What Exactly Do We Do?
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bruce
Partner, Sales & Retail
I get asked this question a lot when meeting with new clients and leads. My answer is usually pretty straightforward but does not always encompass all of the products and services that MCN Interactive can provide. We offer a lot, and it is hard to put that into a phrase such as “I’m in construction”, for example.
In a nutshell, merchandise development, web design and development, e-commerce and digital strategy are what we do. All of it pushed together can wash over someone like white noise because their brain is trying to picture and envision what you are saying as you say it. I say merchandising, and they may think tee shirts. I say web design and development, and they think websites. I say e-commerce, and they may think Amazon. I say digital strategy, and they have no clue what that means.
So, for the purpose of the blog, I will stick with what I know and that is merchandise design and development. When I am talking to a potential client or anyone who is asking, I emphasize that we are a merchandise design and development company and that we can make anything, not just tee shirts. I don’t even mention our screen printing capabilities. Why? Because screen printing is very specific to a certain type of product and is limiting in its description. If I were to put screen printing in their mind, then that throws out the whole idea of design and product development. By reducing what we do to simply screen printing, we will usually elicit a response like, “My brother’s father-in-law coaches a soccer team, and they need some tee shirts. Can ya’ll do that?” Now, as much as I would love to help out the team, there is only so much time to work on new accounts. And unfortunately for the soccer team, I would rather work on a brand that has potential to do tens of thousands of units in production, instead of 50 shirts once per year.
Anyone can slap a logo onto a shirt and call it done. There are multiple screen printers in every city of the US that will print your shirts for super cheap. Alternatively, good design takes talent, and good product development takes experience. If we develop the wrong product, it will not sell, and the client will not re-order.
Merchandising is a mindset, and understanding the services that we offer could mean the difference between printing 50 shirts for a friend of a friend or landing a merch client like BB King’s Blues Clubs. If you want to know more about what we can do, just ask.