The Redbows Promotional Gifts Blog

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.

When you think about business gifts do you see the gift or the brand? I ask this question because we have been spending a lot of time thinking about watch brands recently and their use of celebrety endorsements. A similar analogy can be applied to coffee. For example when we watch a coffee advert what we see is the coffee brand name and not the mug or cup that the person is drinking from. Now wouldn’t it be nice if we could see the promotional mugs names themselves catch on as brands in their own right. Some are well down this road – for example the Photo Mugs and Wow Mugs which have unique characteristics and print options and make ideal business gifts.

Research last year on the North American gifts market by PPB Magazine showed that the US spends a staggering US$6bn on promotional products. Now that’s an awful lof of promotional products. How are they  being used? Well the primary uses are to reward customers and generate goodwill. Coming in third is prospecting and recognising employee contributions.

For customers and prospects the facts show that organisations tend to favour those suppliers from whom they receive promo items. They do not mind the logos, imprints and slogans. Somehow the companies using promotional gifts get a far greater share of ‘mind time’ and create greater goodwill and loyalty than those that do not use such merchandise in their marketing. The same can be said for employees who also exhibit greater loyalty and productivity when rewarded.

So which corporate gifts work the best? Well it appears that even every day office items like promotional mugs and promotional pens are just as effective a larger or more expensive promo items. This is interesting research which supports many of our own findings in the UK market.

Promotional products should be thought of as a key element within the marketing promotional mix. Such items fall below-the-line and probably lie somewhere between promotions and publicity activities. As a promotional investment they deserve as much consideration when it comes to market segmentation as any other form of marketing or advertising. What this means is that your chosen promotional items should be closely aligned with their target audience. Let’s take mugs as an example. There are many types of promotional mugs available including plastic mugs, ceramic mugs, earthenware mugs, eco mugs and travel mugs. When you use mugs for promotions you should choose a mug type and style that will make the promotional items valued, used and kept by the recipients. In an office a nice ceramic mug may be more appropriate than say a plastic or acrylic one. The design may also be important for example otping for a tall Latte Mug as opposed to a general coffee mug. For people outsdoors and travelling a travel mug with secure top and thermos characteristics may be more appropriate again. So when you have decided on your promotional product widen the discussion to consider which particular type will be right for your audience and promotion.