A few years ago while still in New Zealand, I was preparing for the launch of a new headphones brand and I needed to buy some promotional items to use as give-away goodies. It didn't really go like I wanted, in fact it was quite a disaster, so I'd like to tell you the story, so that you don't repeat the same mistake, and also just to entertain you.
Photo from the Big Boys Toys website
We were going to launch the new brand at a gadget/entertainment trade show ("Big Boys Toys", the name says it all), so I needed some branded goods to give away during the show and create some publicity. We chose to buy Tee-shirts and lanyards. So far, not much risk and nothing overly complicated.
I could have ordered from local suppliers in Auckland, but since we had an office in China it made sense to get them to source the goods directly, to get a much better price. I got good advice from my husband (also my boss at the time) to be really precise when telling our Chinese colleagues what products I was after. In fact I went to a shop in Auckland and chose a couple of tee-shirts which had a great cut, and shipped them to China. The idea was that they would replicate the exact cut of the tee-shirts to make sure they were nice, and at the right dimensions (I shipped 3 different sizes). Unfortunately for some reason the package never arrived, even if it was sent by DHL, and since the show was starting fairly soon we had to make do without giving them models to copy.
No problem they assured me, we'll get a nice cut and take European sizes. Being me, always positive and trusting, I didn't think much of it and went along with the new plan. We ordered quite a few boxes of tee-shirts and waited for the delivery.
A few weeks later, the boxes arrived in Auckland, and the first bad news was the huge Duties fee we had to pay. We usually imported headphones or components from China and for some reasons clothes get taxed much more, and we didn't know. Bummer.
But the worse part was yet to come. The tee-shirts had been printed with the brand logo, exactly as I had designed them, so I was quite pleased with the result, but unfortunately the sizes were completely wrong! Everything was way too big. No way they took standard European sizes.
We ordered new tee-shirts, but needless to say they didn't arrive in time for the show, so we used the large ones anyway. The only positive side of the story was that Islanders and Maoris, who can be really big, were very excited to fit a Medium size!
I mentioned that I also wanted to order branded lanyards, to use as key rings. I told my colleagues what I wanted, a lanyard with the logo printed on it, but with a ring at the end to hook keys on, not a clip for holding badges. From there came the confusion, and my colleagues made lanyards that were approximately 15cm long.. Maybe long enough to go around your wrist, but for sure too short to go around your neck.
So that was it, needless to say that I got called in the CEO's office (still my husband, but not so loving that time) and got told off properly. Lesson learned.
So what do you learn from this? Check, check and check again that you got understood and that your goods will be like you want them to be!
Photo from the Big Boys Toys website
We were going to launch the new brand at a gadget/entertainment trade show ("Big Boys Toys", the name says it all), so I needed some branded goods to give away during the show and create some publicity. We chose to buy Tee-shirts and lanyards. So far, not much risk and nothing overly complicated.
I could have ordered from local suppliers in Auckland, but since we had an office in China it made sense to get them to source the goods directly, to get a much better price. I got good advice from my husband (also my boss at the time) to be really precise when telling our Chinese colleagues what products I was after. In fact I went to a shop in Auckland and chose a couple of tee-shirts which had a great cut, and shipped them to China. The idea was that they would replicate the exact cut of the tee-shirts to make sure they were nice, and at the right dimensions (I shipped 3 different sizes). Unfortunately for some reason the package never arrived, even if it was sent by DHL, and since the show was starting fairly soon we had to make do without giving them models to copy.
No problem they assured me, we'll get a nice cut and take European sizes. Being me, always positive and trusting, I didn't think much of it and went along with the new plan. We ordered quite a few boxes of tee-shirts and waited for the delivery.
A few weeks later, the boxes arrived in Auckland, and the first bad news was the huge Duties fee we had to pay. We usually imported headphones or components from China and for some reasons clothes get taxed much more, and we didn't know. Bummer.
But the worse part was yet to come. The tee-shirts had been printed with the brand logo, exactly as I had designed them, so I was quite pleased with the result, but unfortunately the sizes were completely wrong! Everything was way too big. No way they took standard European sizes.
We ordered new tee-shirts, but needless to say they didn't arrive in time for the show, so we used the large ones anyway. The only positive side of the story was that Islanders and Maoris, who can be really big, were very excited to fit a Medium size!
I mentioned that I also wanted to order branded lanyards, to use as key rings. I told my colleagues what I wanted, a lanyard with the logo printed on it, but with a ring at the end to hook keys on, not a clip for holding badges. From there came the confusion, and my colleagues made lanyards that were approximately 15cm long.. Maybe long enough to go around your wrist, but for sure too short to go around your neck.
So that was it, needless to say that I got called in the CEO's office (still my husband, but not so loving that time) and got told off properly. Lesson learned.
So what do you learn from this? Check, check and check again that you got understood and that your goods will be like you want them to be!
