How ‘Quiet Luxury’ & Sustainability is Changing the Face of Promotional Products| Theresa Hegel

Every episode of The Small Business Show seeks to amplify the voice of small businesses and showcase the stellar accomplishments within this niche. This particular episode places the spotlight on our guest B. Theresa Hegel, the mastermind behind the sustainable "Promo for the Planet" initiative at ASI Media.

Functioning in the capacity of the executive director for digital content at ASI Media, Theresa is recognized for her significant contributions to the fields of apparel, digital technology, and business operations management. She juxtaposes a keen understanding of strategic planning with a rich journalistic background, adorning her professional accolades with a Jesse H. Neil award for her standout editorial endeavors for Wearable magazine.

Contact for Theresa Hegel

thegel@asicentral.com
asicentral.com/promofortheplanet
Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheresaHegel

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Transcript

0:15

Running and growing a small business. The small business show is the official podcast of Garuda promo and branding solutions. Hello everyone. You're listening to the small business show. My name is Swayer Ho. You can call me the promo guy. Today. My guest is B Theresa. Hegel advertising specialty institute ASI media. Theresa is the executive director director for the digital content at ASI media and where she assumed responsibility for oversighting the promo for the planet sustainable initiative. She is an accomplished award winning journalist with her most recent accomplishments at the prestigious Jesse H. Neil award for work in the fashion issues of the Wearable magazine. With her role, Theresa covers strategy at ASI media prioritizing the realms of apparel, digital technology and business operation and management. Her impressive writing and reporting skills have granted her multiple regional and national honors. It's an honor to have you to be here on the show today, Teresa. Yeah, it's great to be here. I wanted to find out Theresa, with your role at ASI, you deal with so many different topics. What do you enjoy most about your work? Are you a curious person to find out why people are doing such a thing and to stay on top of the trend? Being a reporter, it lets you be nosy without that being a bad thing. Right? Because you have to be curious and ask people questions. But I like knowing that what we're doing at ASI is helping people in the industry sell better and just kind of be on top of what's going on. So yeah, I think for me it's just interesting to know what the trends are and just write about that and help other know be better at what they do. Thank you. This episode started when Teresa shared one of the article on ASI media on LinkedIn on the topic of quiet luxury. Quiet luxury if you are a fan of succession with the popular experience series is made famous by chef Roy where she will wear garments that are no logo. There is not fancy but if you really look it up it costs like a lot of money to do so. Quite luxury actually coming to the promo world where we are used to people having big logo with other companies on it. Can you tell us more about that and how did that make it into the promotional product world with promo? Yeah, like you said, you would think that quiet luxury in the promo world would be kind of an oxymoron right? Because we want logos on things so that people know the company. But I think how it works in the promo world is more of the idea of looking for classic pieces of apparel and classic accessories that are not just going to be like the latest trend that's popular for a day and then not popular anymore. So it could be things like leather purse that's just well made and maybe it's the same style that it's been for decades. But it's something that people would be able to use for a long time. Or a sweatshirt that's made of a higher end material that is in these classic kind of earth tone colors. And people know that you would wear it for a long time because it's going to last for a long time. So it's the idea of these higher end kind of retail inspired pieces that are going to have staying power because they're well made and because they're in those classic lines and classic silhouettes that don't go out of style, but as a brand. Normally when I interact with client right, so let's assume that they're trying to do apparel because we are paying for it. We want our logo as big as possible. For example, on T shirts, I think our maximum width is like 13 inches. They always go for the maximum. So you're saying with the trend right now, people actually don't want to see and wear a logo that big. They would rather assume that something that relevant to them is good quality or maybe really the logo is subtle, maybe on the sleeves or maybe on a certain proportion on the apparel. Yeah, I think so. And I don't think we have to get rid of the logos. But something to think about is that we always talk about, oh, you're a walking billboard. A lot of people don't want to feel like that. However, you also have to think about if you're a brand giving branded clothing to whoever, like your customers, your employees, or whoever it is, it's not just when they're wearing it, it's when they're sharing it on social media. Right? So even if it has a very subtle Tonal logo on the sleeve, or even if it's just like a hem tag or something like that, yes, that's not going to be seen if you're walking around town. But maybe they'll be so excited that they got this really cool t shirt that has the subtle branding. Maybe they'll share that on social media. Maybe they'll post the unboxing. Or maybe they'll do a close up of that little hem tag because it looks so cool. You know what I mean? It's not just the people wearing it out and about. It's that whole experience. How does this garment make me feel? Is it something I'm happy to wear? Is it something I want to share with my friends? Does it have that kind of cool factor that someone's going to look at it like, oh, that's a really cool jacket that you have. I'm like, oh, actually my company gave it to me. Do you know what mean? Like, I feel like you want something that's going to be a conversation starter. Whereas like a T shirt that just has a giant logo on it, the conversation's already done, right? Like we know, okay, you got that shirt from Nike or you got that shirt from your like we don't need to ask any more about it. But if it's something that's fashionable, something that's high end and looks really cool and know, maybe that will spark a conversation and maybe that'll get people talking about your brand without you having to shout about it. Yeah, I really like that example and that would depending on the brand more on really, truly how well do they know about their target audience? Let me give you two examples. I think my favorite of all time is the Jack in the box antenna ball. I don't think that they make that anymore, but it used to be a time that everybody will have it and obviously you get them a Jack in the box so normally it helped them increase sales and then they share kind of mascot the head everywhere. So that's a good storytelling. Like Theresa is telling to them and going back to recent time if you ever have a friend or in my case my daughter is a K Pop fan they will go out of their way to buy the lighting. Stick. They call it to go to concert that sticks cost like a when you see a K Pop concert recently they did a K Pop concert in Chicago. Right in downtown Chicago. All the fans has to stick. Imagine what type of branding value it brings up, what kind of conversation. When you see someone holding up the same item that are associated with that event, I don't think there's a logo on it. But if you're holding that item or if you're holding that piece on maybe a trade show or maybe on a networking event, people know what it is, and you don't have to scream your logo in order to get that message across. Yeah, it makes you part of the club too, right. You see that, you instantly know, oh, you like the same thing that I like. Yeah, I think that's the thing that's important, but it takes a little bit. Is that the reason why people I don't want to call them lazy. Like people want to just ask a distributor like myself what's the most popular and they just buy it and get it done with. Yeah, I don't think it's because they're lazy, I think it's because it's easier and it's finding that kind of secret sauce that is going to get everybody talking. That takes a lot of effort that people don't necessarily have the time to do. So yeah, if you can just kind of be like, oh yeah, what's the newest coolest thing? We'll just give that out. I think it's just hard to be the person who try something new or kind of like this is the way we've always done it. Well, we don't always have to do it that way. So I think it's just kind of breaking that cycle of thinking, well, this is how it's done, this is how we've always done it. I don't want to rock the boat. I don't want to try something new. Yeah, I think it's just because that seems like it's the easiest way. We always talk about how distributors have to kind of educate their clients on things. So maybe it's not about blaming the clients for asking for whatever the latest trend is. Maybe it's on you guys to be showing them what they should be doing, right? Like educating them on why okay, yeah, this might be trendy, but this is what you should actually do. Oh, thank you for the pressure, Teresa. What I wanted to do because really it's not what you are giving. People always talk about the experience and if you go out and you see that when you go to event, there are more type of experience type booth available, right. You play a game or you interact with certain things, they will give you a product at the end. But you have to do a certain things or maybe you have to participate in certain things that could potentially help the branding or marketing for the company behind. In order for if I just walk by, you give me something and I get something, right? But if I had to work for it or if I have to do certain things, that kind of makes it more unique and kind of makes me want to hang on to that product. And I think to answer your question, in marketing, you don't really want to do what everyone else is doing. We all know that when it comes to marketing, branding, we always want to see what is something that has not been done before that we can try. So maybe have that same mindset when choosing a product that carries your company's name. Yeah, and I like what you said about having that experience added to the promo because you're right, if somebody just hands you something, it's like, oh yeah, that's nice, I like that. But if it was part of an experience where you're helping to design it or you have to spin a wheel or you have to do this or whatever, now you're creating a memory that has a tangible thing attached to it. So I think you're more likely to remember the experience, remember the brand, appreciate it and keep it. Customers. Sometimes I ask you, I only have a certain amount of dollar, what can I do? My favorite approach will be a lot of people have their social media following. So let's assume that you have $500, right? You don't have to buy 500 pens worth of pen. So what you can do, you can actually buy one very nice gift and then do a sweepstakes on your social media. And if you're smart, you want to create the call to action, visit your website, sign up for a newsletter or give you a call, whatever that you want to do. And only one person will win the gift. But you could tell people to follow their friends send a message out. I can't tell you how many times I give up my email and my contact information just to win something. That's $10, right? Yeah. Because of social media and the internet, the reach can be so much bigger than just like the one item. So tying the digital and the physical together is such a powerful experience. For sure. I think this is something that a lot of brands don't think about because they spend a lot of time, for example, building their Facebook group or maybe they have a lot of Instagram following people. At some point you want to feel something tangible, even if you think that you are a digital brand. When you talk about brand ambassador, when you talk about walking billboard, people actually do trying to get something tangible to show off that I'm supporting a brand. And if you're smart and recognize the opportunity, that's something that you can actually create for your fans as well. For sure. I agree 100%. Let's talk about sustainable product. Theresa, I know this is something that you are passionate about with your work at ASI Media. It seems to be a more popular topic. Right? People start requesting for recycled material sustainable. They care more about where's the origin for the product. Can you touch on that? And how do you see as an industry we're heading? Yeah, so it's been about a little over a year now. We started a page called Promo for the Planet. So it's asicentral.com promo for the planet. And that's kind of a spot where we have educational resources about sustainability, but also we're sort of monitoring what's happening in the promo industry as far as what kind of new eco friendly products are there, what kind of certifications are companies getting? A lot of them are becoming like B Corps or they're getting their company rated by EcoVadis to show that they're not just like throwing a green leaf on something and saying like, look, we're green, but they're actually trying to be a little bit more transparent and actually measuring what they're doing. How are we lowering our impact, how are we changing things? So it seems like it kind of started right around the pandemic that this shift to wanting more sustainable products and more accountability when it comes to sustainability. It's definitely been in the last couple of years that this has become a huge thing. And I actually think the quiet luxury kind of ties into that too. Because you hear all the time that idea of brand fill where it's cheap promotional products that end up in a landfill because it's something that nobody wanted, nobody needed, nobody asked for. Whereas if you are being thoughtful about what you're giving people, if you're giving them something that is well made, something that is useful, something that really fits with your brand and fits with what the recipient would want, maybe it is a higher quality thing. Maybe it is like a luxury, more luxury or perceived luxury item that's something that's going to be kept. So something that is kept and used is always going to be more sustainable than something that is supposedly green but gets thrown away right away. You know what I mean? The high quality things that are kept for a long term that's also part of the whole sustainability piece. But yeah, it's definitely a trend. We're always seeing more and more companies in the industry sharing like a new sustainable product that they're doing or ways that they're reducing energy or reducing plastic in just their business environment. Asking on behalf of a brand who is thinking about sustainable option. It's sustainable, always mean more expensive or it doesn't always work that way, it. Doesn'T always have to. I mean, it can be more expensive to go with the sustainable route, but I think there's a lot of companies that are working to use, say, like, recycled polyester or recycled cotton sometimes too, for, like, T shirts and whatnot. And they're looking at ways to make it less expensive or maybe less expensive than it was, maybe not less expensive than the traditional method, but they're definitely bringing the costs down. But I mean like you said with the idea of the sweepstakes, there's no reason like your budget may be your budget, right? You can't necessarily change that but you could get fewer like a smaller quantity of sustainable goods and then you can tell that story to your client. Right? The benefit of it is more than just like that. It's a nice green sustainable product. You can also take this sustainable thing that you're sourcing and then you share that with your clients and that becomes part of the story that makes it more feel good and that's something that your end users are going to appreciate. Yeah. One question I always ask my client if they're thinking about brainstorming what item they should get for the event or they're trying to do know, I ask them what is your value, what does your brand stand for? Because for know, like Theresa is saying, if you say we help the environment, we wanted to be more sustainable then don't buy a lot of things that wrap in plastic and if we are sending out a gift box, don't wrap in another layer of plastic and then another plastic bag. So think about the entire packaging because in packaging, which is a lot of waste come from depending on what you're sending or depending on how you are presenting that physical item the packaging itself can be reduced or maybe repurposed sometimes. Yeah, like seed paper. I think it's a fun things that we have. Yeah, seed paper is great. I've also talked to a lot of companies that will take maybe they do packaging, they do kitting and they'll take their leftover cardboard and shred it and that becomes like a fill for the boxes, the recycled shred fill as opposed to using foam or something that's not great for the environment. So there's lots of different options. It's like a honeycomb almost that can keep glasses safe as opposed to using packing peanuts or something made of like styrofoam. So you can certainly still package something and make it attractive and make it like have that whole unboxing experience. But you can also do that in a way that is more sustainable and has less waste and less yeah, I. Have talked to supplier of ours actually they went really deep to 3D design. Now technology is actually helping. They could 3D design a cardboard box to fit the actual product. It's actually fragile, it's glass and no styrofoam. Styrofoam never decompose. And cardboard, like you said, you could recycle it if everyone can recycle right? Or like you say, if you have those machines, you could shred it and it becomes really good production for other materials. Yeah, I think that there are a lot of options out there now that there weren't before because I think there is more demand for it. I think that's what a lot of the end users, that's what people want. So if you're a brand or isn't sure about doing this, I know that bigger brands, when they're asking for things, they're kind of demanding that distributors have these sustainability, meet these certain standards. So it's becoming like the normal thing that you just kind of have to do. So I feel like brands that aren't there yet, you might have to be there soon. So you might as well start getting the knowledge about what all this stuff means and how you can implement it for your own projects. Because you might not care about it or might not know about it, but your clients are probably going to want it and they might have to do it at some point. Yeah. As a small business though, I think this trend is actually helping me because I want to flip at the table. Right. Gone are the days that they want to find the cheapest stuff possible, don't really care where it comes from, just get me the cheapest product versus right now they want to say maybe they're supporting local women owned business. We have helped clients that they only want to buy from local women owned business that use sustainable material. So if there is actually filtered down by a competitor that is out of state, don't know the local environment. So if a small business will think of it this way, you can actually create a unique proposition to your client. I can source this type of product. Yes, it might cost a little bit more, but you could tell each ingredient or you could actually see the person who made it. Right. It's not just coming from a factory who do not follow any sustainable option. And then you are kind of guessing where it comes from, what kind of plastic it is. Why when I open it when I drink water it all tastes like plastic and there's a reason why it tastes like plastic. Yeah right. So it all goes back to telling those stories and having that transparency that people want to know where these things come from and they don't necessarily they don't want to have to do all the work for it themselves. Yeah they could go and figure out like oh where did you know what I mean? Like an end user could go and maybe find out all this information on their own but they don't have the time. But they want to get a product that's going to be good and make them feel good and they want to know what the story is behind it. So if you can tell them that story and give them that kind of feel good message and it is something that is good for the environment, I think that is going to help you stand apart from the competition. Yeah, I think this is definitely a trend. That's why I love to have you on the show Teresa because I think sustainable is here to stay and especially for all the bee companies that I'm seeing now in the permanent world they really go all out just to find a sustainable option. I think the classic example that in our industry that people know is Panagonia, right? They are like the number one premium jacket that corporate people like to do. And if you don't know the story I think about two years, two and a half years ago they walk out of the promo world, you can't do co brand with promotional product with Panagonia and now they're coming. You know, you probably know more than I do. Can you talk about more about why they do that and how our company responding to what the changes are? Patagonia I think what they didn't like was the idea of having one of their jackets with like an embroidered logo on it and then what if the person goes to a different job? And so then what are they going to do with this jacket that has their old company on? Were just I think Patagonia was concerned about things ending up in landfills or like in a thrift store and nobody wanting it. So they sort of stepped away from the promo business for a while. I think there were still some options here and there where you could do a removable hang tag on a zipper that had different branding on it but they're very selective of who they even want to be able to co brand with them. But the big news was that recently they did come back into the industry in somewhat of a limited way and I think they really don't want it like front and center. I think it's what like on the sleeve or something and a lot of times they want things that maybe things that could be covered up or removed if need be. They actually have a whole department, I can't remember what it's called, maybe rewear, where they look at ways because they'll resell their own patagonia thing. So they're looking at ways like how can we remove that branding? Can we add a new patch on top of an old logo that's not useful anymore? So they're really concerned with that circular economy and kind of closing the loop so nothing is going into a landfill that things are kind of reused for as long as they can be and that includes not having kind of obsolete branding on it. Pentagon really hit all the marks being right. Obviously they're very sustainable. They're one of the brands that I looked up to and they also created a fear of missing out type of marketing campaign. Not everyone can use a jacket, but if you are able to, then you are one in the million, right? So they're actually using the quiet luxury quite well. Not everyone can have it. If everyone can have a jacket, then it's not special. But if only the selective one that are chosen by a team that meet our standard, that's the important point, meet our standard, then it goes on, the logo goes on. So I think they're doing everything right in terms of brand. Yeah, it's definitely working for them. I know. I've heard from other people in our industry that kind of grumbled about like, oh, why can't they just let us use it if we want to? It doesn't always make them popular with people, but it's because it is such a coveted kind of item. Everybody sort of wants it, but not everybody can have it. And like you said, that is giving that fear of missing out. It is giving that quiet luxury kind of feel to it. Yeah, we're kind of funny. We're humans are funny. Like if you really want the things that you don't have, if you already have plenty of, especially if everyone is giving it to you, it's not special. So I think it goes back to the whole gifting concept. Right. You want it to be unique. You want to know that person or you know that when you receive an award you're the only one to have it, even it's a piece of paper sometime. Right. But then you really value because you know that you've won. So I think that's a similar concept. Yeah, you don't want just like the participation trophy that just because like, okay, yes, I showed up to all the soccer games so I get an award that's not special, but if it's something that is very targeted and meaningful, that's important. So Theresa, I want to ask you this question. So for a brand who really liked enjoy our conversation and do you wanted to search for more sustainable options that are available? Are there good ways I could find out and learn more about the different terminology? Because I've been to the ASI Pro for the planet. You have a really good section for explaining all the terminology. Can you talk about that and how can people find out more about that? You know, our initiative is mostly geared towards the industry itself, but I think that that main page is sort of open to anybody who wants to look for it. But it's asicentral.com promo for the planet. And on there we have a glossary that includes definitions for things like circular economy and greenhouse gases, just like any kind of words that you may have heard related to sustainability but don't necessarily know exactly what they mean. You can just sort of go on there and be like, okay, that's what that means. Just to help kind of gel it in your mind. We also have a list of a bunch of different certifications that are out there because a lot of companies will be like, oh yeah, we're B Corp certified or we're this or we're that. And it's like, well, it all sounds really good, but what does that actually mean? It's nice to have kind of a listing and be like, okay, so that's that. And it also will help you sort of figure out what is important to you as a brand, right? Sometimes you have to pick and choose a little bit, right. You can't always support every single sustainable or every single thing that you want to. So maybe for your brand, it's really important that you're sourcing things that were made with Fair Labor so you can find more about different fair labor associations that are out there and kind of align yourself with companies that are doing products that are made with fair labor. Or maybe it's really important to you that it's carbon neutral or maybe, like you said, maybe it's like they want something that is from a small business that's women owned and doing things that are made in the USA. So it's important to kind of know what all those certifications are and what they mean and what they don't mean so that you can be sure to align yourself with what is important to you and your brand. Yeah, I think there's a lot of terminology, there's tons of acronym that I really like that we don't know about. So I think that is a place to start. So how about for people who are in the promo industry, what would be a good way to connect with you to learn more about your work? Teresa so you can reach me on just about any social media site. I'm on LinkedIn, obviously, under my name. I'm on Twitter, which is now X, I guess, but I'm there, I think, just under my name. I'm on Instagram, I'm on TikTok, and you can just email me also at thegel@asicral.com especially for people in the industry that have maybe questions about sustainability or maybe your company is doing something new that's related to sustainability, I definitely want to hear about it. Because I'm always trying to write stories like case studies of things that are working or answer people's questions, explain some of these new things that you might not understand yet. So I definitely want to hear from people and just kind of get their input. That definitely helps me. It makes my job easier. Thank you so much for coming on to the show, Teresa. I've been waiting for this episode, and thank you for sharing all the wonderful trends. Yeah, this was great. I appreciate it. Have a great day. Take care. Thank you for listening to the show. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe to the podcast and share with your friends or colleagues who might benefit from the conversation. Any questions or feedback, feel free to reach out to me on LinkedIn. I'd love to connect with you.

Our show is live streamed both on YouTube and LinkedIn every Tuesday at 10: 29:18

00 P.m. Pacific Standard Time. I'll see you next time you.