ASI® Launches Membership for Decorators

TREVOSE, PA – January 3, 2007 – Advertising Specialty Institute®, the largest media and marketing organization serving the ad specialty industry, today launched a new membership category for decorators, to provide decorators of ad specialties with marketing resources and business services to grow sales. 

The new membership allows decorators to use the business-building tools and expertise provided by ASI and its respected network of 23,000 members to grow sales, increase exposure in the ad specialty industry and develop more efficient operations. 

Decorators can be contracted by distributors to imprint logos with the type of transfer with which they specialize and companies that are devoted to decorating blank products for use as ad specialties can apply for a decorator membership from ASI, including:  embroiderers, embroidery digitizers, monogrammers, engravers (laser, thermal and traditional), sublimation providers, screen printers and heat transfer providers.

Timothy M. Andrews, president of ASI, explained that ASI is stepping up to fulfill a need in the industry.

“Decorators have been asking me for a membership package that gives them access to the best marketing and business products from ASI,” said Andrews.  “This is an exceptional opportunity for thousands of decorators across North America and is particularly exciting for the group of 22,500 subscribers to industry magazine Stitches, who are contract decorators wishing to connect and do more business with ASI distributors and suppliers.”

Andrews also commented that readers of Wearables Business and Uniforms magazines are excited about this opportunity, because many of them are involved with decorating products in their day-to-day operations and will be able to use the quality tools available at ASI to find decorators and to improve their operations.

Larry Basinait, executive director of membership services for ASI, sees much potential for decorators to expand in the marketplace.

“ASI is in the unique position to provide access to companies that have a distinct need for decorator services,” Basinait said.  “Decorators in the $17.8 billion dollar ad specialty industry can move their business to the next level by using the valuable resources that this membership category now provides them with.”

Basinait also noted that the contact information for decorators will be published in listings for classifieds in Counselor® magazine and in issues of the redesigned Quarterly Register™ from ASI.  Other ASI products will offer greater access, as well as more details about decorator members, as the category continues to evolve.

The new decorator membership package includes many important benefits and tools for firms to use to grow revenues.  

Each new decorator member will receive an ASI number – the key to instant recognition and credibility – that provides access to more than 3,400 suppliers and 20,000 distributors of advertising specialties, and will also receive free attendance to the ASI Show!®,invitations to educational Webcasts and seminars about business marketing, access to directories of suppliers and distributors and online distributor location lookup on ASICentral.com®.

In addition, companies that are currently ASI service provider members will automatically become decorator members.  They will receive the full benefits of a decorator membership, including better access to the ASI distributor and supplier network, for the same yearly membership investment as before.

The decorator membership package is available to new members for $595 annually, plus a one-time application fee of $150. 

For more information about ASI membership for decorators, visit www.joinasi.com, or contact Larry Basinait, executive director of membership services for ASI, at 800-546-1416, or at [email protected].

About ASI
Advertising Specialty Institute is the largest media and marketing organization serving the advertising specialty industry, with a membership of 23,000 distributor firms (sellers) and supplier firms (manufacturers) of advertising specialties.  Supplier firms use ASI print and electronic resources to market products to more than 20,000 ASI distributor firms.  Distributor firms use ASI print and electronic resources, which contain more than 750,000 ad specialties, to locate supplier firms and to market services to buyers.  ASI provides catalogs, informational directories, newsletters, magazines, websites and databases, and offers interactive e-commerce, marketing and selling tools.  Visit www.dev-asicentral.com.