Bebe Dulce: Sweet Stuff Babies & Moms

Bebe Dulce means “sweet baby” and Bebe Dulce carries some of the sweetest stuff for babies and Moms you’re likely to find anywhere. Started by Claire Eads of Aspen, CO, in the fall of 2008, the Bebe Dulce line of appliquéd onesies, pacifier clips, princess tutus and gifts for Moms is now sold in 25 stores in four states, and has also been written up on the Gerber Babies blog, Aspen Peak Magazine, and Austin Kidbits, to name just a few.

For a company that took its first babysteps amid the economic blackout of 2008, Bebe Dulce has prospered to a surprising degree. It seems that even in a down economy, people are still looking for unique baby-stuff that’s supersoft and easy to clean. But stylish and innovative branding in the form of custom stickers doesn’t seem to have hurt this start-up, either: Bebe Dulce uses custom stickers to add their logo and information to all of their gift bags—as labels on their body relaxation products—and even to seal their gift wrapping!

“I choose CSM for our sticker needs because you are reliable and fast,” said Claire Eads. “Typically, I need my stickers in a hurry. I just add a note on my order of when I need it and it is always here!”

I Pledge Eco: Fashion Forward Green

If you’ve ever shopped for environmentally-responsible apparel online, you may have found yourself cringing at the preponderance of super-crunchy granola-wear in earth-tone hues. Eco-freaks Bobby Buivid and Chris Dauphin did—so they decided to create their own line of organic apparel, with a focus on modern cuts and colors that hit the fashion mark.

I Pledge Eco currently offers a range of “couture-cut” t-shirts featuring their original designs on top-of-the-line, sweatshop-free, US-assembled organic cotton (grown in Texas) printed with water-based inks. In the future, they plan to offer a complete line of apparel for men and women formulated to the same exacting standards.
The idea behind their logo and their label, I Pledge Eco, is that when we make a public commitment to going green, we’re more likely to carry through on our own best intentions. It’s a concept that’s apparently had a lot of resonance for a lot of people, with sales of the I Pledge Eco logo t-shirt outpacing all other designs. So they decided to take that great logo one step further by turning it into an iconic sticker that accompanies each and every t-shirt they sell.
Why CSM? “We looked around at a lot of other companies for our stickers,” said Bobby Buivid. “As a green company, we appreciate CSM’s commitment to using environmentally-friendly inks and printing processes.”
He notes that since the I Pledge Eco’s demographic trends young, their stickers are a popular addition to skateboards, snowboards, bikes and laptops.

Snowboards.net: In Celebration of "Sideways Life"

A website featuring snowboards, bindings, apparel and accessories from all the major brands (Burton, O’Neil, DaKine, etc., often at serious discounts) along with video tutorials on everything from How to Properly Size Your Boots to How Snowboards Are Made—along with all kinds of different blogs and over six hundred registered members dedicated to “Sideways Life”—you’d never guess that Snowboards.net is actually a brand-new site. Its growing popularity is a tribute to the vision of its founders, Summit Sports.

As a small but growing chain in southeast Michigan back in the early nineties, it’s a company that had a novel idea—why stay on the Kiddie Hill with more bricks and mortar sports stores, when they could go big and catch some air on the Web? Over a decade later, Summit operates such “go to” niche sporting destinations as skis.com, skateaggressive.com, and wateroutfitters.com as well as ten others—all dedicated to creating an online shopping experience as good or better than that of an in-store visit.

Part of the marketing strategy for Snowboards.net is, of course, snowboard stickers. Since their logo was designed to be in tune with the flashy colors and graphics popular on snowboards, creating a custom sticker out of that distinctive lightning bolt “S/B” was a no-brainer.

“We chose Custom Sticker Makers because we have used them to print stickers for some of our other sites and they turned out excellent,” said Jenna Rickard of Summit Sports. “There was also a time when we had an upcoming event we wanted stickers for, and Custom Sticker Makers went out of their way to get them to us early so we would have them in time for the event. We definitely like to give companies like that repeat business.”

Gallup Journey: Good News for the Southwest

Looking for some good news for a change? If you happen to live in the Gallup, New Mexico/Four Corners area, you’re in luck. The Gallup Journey is a free publication with a focus on the positive, especially as it applies to the local community. Within its pages, you’ll find everything from a story about mountain-climbing with (house)cats to reviews of local restaurants, fiction, and a feature on a 3rd grade karate champ—along with columns on hiking trails, local history, and more.
Founded by Nate Haveman and Chuck Van Drunen in 2004, the publication has grown in popularity over the years, with distribution now at 12,000 copies a month. Key to the Gallup Journey’s promo strategy has been their use of custom stickers, marketing not only their publication, but its underlying message: "Believe [in] Gallup." It’s an eye-catching message that’s been the basis of a guerilla marketing campaign for the publication, appearing everywhere from the McDonald’s drive-thru to stop signs in downtown Gallup.
“I knew Jeff [of Custom Sticker Makers] from years ago, when we ordered some die-cuts,” said Nate. “They were sharp-looking stickers, and well-received. So when we needed new stickers, we went with CSM.”

CSM Offers New Banner Links

Custom Sticker Makers is pleased to announce a series of new graphic banner links, available at www.CustomStickerMakers.com/banners/

These graphic links come in a wide variety of shapes and styles and are designed to give our customers an easy way to link back to CSM. To use them, just copy the code associated with the link and plug it directly into your website. Thanks for your support!

The CSM Team

Campus Scooter: Green Wheels

Around 2005, friends Colin Shellhorn and Tim Soule of E. Lansing, MI, had a great idea: why not get out of the job rut and start a business selling scooters to college kids? As it turned out, their timing was perfect: in 2005, gas was averaging $1.90 a gallon nationally—during the course of 2006, prices would spike up all the way past $3.20 in some areas of the country. In cash-strapped Michigan, that meant the gospel of cheap gas was suddenly appealing to more than just college students, and Campus Scooter took off.

But Colin and Tim’s vision is as much about going green as it is about the bottom line. With an average 80-100 miles per gallon, their wheels make the Prius look like a Hummer—and for every scooter or moped they sell, Campus Scooter plants five trees through the nonprofit American Forests, underscoring their commitment to the environment.

Their best advertising? The scooters themselves. That’s why every scooter they sell comes with one of their high-quality outdoor green bumperstickers, printed through Custom Sticker Makers. With a classic die cut of a scooter, collegiate text and a Michigan State Spartan color theme, everyone on campus knows where the scooters are coming from - Campus Scooter!

“We chose Custom Sticker Makers because of the quality, price and the customer service,” said Colin. He notes that native Michigander and Infamous Network Co-Founder ( CSM’s sister company), Jon Vander Pol, is also a longtime friend. Colin carries Infamous Network's line of Root Concepts stickers at Campus Scooter, "I remember when they were starting out with this sticker business, Jon would come over with new stickers all the time, so when we started Campus Scooter, I looked him up and he told me about Root Concepts. We found that the Root Concepts stickers were a perfect fit for Moped Bumper Stickers and that Custom Sticker Makers was a perfect fit for creating stickers of our logo. We couldn't be any more satisfied with the stickers and the customer service."

Deckstool: Recycled Skateboard Furniture

The Deckstool is not a stool that goes on your deck, although it could be. It is, in fact, far cooler: a stool made out of recycled skateboard decks, produced by skilled craftsmen in what is arguably the skateboard capital of the East Coast: Philadelphia, PA.

The Deckstool started when Jason Podlaski’s brother handed him a pile of his old, broken skateboards and said, “Make me a piece of furniture.” Five years later, the Deckstool has garnered Interior Design Magazine’s Future Furniture Award, as well as the attention of both Playboy Magazine (September 2009 issue) and that fount of all man-things noteworthy and momentous, Uncrate.com

Deckstool has printed a number of different stickers with Custom Sticker Makers, including their logo, which is (you guessed it) a Deskstool. Their latest design takes a different approach: it’s the DeckReaper (the Grim Reaper dressed up as the Statue of Liberty.) It’s raison d’etre? To encourage skaters in the greater Philly area to recycle their old decks. (Deckstool pays dividends to skateshops for helping them to keep pallet-loads of busted boards out of the landfills.)

Why CSM? Jason Podlaski says, “You guys were reasonably priced, and when we got in a pinch a couple of times, you turned our stickers around in just a few days.”

Mana Energy: Potion of Choice for Discerning Gamers

Mana Energy Potion looks like exactly what it is: an energy potion from a fantasy game come to life. The brainchild of gamers Aaron Rasmussen and Eli Szasz, Mana is a new energy drink that comes in a supercool little potion bottle about the size of a bottle of mini-booze that packs a 5-8 hour punch.

Specifically developed by gamers for gamers, Mana is popular with both the video-gaming and role-playing crowd, as it allows them to “level up” their energy without losing points and concentration by uh, having to go to the can.

The folks at Mana are super-savvy with their marketing, and it shows: after just two years in business, Mana and its sister drink, Health Energy Potion, are now distributed at Hot Topic, Spencer’s Gifts and ThinkGeek, as well as at comic book stores from coast to coast.

Their killer marketing strategy? Sponsorships (of conventions, LAN parties and bar nights), social networking and viral videos featuring ingenious “how to” hacks (of everything from the Nerf gun to the Wii) and of course, custom stickers printed by Custom Sticker Makers. At the gaming convention Comicon alone, they distributed nearly a thousand of their distinctive die-cut stickers.

“We looked around and tried a few other companies,” says John Brence of Mana Potions, “but when I talked with Jeff and Daniel, it was just like talking to a friend. They worked with us and gave us exactly what we needed.”

 

Building Some Buzz

Hey folks, we've got some exciting things in the works for the StickerFly blog, and it's all about what makes Custom Sticker Makers so great: Our Customers.

Be sure to follow this page for innovative business concepts, guerilla marketing tactics and "marketing ideas that stick," featuring some of the most interesting, outrageous or just plain cool businesses on the Web.

To kick things off, we'll be featuring an energy drink straight out of a video game--recycled skateboard furniture--a two-headed calf skull (modeled after a real specimen)--and couture-fit organic cotton eco-apparel. Never a dull moment, we promise.

If you're a Custom Sticker Makers customer who'd like to be considered for a feature on this blog, just drop us a line at csm.sales@gmail.com . We're interested in who you are, what makes your business or nonprofit unique, and how you use custom stickers as part of your overall marketing strategy.

We look forward to hearing from you!

Custom Sticker Makers - New Blog!!

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