The Redbows Promotional Gifts Blog

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.

We live in a fascinating world. I just wanted to remind everyone that Easter is early this year (Mar 23rd – see our 2008 Events Calendar) and so if you want to give your clients or colleagues personalised Easter Eggs, then you have got to get your skates on.I searched the internet for some information on Easter and in particular the Easter Bunny. Wikipedia was brilliant – again. I had no idea that the bunny is considered a supernatural-like creature who brings gifts (normally chocolate eggs) at Easter to good boys and girls, and is linked through the festival of Easter itself to the pagan fertility goddess Eostre. So, there you have it. As with most of our modern day festivals and celebrations there is much history and sometimes a little magic to uncover.

Halloween is upon us this month and what better time to think about client promotions. According to Wikepedia, Halloween is a Pagan festival. The word actually means All-Hallow-Even, as in the evening before ‘All Hallows’ or ‘All Saints Day’. Halloween is considered by some to be one of the most potent times for magic, when spirits can make contact with the physical world. I am not suggesting that you even attempt this or prepare the way with some delightful Halloween promotional chocolates. However, you may like to consider using this annual event as an opportunity for a themed promotion for clients, resellers or employees. Given the ‘trick or treating’ tradition of Halloween promotional confectionary is very appropriate and at Redbows we can basically taken any of  our confectionary items and turn them into something rather ‘naughty but nice’. Particular favourites are foil-wrapped chocolates either as individual chocolates, balls in a net or lollipops. Another is ginger bread men or should I be saying ‘Wizards and Witches’ ?

Christmas is a fantastic time of year for promotional gifts companies like Redbows. One of our favourite products is the promotional gifts calendar. There are a variety of customisation options when it comes to this type of gift. All our calendars can cater for either a part or full customisation ranging from a completely bespoke design to an off-the-shelf one with an area to imprint your marketing message. We can even print on the reverse of the windows and mould the chocolates to incorporate your company logo. Everything is possible with this type of gift provided that there is a sufficient lead time.

The problem here is that to get the price down these promotional gifts are produced in massive print runs and we collate several orders together on the printing presses. In addition most customers like to have distributed their advent calendars before December 1st. So our order cut-off points run between October 22nd and November 12th. If you then take off these dates say a week or more for artwork approval, you can see why we ask customers to think about promotional advent calendars as early as August!