"The recession is making people look more outside the box about how they win business; where they win business; and re-evaluate marketing activity," says Gordon.

"I did a presentation to the COI (Central Office of Information) about the fact that we're not just a mousemats and pens industry. But that's the perception amongst some and we are so much more than that.

"I sometimes think we are not good enough. We need to be sharper and much more focused on delivering outstanding customer service, quality products, good print and embroidery, on time. Fundamentally, my message is: understand your customer and what they are trying to do."

Currently, the bpma has 600 members, most of whom are proud to flag up their accreditation. "But our membership is not high enough," says Gordon. If there's ever a time to join a trade association, it's now. There's a wealth of knowledge, a wealth of support there for you."

With a large number of SMEs in the sector, the entry level can be quite low, he adds. "What I am trying to do is create a standard. I often talk about the industry being ‘the good, the great and the awful'. Everyone will know exactly what I mean by that. I'm trying to make sure that we professionalise as much as we possibly can.

"A lot of marketing managers are professionally trained with degree qualifications and are used to dealing with highly professional agencies - and that isn't necessarily the case in our sector."

The bpma is doing its bit on this front. Recently, 43 people qualified for the bpma's new certificate which promotes best practice through staff development to ensure quality of service.

"I don't want it to sound like I am indoctrinating. But there's so much more we can do. We have just got a sliver of what could be a massive market place if only we understood and we embraced so much more."

Many companies in the sector are missing a massive trick, he adds.

Although the promotional goods industry is worth around £1.2bn, Gordon believes that there isn't enough marketing spend in the sector.

"If you look at the average marketing budget, we often don't get a big enough wedge," he says. "We are often seen as what's left in the budget and we need to develop and grow that."

Go round any exhibition and you will see huge amounts spent on the stands and on the exhibition itself. "There's probably £500 left for promotional pens and whatever else, and yet actually, what makes a successful exhibition are two things - people on the stand and the method used to engage with them," argues Gordon. "You can have the best exhibition stand in the world, but if it isn't getting people to stop, it's not really working."

Customers should be steered away from buying cheaply. "We shouldn't be sucked in by people asking for low value things. There is a danger in meeting a price point and actually providing an inferior product," says Gordon. "There's a little bit of me that says if you're going to do something, do it well, or don't do it at all."

He firmly believes that promotions should be brought to life in a way that is attractive to the end user. To that end, the bpma now has its own TV channel. "We also need to reflect modern communication methods so that our members are able to use video to promote their products," adds Gordon who also urges his members not just to accept an inquiry at face value.

"Understand what your customer is trying to do. How do you know that they have got the best idea? They are just looking through a catalogue. Who's the expert? You or the customer? You are."

During the recession, customers are tending to revert to what has worked for them in the past. "So going back to basics is key. The mug, the pen, the keyring," he adds. "The pen is still the most used promotional item by a long way. But even with a pen, there's a multitude of different uses. We don't really, really grasp the customers who use the promotional merchandise. I sometimes blame the catalogues for doing that, because it really is just a directory of products.

"The future is about being a promotional gift consultant, or a promotional gift adviser - not a catalogue salesman."

And, according to Gordon, there is too much reliance on low order values. "Anyone can give you an order, but have you financially checked and referenced them? That's something that as an association we hold dear. And we say to the end user community, buy from an accredited user. It means something," he says.

"Research is valuable because it makes us understand not so much the size of the cake now, but where it is going to go," Gordon believes.

The recession is having an impact on the sector, he maintains. "It doesn't really matter how big the organisation. Some of the bigger members are being impacted. Marketing is invariably the first budget to be cut.

"Marketeers have to show a return on their investment," he adds. "They have to justify their spend. One of the challenges that our industry has always had is that if I am spending £5,000 on promotional merchandise is it working?

"Even at an exhibition or show, where someone is giving away pens and mousemats, how do they know that they are responsible for that customer or growth? Sometimes that can be a bit of a problem."

Interestingly, in the last recession, promotional marketing did better than other sectors, according to Gordon. "And that's really because although marketing budgets get cut, clearly they cannot be cut altogether."

While the automotive and financial sectors are struggling, it's imperative that people still test drive cars, he adds.

"And if they (the banks and car dealers) can't engage with people and say we'll give you a bottle opener, keyring, penknife, if you test drive a car with us, or if you're a student and they don't offer the freebies to entice them to take out the student loans, they are going to suffer. That's the bottom line."

But what is the value of a promotional gift?

"One of the things I often say to people is that it's engaging; you can touch it, you can feel it. You can't do that in the same way with an advert or a TV commercial.

"I think we forget that we are not in the promotional products industry. We are in the message industry which happens to be a promotional product."

Warming to his theme, Gordon recalls his seminar at this year's Printwear & Promotion exhibition. "One of the things I mentioned was the importance and the value of the message which is very, very understated in my opinion," he says.

"For me, a printed mug is not a printed mug. It's 1,500 impacts over the course of the year because that's the average number of times we drink coffee.

"A diary is not just a diary. It's 2.5 impacts a day over 12 months. Eventually, that is the return on the investment. If you look at the amount of times you use your keyring, you use it on average four times a day. That's how many times the message is getting into the individual's brain."

Another hugely successful example is the Oyster card, he adds. "Ten million people a day use the Underground, so the impact of that is phenomenal."

Gordon says it makes sense to discuss with customers what they are doing for the next 12 months, in terms of exhibitions or product launches.

"Then you can actually suggest various products that fit into that over the course of the year, as opposed to just being very reactive, and I use the word reactive underlined. That's what we are known as - a reactive industry - and we get the business we've been given, not the business we want."

Gordon was a founder member of the Marketing Association Alliance - made up of seven other trade bodies - to create a very strong brand identity.

"We can use our relationships with those trade bodies to influence shared opportunities," says Gordon who also wants to protect the interests of British suppliers over emerging markets such as India and Eastern Europe.

Gordon has also forged a relationship with the Chartered Institute of Marketing and says his next challenge is to ensure that young marketeers know and understand the value of promotional merchandise.

"At 26, I was looking after a £22m customer and a £1m promotional budget and no one from our industry knew who I was, knew I existed, or ever bothered to contact me and yet I had such massive buying power," says Gordon. "This emphasises my point about understanding job titles and then finding that there are as many opportunities for merchandise in the trading channel as there are in the marketing channel."

Gordon has also put together a bpma sourcing template for end users. "I want them to understand what questions they should be asking before they pick up the phone. Things like when do you need the product for? What's the reason for using the product? What's the target audience? When they phone our members they are then in a better position to get what they want, and not leave everything to the last minute. We need to educate the buyers in how to buy promotional merchandise and clothing."

Research into the promotional goods sector is sadly lacking in the UK. "We need to get a stake in the ground as to where we are at now," says Gordon. "The best vehicle for markets is the one in America," he adds. "They have pumped a huge amount of money into research and they have been able to measure things like cost per impression."

That kind of information is gold dust, Gordon believes. "That actually tells the marketeer where he is going to get the most bung for his buck, and actually it's in this sector."

Future trends can be tricky to predict, but eco has seen a massive rise in the last 12 months - although the rate of growth has slowed. Badge suppliers are doing well, although Gordon is disappointed that the pin badge license for the 2012 London Olympics has gone to China.

"I still think that digital merchandise has got a long way to go. I don't mean just USB sticks - although USB sticks have gone very well - also things like digital photo frames. Things that are associated around the PC or the mobile phone. Anything that is aligned to what the consumer trends are is going to work," he suggests.

Contact the bpma on 0207 689 555, email enquiries@bpma.co.uk; website: www.bpma.co.uk

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