Trevose, PA – May 16, 2005 – Advertising Specialty Institute® (ASI®) announced today that AlphaGraphics, Inc., Brown & Bigelow and iPROMOTEu are making new significant investments in ASI products and services, as integral components to support sales of promotional products.
AlphaGraphics, Inc. (asi/373000) and its 245 United States locations are leading providers of printing and digital publishing services. The new agreement with ASI provides opportunities for AlphaGraphics’franchise owners to become members of ASI and use its ESP® Online product marketing and research tool and LogoMall® Website design and hosting services to increase response times and overall satisfaction levels for its thousands of clients.
Fred Behle, director of purchasing and distribution for AlphaGraphics, Inc., said: “Many of our members have been approached by current customers who ask for imprinted promotional products. However, without the best tools, our members have found it difficult to reach suppliers and find the right products. By expanding our relationship with ASI, and by providing its market-leading tools, I expect our stores will realize increased sales, higher margins and improved operations.”
Brown & Bigelow (asi/148500) is one of the most well-established distributors in the industry. In business since 1896, it has built a solid reputation by manufacturing and distributing world-class calendars and by creating successful promotional campaigns through the use of advertising specialties. It remains one of the industry’s most respected and innovative firms. Brown & Bigelow’s 300 salespeople use the latest technology provided by ESP, ACE® (All Catalogs Electronically) and LogoMall from ASI to give them a competitive edge and to enable them to respond to customer requests quickly.
Bill Smith, Jr., executive vice president of Brown & Bigelow, noted that: “The enhancements to ESP in the past year have been phenomenal. Our sales team has truly embraced this technology and we’re looking forward to significant sales growth in the years ahead.”
iPROMOTEu (asi/232119), a service provider to more than 165 industry distributors throughout the country, has also expanded and strengthened its relationship with ASI. iPROMOTEu specializes in financing and processing orders for experienced distributors, thereby allowing the distributors to focus more of their time on selling. It is one of the industry’s fastest-growing organizations. iPROMOTEu will be hosting its first annual company-wide gathering of its distributor-affiliates during the upcoming ASI Show! in Philadelphia.
In support of ASI, Ross Silverstein, president and CEO of iPROMOTEu, remarked: “I think ASI is a wonderful organization that offers a variety of top-notch products and services. We are always happy to encourage our affiliates to take advantage of these products and services as a means to help them operate, grow and enhance their business.”
Increased use of ASI products by distributors means that ASI suppliers are enjoying both greater exposure and newfound sales opportunities with these large distributor firms and their sales forces.
Dan O’Halloran, vice president of distributor and Internet sales at ASI, observed: “ESP Online and LogoMall are proving to deliver positive returns on investment for all types of promotional products distributors. ASI projects that the advertising specialties marketplace will continue expanding, because these large organizations are selling more promotional products and are investing in proven ASI business tools. Therefore, sales are also increasing overall for both ASI distributor and ASI supplier members.”
For more information about how ASI can help reinvigorate or launch your sales efforts in the $16.9 billion promotional products business, contact Dan O’Halloran at ASI, at 800-546-1350 or at [email protected]. For more about ASI, visit www.asicentral.com.
About ASI
Advertising Specialty Institute is the largest media organization serving the promotional products industry, with a membership of 20,000 distributor firms (sellers) and supplier firms (manufacturers) of promotional products. Supplier firms use ASI print and electronic resources to market products to more than 17,000 ASI distributor firms. Distributor firms use ASI print and electronic resources, which contain more than 700,000 promotional products, to locate supplier firms and to market services to buyers. ASI provides catalogs, informational directories, newsletters, magazines, Websites and databases, and offers interactive e-commerce, marketing and selling tools.