Short change

The building industry has had a nightmare 18 months, but those proverbial green shoots are reappearing, albeit in tubular steel form as scaffolding. Friends of mine who work in building trades confirm that many men on a site prefer to wear shorts, as near to year-round as possible. Come the winter, however, they'd like their shorts to be heavier weight and generally they find them difficult to obtain.

Ahem, politics

This column carefully avoids matters political, but the industry doesn't often get promoted in the Times, so this is an exception. Columnist Matthew Parris, a former Conservative MP, quoted a T shirt he'd seen. The actual anti-Labour slogan it bore is irrelevant; what matters is that Parris recommended the Conservatives order a million of them. Especially if you're in a marginal constituency, I'd recommend doing a sales pitch to the local parties: they probably don't know the value and reach of printwear. Politics is about people and lots of people wearing emotive messages could become a party political broadcast you can't switch off.

Insult added to fake injury

After the Bloodgate scandal at Harlequins Rugby Club, which looks to be consuming the whole management team, they didn't need to be the victims of delicious irony, too. But there it was in the papers, a picture of the entrance to The Stoop with its sign ‘Home of the Harlequins' and right beneath a banner from the Blood Transfusion Service asking people to give blood.

Green shoots

It's nice to know that while this country doesn't export as much as it used to, we have exported the green shoots of recovery. To be precise we've exported the phrase. Ben Bernanke, head of the Fed, adopted it and it's been directly translated by French, German and Spanish commentators. Given the derision the phrase attracted to Shriti Vadera when she first coined it, she's entitled to be smug.

Selling like ‘kats' and dogs.

It has been proven over decades that dogs sell. Dulux, Andrex and Churchill Insurance all fare extremely well in customer satisfaction and "trusted brand" surveys as well as selling lots of product. Now it's the turn of the meerkat. Comparethemarket.com's advert featuring the little fellow has driven up site traffic by no less than 83% and other price comparison sites are feeling the pinch. You'll note that paint, toilet rolls and insurance are not the sexiest products. It makes one wonder what a kat or dog could do for something that already had some character.

No nonsense

Along with dogs a further trend in advertising that is building itself a reputation is the no nonsense route. John Smith's Bitter has been plugging this angle successfully for years, as has Ronseal with its annoying line ‘Does just what it says on the tin'. Both campaigns have been highly effective. This should worry the highly paid creatives in the West End, who love nothing better than creating a mini movie shot in the Bahamas, but it ought to be good news for printwear which is at the no nonsense end of the marketing scale and can take pride in that fact.

Who do you believe part two

Last month I was bemoaning the widely differing economic indicators and interpretations of them. There's been more of the same. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) said that the British economy was lagging behind and would contract further. Doom and gloom - keep the corporate cheque book under lock and key. However, on the same day, the Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) data for the services sector said that it was at its strongest for two years. Meanwhile Sir Martin Sorrell, who is usually pretty accurate where matters financial and marketing meet, said we were at the bottom of the bath and starting to climb out gently.

'Ere we go!

I have filleted comment from various sources and the general impression is that the World Cup next year will be bonanza time - a boost to the economy of over £1 billion is predicted (although how you calculate such things, God knows). Printwear should do very nicely thank you, but I suggest that you get your ideas in front of customers early. A huge range of food and drink businesses, pub companies and electrical goods suppliers will be promoting heavily on the back of the tournament, but not everybody takes full advantage. Coca Cola spent a small fortune on "If there was a fans' World Cup would you win it?" but I didn't see one piece of associated printwear. Worth noting the sectors that are expected to be losers, too. House sales fall off a cliff. Sales of package holidays drop. Why? They have tellies in Spain, don't they? Cinemas closed their doors last time round. I also think there's a great business opportunity for the "Bah, humbug, I hate football" route.

'Ere we freeze

Those who are supplying fans travelling to South Africa for the finals should note the experience of rugby fans who followed the Lions this year: it's their winter and it gets damn cold, especially on the high veldt - down to -5C. Convincing fans who have seen all those pictures of sunshine, surfing and safaris that they need heavyweight printwear might not be too easy. Point out, too, that it rains and when it does, they'd be drier in a swimming pool.

Final footie note for the moment

As above, pubs do well out of the World Cup. Past experience says that they'll be packed when England play and busy for other weekend matches, but the real trick is persuading people out of their armchairs for games like Paraguay vs Serbia. Publicans also report frustration at regulars who suddenly drink elsewhere with their mates. Anyone who can solve this one stands to make big bucks and I suggest printwear has an edge. How about this: anyone wearing their Dog and Duck England fan shirt gets a special price - maybe on a jug of beer - during selected games. You can doubtless do better. Thinking caps on!

Cheat, cheat!

What a time we've had of it! Who would have expected in one month that football, rugby and Formula 1 racing would have all contrived to get themselves mired in the cheating slur. The yes he is, no he's not saga surrounding Eduardo looks like small beer - apart from the fact that he plays for Arsenal who always claim to shiny bright. "Dive? Je ne comprends pas." See Arsene Wenger, passim. Then there's the Harlequins - self-proclaimed jolly good chaps, never done a bleeding thing wrong in our lives. Finally, we have Renault, who should obviously get into the computer business since their cars crash at will. Feel free everybody to make hay while this cheating sun shines. "On ne plonge pas" for visitors to the Emirates or when Arsenal are in town (sorry, can't do the Portuguese); I'll bet you can come up with a dozen blood jokes for when Harlequins are playing locally; my niece is already working on "I crashed my Renault last week and all I got was this lousy T shirt."

Remember, remember

Anniversaries seem very much in vogue. The Second World War, 9/11 and the Lehman crash have followed on each other's heels. Even the 65th anniversary of Arnhem has had broad coverage. Personally, I find much of this akin to poking my nose into other people's memories and grief, but there is clearly huge interest and where that applies, there's a market. So a quick look at, say, Pear's Cyclopedia will give you all the national events and if your local newspaper is on the ball they should have a local list. Personally, I'd aim for the feel good stuff - the invention of Maltesers, 30 years since Hereford beat Newcastle United (not in Newcastle, of course), the Rolling Stones first gig.

Christmas jitters

The big retailers, eg Next, Kingfisher and John Lewis, are already getting their warning shots in. Sales approaching Christmas and into the New Year are, it is suggested, looking weak. An example of the jitters relates to the return of VAT to 17.5% on January 1st. Personally, I'd see that as an opportunity to sell in the run up to Christmas and the increase will be substantially invisible when it happens because of the January sales. Then the second dose of swine flu is apparently worrying management. I know exactly one individual who's had it to date and, by the way chaps, it'll be winter. People get ill then - every single year.

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