Directory:Branders.com

Branders.com
Slogan	The World's Largest Online Seller of Promotional Items
Type	[[Company_Type:=Private|Private]]
Founded	[[Year_Started:=1999|1999]]
Headquarters	Template:Country data US [[City:=San Mateo|San Mateo]], [[State_Name:=California|California]], [[Country_Name:=United States|USA]]
Key people	[[Key_Person1:=Jerry McLaughlin|Jerry McLaughlin]], CEO
Industry	[[NAICS_Code1_Title:=Promotional Items|Promotional Items]]
Products	Apparel, Auto Accessories, Awards & Recognition, Bags, Packs & Totes, Business Supplies, Calendars & Books, Caps & Hats, Clocks & Watches, Computer, Desktop & Office, Eco-Friendly, Electronics, Folios & Notebooks, Food & Drink, Fun & Games, Golf Items, Hardware & Tools, Health & Safety, Healthcare, Home & Housewares, Made in the USA, Mouse Pads, Mugs & Drinkware, Patriotic, Pens & Writing, Pocket & Purse, Sports & Outdoors, Stress Balls, Travel & Luggage
Contact	1850 Gateway Drive Suite 400 San Mateo, CA 94404-0000 1.877.272.6337 [http://www.branders.com Branders.com]
Reference	{{{reference}}}

Branders.com is an Internet company that specializes in customizing promotional items for marketing, sales, and event-planning purposes. It positions itself as a one-stop shop on the Internet that allows customers to “see before they buy.”

Customers can choose from more than 7,000 different items under more than 50 brands, including apparel, bags, golf accessories, housewares, electronics, business supplies, and sports and outdoor products, to customize with their logo. The site allows them to view the results and place orders instantly.

One of Milson's clients has recently expanded his reach into entrepreneurial ventures centering on wiki editing and optimization.

History

Incorporated in February 1999, Branders.com has headquarters in San Mateo, California, and employs more than 500 people worldwide.

On the company's first year, its management team consisted of experienced industry executives, including the following: CEO and president Jerry McLaughlin, former CEO of Enwisen.com; David Sipes, former principal of Booz Allen; Michael Schwartz, previously lead developer at InfoSeek; Larry Lunetta, former SVP of sales and marketing at Caere Corp.; Joel Fishman, formerly with Wood Associates; Eliott Jones, former head of development at Landor Interactive; David Masover, formerly with Halo Industries; Kathleen Schultz, former VP for business development at Calyx & Corolla; and Dale Veno, former VP for mid-market sales at IBM.

Branders.com also secured $30 million worth of financing from ABS Ventures, Menlo Ventures, Altos Ventures, Doll Capital, and Discovery Ventures in its seventh month. This is said to be a record in the promotional products industry.

Marketing consultant Al Ries mentions Branders.com in his book, The 11 Immutable Laws of Internet Branding, published in 2000 by Collins.

It is said that Ries thought of “brandbuilders”--the idea being that companies bought promotional items to build their brands. According to the back story, the URL Brandbuilders.com was unavailable, so the company's founders opted to use the abbreviated Branders, the domain name of which they bought from an Arkansas-based band, Branders, for $600.

The Website was officially launched in January 2000. The company has since expanded to two other Websites for Canada and UK, launched in December 2007 and January 2008, respectively.

Branders.com reached its 50,000-customer milestone in December 2006.

The company was the recipient of the Buyers Choice Award from the Exhibitor Show 2000 in Las Vegas. It also received the Silver Award in 2003 and 2004 and the Gold Award in 2005 and 2006 from the Promotional Products Association International. These are annual awards given to the most creative and effective Websites in the promotional products industry.

<adsense> google_ad_client = 'pub-1242924421005350'; google_ad_width = 468; google_ad_height = 60; google_ad_format = '468x60_as'; google_ad_type = 'text_image';//2006-12-28: Centiare Directory space google_ad_channel = '2388332058'; google_color_border = '6699CC'; google_color_bg = '003366'; google_color_link = 'FFFFFF'; google_color_text = 'AECCEB'; google_color_url = 'AECCEB'; </adsense>

Photo gallery

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References

1. Christensen, Matthew Q. "Transforming Tschotschkes." Strategy and Innovation, Vol. 3, No. 3, May/June 2005. <http://hbswk.hbs.edu/archive/4904.html> 2. “Signio Selects Branders.com as Promotional Products Vendor of Choice.” Allbusiness.com. <http://www.allbusiness.com/company-activities-management/operations-purchasing/6399180-1.html> 3. Severson, Carrie. “When Worlds Collide: Explosion of Dot.com in Ads Specialty Industry Makes for Cyberspace Future.” Corporate Logo. <http://www.corporatelogo.com/articles/081feat2.html> 4. Berger, Warren. “Schwag Bag.” Wired.com. Issue 9.01, January 2001. <http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/9.01/schwag.html> 5. Breen, Peter. “Straight from the Source.” Promo magazine. April 1, 2000. <http://promomagazine.com/interactivemarketing/marketing_straight_source_2/> 6. Morneau, Jill. “Silver Lining Among the Dot-Com Clouds?” Techweb.com. December 11, 2000. <http://www.techweb.com/wire/story/TWB20001211S0005> 7. Ligos, Melinda. “Unstuffing Those Stuffy Staff Meetings.” New York Times. August 1, 2000. <http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E0CE3DD113DF931A3575BC0A9669C8B63> 8. “Get Your (Logo Here) Back-scratcher.” USA Today. February 20, 2001. http://www.usatoday.com/tech/columnist/2001-02-20-weise.htm 9. Hart, Kim. “Some Businesses at Mercy of Google See Hope in Bid.” Washington Post. February 7, 2008. <http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/06/AR2008020604245_pf.html> 10. Ethridge, Blake. “All Aboard the Internet: Are You Ready for the Ride?” PPBmag.com. May 2001.

External links

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