Impressions - February 2014 - 52

Turning a Specialty
Into Success

Aprons Etc. President Scott Thackston offers advice to companies looking
to carve out a special place in the decorated apparel industry.
By Michelle M. Havich, Managing Editor

decorators can use them to gain new customers and grow their businesses.
Impressions: What got Aprons Etc.
interested in niche markets?

Aprons Etc. gives its distributors educational materials to help them sell in niche markets. Here is an example that was developed for
the colleges and universities market.

cott Thackston has more than 22
years of experience in the textile
signage industry. For the past 16
years, he has been with Aprons Etc., a
promotional products supplier that offers
everything from chef's wear and apparel to
display table covers and banners. He was
named company president in 2011.
"We started out doing retail years and
years ago and then moved into promotional products, doing aprons, smocks and
vests," he says, "and from that we actually morphed into [offering] more fabric
event-marketing products, such as event
marketing display table covers - which is
our No. 1-selling product - fabric banners
and backdrops."
Impressions recently spoke to Thackston
about niche markets and how apparel
52

Impressions | February 2014

in their sales campaign or send it out as a
sample to their prospective clients.
Impressions: How can decorators
find appropriate niche markets for their
businesses?

Scott Thackston: When we developed the event marketing products, we
understood that not everyone could
understand the value of [them]. So we
looked at which companies and industries really use these on a consistent basis.
We came up with four categories where
we see consistency in sales, and that's
the retail and spirit industry (liquor and
spirits), colleges and universities, medical
insurance-based companies, and banks
and financials. [Companies in these categories] have everything from recruiting
to in-store displays. You also have trade
shows, booths and any kind of public
venue where you have marketing that
you're branding with a logo. Those categories are the main ones that we see as
a niche that our distributors have consistent success in.
Impressions: What is the company
currently doing to attract niche markets?
Thackston: First, we consider ourselves an educator instead of a marketer in
this kind of category for our distributors.
We give them the benefit of a table cover
sales kit or tool that provides them with
swatches of preprinted table covers. We
also provide educational information on
those four industry categories - the how,
where, and whom to sell those products
to - and the ability to offer them a free
"draw-down" sample or a mini table cover
panel. They just have to provide their prospective client's logo and we digitally print
that on a small mini panel or small table
cover, and they can go demonstrate that

Thackston: Look introspectively, instead of going out first, to find out what
your strengths and weaknesses are as
a company. What do you do best? Take
that and figure out what industries you're
compatible with, regardless [of] if it's
production, if it's exclusivity of product
or process, or if it's a particular product
that fits a particular industry. It may be
relatively broad, as ours is, and it may be
very small, but I think you really need to
look at what you're good at and what your
capabilities are, and then match those with
a particular niche out there that gives you
the ability to have success.
Impressions: Do you have any examples of your customers who are successfully working in niche markets?
Thackston: We have one particular
large distributor who works extremely
well with the financial markets. They do
all of the display table covers for two of
the top Fortune 100 banks that we partner
with. Another works solely with liquor/
spirit beverage companies. They do a lot
of sampling and on-site-type marketing to
the public and within stores, so these are
great for any kind of displays. Once [your
customers] find that you're the industry
leader and can provide them with the
education of what their clients are looking
for - and samples - then you're going
to be the go-to source. They're not going
to shop you on price and product if you
show that you have the advantage over
your competition.

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Impressions - February 2014

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