HOW WE BEGAN
In 1983, Sales Marketing Group (SMG) entered in to the world of promotional product distribution. For the first 14 years, our main focus was providing tiered marketing programs to the automotive industry to increase after market sales through successful brand awareness and award campaigns. It was during these years we learned the importance of branding through promotional products and gained the experience necessary to market ourselves as a leading distributor within our industry.
In 1997, SMG was awarded the exclusive licensing and fulfillment rights for QS-9000, a worldwide automotive industry standard, by AIAG (Automotive Industry Action Group) and the QS-9000 Task Force consisting of Chrysler, General Motors and Ford. This program involved every aspect of brand identity and complete merchandise fulfillment including product selection, procurement, approvals, quality inspections, catalog development, warehousing, inventory control, reporting, shipping worldwide and completing any task necessary or requested to ensure client satisfaction. This is where we honed our customer service skills and, in doing so, maintained a 98% "excellent" rating status, monitored and scored by AIAG.
In today's world, program fulfillment is much more simplified thanks to everchanging technology but the basics learned prior to is what makes ALL of us at SMG confident in our customer service and industry knowledge. There is nothing we can't do for you!
THE POWER OF PROMOTIONAL ITEMS
Why do we believe in promoting with branded merchandise? It is how we have come to service some of the top healthcare and service professionals in the country. Our entrance in to the healthcare industry began with a bottle of water co-branded with one of our clients. A local healthcare facility received one of the bottles at our client's event and gave us a call. Since that time, we have grown our client base of healthcare and service industries through referrals and our "What Can't We Do" philosophy. We now provide our services to hundreds of healthcare and service companies throughout the United States offering complete program fulfillment and catalog/web fulfillment.
Now, we know it isn't the bottle of water that has caused such growth...the growth comes from our customer service and product offerings...BUT, we wouldn't have been given the opportunity to prove our capabilities without that branded bottle of water!
THE IMPOSSIBLE? NOT TO US!
ROCK CLIMBING FOR A PROMOTIONAL PRODUCT? When we say "What Can't We Do?" we mean it! Our client's request was for a boulder that would allow for a bronze plate to be mounted to commemorate a tree-planting ceremony. After two days of visiting several rock quarries and climbing top to bottom, we found the perfect boulder for the mounting of the bronze plaque. The finished product was delivered (with heavy equipment) and the ceremony was a huge success! The boulder will forever have a home in front of the school.
CHASING DOWN THE COURIER - On more than one occasion, we have chased down our couriers on their final routes to get last minute (rush) fulfillment orders our the door to arrive to their destination the next day. We have made personal overnight deliveries to meet client deadlines and have even driven products directly to our client's event and helped with distribution of items and the event itself! Needless to say, we stop at nothing to meet our client requests whenever and wherever possible!
YOU WANT A WHAT? Another interesting challenge was the request for a manhole cover to be placed on the customer's property - totally custom and to spec. After several trips to the steel foundary, the perfect manhole was delivered and installed to a completely satisfied customer!
IT DOESN'T EXIST - Our reaction to "it doesn't exist" is to then create it. We have taken ideas from the drawing board, to prototype to a viable product for our client's to hand out or display. The relationships and resources we have gained in our 30 years of business allows us the opportunity to help our clients brand their image with unique and innovative products. If you have an idea for your corporate branding, just give us a call...we welcome and embrace the challenge of creating unique marketing campaigns.
Got a challenging request? Call 888-746-3003 or email us at info@smgusa.net.