The Redbows Promotional Gifts Blog

In the promotions industry you just have to strike the ball at the top of the bounce and what better way if summer has just started than to send your customers a promotional fan or personalised icepack? I like these types of gifts because they are quirky and useful, especially in offices with little or no air conditioning. Another spin on this type of gift are ice cubes. All great fun, easily branded and sure to be appreciated by your clients.

I was at a breakfast meeting this week where the subject of child labour came up and especially in relation to the promotional clothing side of our industry. We all seem to forget that if we can buy a pair of jeans from a food retailer for £10 that someone, somewhere has produced these for a tiny fraction of this cost. I read a book recently about how many people in the world live on $1 a day and the forces that not only drive this but keep people at this level of subsistence. When presented with a ‘bargain’ we really do need to question such items from an ethical and fair-trade point of view. Many of the world’s leading retailers and brands do actively work to help enhance the living standards and working environments of their suppliers. Collectively we can all help by being prepared to pay that little bit more.

We are all being asked to consider the environment these days and there is more awareness of the carbon footprint we leave behind. When it comes to promotional gifts it is just as important. If we consider express delivery promotional flashdrives, for example – what makes them express? The fact that they are held as unbranded UK stock ready for an imprint to be applied within a matter of hours or flown in by courier jet from the China? It is easy to identify which would be the greenest approach but should we factor this into our buying decisions? The answer has to be an emphatic yes and what can help this decision making process is to plan their purchase early within a promotional campaign. This allows a promotional gifts supplier to use the greenest possible freight transportation to get your goods to you.

These new promotional air fresheners are a great little idea for in-car, hotel and home promotions. Available in a range of sizes and shapes, with attachment strings or thumb tacks, we have been overwhelmed with the fragrances and scents available. What’s really nice is that the card onto which these are printed is made from 100% recycled materials. Imagine a low-cost ‘always-on-view’ promotional gift which serves a practical purpose and is pleasant on he eye and nose! Think promotional air fresheners.

Have you started to wonder what you are going to do this year for promotional christmas cards? Well the Promotional Gifts Store can sort out all your Xmas card problems with its latest greetings card collection. The website provides detailed instructions on their selection and offers a range of image collections to choose from which can be downloaded as pdf files and viewed at your leisure. Off course to meet today’s client demands we offer both standard and environmentally friendly (ECO) materials as well as a number of different print options. My favourites are the personal ones that can have your name or details printed within the image using some advanced photo and printing techniques. I am sue these are going to be a winner this Christmas.

Well the Promotional Gifts Consultants at Redbows took the night off last Sunday to go and see one of their all-time music favourites – Alvin Stardust. I am pleased to report that we had a great time and the man himself was fantastic. He even came into the foyer after the show to sign autographs and meet the fans who had come along. I bought the new album and had it on in the kitchen the other day – my littlest one (6) said the sound was cool and asked if that was Elvis – the British version I said, and smiled.

Well we are now believe it or not over half way through the year and it is almost time to start thinking about calendars and diaries for 2009. It is quite surprising how commonly used a desk diary is now considering that almost everyone drives Outlook these days on their desktop PC and PDAs. Calendars have always been a firm favourite in the promotional gifts field thanks to their guaranteed place on a wall or desk right within the ‘client space’ – 365 days a year. We have a very wide range on the Promotional Gifts Store and can supply a host of options include packaging and bespoke designs. Glamour calendars still make up a large percentage of those sold but you can still expect to see a wide range of traditional types.

We have to be careful when jumping onto a bandwagon. I think it was Tom Peters who said if you ’see a bandwagon you probably missed it’. Everyone is going ECO gift mad these days and on the Redbows Promotional Gifts Store we provide a fair selection of environmentally friendly gifts ourselves. However, we have learnt to look up the supply chain to check out the green credentials of our suppliers. For example, everyone uses paper pads or sticky notes in offices these days and the idea of recycled ones seems ever so cool. But think about it – what was the impact of the recycling/production process on the environment that actually produced them in the first place? It is almost as though what we actually need now is some form of control and stamping or grading of ECO products to show just how environmentally friendly they are.

So now the BOGOF (”Buy one get one free”) is getting a bad press and coming under attack from the UK Government as part of a crackdown on food waste. The ISP reviews this latest ‘initiative’ and presents a balanced approach from both sides. There is no doubt that we have to reduce our overall waste but within retail there is no such thing as a level playing field – retailers will and have to use any promotional means to differentiate their offering and retain/attract customers. The same has to be said of any organisation today and a strategic use of promotional gifts falls very much into this category. Gifts can be used to reward clients, as campaign incentives and to create brand awareness. At Redbows we just try to make sure that this is done as efficiently and effectively as possible, and within your budget.