In this fourth installment of the Counselor Podcast: Power 50 Series, Ross Silverstein explains why he thinks a severely disruptive environment is coming to the promotional products market. “Technology is making it easier for companies to come into this market, and companies will do what’s in their best interest to thrive rather than just bowing to traditions,” said Silverstein, CEO of Top 40 distributor iPROMOTEu. “This will cause disruption and that’s ok. But it will be difficult for companies to survive if they don’t provide meaningful value to customers.”

In this third installment of the Counselor Podcast: Power 50 Series, last year’s Counselor Person of the Year Norm Hullinger labels the impact from nontraditional suppliers as one of the biggest challenges that the promotional products industry faces today. “The encroachment from offshore suppliers that aren’t truly investing in this market is something to contend with,” says Hullinger, CEO of alphabroder, the top-ranked supplier on Counselor’s Top 40. “It’s a problem for our industry from a safety perspective and it damages margins.”

In this second installment of the Counselor Podcast: Power 50 Series, current Counselor Person of the Year Bill Korowitz pleads with the industry to do a better job of educating marketers. “We have to get out of this perception of trinkets and trash,” he says in this podcast. “We need to tell more of the branding story and show the value of the medium.” Plus, Korowitz, CEO of Top 40 supplier firm The Magnet Group, details why he thinks industry companies need to hire younger employees and he opens up about the potential merging of supplier and distributor roles.

In this first episode of the Counselor Podcast: Power 50 Series, Jason Robbins of ePromos Promotional Products provides his outlook for the industry, discusses the future of e-commerce in the market, and shares what he thinks are the biggest challenges that companies face today. Plus, the newbie to the Counselor Power 50 list answers the question: Do distributors do enough right now to appeal to the changing needs of today’s buyers?