We can argue whether or not the biggest fad of 2017, the Fidget Spinner, should be considered a better consumer product mousetrap, but there is little argument about its popularity – or availability. A recent search on Amazon for “Fidget Spinner” revealed 50,010 different spinners for sale, with some 35,564 results returned from a search for “Fidget Cube.” While you may loathe the thought of sourcing this for your clients at the shallow end of the product pool, it’s impossible not to marvel at how this product got to where it is – rising to this “must have” level before a brand, a retailer, or advertising campaign was employed to give it a boost.
You know that in the promotional products industry, many of today’s standards for product safety had their beginning in 2008 with the retail-oriented Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA). The law gave the CPSC significant new regulatory and enforcement tools, and presumed a traditional supplier-to-distributor-to-store shelves distribution system. To protect your clients, you have been using that model and keeping an eye on the ever-changing regulatory requirements ever since.
The problem with the direct-to-consumer sales of this latest fad is the same as with the exploding hoverboards that came before it – the traditional safeguards for product safety in the U.S. are given an end run. Popular products shipped directly from China to consumers can mean that regulators learn about product failure at the same time we do, by reading about it in the news. Many of the burns and other injuries caused by faulty batteries in hoverboards were from products where it was impossible to trace what factory was the manufacturer.
Neal Cohen was instrumental in helping promote safety in the promotional product industry, speaking frequently at industry events like the Product Responsibility Summit in his role as ombudsman for small businesses at the CPSC. How does a regulator who is supposed to protect consumers deal with sellers who do direct shipping from overseas? Cohen, now in private practice, told BuzzFeed News, “It’s not like it’s coming on a freight truck... [Regulators] cannot successfully get a FedEx box. That’s a needle in a haystack. Innovation comes really quickly now with the speed to the market. You can have a factory one day making hoverboards, and then they find out about fidget spinners. Now suddenly they’re making fidget spinners. They don't know anything about what they’re doing. They’re just reverse engineering pictures they’re finding.”
Disruptors – the popular term these days for the players threatening suppliers and distributors sticking with only a traditional sales model – are coming at you from all angles in the online world. But, something you may not have thought of, they are disrupting your clients’ safety when they aren’t buying from you. We live in a time when a product can reach literally millions of people directly, and before we know much about the product itself. Like whether or not it will blow up while charging, or break a small part off while spinning. Maybe something to keep in mind as you contemplate the information you share in your corporate blog, email marketing, or other customer communication channels. Informed customers are, we hope, safe customers.
Jeff Jacobs has been an expert in building brands and brand stewardship for 40 years, working in commercial television, Hollywood film and home video, publishing, and promotional brand merchandise. He’s a staunch advocate of consumer product safety and has a deep passion and belief regarding the issues surrounding compliance and corporate social responsibility. He retired as executive director of Quality Certification Alliance, the only non-profit dedicated to helping suppliers provide safe and compliant promotional products. Before that, he was director of brand merchandise for Michelin. You can find him still advising Global 500 Brands on promo product initiatives, working as a volunteer Guardian ad Litem, traveling the world with his lovely wife, or enjoying a cigar at his favorite local cigar shop. Follow Jeff on Twitter, or reach out to him at jacobs.jeffreyp@gmail.com.