In case you didn’t know: Behind some of the most premier promotional items you see in the country is Strategic Persuasions, a wholly black-owned promotional and marketing company specialising in the supply and branding of quality promotional items.
Strategic Persuasions specialises in the provision of the following array of products and services: Screen printing, Embroidery, Laser engraving, Embossing, Pad printing, Heat press, Co2, Dome stickers and Stickers.
Founded in 1997 and based in Midrand, literally, Johannesburg, Strategic Persuasions has grown concurrently with the country’s democracy. This means the company has been associated with some of the premier promotional items in the Post-Apartheid economy, a feat which General Manager, Fransie Segotta, says “fills us with great pride”.
Segotta singles out producing and packaging products at one point as Strategic Persuasions’ advantage over competitors, some of whom are, in effect, middlemen who outsource production to others. “We have our factories, which are able to do everything that is required from the client’s request. Other companies don’t offer all the services that we do; they mostly outsource to other companies in order the products to be complete. So that sets us apart from them,” she explains.
Segotta, assures clients that the quality has even got better with the resources that the company has invested to enhance delivery capacity. “We have just expanded our business to include a one-stop marking house with state of the art equipment and consumables where all processes are done in-house.”
Worth mentioning, Strategic Persuasions instils the ethos of excellence in its employees, which is reflected in the quality of the work which it produces.
Conscious of changing market conditions, Strategic Persuasions continuously monitors developments and adapts accordingly, states Segotta. The main development the company has noticed is expansion of the bonding sector, with ‘new players’, on the face of it, providing similar services.
However, Strategic Persuasions views this “threat” as a call to invest in initiatives aimed at ensuring that services and products stand out, points out Segotta. “We are constantly innovating. We don’t rest on our laurels.”
Segotta believes recent decisions that have placed Strategic Persuasions in a good stead for future growth. One of the wise moves the company has made is acquiring its own land, which, Segotta believes, will “make it easier and easier to operate businesses”. Also on the cards is the automation of machinery which will result in increasing output tenfold and potentially hiring more employees.
Over the years, Strategic Persuasions has been able to rise above trying circumstances by following nothing beyond basic business principles, Segotta reveals. “We have not been doing anything extraordinary, apart from laying out plans and sticking to them even under trying circumstances.”
For would-be entrepreneurs planning to invest in the supply of marketing and promotional items, Segotta highlights four key values.
“Firstly, do your market research. Secondly, investigate your competitors, to assist in finding better ways and products. Thirdly, find your niche, specifically something that sets you apart from other companies/competitors. Last but not least, plan everything, because if you don’t plan you won’t be able to foresee logistical problems.”
