Well for those who read my last post, it’s now much colder here in Chicago with chances of snow this weekend. Yeah, OK, Global Warming. Before long, I’ll be blogging from my Igloo at a rapid pace not just to pass the boredom, but to keep my fingers warm! Now, as much as all of the information about global warming does not make sense to me, I am equally puzzled about our big-brother, now more like red-headed step sister, ASI. Many of you who are not in this industry could care less on this topic, but it is certainly one that plagues a distributor, especially one with a brain. Some background for you…
ASI stands for advertising specialty institute and it is the largest consortium of manufacturers and distributors in our industry. ASI’s main goal (is to make money off of weak-minded people) is to be the link between people who sell and people who make the advertising goodies.
In its infancy, we’d all agree that it was a great concept; newbie distributors could get into the industry with relative ease and manufactures could showcase their products. Sounds good …sure. Fast forward to its current state; we have a company who cannot regulate itself, its members, and has no power to do anything positive for our industry. It’s summed up easily: its defunct group of wannabe-mobsters. Now may be that is harsh, but we are all paying street tax for their gain, and their gain only.
What does ASI do today for a distributor OTHER than cash in? I’d say nothing. They claim to be the source for information. In this day and age of information technology, we can find what we are looking for, all one has to do is a little research. Don’t we all go to google.com these days? Why are we all so lazy to think ASI is our little DEX?
Next, ASI touts that a “membership grants you an ASI number, and with that you gain a level of credibility, immediate recognition and market access that nothing else can match”… LAME! All an ASI membership means that you are now an A$$hole, just like the rest of us who were suckered into to buying-in. Vendors really do not care anymore, hell NO ONE can afford to turn away business, and why would they? Now for as bad as it’s for the distributor, it’s about nine times as bad for the manufacturer when it comes to shelling out boat loads of money. Here a little window to their pricing policy:
Oh, you want to be listed, cha-ching, now you want to have a bold listing, double cha-ching, now, wait you want your logo to show next to your listing, BAM, oh, you’d like to participate in show, wait, do you have a line of credit?
This mercilessly goes ON and ON, to no avail.
But wait Mike, you did it, others do it, and well, aren’t you just the biggest hypocrite? Yes, I am an a$$hole, I fell for it, and many others fall for these type things, hmpt, Madoff. They prey on you, “join ASI, get in the industry quick”, how else were we going to get in? And that my friends, is exactly their business model; prey on the desperate! Now, to my defense, at that time, ASI was seemingly a GOOD thing, but I quickly learned that I was HAD…
When a certain manufacturer all of a sudden broke the sacred law of selling direct, what did ASI do? Good guess, nothing. They sat by, stayed on the sidelines, and did not even lift a finger to help protect the integrity of the industry. Where did all that money go that all of us paid?
So if not protecting us was bad enough, how about taking bribes for industry ranking? (Enter Rod Blogo!… I can hear him now, “that bleeping ranking is worth gold!”)
ASI’s magazine highlights people who spend money on advertisements rather than true industry icons. Without naming names, I challenge you to find a certain company who advertises all of those damn things that made it to the top 50 manufacturers. Do you know who it is? More like do you know who THEY are? So what does that mean for the distributor? We are fooled into believing that they are the best companies to work with, when in fact, in SOME cases, they are the worst.
In closing, ASI should do one of two things; close its doors OR reinvent itself. We the people need representation with appropriate taxation. Otherwise, like pollution in Global Warming, they will be the catalyst that will slowly kill us all.
Article by mwenger
Mike is a nose-to-the-grindstone type who could teach a class on strong work ethic. On a personal note, he's a die-hard Chicago Bears fan and doesn't take any lip from Green Bay naysayers!