The Redbows Promotional Gifts Blog

We have just updated our Chocolate Easter Eggs collection. This is always one of my favourite times of year because I am a ‘chocaholic’. I just love getting the chocolate samples and then taking as much time as is absolutely necessary to put together the perfect Easter Chocolate confectionery collection. We have quite a range of chocolate items for this Easter including traditional boxed chocolate Easter eggs which can be fully personalised with a foil block or 1-4 colour imprint, as well as more novel finger boxes, small Easter gift bags and novelty bunnies. After such a cold winter we think that Spring is a great time – sunshine just puts everyone in the right mood and our personalised chocolates will simply help to promote your brand to even higher levels. We find that a lot of our clients are using chocolate Easter Eggs simply to say ‘thank you’ to their clients and employees. Whatever your use for them, we know that you simply enjoy and savor our mix of UK-made and Belgian chocolate Easter Eggs.  For a wider selection of chocolates and sweets visit our new Confectionery website – the Promotional Sweets Store.

Sorry guys but with Christmas now a distant memory, we are turning our attention to Easter. Yes its time to start thinking about your budgets for Easter gifts. We do a ‘cracking’ line in chocolate Easter Eggs, personalised and ready to promte your business. That’s all for now but you need to crack on (sorry again) because Easter is just around the corner.

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.

At a local networking event the other night, we came across a great idea for Christmas – Good Bags. So why not think about collating several promotional gifts together and supply them to clients in a branded promotional bag such as a organic cotton shopper? You see we supply a wide range of shopping bags and this means that they can be designed to suite any budget. In addition they offer great advertising space. Stuffed with promotional chocolates, sweets, mints and cakes, they are a superb alternative to Christmas hampers – and long after your Christmas goodies have been eaten, the promotional shopping bags remain behind to be used again and again, providing ongoing advertising for your brand. Now is the time to really think about Christmas presents for your corporate clients and our Christmas goody bags are guaranteed winners. You could even include promotional teddies and other similarly related types of toys and presents. Everyone loves chocolates, sweets and presents, so why not reward your clients this Christmas?

As we get ready for the festive Christmas season it is no surprise that promotional advent calendar enquiries are shooting through the roof.  This year we have provided a fairly unique range of chocolate calendars in both desktop and wall formats. There are also small and large versions and we can offer a range of print options including a part or full printed, postal cartons and even printing behind the doors. There is a twelve-days promotional advent calendar this year but alas no working day one due to the way the seasonal holidays fall this year. If you want to go the ‘whole hog’ we can also supply sweet-filled Christmas Crackers and chocolate baubles to decorate client Christmas trees. All great fun and a superb way to promote your organisation and generate goodwill. See the Christmas Collection on our new Promotional Sweets Store.

When it comes to promotional sweets and personalised chocolates does price matter? Well the answer is simple – ‘yes’ and ‘no’. Let me explain. To be environmentally friendly (ECO if you like) costs money.  The same applies when it comes to being healthy. Take chocolates as an example. Nowadays you can opt for a Fairtrade and/or organic version of most chocolate products but you expect to pay a little bit more for them. Somewhere along the line extra costs are incurred and as we know promotional products, like any mass manufactured merchandise, are priced to volume. Now take sweets, how can these be healthier? Well like chocolates we can opt for Fairtrade or organic sweets but also sugar-free options. Now sugar-free you may think, is a healthier alternative. Wrong. Not always. Take sugar, nature’s natural sweetener and replace it with a man-made chemical. Point made? Also consider colourings. Food colourings are added to get a specific colour but what are they made from, how are they applied and are they everyday approved food colourings. So, how do you ensure you are getting ‘pukka’ products? Well check out where they are made, do they comply with all relevant European labeling legislation, do they use standard everyday food ingredients, and above all remember that quality is often reflected in the price. Finally look at the shelf life and ask for the date of manufacture. If you buy sweets and chocolates, remember they may have been made en-masse and then branded in smaller batches. If brought in from overseas (yes mints do come from China) they can be several days or weeks in transit, and often not in a suitable ambient temperature. If you buy sweets, confectionery, chocolates or any other snack items, you want to ensure that they are going to be fresh and editable for clients within your expected usage dates. Presentation is not everything with promotional sweets and chocolates – often the ‘proof is in the pudding’ and how it looks under the wrapping and eventually tastes.

We are looking for a neat solution to volume pricing on the Promotional Gifts Store and soon to be launched Promotional Sweets Store. The problem is that our suppliers price their sweets and chocolates differently. On our websites we want to show a uniform solutions to visitors and this means that we do have to get creative. Chocolates and Sweets are typical examples. One group of chocolates may be priced per unt (for example ‘each’) and another may be priced per 100 pieces. This does not allow us to achieve great functionality in price comparisons i.e. listing search results from lowest to highest and vice versa. We will work on this during the week and hope to get a solution in place shortly. In the meantime ‘meerkats’ it may not always be as ’simples’ as we want so if you are confused please call our Promotional Gifts Consultants.

When it comes to promotional merchandise there are so many uses that we sometimes forget to stand back and focus on just what we want to achieve in using such items. Suppose that we are looking at rewarding employees. Working with consultants involved with Investors in people has made us more aware of the need for suitable ‘reward and recognition’. The first keyword here is ’suitable’, as it is important to make sure you maintain equity between employees whilst at the same time giving them something they will see as a reward and not simply a token giveaway. Now, we work with one firm who has made each line manager responsible for their own departmental awards scheme and these vary from team to team. Whilst the company has a high customer-service focus, each department also has its own goals in this corporate pyramid. Sales are focused on sales budets, operations on output and service on customer response times and even first time fixes. Therefore the managers in this firm scale their rewards from a ‘no-cost’ thank you to the more formal reward of a plaque, certificate, wine or chococolates and even shopping vouchers. The important point is to make sure you are rewarding the right behaviours, with the right rewards to keep the organisation moving towards its corporate goals.

We have just launched our 2009 Promotional Chocolate Easter Eggs collection and are very excited by the range we have to offer this year. The collection covers both hollow and solid Easter eggs with innovations in packaging and design to make sure that we have a promotional product range that can appeal to a wide audience. Not every thinks about using branded Easter products in a promotion but clients who have, report that they see a far higher brand awareness and market message retention than with any other type of product around this yearly event. What is nice really is that we in the UK have probably one of the ’sweetest tooths’ in Europe. We just love chocolate, sweets and confectionery and something about using them in promotions just seems to click with us. Now the main point here is to make sure you get your orders in early enough as delivery can range form 10-20 working days – or longer if you want a bespoke item. For more information see our latest press release.

You know the count down to Christmas is upon us when Google searches for Promotional Advent Calendars and Promotional Xmas Chocolates increase. Advents Calendars are a wonderful gift for the holiday festivities and can create a great deal of goodwill in the lead up to them. What most people do not realise is the print process itself. Most calendars are produced on large print runs using complex machinery that is capable of changing the imprint during the run. This maximises print volumes and gets clients the lowest possible unit costs. So, when thinking about whether to order your Advent Calendars remember to find out the last print run date. For most suppliers this can be very early in November. Remember to also think about whether you are going to hand-deliver them or send them out by post. Advent Calendars can be part or fully personalised, as can their packing and post cartons. Most suppliers have a range of standard designs you can call on and for a small sum a Design Studio or Creative Agency should be able to provide you with a fully customised design.