POSITION: Owner
COMPANY: Instant Recall Promotions
WHAT THEY DO: Sell promotional advertising
REVENUE: $289,000
NEXT GOAL: Establish regular influx of business and decide on a growth strategy
Jenny Gray started 2010 with a change.
Gray, the owner of a media marketing company, purchased Buddy’s Promotional Advertising in January because of her interest in a sector of the industry that could prove to be more recession-proof than her other business.
That’s because clients who want to keep their name in the forefront but are reluctant to shell out for costly television and radio airtime, which might or might not yield results, tend to be more open to promotional advertising.
“I was definitely getting outside of my comfort zone there because I had been doing the marketing strategy and media buy
ing for such a long time,” she says. “But you have to be willing to roll with the trends.”
The benefits of promotional advertising form a constant theme for Gray, who has begun to rebuild a once-marginalized company and return it to the levels of success it experienced under its founder, Buddy Vernon, in the 1970s.
By renaming the company Instant Recall Promotions, Gray hopes to communicate to clients that products such as a pen or travel coffee mug emblazoned with a company’s logo have a higher return on investment than traditional media sources because they serve as tangible reminders for customers’ daily lives.
Gray has reason to believe in the strategy. She experienced the impact that the economic downturn had on her independent media consulting business, losing two major clients and watching as others trimmed their budgets.
“I was seeing more relationship-building and one-on-one sales as opposed to the shotgun approach of just blasting out your sales message to the public and hoping that a percentage of them will decide to purchase from you,” she says.
Re-establishing relationships that initially fostered success and investing in the technology to make the service relevant are key to turning around a flagging business.
For Gray, that means leaving mail-order catalogs behind, committing to search engines, networking with potential clients, building a case for promotional advertising over traditional media and then delivering on that promise.
“The nice thing about taking over a business that has been established for a long time is that the trust factor is hopefully still there,” Gray says. “Even though the name has changed, it’s still the same company with the same values and foundation.”
