Gemline: Standing Out in a Commodity Promotional Products Industry
Promotional Products
Set Your Brand in Motion
The Strategy Question
How do you stand out in a commodity industry where every competitor’s catalog looks the same?
That’s what Gemline was asking when I started working with them. At the time, they were a top-two provider of commodity promotional products — bags, shirts, pens, and the like — in an industry where every catalog followed the same formula: straight-on product shots against white backgrounds, a dozen or more to the page. Differentiation wasn’t a design problem here. It was a strategy gap nobody in the category had bothered to close.
Finding the “Only”
The answer wasn’t in the promotional products industry at all — it was in how companies like J.Crew and Restoration Hardware sold through fashion-forward emotion and lifestyle rather than plain description. Gemline adapted those principles to their own category, putting real emphasis on brand presence and developing a catalog that looked nothing like anyone else’s in promotional products.
The differentiation only worked because it didn’t stop at the catalog. We carried the same voice and visual identity across everything — brochures, sell sheets, direct mail, trade show booths — so the position held up everywhere a customer encountered the brand, not just in one polished piece.
Results came fast, and sales spiked. Within a year, competitors started copying the approach. By then, Gemline was already the category leader.
Eight Years, Not One Project
This wasn’t a one-time rebrand. I worked with Gemline continuously for eight years, staying close enough to the brand to keep it consistent as the company grew, competitors caught up, and the market shifted — closer to how I work with clients today through Fractional Brand Advisory than a single-project engagement.
What It Took to Bring It to Life
Once the position was set, here’s what it took to keep it consistent across every touchpoint, year over year:
Brand Discovery | Brand Identity | Messaging | Content | Tagline | Collateral | Packaging | Website | Illustration | Email Marketing | Direct Response | Sales Support | Video Animation | Print Advertising | Trade Show Graphics
Client Praise
Thank you for your extraordinary efforts (again) in building our brand. This year has been our best. Your knowledge and dedication are the primary causes for Gemline’s marketing success!
— Bob Leavitt, Chief Marketing Officer
. . .
To say we appreciate you is an understatement! Your ideas, sensibility, subtlety, creativity, and thoughtfulness (not to mention hard work) make it a pleasure to work with you.
— Denise, Marketing Manager
Co-branding partnership with Nike Golf to produce a full line of customizable golf bags and accessories.
