The Redbows Promotional Gifts Blog

Today is polling day. Suppose that tomorrow we have a new government or coalition. How will they promote themselves? This is a marketing issue faced by any new start up and one that can be solved using promotional gifts. Let’s take this a little further. When a new company forms it has to create an identity and branding style. The organisation may then develop a strapline that encompasses its ethos and unique selling proposition. With these aspects in place the new entity is ready to start advertising and promoting itself. So what are the best promotional products for start-ups? Well with fairly limited budgets low-cost promotional gifts are always popular. Merchandise such as promotional pens, mousemats and promotional mugs are readily available, easy to brand and customise and always go down well with both clients and recipients. So just imagine that tomorrow is a fresh start. Imagine the first cabinet meeting taking place early next week and on the table at Number 10 are newly supplied promotional gifts from Redbows. It could happen.

The other day I came across the term ‘brand snacks’. Off course to all intents and purposes this is what promotional gifts provide. A short burst of your brand to energise and maybe just get you wanting more. Take promotional pens, you generally pick them up to write with and consciously or unconsciously take note of the branding on them. The same can be said for other standard types of promotional gifts, like promotional mugs and mousemats for example. The important bit is that you have noticed the brand, recalled the contact details and found the products to be useful, reliable and readily available. Just the type of characteristics you want from a supplier off course, and especially a promotional gifts supplier like Redbows.

The promotional gifts market is very competitive and it is possible to see many suppliers offering the same or similar products. Internet search engines and price comparators make it easy for clients to check out prices. So just how does a promotional gifts company differentiate itself and add value? Take a company like Redbows, its differentiation-based strategy is based on innovation and customer service. In terms of the latter, our mission is to provide the best possible customer service in the promotional products industry. This starts from the moment we ‘touch’ a potential client to looking after them through the quotation and ordering process, to final product delivery and after-sales follow-up. We have one of the highest client repeat ratios in the industry, simply because we look after our clients. In terms of innovation, we don’t just look to offer the latest products but also innovate in how we serve clients. This includes investments in our marketing, websites, Twitter and Facebook applications as well as internal process to the business itself. Every employee is involved in the customer service interface and acts as a customer service champion, in addition to being encourage to innovate. So no matter what promotional products (promotional mugs, pens and mousemats for example) you are looking for you can be assured that Redbows delivers ‘probably’ the best possible customer service in the promotional products industry.

When it comes to promotional coffee mugs there are now a number of alternative offerings within the promotional gifts industry. This is in no small way thanks to the explosion of coffee drinking seen within the UK during the last decade with the arrival of Costa and Starbucks to name just two of the leading coffee houses. Think traditional British drinks and you think about the great British Cuppa or cup of tea. Since we started to take coffee so passionately on the high street we can now get all sorts of coffee mugs including small and large Lattes, giant coffee cups and mugs. What most of these coffee mugs have in common is that they are made from ceramics (also known as earthenware). Now not that I am traditionalist but I reckon that you can taste a difference when you drink from a ceramic mug as opposed to a plastic one (even recycled plastic) or worst case a paper mug on the go. Also I believe that ceramic promotional mugs keep your drinks warmer for longer. Quite simply they are built to contain the heat and provide you with a refreshing brew. So what’s the tie-in to this autumn? Well as the summer months fade and hopes of another heatwave pass into the distant pass, sales of warm drinks rise – and exponentially. Within corporate and business offices, more time is now spent at the kettle and canteen than the water fountain as people rush for their morning coffee and afternoon teas. If a typical personal has 3 cups a day, that can mean that they can see you advert over 15 times a week. Make your artwork unique and something to talk about and you may also find that it becomes their favourite and that they promote you even more. Promotional mugs are simply more than a promotional gift, they are a necessity not to be taken for granted.

When it comes to promotional items few have the durability of promotional coasters. This is especially true around this time of year as we approach the autumn and winter months when people turn to their favourite promotional mugs and automatically place them on the nearest coaster. You see the point is that on your desk you probably have just one coaster. It is always there and you see it everday. You probably don’t even have to be using a mug to use it. Sometimes you may simply have a bottle of water or well known brand of energy drink and place it on your coaster. Now the trick with coasters is not to buy too cheap. Sure you can get cheap promotional coasters made from condensed card or paper but what you really want is one that can take a hot mug or cup and not buckle. This means that you almost certainly opt for plastic coasters. Plastic coasters also give other options over say leather coasters. Firstly they can take a very vivid imprint, especially on a solid background colour. Plastic coasters are also generally available in an environmentally friendly, recycled ECO plastic material. So if you want low-cost, cheap promotional items think about promotional coasters. Their unit price is volume dependent and this means that you can get a very inexpensive promotional item to mail and hand out to all your clients and prospects. What’s more you get to purchase for a few pence a very valuable advertising space on their desks.

Well after much work we have almost finished the revamp of our primary Promotional Gifts website. Unlike the Promotional Gifts Store which features numerous product collections and thousands of promotional goods, we wanted the Redbows website to go back to its roots. We wanted to provide a source of the cheapest promotional gifts available and those considered essential for most marketing and promotions managers. Hence the new name for the Redbows website – the Essential Gifts Store. What we have done is made the website display our lowest cost and most popular promotional gifts including pens, mugs, mousemats and many others. We have also added seasonal best sellers such as our chocolate advent calendars. We will add more collections and promotional merchandise to this website over time and see how effective this latest approach is to serving our clients.

Yesterday being Father’s Day I was wondering if we should have an International Promotional Gifts Day? Why you may ask? Well there are two aspects to consider. Firstly, days such as these are intended to recognise the unsung heros and take the time out to reward and recognise them. If you consider staple promotional items like pens, mugs and mousemats then all too often they can become the unsung heros. Part of the issue is that they play their roles well but at a subconscious level, reinforcing brand names and marketing messages whilst providing a more explicit function. Secondly, ‘promotional gifts’ are international by their very nature and are part of a global supply chain. There are very few promotional items these days that are soley sourced (components and materials), manufactured and supplied within a single country, without crossing international boders and supply chains. Just a quick afternoon thought….whilst washing the lunchtime dishes with the males in my house enjoying a snooze and the British Grand Prix.

A recent study within the medical world has identified something within the promotional gifts industry that we have been citing for a long time. The New York Times article reported that medical school students offered pens and mugs promoting a particular drug had a more favourable attitude towards the item than did students from other schools where such gifts are banned. The actual research first appeared in The Archives of Internal Medicine and suggests that no gift is too small to have such an effect. Off course we have known this for many years within the promotional gifts industry but it is nice to see some actual scientific research in a non-marketing specific industry demonstrate this fact.

How do you choose promotional items when most suppliers offer several thousand alternatives? Here are our top marketing tops. Many companies use promotional gifts for a variety of reasons but the primary ones are to increase brand awareness and generate sales. So if you are thinking about investing in such marketing gifts as pens, mugs and even confectionery items here are five general selection guidelines:

1. Link the Promotional Items To Your Company – make sure you include your company name, contact numbers and logo on the product. After all a promotional product is like a company business card.

2. Relate the Promotional Items To Your Company – choose promotional items that in some way have a synergy with your company product or service. If you are an insurance company for example think about offering umbrellas. By associating a promotional item with a company product or service, the brand recognition and impact is far greater.

3. Choose Promotional Items With Enough Imprint Area – by this we mean make sure that your promotional items are big enough to carry your marketing message. This may seem obvious but to make sure your items are going to have the impact and legibility you want try printing out some artwork to the actual imprint area size. If you can read it then so should your clients.

4. Think Quality When Selecting Promotional Items – promotional gifts do vary in their quality and this is often reflected in the price. So if you are promoting a high value item do not use a low-cost giveaway and vice-versa. Sure maximise your marketing budget but ensure again that there is some synergy in terms of quality, reliability and general feel.

5. Continuous Testing – keep testing promotional gifts till you get a formula that produces results. Remember that investing in promotional gifts is like investing in any marketing communications and franchise opportunity. Brand building is the result of a cumulative effect and requires continuous investment.

Have you ever wondered what are the three most popular uses for business gifts? Well you might be surprised to know that they include: exhibitions and tradeshow giveaways, employee and client rewards, incentives and brand builders. Not that surprising really but then the promotional gifts industry is essentially based on the simple premise that people like to receive gifts, that corporate and business gifts in particular can help to engender receptive feelings and responses towards a supplier and develop their overall brand image. So what are the most popular business gifts? Well by far and away the prime movers are the lower cost items that can be found everyday within an office environment like mugs, keyrings, pens, rulers and coasters. Off course in these environmentally conscious times, ECO gifts are also rising fast in popularity but so to are more novel ideas as the growing range of gadgets, in particular USB flashdrive variations, shows.