The promotional products industry has put a priority on high quality, reusable products. And for good reason; sustainability is more than a buzzword.

Consumers want products that will not contribute to growing environmental concerns amid climate change. No one in promo wants to be associated with “brandfill,” and so providing clients with products that end users will continue to take advantage of not only increases brand value, but also limits wastefulness.

The Brandfill Problem

A problem this size and scope, however, requires more than one solution. The nature of promotional products means that, occasionally, certain end users will receive products they don’t need. Perhaps someone receives a product that they already own. Perhaps a client orders more of a product than they need. Do promo companies have to look at these individual cases as acceptable collateral?

Furthermore, offering sustainable products does not dictate what a client wants.

“At the end of the day, product costs will drive demand,” says Leo Friedman, CEO and founder of iPromo (PPAI 565294, D2). “While we would want for our clients to purchase recycled or sustainable products, it is not always feasible.”

A Sustainable Solution?

If the mission is to simply not accept that some promotional products will be wasted, then it’s possible that iPromo has introduced a solution. Through the company’s EcoCloud service, the Chicago-based distributor will arrange for products that are unused or unclaimed at events or company giveaways to be picked up, and those products will either be reused for another brand initiative, recycled or donated to charity. In fact, the client will determine which of those three options will serve as the product’s second life.

“The idea has been in the concept stage since early on this year,” Friedman says. “We tested it out directly to clients in the past three months, and then based on positive feedback and an overarching need for this type of solution, we developed a streamlined process to make it as seamless as possible.”

The process proving to indeed be “streamlined and seamless” will surely be a deciding factor in the success of EcoCloud and whether it can be a replicable initiative for other promo distributors. Just as important is whether it is logistically and financially sustainable for iPromo and any distributor looking to do anything similar.

Making Business Sense

Friedman is the first to admit that the EcoCloud model involves costs for iPromo. It takes a financial investment and time commitment from both a logistical and planning standpoint as well as the process of restocking, coordinating and storing products that will be reused.

“But we are willing to take on majority of costs in order to help make this a sustainable initiative,” says Friedman, who has been vocal about educating clients on sustainability in the past.  

Looking at how this might be replicable, or even sustainable for iPromo, might mean examining the way in which it becomes available to clients. The easy-to-use service is included with a subscription to SwagCloud, iPromo’s newly launched portal for tracking products and shipping them to iPromo warehouses anywhere, among other features. SwagCloud markets itself as “the best cloud-based swag management platform.” It’s meant to streamline the process for clients to work with iPromo, and it deals with storage, inventory, tracking and distribution in a simplified way.

SwagCloud is not entirely unique to the promo industry; many distributors are implementing technology to increase user ease and processes for both themselves and their clients. But a necessary point of emphasis is that iPromo believes in its portal. One of the tricks for a company implementing something like SwagCloud is not necessarily creating something great but getting clients to subscribe to that thing so they can see how great it is.

The sustainability service is built to make a process easier. It is an incentive that could lure clients into SwagCloud, and if effective, would potentially be worth any additional costs.

When processes are simplified for clients, a lot becomes possible, and sustainable efforts can increase. Lowering the barrier for those efforts can bring in clients. iPromos hope these goals, and the strength of their portal, will keep them coming back.

“We would love for everyone [in the industry] to replicate it for the sake of the planet,” Friedman says.