What is the International Association of Professional Brochure Distributors?
What is the International Association of Professional Brochure Distributors?
The IAPBD is an international group of experienced, professional brochure distribution companies whose focus includes, but is not limited to, the tourism industry. Our members share common interests in the practices, procedures and problems unique to our industry, and are guided by a common code of ethics. The goal of the Association is to foster the delivery of services to our brochure-advertising clients with Integrity, Quality and Results.
In 2004, the IAPBD members provided service to 47,482 brochure racks and collectively distributed 612,393,240 brochures for 17,034 different brochure clients.
Our Mission Statement
Working in partnership with you, the goal of the International Association of Professional Brochure Distributors member companies is to provide reliable and professional distribution of your brochures.
History of the IAPBD
The International Association of Professional Distributors (IAPBD) was founded in 1975 by six men: Terry McDonough of Florida Folder Service (now called Brochure Displays, Inc.), the late Bill Miller of F.PI.S., Inc., Art Miller (no relation to Bill Miller) of Florida Timetable Service, Harper Thaw of Southern Folder Distribution Co., and Bob Price and Jim Howell of Southern Travel Information Service.
We referred business to one another as clients or prospective clients inquired about service in other members' service areas. Soon, other brochure distribution companies became members, with the first company being Hotel-Motel Distributors, owned by Jack Waters. The next new member was Chuck Swartz who later retired and Advertising Display Service of Charleston SC bought out his company.
With the growing size of the Association, we decided to hold our meetings in other locations then Florida, and not just in conjunction with the Florida Attractions Association's meetings. Our annual meetings have been held in Atlantic City, Orlando, Boston, San Diego, Kansas City, Daytona Beach, Vancouver, Portsmouth, Charleston, Atlanta and even Honolulu.
Our Association members enjoyed each other's company, and liked the idea to traveling to new meeting destinations each year. Our families found out how much fun these meetings and trips had become, and they started wanting to come, too!
The members of the Association certainly have changed over the years as most of the names have changed with people selling their businesses, second generations of family members taking over, and sadly, some passing away.
But, the Association has accomplished many things over the years and has become more of a marketing organization for it's members and a source of referring our brochure clients to other members of the Association who we know will do the job they are contracted for under the same professional standards we all follow.
The Association publishes a brochure listing all the members and the areas they service, plus detailed tips for more effective brochure designing and printing.
The Association has added a web site to provide more current information and updates on the member companies.
Each year, the Association also conducts a "Best Brochure" award competition that selects the best brochures from clients' brochure submitted by the members. These awards are significant for the national and regional "Best Brochure" award winners, since they compete with brochures selected from over 7,000 different clients each year!
Another important project the Association has recently embarked on is a continuing research study into the effectiveness and impact of brochure display rack advertising services. The results of the first research study conducted in 2000 are available in the Research section of this web site.
The Association now has members from the United States, Canada, and even Europe (Ireland). Each year the Association continues to add new members, but only those members who have agreed to live up to our high standards of serving our clients' needs with professional brochure distribution service.
Since the Association was formed in 1975, we have continued to improve each year and continue to share our thoughts and ideas with our fellow members. This way, we all gain from the insights of each other's businesses and each company's different perspective.
Professional brochure distribution is done by people that you can trust, and trust is an important part of contracting with a company to distribute your brochures. The International Association of Professional Brochure Distributors with it's high membership standards is a name that you can trust with your valuable brochures.
The Association thanks Terry McDonough of the Brochure Displays, Inc. for providing this history of the IAPBD. Terry McDonough was one of the founding members of the IAPBD
IAPBD Documents for Download (pdf)
