Haven’t blogged for a while. A new job is taking up quite a bit of time—yay!
One of my responsibilities there is a lot of fun. I’m the person who gets to spend the Marketing Development Funds (MDF) and co-op marketing money.
The way MDFs work is that if you sell a certain dollar amount of the vendor’s product, the vendor offers you marketing money to sell more product. The amount of money is based on your dollar sales. You have to spend it by a certain date, or the credit goes away.
Now I understand why there are so many branded tchotchkes out there. Oops! Your claim date is coming up and the boss’ll be irritated if you don’t act on it. So you order a couple thousand pens with the company logo on them just so you can say you spent the money. Bo-ring.
The perfect promotional item would be the one that delights the customer or prospect. It would make her or him say, “I didn’t realize how much I needed a radiation dosimeter. I’m going to wear this everywhere, with the logo facing out. I’m going to show it to my friends and colleagues and tell them what a great relationship I have with Katharine’s company.”
To evoke that enthusiasm, it better be a darned good gift. Spending MDF money right is obviously a challenge—one I’m looking forward to embracing.
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