Direct Marketer SmileMakers Aims to Keep Kids Happy
There’s a company here at 425 Sha Lane where Smiley Guy is the corporate spokesperson. Aptly enough, the company is called SmileMakers, and its mission is to put great big grins on children’s faces.
For close to 30 years, SmileMakers’ only focus has been making children happy. The company sells giveaways – items like pencils, stickers, bouncy balls, spinning tops, and other fun stuff that kids love – to teachers, doctors, dentists, and others who have a good reason to keep children smiling. The company services its customers through monthly catalogs, and through its Web site, where Smiley Guy sends regular updates and timely messages to customers throughout the country.
“We just love SmileMakers,” says a local dentist and SmileMakers customer for more than 12 years, “because the kids just love their toys. When the kids come in, the first thing they do is ask if they’ll get a toy if they’re good. SmileMakers offers such a wide variety of products that it’s very easy to keep everybody happy. The biggest hits with our patients are SmileMakers airplanes, school-related items, and bouncy balls.”
SmileMakers was founded as Galloway Promotions in 1958 by Leon Galloway Jr., in the basement of his Spartanburg home. As a one-man advertising specialties operation, Galloway grew his business by selling pencils, coffee cups, and other imprinted items to local churches, lumber companies and dentists. The company was officially incorporated in 1977 and continued to mark steady growth, moving to its current location in 1990. In 1998, SmileMakers was purchased by Medical Arts Press (MAP), a leading direct marketer of practice-related supplies to the healthcare market. In July, 2002, MAP, including SmileMakers, was bought by Staples, Inc., and became part of Staples’ North American Delivery business, reporting directly to Quill Corporation, the nation’s premier business-to-business direct marketer of office products, technology supplies, and business furniture, and a wholly owned subsidiary of Staples. Today, SmileMakers is the largest direct marketer of children’s giveaway items catering to medical, dental and educational markets, with a customer base of over 150,000 throughout the United States.
Here in Spartanburg, some 80 employees work at what a sign in the lobby declares “the friendliest company in the world.” Their desks are adorned with stickers, googly-eyed glasses, bouncy balls, and other not-exactly-corporate items. They play with toys in meetings, and watch Saturday morning cartoons to keep up with what their target audience wants.
“We are very customer-focused,” says Laurie Furse, marketing creative manager. “The customer is always number one, so we want to stay current with what the kids like. Our mission truly is to create smiles.”
SmileMakers was one of the first direct mail companies to embrace desktop publishing and its creative staff designs and produces all quarterly catalogs. The company was also the first direct marketer to sell licensed stickers and offers such current favorites as Yu-Gi-Oh!, Hamtaro, SpongeBob Squarepants, the PowerPuff Girls, and Bob the Builder, along with traditional stand-bys like Barbie, Garfield, and Winnie the Pooh. Original sticker designs are also created by the SmileMakers staff.
Each SmileMakers product carries a 100 percent satisfaction guarantee and every order shipped contains a free gift and free samples. Orders received by 3 p.m. are shipped the same day. If a customer is dissatisfied for any reason, SmileMakers will pay to have the product returned. About 1,000 orders are shipped daily out of Spartanburg, where the walls are adorned with children’s artwork, and employee name tags carry the smiley-face logo.
“Bottom-line,” emphasizes Clift Garrett, operations manager, “we all rally to make the customer happy. We’ve got a tremendous bunch of people and the best jobs in the world. But what truly makes a difference is that, at the end of the day, this job makes kids feel better.”
Smiley Guy couldn’t have said it better himself.
About Quill: Founded in 1956 and headquartered in Lincolnshire, IL, Quill Corporation is the nation’s premier business-to-business direct marketer of office products, business furniture, and technology supplies. Quill maintains 11 regional distribution centers located strategically throughout the U.S. to facilitate next-day order delivery. Renowned for its outstanding customer service, Quill services customers through direct marketing, telemarketing, outside sales, and online at www.quill.com. Quill.com offers 24-hour-a-day access to over 50,000 business essentials, and was one of the first successful online launches in the office products industry. The site is consistently ranked one of the best online merchants by Bizrate.com. A new business book, The Really Useful Guide to Working Smarter, Not Harder, is available exclusively from Quill, and provides no-nonsense tips for today’s busy marketplace. Quill Corporation has been a wholly owned subsidiary of Staples, Inc., since 1998. For more information on SmileMakers, call 1-800-825-8085, fax 1-800-825-6358, or visit www.smilemakers.com.
