brand protection – Product Safety Expert

When you consult with your customers about their promotions or inquire of your suppliers about their products, do you ask questions about product safety and compliance? For your customer – Who will the products be given to? Where will they be distributed? For your supplier – What third-party tests have been performed for these products? If you’re not asking basic questions like these, you’re missing valuable opportunities to distinguish yourself from your competitors. More importantly, you could be putting your customers, your distributorship, your suppliers and even the industry at risk. Yet, putting yourself in a position where you are confident enough to ask the right questions that will protect everyone in the supply chain is a cinch for promotional products professionals. Here’s a list of ten guidelines that that every responsible member of the industry should master.

Learn the basic product safety laws and regulations that affect the promotional products industry. The main one is CPSIA, an acronym for the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act. It’s the federal law that regulates children’s products and toys. If one of your clients has a promotion that involves young children, you must understand how CPSIA applies and what you must verify with your supplier to ensure compliance. There are other federal laws to consider as well, such as those that apply to industry products that come into contact with food, like water bottles, tumblers, coolers and lunch bags. Together with hand sanitizer, sunglasses, and first aid kits, these promotional items are governed by U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulations. Certain states have regulations as well, such as California’s Proposition 65 and Illinois’ lead law. There are industry resources to help you learn these basics – educational sessions at industry events and webinars through trade associations to name a few. You don’t need to know all the technicalities of these laws but you do need to know enough to ask the right questions so you can make informed decisions. A few hours of product safety training is a great start.

Know your products. If you’re a supplier, you should know everything you can about each product in your line. Importers and manufacturers should have technical drawings, a bill of materials (BOM) and performance requirements for each of their products. These documents comprise the basis of quality control and compliance testing. Suppliers should perform risk analyses and use and abuse testing when evaluating new products. Are the products suitable for children? What ages? Distributors should ask related questions when selecting products from suppliers. Has the product been tested by a third-party lab? Which tests have been conducted? Does it comply with each state’s safety laws? What age is it designed for? Is it a child’s toy? The more we know about the products we sell the better job we do to protect our clients.

Know your suppliers. How much do you really know about each of your suppliers? You can learn a lot from a catalog and website but marketing materials don’t tell you the extent of what goes on behind the scenes. Does the supplier have a knowledgeable head of compliance? How does the supplier evaluate new products and vet its factories? What third-party tests does the supplier commission, how often and for which products? Does the supplier have an XRF instrument to test products in-house? What about ink testing? Are some or all of the supplier’s products compliant as children’s products? What is the supplier’s policy on Prop 65 compliance? How will you be indemnified? These are only examples of the kinds of questions you should be asking each of your suppliers in addition to visiting their headquarters and seeing their operations first hand.

Know your clients. Each of your clients is unique. Learn about their differences so you can meet their specific requirements and expectations. Some companies have testing requirements that exceed applicable regulations. Others have written social accountability policies for any factory producing a product with their logo. Companies differ in risk tolerance and rely on you to guide them. Case in point: Federal law permits general use products to be sold for use by young children even if the products are not tested, not certified, and even if they contain more lead than allowed for children’s products. But how would your client feel about handing out a product to children that doesn’t meet children’s product standards? The more you know about each client’s policies and expectations, the better job you can do to meet their individual needs.

Know the intended audience. When you speak to a client about a promotion, always ask about the target audience – who the products are intended for – and the U.S. states where the products will be distributed. If the target audience includes children, this should influence your product selection. Children’s products and toys must meet stringent lead and phthalate requirements, be certified by a third-party lab and carry permanent tracking labels. Certain U.S. states have additional requirements. Illinois, for example, has a lead law that exceeds the federal standard. A best practice for distributors is to highlight on purchase orders to suppliers whether the products are for children and where the products will be distributed. This will help your supplier verify that your products will be compliant with all applicable regulations.

Know the risks. Risk is inherent in all that we do whether we are trying a restaurant for the first time, taking advantage of a bargain price, or selecting products blindly from a catalog. In the promotional products industry, there are product safety risks (will the product hurt anyone), regulatory compliance risks (does the product comply with applicable laws and safety standards), and social accountability risks (could the manufacturing of the product embarrass your client), among others. No matter what you do, no matter how careful you are, no one can eliminate risk entirely. Even the most prestigious brands have product failures, recalls and production gaffes. But you can mitigate risk to a great degree by being aware of risks and making appropriate product and supplier decisions. Your clients put their most valuable asset in your care—their name and logo—when they entrust you to select the products that will bear that name. Treat this responsibility with the care and diligence it deserves. Brand protection is one of your most sacred responsibilities.

Educate the team. For most distributors and suppliers, servicing major customers requires a well-organized team effort. Unless everyone on the team is on the same page, it isn’t likely that you will deliver consistent service, let alone excel. The same principal applies to product safety and compliance. The quality of your safety and compliance initiatives will only be as strong as the weakest link. Take the time to educate everyone on your team in the basics of responsible sourcing.

Stay current. Even though the Consumer Products Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA) became effective in August 2008, many of its provisions were phased in gradually and some became progressively more stringent. At first, third party testing was not required and later it became mandatory. Originally 600 parts per million (ppm) was the maximum lead allowed in children’s products, then 300 ppm and now 100 ppm. In addition to phase in rules, the U.S. Consumer Products Safety Commission (CPSC) continually develops new rules that either modify existing regulations or introduce new ones altogether. For example, CPSC is currently developing a rulemaking to establish a new federal standard for small, powerful magnet sets which have been sold in the promotional industry as puzzles, sculptures and stress relievers. To help stay current about CPSC changes, go to http://www.cpsc.gov and sign up for email alerts about rule changes, recalls and other product safety news. And, in addition to CPSC, there are other federal and state laws to stay abreast of. For updated news on the entire range of product safety regulation affecting the industry, trade associations and testing labs can be great sources of information.

Instill a Product Safety Culture. Imagine that one day you decide to start eating nothing but 100% organically grown food. Think of the challenges you would have at least three times a day for the rest of your life. What are you going to eat? Where are you going to buy your food? Where does that food come from? How is it grown? How can you be sure? Solve that problem for breakfast today and it starts over again at lunch. Whatever you might have done yesterday to ensure your food supply when you were in Chicago won’t help you at all tomorrow when you’re off to New York. For you to be successful in this new eating habit, planning in advance for the organic food you are going to eat each day and where you are going to obtain it reliably will have to become second nature, as if it were embedded in your DNA. And so it is with product safety and compliance. The kinds of food and ingredient questions you would have to ask every day if you drastically changed your eating habits are the same kinds of questions you should be asking every day to ensure safe and compliant product. What’s in this product? Who is going to use it? Where will it be distributed? How carefully was it made? What was it tested for? Was this shipment tested? How can I be sure? Ensuring safe and compliant product is a daily journey, not a destination. Just like my food example, it requires continuous vigilance and attention, order by order, promotion by promotion.

The more that product safety and compliance becomes second nature and an automatic consideration no matter what client or promotion you’re working on, the more you’ll protect your clients, protect your business and ultimately protect the industry, a responsibility we all have to each other.

This article is scheduled for the October 2013 issue of Wearables Magazine

Whether you are selling to a global brand like Nike or to your local YMCA, no single asset is more valuable to your client than the client’s good name. Sell them a promotional product that enhances their brand and you’re likely to have a happy customer for a long time. Sell a product that embarrasses the brand and the cost for everyone involved could be astronomical.

Consider a case involving the Winn Dixie and Publix grocery chains. In November 2010 investigative reporters from the Tampa Tribune purchased about two dozen reusable grocery bags and sent them to a lab to test whether or not the bags contained lead and other toxic metals. Some of the bags tested high for lead so the newspaper featured the story in its Sunday edition that week. Instantly the story went viral on the Internet and became the headline story on news broadcasts nationwide all weekend. The lead discovered in these bags was relatively low – less than 200 parts per million – and product safety lawyers struggled to find any regulation that had been violated, but none of that mattered. The story alone was damage enough. By Monday morning, Senator Charles Schumer of New York was on the floor of the U.S. Senate demanding that the FDA ban all reusable grocery bags containing lead. “When our families go to the grocery store looking for safe and healthy foods to feed their kids, the last thing they should have to worry about are toxic bags,” said Schumer. Both grocery chains, and eventually several others, announced nationwide recalls. Aside from the millions of dollars in recall costs, damage to the reputation of these brands was enormous. For these grocery chains, all of their efforts to reinforce a “you can trust us” message was undone in one weekend.

The reusable grocery bag story is significant but not unusual. For better or for worse, ever since the millions of Chinese-made Barbie dolls were recalled for lead paint violations in what has become known as the Summer of Recalls – August 2007 – the promotional products industry has had to deal with a new reality – the world of product safety, regulatory compliance and responsible sourcing.

So how do you embrace this new reality? Where do you get started and how do you make it part of your culture?

The first and most important step is education. Learn the basic product safety regulations and how they apply in our industry. The most comprehensive federal law is the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA). It was enacted in August 2008 and imposes strict lead limits for all children’s products and additional requirements for toys. Much has been written about how to determine whether the product you’re selling is regarded as a children’s product. The distinction is not always a bright line and even experts sometimes disagree. Why does it matter? In addition to the lead restrictions, children’s products require third party testing, permanent tracking labels and certificates specifying when and where the product was manufactured and tested. For everyone’s sake – your client, your company and the industry – I recommend a simple rule of thumb: If the intended audience of a promotion includes children, protect everyone involved. Don’t let yourself get sucked into a debate of whether the item is a children’s product or a general use product. For these promotions play it safe and select products that have been produced and tested to CPSIA children’s product standards.

One difficult challenge for the promotional products industry is that many products become children’s products only after they are decorated. Most blank water bottles, for example, are considered “general use” and not subject to CPSIA. But if a water bottle is imprinted with a juvenile logo – such as a Winnie-the-Pooh type of character that appeals primarily to young children – it is transformed into a children’s product and becomes subject to the entire suite of children’s product rules. The same applies to string backpacks and a host of other similar products. Some suppliers will note on their websites the “child-friendly” products for which they have third-party testing. Other suppliers have CPSIA test reports for all of their products. Speak to your suppliers to learn each one’s protocol for children’s products. Complying with the law is a partnership and requires open communication between distributor and supplier. You should know which of your supplier’s blank products are “children’s product” compliant just as your supplier should be told when the intended audience for your promotion includes children. To learn if the intended audience includes children make this a standard question you ask your clients for every order. In addition to obtaining the information you need to comply with the law, it’s an opportunity to demonstrate to your client your concern for their protection and your knowledge of the law. In communicating this information to your suppliers, make it your standard practice to note it on applicable purchase orders in bold letters: The products in this order are intended for an audience that includes children 12 years of age or younger and must comply with all provisions of CPSIA!

Speaking of promotional products suppliers, with product safety and regulatory compliance in mind you should vet each of your suppliers carefully and perhaps through a different lens than you have before. Does the supplier have a compliance department? Is there a senior compliance officer who can explain to you how the compliance process works at each of the suppliers’ factories and at their headquarters? Does the supplier have any quality or product safety certifications? Do they have inspection records and third-party audits to back up what they’re saying? Is a risk assessment done on their products before each one is added to the line? What third- party tests are conducted and how often? How do you obtain the current test report for each product? Do the test reports include photographs specific to the supplier’s products or are they generic reports for similar products made by the same factory? Does the report include all the required tests to comply with U.S. regulations or is the report referring to European standards? All of these are important questions that you or someone in your organization should know the answers to before doing business with any supplier.

Where can you get this education if you’re new to product safety? One great resource is the Promotional Products Association International (PPAI). PPAI frequently offers product safety classes and has an extensive library of on-demand product safety webinars. It also publishes numerous best practices documents that can help jumpstart your compliance initiative. PPAI even has an online tool called Turbo Test that walks you through a series of questions to help you determine the compliance requirements for most promotional products. Testing labs such as UL-STR and Anseco are another resource for product safety and compliance training. Most labs provide webinars on a variety of product safety and compliance topics and provide consulting services on a product-by-product basis as well.

Like any topic you’ve ever studied, product safety for the promotional industry will take some time to learn. But if you make the investment in time, you can be certain that it will pay handsome dividends for your career. When you learn to ask the questions that make it obvious to your client you are just as committed to protecting their name as to making a sale – that you are acting as a fiduciary for their brand – you will enjoy a different relationship than before. Instead of being regarded as the promotional products sales rep, you will become a valued and trusted advisor to the client, the highest mark of respect you can earn.

References:

http://www2.tbo.com/business/breaking-news-business/2010/nov/11/coming-sunday-does-your-grocery-bag-contain-toxic–ar-16265/

http://www2.tbo.com/business/breaking-news-business/2010/nov/14/lead-taints-reusable-bags-ar-15400/

http://www.examiner.com/article/walgreens-and-safeway-recall-reusable-grocery-bags

http://www.consumerfreedom.com/downloads/ccf_bag_report.pdf

http://www.schumer.senate.gov/new_website/record.cfm?id=328640

NOTE: This article by Rick Brenner originally appeared in the February 2013 issue of Print + Promo Magazine.

Tag: brand protection

Ten Ways to Protect Your Clients and Build Your Business

For Promotional Product Sales, Protect Your Client’s Brand