The Redbows Promotional Gifts Blog

Wow its almost the end of October, the clocks have gone back and we are on the run down to Christmas. Now this time of year is one of the busiest for confectionery websites like the Redbows Promotional Sweets Store and especially collections like our Christmas Chocolates. As well as offering our famous advent calendars we also include some seasonal favourites, including our promotional Christmas Crackers packed with fudge or any other confectionery, sweets, chocolates and novelties you want, mini chocolate boxes and sweet bags. So there is almost everything you could want to give your clients and colleagues for Christmas. If you want to spend a little more why not consider our promotional hampers and gift baskets. These can be made up to any budget and we made contact with a new supplier this year based in the UK who makes them up by nationality. The world as they say is your ‘Oyster’ or should I say chocolate in this case.

We just added a whole load of BIC promotional pens to our plastic pen ranges. BIC are one of the leading pen suppliers in the UK and after receiving regular requests we decided to add them to our existing ranges. On the Redbows Promotional Gifts Store we probably now provide access to over 2000 different promotional pens including their combinations and options, which probably positions us now as one of the major promotional pen suppliers within the UK. Off course price and options are important and you can rest assured that we have secured the best possible prices and delivery options for our clients. This is a busy time of year for promotional merchandising companies as organisations stock-up on marketing materials for the new year. Promotional pens are one of the top five corporate gifts and we recomend you check out our latest additions.

Going through some financial paperwork the other day I realised what a great opportunity any supplier misses when they send out their post, invoices, statements, brochures and circulars. Let’s talk financial institutions for example. These organisations send out masses of paperwork and booklets with their proposals and statements. Most of the supporting evidence you will never read. It simpy gets shreaded or shelved. The companies are focused quite rightly on giving you as much information as they need to, to comply with regulatory body requirements and any specific statutes. However, what they all miss out on is sending really useful free cheap promotional gifts with their packs such as promotional pens or promotional coasters. More often than not these companies want you to sign and return a document – so you have to scramble around for a pen to use. Secondly the packs they send through are often weighty and a promotional pen or coaster would hardly add anything to the cost of postage or distribution. So our advice to anyone sending out circulars, invoices or statements is to think wider than the specifics of the mailing. More often than not your post will probably get inside an area of the company that was not your first point of call, but someone whom you could do with influencing and promoting to. Your statements and invoices go directly into an accounts office, so take the opportunity to sell your brand to them. Circulars and literature may go to sales teams and marketing people. Treat sending circulars as mini marketing events and include gifts like promotional pens, pencils and promotional coasters to promote your organisation.

Branded Promotional Products build relationships. Follow me here. When you give someone a present, and something that they will value and find interesting, you give them reminder of your brand. Something that could get used everyday come ‘rain or shine’. Examples are a plenty from the world of promotional merchandise and include your everyday Essential Corporate Gifts like pens, mugs, mouse mats and flashdrives to corporate clothing and executive gifts. The first promotional gifts were said to be branded buttons from the early 1920s but I would like sometimes to think that perhaps we could find examples going back even further. Sponsorship is said itself to go back to the days when a Royal personage or wealthy baron or lord would fund an event like jousting. Could we find examples of promotional products back then, given out to worthy knights and the crowd like branded ladies hanker chiefs? Who knows but I do think that promotional products date back further than the 1920s. As we approach the next decade, with 2010 just around the corner, one thing is for sure branded promotional products will be with us well into the next century. They are an essential marketing product because they help to build relationships.

Have you given much thought to your new year promotional gifts? Most companies enter the planning and forecasting cycle around now in preparation for the year ahead. Part of this process can include a marketing audit, review of activities and setting of marketing, promotions and incentives related objectives for the year ahead. In addition, 2010 is also the start of a new decade and with the UK recession coming to an end, what better time is there to review your marketing and plan your promotional gifts campaigns for the coming year. So what’s going to be hot and what incentives are going to prove absolute winners in 2010? This is very much industry related but there are some seasonally related products like promotional calendars and personalised diaries. This is the busiest time of year for calendar and diary suppliers with thousands leaving the print houses en route to end users within the next few weeks and months. Pens, mugs and mousemats will remain top gifts in 2010 as will flashdrives, especially if they have an ECO (environmentally friendly) angle. Off course we also have some major events coming up in 2010, like the South African Football World Cup, and we can expect to see football related promotional merchandise launched shortly into the new year. Our advice to anyone thinking about promotional gifts is to set a budet and maximise this to ensure you carry a range of suitable gifts to compliment your marketing activities for the year ahead.

Getting cheap promotional products is the name of the game. The promotional gifts industry like so many others is very competitive and only suppliers running lean processes, with a ‘can-do’ customer-focused attitude will survive. To supply the lowest cost promotional products without sacrificing customer service requires a real dedication and focus. It also requires a collaborative approach from our suppliers and a partnership. One such example is with our credit card authorisation supplier. We have got the costs down so low that Redbows is one of the few companies to not add any extra charges to an order for credit card payments (excluding American Express off course!). In this way we make sure we supply the cheapest promotional products, efficiently and supported by the best possible service. Don’t forget as well that we also run the industry leading ‘Price-Busters‘ promise to make sure that we are always competitive, even if we have to adjust our website pricing to do so and our Money Off promotions are always a real hit with clients.

When it comes to promotional products like flash drives, there is a huge range to choose from but two types out sell the rest. The first is the humble Aluminium Flash Drive. Now this is your everyday flash drive (aka memory stick), with an aluminium case and plastic sides that can be coloured matched (at the right quantity) with your logo. The aluminium flash drive case also offers a great imprint area, suitable for screen printing or laser engraving. This type of USB flash drive is also available on an express delivery with shipments possible within 24 hours from artwork sign off. Now at the other extreme of the promotional flashdrives range we have bespoke custom USB flash drives. These use the same inner workings for memory storage and off course USB connection but have a custom designed outer case. Now this is generally made to a specific mould and can be in the form of your logo or some other specific shape. The cost of mouldings has come down so much that many clients are surprised at the small price difference between a volume hitter like the Aluminium Flash Drive and a custom USB Flashdrive. So when it comes to promotional products like flash drives, you can afford to think ‘outside the box’ more than you probably realise.

When it comes to incentives and rewards what works best – branded promotional items or money off vouchers? Well what has to be considered above everything else are the tax implications. Off course Her Majesty’s Inland Revenue publishes guidelines on how to reward employees and the tax implications of any Benefits in Kind (BiKs) and money incentives. Whilst employees are allowed up to a certain value of incentives each year within their tax bands, including I hasten to add a Christmas party, above their relative bands tax must be paid. This essentially is one of the primary problems with a money off voucher or high street incentive. The other is that they can be ‘one-hit’ wonders. When they are spent or experienced they are gone and with time, forgotten. Off course the same cannot be said about branded promotional items. Firstly, one of the primary advantages of promotional items and branded goods is that they have longevity. Promotional pens, mugs and mouse mats get used every working day and ensure that your brand is clearly and regularly seen. Furthermore as incentives and rewards they can be more personal and selected to suit the strategy behind the promotion. So when it comes to a choice between promotional goods and money vouchers, merchandise always wins. As a marketing and promotions vehicle, branded promotional items are unique.

Finding promotional gifts suppliers has never been easier thanks to the internet. In so many industries, search engines like Google have opened up the competitive base to a wider selection of potential suppliers. However, all is not what it seems. When you look for Promotional Gifts Suppliers it is easy to find a whole host of companies. What you need to do is look a little deeper and what’s behind the curtain. For example, it is relatively easy these days to put up a website and promote oneself. Get it right and you can get a top search ranking position relatively quickly on Google. What’s important is to treat visiting the website in just the same way as you would visiting a retail shop. When you click on the homepage does this look like a proper company, is it a limited business, with UK coverage, contact details and a UK trading address? Does the website appeal and make you want to browse and purchase from it? Are there customer comments, referrals, case studies and testimonials from well known organisations? Does the promotional gifts supplier’s website, offer incentives and rewards to purchase? Do they look as thought they understand promotions and is it their core business? Above all industry associations also legitimise a company – look for some of the main industry body endorsements and accreditations like the PSI, Promota and The British Promotional Merchandise Association (BPMA). Finally, telephone the company. Do the people sound professional? Do you feel that you’re in the capable hands of a promotional gifts consultant? At Redbows you will be…

The promotional gifts industry continues to expand its supply of recycled promotional items. Within the last year we have seen environmentally friendly product alternatives become available for almost all the standard corporate gifts lines we supply. Within the recycled products section of the Promotional Gifts Store we offer a wide range of items made from ‘green’ materials. The best priced also feature within our Essential Gifts Store – recycled promotional items collection. There are actually two types of ECO promotional gifts. The first is made from recycled materials such as plastics, denhim or paper such as money or newspapers and even old car tyres. Examples of this type of product would include plastic mugs, coasters, mousemats, keyrings and pens. Wooden-cased products also fall into this category and include pencils, pens and flashdrives that use wood for their barrels or outer cases which has been farmed from sustainable sources. These woodlands may also be FSC certified. From overseas markets we are also seeing bamboo offered as an alternative casing, especially for flashdrives. The second category of ECO promotional items can be classed as those made for the green thinking client rather than offered to tap into a growing trend. Solar powered calculators have been around for a long time off course but now we are seeing more solar and even water powered products. Off course fuel-cell powered devices are many years away but there are also some interesting green promotional gadgets coming onto the market such as a fuel-cell powered remote control car which could be ideal for executive and more upmarket promotions. What we are also seeing is the general cost of recycled promotional items falling as they become more popular but also as manufacturing volumes and processes become more efficient. Recycled promotional items are definitely here to stay but there are few suppliers and websites like the Promotional Gifts Store that can offer true alternatives to those everyday essential corporate gifts and promotional items.