Not to TOOT our own horn

I lied. There is a little tootin' going on...

Heritage was recognized as a Top 400 Printer in the December 2009 edition of Printing Impressions magazine. This is pretty much like getting on FORTUNE Magazines 100 Best Companies to work for list. Pretty much.


All kidding aside, this is a great honor! The Printing Impressions 400, provides the industry’s most comprehensive ranking of leading printing companies in the United States and Canada. Heritage has moved up 19 spots from our previous ranking in 2008. There are close to 40,000 printers in the US & Canada, and we're in the top 400...we think that's pretty cool.

We're so excited to be ranked in the Top 400 that we're giving away $400!!!! I'm totally kidding, we're not giving away $400...I just wanted to see if you were still reading.

We do want to say THANK YOU to our customers! You help make that Top 400 happen. We know you have choices, thank you for picking us!

D Day

Remember way back in January when we rolled out our new website?? I'm sure you have it marked on your calendar. If you don't remember (shame on you) we rolled out our new website and had a link to a survey. The surveys were filled out and one lucky winner will receive round trip airfare for two! Well today is D day. DRAWING DAY

The winner is......

drum roll please.........



Brad Redwine from Express Employment Professionals! Yeah for Brad.

When I emailed Brad to tell him he won, I also asked his permission to use his name on our blog. He said I could use his name and he said he loves to promote AIGA when he can! Sooo.......

Brad also sits on the board of AIGA Oklahoma, which is a professional organization for design. You can check out all the cool things AIGA has going on by clicking right here!

(What a good board member! Thinking of AIGA during his moment to shine.)

Well Brad, we appreciate you taking the time to fill out our survey....AND we appreciate the other 122 of you that filled it out too! I wish I had that many plane tickets to give away...really I do.

Harry.

Since it’s almost Valentine’s Day I thought I would introduce to you Harry “The Heritage Heart.” He’s really quite adorable. (Sorry this picture is a little blurry, he would NOT sit still.)


It’s wonderful working at a company that specializes in promotional products….you can get whatever you want! Harry’s a Heritage promo piece for Valentine’s and Healthy Heart Month! (But don’t tell him that, he thinks he’s getting an office.)

When I told him he was going to be featured on the blog he smiled. (Sometimes his smile seems fake, but I hoped this time it was genuine.)

I asked him what he loved about Heritage….

He loves excel. (He's kind of a dorky heart.)

He loves the promotional products sample room. (Especially Betty & Lucy.)

He loves doughnuts.

He loves the Heidelberg.
He loves naps.
He loves the vending machine.
He loves to read.
He loves recycling.

He loves pretty much everything! Well almost everything. He doesn’t love the fact that his back has become a billboard for Heritage. “We LOVE when you call US! ~Heritage 800.654.1713.” He said, “I’m not just another squishy toy, I have feelings too. I don’t wanna parade around with a sign on my back.”

Gimme a break Harry! You should count your blessings. “We LOVE when you call US” is a much better slogan than the one that didn’t make the cut…"For a good time call Heritage.” SEE, told you.


Happy Valentine’s. XOXO


Oh………only a few days left to take our website survey to win round trip airfare for two. You can find the survey by clicking on the link in the upper right corner of the blog! Deadline is February 17th!

Not too Proud to Wear a Silly Hat with Candles on It

I should clarify that statement. We’re not too proud to wear a silly hat with candles on it IF there’s a chance we can win money! (I’ll explain later.)

Each quarter we have employee meetings where departments gather in groups and we cover company info. When I say we cover “company info” we cover everything, which, as an employee, I think is great. It gives us a realistic look at where the company stands on revenue, expenses, manufacturing, sales, and overall growth.

Some companies may not feel comfortable sharing detailed info like that with their employees on a quarterly basis but our fearless leader, head honcho, big man on campus, Papa Smurf, king of the jungle, boss man Dave DeLana has been doing it since 1984. He says, “We’re all in this together! Our employees need to know what equipment we’re buying and they need to understand long-term investments that we make as a company. The meeting brings up great discussion questions and gives employees a better understanding of why we do what we do!”

After each group meets to discuss the company financials we ALL gather together and have a little informal meeting and that’s where the silly hats come in.

We do several things in this meeting. We meet new staff, we recognize employee anniversaries, we usually make fun of someone for something, we laugh, and then we drag out all the birthday folks from that quarter and have them put on their silly birthday hat. All the names are then dropped into a hat and there’s a draw-down.

As names are drawn out of the hat participants are eliminated, all names are drawn until there is one LUCKY birthday participant left! That person win’s an envelope of cash!!!! (I still haven’t heard how much moo-lah is actually in the envelope, but I’ll let you know when I win the next time around. Grin.)

After we’ve humiliated ourselves by wearing silly birthday hats, they feed us!

It’s like feeding angry bears at the Zoo. Small children and the elderly are warned to stay back as the stampede tramples through. The managers are kind enough to put on their hairnets and serve us lunch, which I think is super cool!

Time out, I’m not sure I’ve actually seen them wearing hairnets…and they’re making us wear those silly birthday hats! That is totally unfair…but I guess they do give cash away, and they feed us a good FREE lunch, so I’ll let it slide.

I don’t think we’re in Kansas anymore…

Thank God.

The higher up powers at Heritage thought it would be a good idea to send Jodie and I to Paper School. Why? Because she and I knew nothing about paper. Nothing. Well other than critical terms like “when it’s shiny that like means it’s glossy”. (NOW you see why they sent us!)


Jodie works as sales support assisting all our account reps and account managers…the entire sales team, and she also helps me out with marketing projects as well (she’s a busy gal). Apparently they didn’t want to send us on the trip alone because paper school can get “crazy wicked wild”…so Curtis (VP of Sales) went to meet some clients as well. (He doesn’t need paper school.)

You learn a lot about co-workers when you travel together. Like for instance when Curtis tried to navigate through the city with the gps application on his iphone.

We were in the car a total of 4.5 hours and got lost 4 times (you do the math)! This caused my blood pressure to sky rocket and it caused Jodie to actually dig out a paper map! (Ahhh, thank God for the old fashioned paper map!) We did bond on the trip, which is normal after you yell at someone “that gps is a piece of…” ahem, well you get the point.

Our three largest paper vendors are Xpedx, Clampitt & Unisource. (We love them all.) Since Curtis was headed to Kansas we hit the Xpedx paper school, and we learned so much!

How paper was made, poor paper formation, all about uncoated, coated, felt, text, cover, opaque, newsprint, parchment, vellum, linen..the list goes on and on (really on, and on). It was fascinating, and now Jodie and I are testing our knowledge by feeling paper and trying to guess what it is! We're getting better.....

I think our sales team has a combined printing and paper background of like 185 years…so they have been kind enough to work with us and pass on their wisdom. (Patience young grasshopper, patience.)

If you need more info about paper, or aren’t sure what paper to use or what effect you want…..ask the professionals! (That’s US!) Use that combined experience of 185 years, we know what we're talking about!

ASI@PPAI

Our ASI team just arrived back from the PPAI Expo in Vegas (lucky dawgs). The PPAI (Promotional Products Association International) Expo draws thousands of suppliers, distributors and industry associates from across the country, around the globe.

At the show there are convention rooms and rooms and rooms full of gidgets, gadgets, chotchkies, and thing-a-ma-bobs!

Our team walked for hours & hours meeting new vendors, getting new ideas and seeing the hottest new items on the market! They were exhausted….but they were in Vegas so I don’t feel sorry for them! It’s Vegas you’re supposed to be exhausted, right?

They left the show with tons of samples & ideas and they also ordered items that will be arriving over the next few days. Their carryon bags were full as they arrived at the airport, and I can only imagine the baggage security check point at Vegas was running slower than normal after that show. People with bags full of lollipops, hand sanitizers and ink pens shaped like windmills. But then again I’m sure that’s not the strangest things the baggage folks have seen at the Vegas airport. Yikes.

So if you’re in need of some new promotional product ideas or have a marketing campaign coming up that you want to stand out, give Denise or Blake a call and they will help you find the perfect items!

Oh….I almost forgot, have you seen our new website yet??? (We’re pretty excited about it!) If you haven’t seen it, you need to! AND… you need to take our quick survey too. Deadline to take the survey is February 17th, the winner will receive roundtrip airfare for TWO! If you win…you could fly to Vegas yourself! Click HERE for the website and HERE for the survey! Good luck.

New Year...NEW LOOK!

Today I am shedding tears of joy.

Why, you ask?

It's here. It is finally here. Heritage has a NEW WEBSITE! (Insert thunderous applause.)

Tell your friends and family, shout it from the rooftops, "Heritage has a new website!" (Okay...why am I the only one on the roof?)

We are all FLYING HIGH with excitement over this new website, and we want you to CLICK HERE to check it out. Then after you've checked it out, CLICK HERE to fill out 10 questions about Heritage and what you learned from our site. (Don't worry these aren't ACT questions, it's simple stuff, I promise!)

What do you get out of it???

Well, I'll tell ya!


After you've answered the questions you'll be entered to win 2 plane tickets to anywhere you wanna go! (Well almost anywhere...you can fly anywhere with Southwest, and that's a lot of places!)



I know you've got questions...go ahead, ask them.

Q. KJ, all I have to do is check out the amazing Heritage website, and then answer 10 really easy questions, and I am entered to win?
A. YES!

Q. Can I tell my friends and family to take the survey?
A. YES!

Q. Can I take the survey 872 times in one day to increase my chances of winning?
A. Uh, NO. Sorry, you can only take it once.

Q. I work at Heritage and only read your blog because you email it to us each week and pretty much force us to read it. Can I take the survey and win the plane tickets?
A. Awww, thanks for reading! And sure...you can take the survey, but you won't be qualified to win the tickets. (And neither can anyone else who lives at your address. Sorry.)

Q. What's the deadline to fill out this super easy survey?
A. February 17th! I will announce the winner on our blog Thursday morning, Feb 18th!

If you have any questions that I didn't answer, you can email me at info@heritagesolutionsok.com.

Go check out the website, take the survey and you could be the winner! Good luck!