[Marketing] Merchandise / Swag: Cafepress? Spreadshirt? Zazzle? Printfection? VistaPrint?

[Sean DALY]

Such help greatly appreciated, thanks Seth.

At this afternoon's SL marketing meeting
(http://meeting.sugarlabs.org/sugar-meeting.log.20090526_1108.html) we
decided to deal with Spreadshirt for Europe and Cafepress for North
America, we are planning a PR push at the end of June and can't spend
time comparing solutions with a fine tooth comb.

My understanding is these services aren't exclusive, anyway, i saw a
video on YouTube of a guy who had the same design done on 3 of them
(and Spreadshirt came out on top for t-shirt quality but it might have
been a Spreadshirt guy ;-)

thanks

Sean


On Tue, May 26, 2009 at 11:36 PM, Seth Woodworth <seth at isforinsects.com> wrote:
>
> I am a big fan of Spreadshirt.  As a nifty philanthropic org SugarLabs may
> be eligible for some kind of discount / special offer.  If SL is happy with
> the idea I have a few contacts at Spreadshort that may be willing to offer a
> good deal.
>
>
>
> On Mon, May 25, 2009 at 9:39 PM, Caroline Meeks <caroline at solutiongrove.com>
> wrote:
>>
>> +1
>>
>> On Sun, May 24, 2009 at 9:32 AM, Sean DALY <sdaly.be at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>> http://www.cafepress.com
>>> http://www.spreadshirt.com
>>> http://www.zazzle.com
>>> http://www.printfection.com
>>> http://www.vistaprint.com
>>>
>>> Let's offer Sugar Labs branded T-shirts, stickers, badges (buttons),
>>> coffee mugs, messenger bags, mousepads, &c !
>>>
>>> Perfect booth stuff. Great for spreading the word - walk through a
>>> crowd, 500 impressions :-)
>>>
>>> Here are five well-known "print-on-demand" services (feel free to
>>> point us to any others!). The concept is, there is no stock or upfront
>>> bulk orders like with traditional printers. We provide the graphics,
>>> the supplier does printing and fulfillment (including returns &
>>> exchanges, a perennial headache). Listings can vary from simple (users
>>> have to find our stuff on the supplier's site with keywords) to
>>> branded shop (users may not notice except for the URL they are off our
>>> site) to embedded (users are on our site but the backend is at the
>>> supplier's).
>>>
>>> Each one has strong points/weak points: for example Spreadshirt has
>>> good presence in Europe; Printfection offers T-shirts in many colors
>>> and provides APIs for a store on the designer's site (probably
>>> overkill for us).
>>>
>>> My impression is that signing up is not exclusive; we could go with
>>> any combination and make recommendations to site visitors based on
>>> delivery destination.
>>>
>>> Royalty rates, margin structures differ but my main concern would be
>>> quality + breaking even, if such a service doesn't cost us money we
>>> are already ahead by benefiting from the "free advertising" of t-shirt
>>> or bag wearers.
>>>
>>> Is quality comparable? I have no idea, but Spreadshirt has a good
>>> reputation. A friend of mine has used Cafepress for some time and
>>> never had a complaint.
>>>
>>> What I really like about these solutions is:
>>> * We can offer all 24 variants of our logo (the 12 combos on either
>>> white or black background); it will be interesting to note the
>>> hit-parade of sales
>>> * The Home View!
>>> * The Neighborhood View!
>>> * Big Icons of our favorite Activities... in different colors?
>>> ("EToys, a Sugar Activity")
>>> * Screenshots with impact (Speak saying something, Moon)
>>> * a Sugar Labs USB stick with text "Sugar on a Stick"
>>> * more ideas?
>>>
>>> We could shamelessly steal a great idea from our friends at OLPC
>>> France: a little rectangular Sugar Labs sticker which fits right on
>>> the hinge of an XO-1. Would be great for G1G1 "get 1" XOs...
>>>
>>> Help please, let's look at these together and make a recommendation
>>> for one or more suppliers... they seem very similar to me based on our
>>> needs, but they may have licensing issues or something.
>>>
>>> If we get this going soon we could be wearing (or even selling) Sugar
>>> Labs tees at LinuxTag Berlin ;-)
>>>
>>> thanks
>>>
>>> Sean
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> Marketing mailing list
>>> Marketing at lists.sugarlabs.org
>>> http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/marketing
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Caroline Meeks
>> Solution Grove
>> Caroline at SolutionGrove.com
>>
>> 617-500-3488 - Office
>> 505-213-3268 - Fax
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Marketing mailing list
>> Marketing at lists.sugarlabs.org
>> http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/marketing
>>
>
>