Each year, ASI (Advertising Specialty Institute) reveals insights from their State of the Industry Report, the single most researched report about the promotional products industry, providing in-depth analysis on multiple topics including trends in growth, challenges in manufacturing, industry verticals that possess the most opportunity, and much more.

The State of the Industry report, or what’s known as the SOI, serves as a benchmark and bellwether for trends, allowing both suppliers and distributors to create KPIs against industry averages and help catalyze plans for change. ASI releases this report every July, and last week, we held a webinar featuring two of the architects behind this report: ASI’s Michele Bell and Nate Kucsma.

Michele Bell is ASI’s Vice President of Editorial, Special Events & Education. With more than 30 years of journalism experience, she has been with ASI for 25 years and is the recipient of multiple Neal Awards, known as the Pulitzer Prize for business journalism. Michele also covers the overseas promo markets extensively, attending shows around the world to profile for ASI’s content platforms.

Nate Kucsma is ASI’s Sr. Executive Director of Research and Corporate Marketing. Nate joined ASI in March 2014 and has nearly 25 years of domestic and international marketing research experience. He received his MBA from Rutgers University and prior to ASI worked at Dow Jones, MetLife, and Educational Testing Service.

Today, we cover a very wide range of topics affecting both distributors and suppliers, including:

-The #1 challenge to our industry’s health that impacts both suppliers and distributors

-Which verticals are growing in their usage of promotional products

-how to analyze your business mix to ensure greater diversity.

-The labor challenges

-Services distributors provide clients

-Trends in margins, profitability, average order size, and more!

Here are some additional blog resources to help you manage your team: