Its probably taken years to realise that everyone [every company] has a certain way of doing things. The way they handle normal and unusual situations. I am thinking in particular of how sales enquiries are handled or obtained.
In our business we definitely see ourselves as advisers in helping with the particular needs of our clients & prospects. No doubt we get some funny requests but the one thing always underlies what we do....every enquiry and job is a "one off" in some respect and that makes us and our industry a niche industry.
That prevents bigger players as seeing our promotional products industry as attractive as we dont sell widgets off the shelf. That means promotional people handling these jobs are specialists. An example of this would be the entry of Officeworks into our space. I cannot imagine the clients we look after even considering using this company as a supplier when their demands are so great [adherence to style guides / will this colour work on this item / will our logo fit on this product and can you send me a visual for my team meeting?].
What makes us a niche player? Well. What you see on our website are products that we know and have selected to be in our business after lots of research. We look at the supplier. We listen to trade talk about who is and isn't a good supplier. We avoid some ranges of products based on the reputations suppliers have within the industry. So you wont find every pen and every polo shirt from our industry on our website. Only the good ones. If you call or enquire about our products, one of us or all of us will have first hand experience of the item. This is particularly important with clothing.
Our slogan..."We're not the biggest...just the best!" backs up who we are and how we do it.