The metamorphosis from full-range stockists into multispecialists happened right in the middle of the pandemic: Yet the new alignment of Reflects has turned out to be a very good decision. The Colognebased company has not only been totally face-lifted, but with its focus on four brands and corresponding product segments, it has also been completely restructured. The transformation is visible in the first signature products designed with great love for detail, such as the drinking mug myBayamo, Promotional Gift Award winner of the year 2020.
An idea, a vision, a picture one wants to pursue is often what triggers off an innovation process. Or – as in the case of Reflects – lots of pictures. In 2019, the promotional products professional from Cologne set itself the goal of developing a new corporate strategy that would make it fit for the future and well-equipped for the challenges of the market. “Initially we took stock of the situation and asked both the customers and the employees how they actually see us,” the Sales and Marketing Director, Peter Leseberg, explained. Leseberg joined the company in 2019 and was significantly responsible for the re-alignment of the firm. In diverse workshops with on the one hand distributors and on the other hand the company’s own staff, all of which were accompanied by the German Institute for Marketing, the participants were not only able to express themselves freely, but were also allowed to be creative and put their image of Reflects as well as their future vision of the company down on paper – i.e. as a sketch or collage. Based on these pictures, a systematic analysis of the company’s image and a brand identity analysis were carried out.
“We were striving for openness and received a correspondingly clear feedback, which indeed wasn’t always pleasant,” stated the head of Reflects, Meinhard Mombauer. “But it is important in the scope of such a restructuration to carry the most significant stakeholders with you and to anchor the readiness to makes changes throughout the entire hierarchies of the company. We really did look into all issues and are now permanently engaged in applying our vision to each individual division of the operating business.” “It is a bit like when renovating: At first you just want to paint the walls and then ultimately a totally new building has to be erected,” added Leseberg.
The driving force for carrying out the reorganisation was the cognition that although Reflects had been operating successfully on the promotional products market for meanwhile 35 years, its image has suffered over the past years. Reflects started off – at the time still under the name LM Accessoires – as a specialist for badges and tie pins, supported by an own in-house goldsmith. Over the years the import business was continually expanded. The company operated as a full-range stockist, the brand name Reflects, which later on also became the name of the company, created an association to a large portion of the product portfolio, which the Cologne-based company was well-known for at the time: Silver, polished metal products that conveyed a certain feeling of high value. With smart product highlights like the Euro calculator, the silver football or the Lolliclock, the company kept on creating a stir within the industry and secured itself a high ranking in the popularity scales thanks to its proximity to the customer, its reliability and congenial presence. The only thing that was ultimately missing was a clear strategy for the future.
The management team of Reflects. F.t.l.: Marketing and Sales Director Peter Leseberg, Purchasing Manager Markus Gärtner, CFO Alexander Schulte, Managing Director Meinhard Mombauer, Assistant to CEO Maria Jürgensen, Creative Director Daniela Szente, Production Manager Jessica Wohlgemuth and Authorized Signatory and Aditan CEO Dirk Haynberg.
From a full-range stockist to multispecialists
The heterogeneity of the product range proved to be one of the main problems. “The demands in every single product – with regards to the legal stipulations, its quality, the customising options and more and more importantly its sustainability have increased enormously. To guarantee this for several thousand items and being able to market and sell these correspondingly is a true Herculean task,” Mombauer continued. This applies all the more so because Reflects is still 100% family-run and thus in spite of its considerable size comprising of a headcount of just under 100 employees doesn’t have the same resources at its disposal as the big internationally-aligned private equity companies. So, as an important result of the corporate and brand analysis, instead of positioning itself as a process-driven full-range stockist, Reflects decided to opt for a change of course.
After many years as a generalist, Reflects is now positioning itself as a multispecialist with several clearly defined fields of competence. “We have developed a vision of where we want to be, a mission, which we stand for and a position that we want to achieve on the market,” explained Leseberg. “A key issue of the new strategy is placing the emphasis back on the product. We want to create more or less unique products of high quality that are developed with great love for detail and which offer our customers added value. The decision to strongly reduce the number of products went hand in hand with this.” At the beginning of 2020, the line-up of Reflects comprised of more than 2,000 different items, in the meantime it is only 1,000. In 2022, the portfolio is to be reduced down to around 400 items – with a downward trend. Reduced to the max – concentrating on the essentials will have a liberating effect on the company in several respects: Fewer products means that there will be more scope for the development of the individual, so-called signature products. This creates a USP in the areas design, function, usage and flexibility and in addition to the new brand image also significantly contributes towards lending Reflects a distinctive face again.
The number of individual products in the warehouse can be increased if many items are discontinued – a clear advantage in terms of the availability of goods and ability to delivery, which is highly appreciated in these present times of crisis-stricken supply chains. Furthermore, Reflects bundles expert knowledge, which can be used to advise and serve the market effectively. This simplifies the sales, marketing and data maintenance tasks. Overall, it saves time that can be invested in improving the services to the benefit of the promotional products trade. “Whereby such a radical concentration in this scope – especially in today’s times – also demands a lot of courage,” emphasised Leseberg. “We are dispensing with many items that yield revenue and which will now cost us money in the warehouse. But we are convinced that we are doing the right thing in striving to further develop the company.”
New brand identity
Leseberg has completely revamped Reflects. A brand concept was devised meticulously and applied for all areas however small. The overriding feature is the umbrella brand Reflects®, which incorporates four flagship brands in total. Retumbler® – Best of Drinkware, Reeves® – Smart Electronics, Retime® – Cool watch Concepts and RE98® – Classics & Ideas. The brand names are a play on words since, as in Reflects, they all start with “re”, cleverly establishing a connecting element. For all brands the grey lettering is consistently combined with the fresh light blue and a dot as a design element. The content-related claim is thus repeated optically: The central idea, which reflects stands for, is further underscored in each of the presences of the flagship brands. When selecting which product ranges the multispecialists should place their focus on, the Cologne-based company has on the one hand oriented itself on the market requirements and on the other hand on its own competences: “We asked ourselves what goes down well, what fits in well with us and what are we good at,” Mombauer reported. “Drinking culture is an absolute trend theme, which we cater to well with stainless steel and plastic products. In the watch segment we are one of the few remaining specialists and are capable of doing many things better than most of our fellow rivals. And due to the increased demand over the past years the electronic line-up has grown constantly.” Finally, the latest brand RE98 – founded in the summer of 2021 – ranges from business card boxes, to key pendants, through to wine accessories and brings business gifts that have become characteristic for the company from Cologne over the years together with new trends.
Six months after the reorganisation process was initiated, Reflects presented its new outfit to the public at the PSI Show in January 2020. The presentation of the new brands was adequately reflected by the stand design and documented the changes, which went down very well within the trade, in an exemplary way. The company took off dynamically in a new phase – two months later the Corona pandemic had reached Germany with all of its known effects on the promotional products industry. “Of course we too were hit badly by the impact of the Corona crisis, both in terms of the import business and sales,” Mombauer confirmed. “And since many of the industry trade shows were cancelled and field staff activities were extremely limited, it was much more difficult to communicate and introduce our new image to the outside. But we didn’t let ourselves be distracted and continued to work on the implementation of our new positioning, albeit at a slower pace than would have been possible in ‘normal’ times. We are permanently occupied with the development of new products and always have something new that we want to communicate to the market. In spite of Corona we haven’t taken on a wait-and-see attitude. On the contrary.”
Signature products
In addition to good service and proximity to the customer, the declared aim of the multispecialists is to become well-known for the development of unique products and create a new product language in the process. “Our products are to be the platform on which promoting companies can present their brands as affectionately and sustainably as possible,” Leseberg explained. For example, the thermal mug, myBayamo, the first so-called signature product Reflects developed and which the company won a Promotional Gift Award for in 2020 underlines what is meant by this. The double-walled stainless steel mug with a copper vacuum insulation convinces with its chic design language, high quality and functionality that is on a par with products from the specialised trade. Its unique highlight: the mug has specific components that were designed especially for its usage on the promotional products market: it namely boasts a ring and a gripping sleeve made of high-quality silicon, both of which come in a choice of 18 standard colours. Hence, thanks to a wide range of standard options distributors can design a unique mug for their customers that corresponds to the respective CI and company’s image.
In the meantime, this principle applies for the entire product range: The thermal mug myKingston also features a silicon sleeve, the thermal bottle myNizza is equipped with a carrying strap and a base sleeve made of silicon. The loudspeaker myFernley and wireless charger myMatola from the Reeves® line-up also feature silicon applications, which like the above-mentioned Retumbler® products are available in the same 18 shades that can be combined at will. Configurators are available on the company’s completely “refurbished” website for the individual products, which enable the users to compile their desired product in just a few clicks. A further advantage: The respective delivery stocks for each individually selected colour are displayed immediately. In this way, the distributors can see directly whether the enquiries of their customers can be satisfied or otherwise which alternatives they can offer. Furthermore, since the products are put together on-site to match the customer’s requirements, the warehouse stocks can also be effectively reduced – to the advantage of all persons involved in the supply chain. The product configurators are one element of the digital services that are to be further developed. “Thanks to the fact that we have our own programming team we are in a position here to take this much further,” Mombauer stated.
Organisational changes
The signature products match each other, the silicon applications all come in the same 18 colours. This enables whole collections to be compiled for promoting companies.
Profound organisational changes were necessary to achieve the strategic goals. For example, three product managers were appointed to newlycreated jobs in the product management division in a bid to increase the company’s innovative power. Their task was to accompany the products from the brainstorming phase through to the elimination. Exclusive products aimed to impress were developed together with in-house designers.
What’s more, Reflects has now integrated the procurement process into the sales to simplify handling the procurement of individual customer products. The sales department is divided up into two areas: “Order management stock items” and “Order management drop shipment items”. Leseberg noted, “In terms of organisation we differentiate between the processes ‘sales from stock’ and ‘drop shipment sales’”. In the sense of specialists, we will strive to dispose of the highest level of product and process knowledge within our sales department in future.” At present, the company is in a transition phase, this is characterised by many training courses, but it is on a good track to providing its customers with a knowledgeable and solution-oriented sales team.
The export division has been completely realigned. Arthur Wagner, Head of Export, has a totally new team at his side and has developed a concept that is based on elements of the country and customer-concentration. A global sales department for the own brands is also to be established.
Profit thanks to sustainability
Not only the company’s new brand identity is forward- looking, but also the efforts to find an optimal symbiosis between efficiency and social and environmental compatibility. Maria Jürgensen is responsible for sustainability management: “Sustainability is of immense importance to us all, also at personal level. That is why I address the theme enthusiastically,” Jürgensen explained. “As a company we carry responsibility for mankind and the environment, but we have also ascertained the fact that acting sustainably does actually have economic advantages, in many cases we have saved a lot of money.”
In 2019, as one of ten companies, Reflects decided to take part in the Ökoprofit project of the State of NRW – a “type of driving license for environmental protection”, according to Jürgensen. Initially, in cooperation with professionals it aims to question all production and service-providing processes with regards to their environmental balance and determine the relevant key data on electricity, heat, waste and harmful and hazardous substances, fuels, mobility and business trips, sanitary systems, compressed air, EDP, air conditioning and ventilation, lighting, production and biodiversity. Based on these values, measures will be developed that will step by step bring the company closer towards a sustainable economic development and identify possible savings. “We have not only defined tasks for the future here, but have also ascertained the fact that we have actually already achieved several goals.” Reflects estimates the savings that Ökoprofit brought about through the environmentally-friendly processes implemented to be around 100,000 Euro to-date.
The commitment illustrates several concrete examples from a host of measures: Permeable paving on parking lots, a rainwater ditch or a green roof help improve the groundwater and relieve the drainage system, a pond area serves as a biotope for insects. Since 2021 Reflects has been implementing green electricity, recycling is a top priority. Aerators, high-efficiency pumps, master outlets and motion sensors in seldom used rooms save water, electricity and energy. There has been a rethinking regarding packaging material too, new packaging concepts have enabled the company to do away with polybags, furthermore in the scope of the packing on-demand service, the customer can in the case of certain products decide whether he wants packaging or not. Last but not least, the reduction of the product range has also contributed towards improving the environmental balance. “It enables us to achieve more efficient warehousing and also facilitates the future environmental monitoring,” Mombauer confirmed. A further essential aspect is green IT, for example the Reflects website is hosted using a climate-neutral process.
In spite of all efforts, very few companies succeed in reducing their CO2 emissions down to zero. This is an extremely difficult task when manufacturing products. Like many other companies, Reflects compensates for the emissions caused by supporting special climate protection projects. To this end, the company works together with the specialists from Climate Partner. The company’s top sellers are produced climateneutrally, further products are to follow. The target is for the entire programme to be offered as climate-neutral products by the end of 2023, the company itself has been compensating retrospectively for the environmental pollution it causes annually since the start of the year. Reflects also compensates for transporting all of the goods to the customer.
Environmental management is, like the realignment of the company, a process that is to lead Reflects into the future. “We are on a journey. And this journey doesn’t end it affects everything: the company’s culture, the innovativeness, which staff one needs for the future and much more,” Leseberg confirmed. “We still have a lot to do to lay the foundation for the future success. We have to consider what makes the promotional product excel and want to develop a mentality that works in a solution-oriented, promoting, impressive and cooperative way.” What an exciting path the company has chosen.
// Mischa Delbrouck
Photos: Mischa Delbrouck (1), © WA Media; Reflects (4)
