The Redbows Promotional Gifts Blog

We have seen a huge increase in enquiries from business start-ups so far this year. Two things we notice: more people are turning to the internet as a technology that allows them to quickly reach a large audience – either through Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising or good search marketing, and secondly that more women are looking to enter the business world. ‘Mumtrepreneurs’ is the new in vogue term. But what does this mean for our industry? Well from the enquiries we are seeing more clients are looking to purchase start up sets and small quantity/low cost promotional items like pens, mugs and mousemats. This is great news for companies like us and we are doing all we can to help these new start-ups and ventures, with special offers on selected items including small quantity run printed pens and free origination on promotional items like stress shapes and balls. There is no doubt that there is a general levelling going on in the business world but we hope that in our way we can help new companies take that first step into promoting themselves and getting their names and contact details out there.

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.

Promotional keyrings are also known as keychains and keyfobs. Off course these are very popular promotional products and one of the lowest cost items you can find for merchandising and use as giveaways. One of the main impacts that these products can achieve is a daily reminder of your company and brand. There are also a wide range of materials available including plastic (acrylic), metal, leather and even wood. Now most gifts suppliers will offer a standard range that can have inserts or take an imprint directly onto the keyring surface. Some also offer a bespoke service where a custom shape can be manufactured. Gadget keyrings are off course more expensive again and here one has to think about budget and the features offered. So how can keyrings be used within your marketing campaign? Well it very much depends on whether keyfobs can be tied into the promotion off course. If they can, promotional keyrings offer a very unique, high quantity and low unit cost form of marketing your organisation. If you have a motoring, security or home-related promotion the link can be very obvious. All you need to do is make sure that your keyring will be the one your clients use for their home, business and car keys.

Well there is quite a choice to be had in promotional bags and nearly every product is available with some form of environmentally-friendly ECO variant. Let’s take the Tote Shopper for example. These promotional products can be supplied in plastic or cotton and sometimes even an organic or Fairtrade version. When it comes to choosing carrier bags the main question is one of longevity. Take a ‘bag for life’ and make it plastic and you can imagine that over time the handles will pull and stretch. If they are part of the bag itself, the actually manufacturing technique can weaken the design. A promotional bag that could provide longer service will actually be made from cotton. This has the advantage of being able to be repaired and patched off course but the imprint may not be as vivid. Our advice therefore is to apply the 3 golden rules of promotional merchandising – budget, impact, longevity – what is your budget, what impact are you looking to make and over what period. When you have these nailed down the choice of whether to go for a plasic carrier bag or cotton Tote shopper is easy.

When it comes to self-promotion, promotional pens are a must. No other promotional products will provide you with such opportunities to market your organisation and these types of writing instruments come in all sorts of shapes, sizes and prices, with a whole range of options to match. So what makes promo pens such great marketing tools? Well the first aspect is that everyone writes and needs a pen. I am sure that a few hundred years ago if you looked carefully at the quill being used there was a brand marked onto its stem. Seriously, pens and even pencils work because they are can be supplied in small or large quantities and at a relatively low price. They can be coloured match or made up to suit your company logo. Pens also offer a very visible imprint area and more often than not you can print on both the barrel and clip. Now the only things to be careful with when it comes to promotional pens is to make sure that you choose a barrel and clip colour that will make your imprint as visible as possible. You also need to make sure that your imprint is not so small that it becomes hard to read. You should win every time with a promotional pen or pencil and push them out to as many people as possible. When you find a design that works for your company and clients – stick to it and perhaps only vary the colours used next time.

We were discussing a major roll-out programme with a client the other day. Their campaign involved using a number of promotional products including: pens, bags, conference folders, flashdrives and ice scrapers. Now as you can imagine with such a wide range of gifts the imprint areas vary enormously and so we turned to the question of logos and just what we could apply as a imprint standard across the product range. Their client was already a well known brand and so what we were actually doing with the gifts was brand promotion i.e. just the logo and perhaps a concept tagline. Any more detail and we would have had to print it too small if we wanted consistency across the product merchandise. So we opted for just the logo as an imprint. Then we turned to the way this would be applied. Where materials were used such as the bags we went for an embroidered imprint using all three colours in the logo. On the ice scrapers we opted for 3 a colour screen print as the products were white and so offered a white background. Now the pens were in a corporate blue and so we opted for a single 1 colour to off-set the logo – the choice here was white or silver and we opted for silver. We used the same on the flashdrives but this time as a laser engraved and on the folders we embossed. So when all the products sat together we could envisage a range of gifts with obvious connection between the branding, with each offering an imprint that suited the background and materials. We also made sure that we made use of the ‘white space’ on each of the promotional products to be show the logo. Simple but needed some thinking as most of these more complex projects do.

When it comes to below-the-line marketing budget spends promotional products remain one of the most cost-effective mediums. The key though is to make sure that you put as much thought into the timeframe that your giveaways and premiums will be used within. Why? Well take promotional gadgets with internal batteries. Batteries have a design life and most will probably run flat without recharge or replacement within twelve to eighteen months. So if you use promotional flashcards for example, you are probably going to get the most benefit from them out of an autumn/winter campaign. A well known emergency car rescue services provides these in its welcome packs. Off course gadgets like USB flashdrives have an infinite life as they are powered from a PC USB port. One thing to watch here is to make sure you use an imprint that will last the life of the product – embossed or engraved is always the best way to go especially if there is a chance the imprint will get rubbed in a pocket against metal objects like keys and pens. If you give away items at a tradeshow or exhibition that are relatively low cost like promo bugs, the you have to remember that the majority of these low-cost giveaways are going to be out-of-sight within six to twelve months or sooner. So pick items that you believe your target audience will keep and use, again and again because each time they use them you know that your brand is right is front of them. A firm favourite for me is rulers. It does not matter how much work we do online at some stage we all need to print information out and use a ruler to measure or as a guide to data reading. Promotional rulers are one of the unsung winners when it comes to giveaways and merchandise – have you got one in your drawer? If not would you keep one if it was given to you? I would dare to suggest a definite yes! Promotional Mugs are another best seller when it comes to gifts offering longevity.

Well this time of year is one the busiest for tradeshows and exhibitions and it is a good time to just step back and think through just what makes great gifts and promotional products at this type of event. Let’s reduce this problem down and focus on seminars. When we hold a seminar for clients they are generally talking about having a captive audience for a period of time. During this time they want the clients to become totally absorbed with a brand and use branded promotional items to reinforce and support activities during the seminar. So, for example, at the start of the day clients may receive name badges and welcome packs using conference boxes or bags packed with information that will be used during the day, a branded paper pad for notes and personalised pen. It is also likely that key information such as company presentations, datasheets and price lists may also be included on a personalised flashdrive. On the tables in front of the clients may be bottled water – branded off course, along with some personalised sweets and mint tins. Attendees may also receive some corporate clothing which will be embroidered with the company logo and there may well be surprise gifts during the day for a seminar related competition. So looking a the basics we have to start with a budget and our focus for the event. Then we simply find the best possible way to deliver the objectives for the promotional products including getting a client’s attention and leaving them with a favourable, lasting impression. The same is true of exhibitions and tradeshows but the amount of time you get a client for is more limited. What we recommend is that you put low-cost, low-bulk items on the front of stands to use as giveaways like pens, bugs and badges. Also if your budget covers it include some branded bags and carriers – this will become ‘free advertising’ around  the event. Keep your more expensive gifts for key clients and only pass these out if they sit down with you or request a sales follow up after the show. Promotional products are very effective items and especially at tradeshows and exhibitions but you have to remember that when your visitor gets home they may well have a bag stuffed with goodies and your gifts have to be ones that stand out from that crowd.

Now is a great time of the year to take a large piece of paper, whiteboard or spreadsheet and simply map out your promotional marketing events for the year. Most campaigns will include both above and below-the-line activities and once you have a clear schedule and media map you can then start to think about timing in relation to promotional products. This is important because very often we work in a micro-world and do not always see the big picture. Mapping out your entire promotional campaign lets you see all the planned events and to start to consider the merchandise and giveaways you will need to order during the year. Instead of going for last minute deliveries, you could then start to work with a promotional gifts supplier like Redbows to ensure you get the best possible prices and deliveries – when you want them – during the year. This is not a contract order but a way of building a relationship with a gifts supplier in much the same way as you would with any other marketing agency. How this works in practice is that you will place orders for bulk promotional items such as the stock merchandise that most companies use – pens, mugs, mousemats and flashdrives – but your gifts supplier can then also make you aware during the year of trends (and what’s hot) and make suggestions for the latest appropriate gifts for your events as they appear on the market. People talk about the 80:20 Pareto rule. Well in this case you could say that 80% of your gifts will be the stock merchandise items and 20% more unusual gifts. It will be the latter that could really set your company appart and help to generate outstanding sales results in 2009. The important aspect to all this is communication and the forming of a unique products supply relationship that goes beyond mere client and supplier. Gifts marketing is as much an art as it is a science.