By Rock Neelly

In the promotional products industry, the Geiger name elicits quite a reaction. Most people in this field register the name with high regard and respect. And, of course, this is not to mention longevity: Geiger has been in the promotional products business since before it was officially created as an industry just over 100 years ago.

But in the printing industry, the name Geiger means something else: The Farmers' Almanac!

So how did this name come to mean so much to so many?

It is a family story, yes, but perhaps more accurately, a story of family culture that lends itself to the business family, as well. Geiger is the promotional products industry's ninth-largest distributor (based on ASI statistics for the 2002 sales year), with nearly $125 million in sales, but that, of course, is only a small part of the story. Often the best place to get answers is to start at the top. At Geiger, that means brothers Gene and Peter Geiger.

Gene Geiger is President of Geiger. He joined the firm in 1973 after graduating from Notre Dame and has held the title since 1978. Peter is Executive Vice President and has been at the company since 1978, returning to the family business after getting his degree from Villanova. When the brothers took the helm in the 1970s, the company, known as Geiger Bros. until recently, boasted sales in the range of $8 million a year, a figure that in the ensuing decades has grown exponentially. The corporation now has nearly 375 employees and swells to nearly 500 with the addition of seasonal help. And, there are also just short of 400 sales representatives selling for the firm.

"Family culture is behind our success," Gene offers. "At Geiger, we are in it for the long, long haul. Our company embraces our internal staff, and we consider our sales people (who are mostly independent contractors) our primary customers whom we must keep satisfied. Even our vendors are treated with the same respect as part of the Geiger family."

Peter agrees, "From the start, our family company has been about good taste and good ethics. The Geiger Way is all about respect: for our employees, for our sales force, for our vendors, and for our clients."

"Our father, Raymond Geiger was our company's best salesman, our chief promoter and our leader," remembers Gene. "During my first 15 years as president, you have to understand that he often had strong ideas on our company direction, and I learned a great deal from him. It was a team environment. Even today, we have four people in senior management. Peter is an equal shareholder to me, and his voice is equal, and in certain matters, can override my opinion. We all listen and heed each other's areas of expertise."

There has to be a historical precedence for this wonderful philosophy. Success breeds success - that we all know. How did the "Geiger Way" start?

The company was founded in 1878 (the same year that Thomas Edison produced the first light bulb with practical applications) in Newark, N.J. Brothers Andrew and Jacob Geiger hung out their shop's sign a little more than a decade after the Civil War, selling novelties and printed calendars and other printed executive gifts. Jacob's sons, once grown, also joined the firm, and Frank A. Geiger and his brother Charles bought the company from their father and uncle in 1907. Frank A. served as the president of the Advertising Specialty Association for the 1924-25 term, and later, in 1935, rejoined the association board as treasurer, holding sway over Depression-era finances and well into World War II in his 10-year term.

Francis (Frank O.) Geiger and Raymond Geiger, sons of Frank A., joined the firm in the early 1930s, and were a perfect fit to move the company forward, both as a manufacturer and a promotional company.

"It was fascinating," says Peter Geiger, editor of The Farmers' Almanac since 1995, "that my uncle, Frank, was totally focused on all things imprinted from the day of his start with the company, while my father, Ray, was completely immersed in all the items we manufactured - calendars, diaries, and, of course, The Farmers' Almanac. They were a perfect team."

That Uncle Ray took over as editor of The Farmers' Almanac in 1934, when it was a relatively small book. It had been published since 1818, and its owners sought someone with a philosophical bent to buy it, and Raymond, with a degree from Notre Dame in philosophy, was the ideal choice. In 1935, Ray's first version of the almanac came out, and the company printed only 86,000 copies nationally.

"It was perhaps the first or second promotional item ever given by businesses," Pete says proudly. "Businesses would buy The Farmers' Almanac and give them away to their good customers. The retail version of the book wasn't available until decades later."

And Ray Geiger was a determined man. With the start of World War II, he joined the service and was stationed in the South Pacific. He corresponded with his sister during the war years, and together, they published the Almanac, never missing an edition during the world war.

After his safe return, Ray focused his energies on The Farmers' Almanac in earnest. The yearly periodical grew in the 1950s until the print runs were exceeding 6.5 million copies a year by Geiger Bros.' centennial year, 1978. (Keeping with its promotional-products roots, the Almanac is published in two versions: a retail edition for the general public on newsstands, and, a promotional edition designed to be distributed by Geiger customers to their customers as a service and a promotion.)

By now, Ray was also involved in leading the promotional industry, following in the footsteps of his father. Both Ray and his father are now enshrined in the PPAI Hall of Fame.

The firm moved to Lewiston, Maine in 1955 as Ray and Frank O. continued to grow the company's reputation in promotions, but also developed a huge following with his almanac's advice on weather, garden planting, astronomical phenomena, and its yearly collection of maxims and advice. Ray served as editor of the almanac for 60 years!

Peter took over as editor from his father in 1995, and upon the day of his interview with Wearables Business, he had already been contacted for numerous interviews regarding the prospects of an early end to winter as Groundhog Day approached. He has also had fielded a phone call from an interested father who was booking a church for his daughter's wedding.

"Unfortunately," Peter laughed sheepishly, "all the Saturdays when the church was available were showing rain."

Peter has appeared upon CNN, The Today Show and conducts many interviews for radio and television. So how about it, Pete, what is the weather going to be like in 2004?

"We see a wet year ahead," he admits. "It will be a late spring in the East with snows into April."

And how about the business climate?

"That's a better prediction," Peter says. "I think that business is going to rebound nicely. At Geiger, we experienced some of the same difficulties as did the rest of the industry, but we have put technology and people in place in the last year to help us process business more efficiently to the benefit of our clients."

Gene is also ready for sunnier times.

"I still have fun at this job, but there have times over the last three years that were not fun," he acknowledges. "It was the worst spell during my working life. Perhaps the promotional bubble grew too large, but it was definitely challenging to manage the change."

"On the other hand," Gene counters, "the down time gives us hope, and hope springs eternal. Geiger is on the upswing now. And our company family has made that happen."

"Our family culture is what still keeps me here," Gene adds. "Being involved with the people at Geiger. I love being around people who are smart. The fun part of my job is being surrounded by bright, good, hard-working people who are really wonderful at what they do."

"As I get a little older, I have become a little more comfortable with who I am and the role I play," he muses. "It is fun, and I am proud to represent a company that carries a reputation of respect. It is good to be a front man for a company filled with really good people."

Gene contemplates the future for a moment. "I don't see a time in the promotional products industry when what individual humans bring to bear is not the key. People are the most important criteria. I don't see technology overriding relationships as the primary force in driving the business. Yes, at Geiger we have and will add to the weaponry to smooth processing client needs, but that is not the story. Brains, creativity, effort, and commitment are what is important in the attraction and retention of customers."

"Within the family culture of Geiger," he concludes, "we hope everyone associated with us feels a sense of connection to the whole. We want to be transparent in our sense that we are ethical. We aren't perfect, but we are moral and ethical the vast majority of the time. We want people to know we regard them as important and valuable. If we succeed in that, we will succeed in all."

With such a philosophy, the forecast for Geiger should be filled with sunny days.

Rock Neelly is a veteran of the promotional products business, having served years with apparel suppliers. His articles on a variety of promotional wearables topics began appearing in these pages last year.