transferred to.

Chinese New Year brings images of dragons, parades and fireworks to most of us. The year of the Tiger 4708 celebrations begin on February 14^th through the 28^th. 

Since China has become a major source for promotional products it is important to recognize that most factories will be shut down from February 11^th through the 21^st. We have already factored this shut down into all of our orders that are already in house. It is key to understand how this will impact any new requirements that need to delivered in March and April. 

Chinese New Years is a remarkable time of the year as it becomes the largest human migration with workers traveling for days to visit their families. Let us take the time to appreciate this remarkable event and rest assured that MCM has done all the work to insure that your orders will arrived when you need them.

Inventory Shortages

For several months we have been writting about all of the great year-end bargains that we were seeing. That’s now history. If you study supply side economics and modern supply chain management you know that inventory levels are critical economic indicator.

During all 2009 most companies were cutting inventory levels to historic lows in terms of number of days  supply on hand. Then all excess product was sold at or below cost at the years end, hence all of the great bargains. Suddenly we experienced a marked increase in our business in December. Now with one week of January in the history books we are seeing stock outs of popular items and longer lead times.

For you,  this means a change in the environment. Plan on delivery of products taking several weeks longer and don’t expect the majority of your needs to be shipping right off the shelf. Think longer range planning! Of course this varies by each item. Give us a call at 888-344-6060 and we can fill you in.

In the past month we have taken 2 long road trips. Thanksgiving’s trip was 1000 miles to the Northwest to Orcas Is WA and Christmas was 450 miles to the Southeast to Crested Butte CO. We traversed mountains, deserts, endless miles of potato fields, vineyards, small towns and big cities.

What always strikes us are the incredible diverse lifestyles, habitats, culture and customs. While getting out of the office one can truly appreciate the incredible diversity that our country and its people have.

When we were not listening to out indispensable satellite radio we talked about how important it is to understand and appreciate this bandwidth and not categorically place everyone into age groups or income brackets when designing a marketing or communications campaign.

Its trips like this that makes it much more clear that a cork screw is probably not the perfect universal medium. When your audience is this broad it becomes more important to think about what binds us. The essential elements of food, clothing and shelter are about as close to target as one can get. Food nourishes, clothing warms us and shelter protects us. These are things that are universally appreciated.

As you start your 2010 plans let us show you how these product families can be put to work to help you send strong, meaningful and lasting messages. Take a look below at a few of our favorites. Call us at 888-344-6060

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I just found myself on the phone with a friend explaining Blogging(spell check doesn’t recognize the word), social media, Twitter…. It made me think that I have friends on FaceBook ranging from age 13 to 94. That’s an enormous amount experiential bandwidth.

Several weeks ago a Gen Y dinner guest told me that an SEO strategy that I was considering was, “So 2004!”. There went any illusion that I was keeping current with all of the changes in marketing strategy.

MCM’s web strategy is in transition. Our 12 year old web site MCMproduction.com  is being phased out and is being replaced with http://www.mcmproductions.com/. The new site is currently a Blog with weekly posts that speak to a variety of topics from the most innovative promotional products, how to maximize the value of your promotion to our company’s own journey on lessening our impact on the environment.

 The Blog is organized into categories that will continually expand. As of today they include.

 About Us – Apparel – Automotive – Awards & Recognition – Bags – Buttons and Badges – Calendars – Clocks & Watches – Desk & Office Accessories – Drinkware – Food & Gifts – Fundraising –Games & Toys – Golf – Green – Headwear – Holidays – Housewares – Incentives – Magnets – Marketing and Social Media – Outdoor – Personal –  Sports – Stationary – Technology – Travel

 When you land on the MCM Blog you will see the most recent posts or you can scroll down the left hand side and see the Categories listed under Topics and Products Discussed. From there you can easily navigate to the posts.

 Stay tuned and we will explain the “Cloud Tags” and other features in our next post.

 Here’s a hint on why we all need to learn this. In the next few years, there will be more Gen X and Gen Y population than Baby Boomers. They are our future and we need to speak their language and relate to their needs and communication methods. It’s our future.