The Redbows Promotional Gifts Blog

Well we have had quite a week updating our environmentally friendly collection of ECO gifts for 2009. There was much to add this year and we will be building on this collection as more suppliers provide ECO alternatives to their standard products. What constitutes ‘environmentally friendly’ to us is that the products are either manufactured from some sort of natural, organic or recycled materials and/or are biodegradable, or are powered from an environmental source – such as water or solar power. It will be interesting to watch this collection grow throughout the year. A personal favourite of mine is the ‘Thank You’ plant. Dale Carnegie wrote in his book ‘How To Get On And Influence People’ that using a person’s name is one of the sweetest sounds to them. Well getting a ‘Thank You’ is also a big plus in my book and these days there are not often enough opportunities to do so – so ‘Thank You’ to all our clients and suppliers and everyone at Redbows this week who helped us to finish on such a high note.

Well not to be outdone my other half managed to secure an iPhone this week and he has already loaded it with every ‘App’ – (Apple term for Application) going. Rob already runs his own Facebook and has started a new group for Promotional Gifts. Now he has promised to also start Twittering for Redbows. I am not sure what this actually means but if it keeps the ‘Techno-kid’ happy then so am I. Isn’t technology fun. Now he can find his car provided he has GPS signal and the iPhone battery has not gone flat…

Well we just added a new feature to our Promotional Gifts Store website – ‘join our mailing list‘. Now we use a double opt-in sign up form to we comply with all the latest regs and standards when it comes to spam email. So if you do sign up please rest assured that you will not be spammed and we will only be sending you relevant information ‘irregularly’ and you can always opt-out at any time.

Are promotional products and pens in particular turning into the modern day equivalent of the calling card? We have a client who purchases buckets of them – nothing else except promotional pens. Everywhere they go they hand out their pen, putting them on reception desks, in kiosks, in office meeting rooms and the like. To him the promotional pen he hands out is now synomymous with his organisation. All he has printed onto the pen is his company name, logo and contact details. I reckon that he has gone through around 5,000 pens over the last few years with us and that to him means 5,000 people he has touched and promoted himself to. No wonder his business keeps growing with such personal marketing.

Well I realise that I have been remise with my blog for a few weeks now but that’s life in the promotional gifts industry. This time of year is a manic one as suppliers update their price lists and we have to work life crazy to get the new data into our quotation systems. So far this year given all the hype about the US$ and Euro exchange rates most of our manufacturing partners seem to be playing a level playing field. So this means that we can pass on any savings to our clients and continue to make sure we remain one of the most competitive and fairest suppliers in the industry.

Did anyone notice how few there were in the papers this year? I guess that I am not that surprised given the economic climate. Looking at the papers yesterday one could see that they were filled with the some of the most depressing stories around. Just for once would it not be great to get some real positivity into the press? I am a firm believer that negativity attracts nothing but…well negativity and if you want to be positive you have got to think positive. OK times are tough for a lot of people but they are full of opportunities as well. As they say one person’s problem is another’s opportunity.