The Redbows Promotional Gifts Blog

Promotional pens are one of the most popular promotional marketing tools around. What makes a promotional pen so unique? Quite simply it is the fact that it is a very effective platform for your marketing message. Within any organisation, pens are a necessity. Even within organisations adopting a ‘paperless’ environment, promotional pens can still be found.

So distributing promotional pens with your logo and contact details on is a great way to promote your organisation. They may be kept within the office environment or find themselves placed handily and to the ready in briefcases, home offices and cars. The important point is the most effective promotional pens are those valued by their users. Pens that get used time and time again. Pens that promote your brand everytime they are used.

The more your brand is subconsciously identified with, the more likely the user will turn to your organisation and business when they require your products or services. The most attractive and useful pens will be highly valued and sought after, creating a viral marketing effect for your brand. So when choosing a pen, it pays to select the most appropriate for your brand style and colouring, and perhaps one that would be considered a bit more unique than others available.

Promotional pens are off course volume priced and thanks to low-cost screen printing techniques, they can easily be branded in either one, two or even three positions. It is also possible to consider full-wraps and even laser engraving. For more information check out our Promotional Pens Store or visit our wider promotional gifts website.

Happy new year! So what does 2011 hold for promotional gifts suppliers like Redbows? The year ahead holds lots of promise and we expect to see several trends continuing throughout 2011. For example, eco promotional gifts will continue to grow in importance as more and more companies and organisations embrace the need to be green and more environmentally friendly. Redbows will expand its ECO Gifts Store with even more environmentally friendly products. We also anticipate an expansion of our promotional products microwebsites – Promotional Pens Store and Promotional Sweets Store as we develop wider global supplier relationships. Price will remain a key driver for 2011 and Redbows will continue to deliver the best possible promotional gifts, priced to give the best value and budget optimisation. In terms of marketing in general, social media marketing will continue to grow in importance within our own marketing mix. We already run the Redbows Promotional Gifts page on Facebook – check us out and click the ‘Like’ button if you want to keep upto date with our activities or follow us on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/redbows. Linkedin is also something we will continue to explore and evaluate and Dawn Koffler our MD already has an active profile page. So 2011 is all about expansion, product range extension and increasing our client communications. We look forward to an exciting year ahead and to helping you promote and grow your businesses.

The Promotional Pens you use say a lot about your company and also about the person or people involved in selecting them. Choosing the right promotional pens for any promotion involves a number of factors. Budget is obviously a key factor to consider and once a certain style of promotional pen is chosen, other factors come into play such as its colour and imprint area. These days our clients are also considering whether to opt for an ECO friendly pen i.e. one made from recycled materials. However the most important thing that needs to be considered is the end user. Will they want to use then pen? How does it feel to them? Some people prefer a chunky pen and some people prefer slim barrels. Some like black ink and some blue ink. Some ballpens and some rollerballs. When it comes to promotional gifts and especially promotional pens there are a few more factors to consider than just budget, colour and imprint area.  Alternative gift solutions are another area to consider. At Redbows we have also seen a rise in demand for promotional wooden pencils. These can be supplied with or without an eraser and the most popular are the matt black finished pencils. The best advice is to check out the types of promotional gifts and promotional pens found in your client’s offices. Conduct your a mini market survey to ensure you hit the mark when it comes to your own promotional pens.

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.

The term ‘Promotional Gifts’ covers such a selection of promotional merchandise. When our Promotional Gifts Consultants are advising clients they always try to tie back the chosen merchandise to an original campaign brief. For example, suppose that you want to launch a new environmental awareness campaign and are considering ECO themed gifts. Off course you would automatically think about products made from recycled or reclaimed materials. You could widen your thinking to consider promotional gifts that have a ECO theme – such as plants, seeds and desktop gardens, or go even wider and look at promotional merchandise that conserves energy or generates its own such as wind up gadgets and solar powered promotional gifts. The point is to start with a simple positioning statement as to what you want to achieve and then take the time to ‘brainstorm’. Look for a range of suggestions from the conservative to the ‘whacky’, talk to a Promotional Gifts Consultant and get some ideas and then make your selection based on the best possible match to your brief. Selling promotional gifts is fun and sometimes the more creative our thought processes, the more innovative (and effective) the promotional gifts.

Promotional pens are a firm favorite when it comes to promotional gifts. Most companies will now include printed pens as part of their marketing mix. Why? Well, they are so versatile a promotional gift because people still like to write. I know this sounds strange but somehow we cannot fully disengage from our inbuilt desire to write, even with all the electronic devices we have around us. Personalised pens are simply an everyday tool that we use, whether we are in the office, in the car or at home.

Promotional pens do vary in their price and they are a volume priced promotional product. However, the ranges and options available mean that there is generally a promotional pen to match any budget. The most common are plastic promotional pens which can be solid coloured or with a frosted effect – so that you can see their inside workings. Either can be appropriate for a promotional campaign.

Our first top tip is to visit a website that caters solely for printed pens – like the Promotional Pens Store. Here you will find a range of pens including the plastic ranges mentioned but also recycled pens – made from reclaimed materials, metal pens, wooden pens, executive pens and even express delivery pens. Then get creative, try to match a pen style and colour to your image. Choose a pen that you think your clients will like to use and then select a colour range that will compliment your logo. You then have to consider print locations which include the barrel and on some pens the pen clip itself. Barrel printing is the norm and it is possible to have multi-position prints as well as a 360 degree wraparound. Most clients will opt for a one or two colour imprint but full colour printing is also an option. Finally you do need to think about distribution. You may just want to use your promotional pens as exhibitions giveaways – if so a large container is fine but for other marketing communications programs you may be considering direct mail or individual pen pouches or containers. Before making your final selection, request a few samples to make sure you like the touch, feel and writing style as this can also vary when it comes to promotional pens.

Well just how easy can you make a website to navigate? Well we keep striving at Redbows to provide clients with the best possible and most accurate sources of information when it comes to Promotional Gifts. Our latest micro-website is dedicated to promotional pens, pencils, highlighters, crayons and marker pens. So far initial client reaction has been great because the website does exactly what we intended it to do – give clients the chance to browse our pen and pencil collections on-line before making contact to firm up an order. We just added some new dynamic collections based around lowest price. For example clients can look at pens priced from 10p upwards. We will add more features as we develop the technology behind our websites and just ask that clients keep on making their constructive comments.

In line with our commitment to give clients the best possible advice and product selection in the promotional gifts industry, we launched another micro website today – the Promotional Pens Store. Promotional pens and pencils are two of the best promotional products to sell because they fit the ‘ask’ – high volume, low prices, great value and plenty of imprint area and colour options. We are very excited by our latest micro website and have seen that promotional pens remain one of the most popular and sought after promotional products for campaigns and as use as general giveaways. This is just the start for Redbows as we will be adding more pens and suppliers to the Promotional Pens Store including Parker, BIC, Prodir and many other leading brand pen manufacturers. As with all types of promotional merchandise we also provide ECO friendly pens and pencils on the website made from recycled materials and managed sources.