The Redbows Promotional Gifts Blog

Well in January we roll the VAT forward to 17.5%, back to its pre recession levels. So now is a great time to get your orders in for new year stock of your favorite promotional gifts. For most business-to-business organisations the change will mean little off course but for organisations that cannot claim the VAT back they will effectively be looking at a 2.5% price increase. Its a shame but let’s hope that we do not see VAT rise to 20% in 2011.

Wow what a night we had last Friday. It was my absolute thrill and pleasure to be awarded the title ‘2009 Business Woman Of The Year for Denbighshire’ by Network She. An award like this is one for the whole team at Redbows. It is a great result for our company which has continued to develop its marketing and promotional activities during this most turbulent of years. We are already looking forward to 2010 but this award will be hard to beat. Click Promotional Gifts and the Network She Awards for more details.

So with Christmas almost upon us we are now reaching the last few days when it is possible to purchase promotional advent calendars. These have proven to a festive hit again because they tick all the right boxes for promotional gifts. You can almost guarantee that nearly everyone loves chocolate and promotional advent calendars arriving on your desk in late November or even early December are always going to generate a smile. More than that our advent calendars are off course personalised using your artwork and imprint. These types of promotional gifts are guaranteed to generate goodwill. If you miss the last production runs the next best thing are branded promotional chocolates and sweets. Off course we can supply these almost up to within a few days of Christmas and they come with personalised belly bands or tags.

Wow its almost the end of October, the clocks have gone back and we are on the run down to Christmas. Now this time of year is one of the busiest for confectionery websites like the Redbows Promotional Sweets Store and especially collections like our Christmas Chocolates. As well as offering our famous advent calendars we also include some seasonal favourites, including our promotional Christmas Crackers packed with fudge or any other confectionery, sweets, chocolates and novelties you want, mini chocolate boxes and sweet bags. So there is almost everything you could want to give your clients and colleagues for Christmas. If you want to spend a little more why not consider our promotional hampers and gift baskets. These can be made up to any budget and we made contact with a new supplier this year based in the UK who makes them up by nationality. The world as they say is your ‘Oyster’ or should I say chocolate in this case.

We just added a whole load of BIC promotional pens to our plastic pen ranges. BIC are one of the leading pen suppliers in the UK and after receiving regular requests we decided to add them to our existing ranges. On the Redbows Promotional Gifts Store we probably now provide access to over 2000 different promotional pens including their combinations and options, which probably positions us now as one of the major promotional pen suppliers within the UK. Off course price and options are important and you can rest assured that we have secured the best possible prices and delivery options for our clients. This is a busy time of year for promotional merchandising companies as organisations stock-up on marketing materials for the new year. Promotional pens are one of the top five corporate gifts and we recomend you check out our latest additions.

Going through some financial paperwork the other day I realised what a great opportunity any supplier misses when they send out their post, invoices, statements, brochures and circulars. Let’s talk financial institutions for example. These organisations send out masses of paperwork and booklets with their proposals and statements. Most of the supporting evidence you will never read. It simpy gets shreaded or shelved. The companies are focused quite rightly on giving you as much information as they need to, to comply with regulatory body requirements and any specific statutes. However, what they all miss out on is sending really useful free cheap promotional gifts with their packs such as promotional pens or promotional coasters. More often than not these companies want you to sign and return a document – so you have to scramble around for a pen to use. Secondly the packs they send through are often weighty and a promotional pen or coaster would hardly add anything to the cost of postage or distribution. So our advice to anyone sending out circulars, invoices or statements is to think wider than the specifics of the mailing. More often than not your post will probably get inside an area of the company that was not your first point of call, but someone whom you could do with influencing and promoting to. Your statements and invoices go directly into an accounts office, so take the opportunity to sell your brand to them. Circulars and literature may go to sales teams and marketing people. Treat sending circulars as mini marketing events and include gifts like promotional pens, pencils and promotional coasters to promote your organisation.

Branded Promotional Products build relationships. Follow me here. When you give someone a present, and something that they will value and find interesting, you give them reminder of your brand. Something that could get used everyday come ‘rain or shine’. Examples are a plenty from the world of promotional merchandise and include your everyday Essential Corporate Gifts like pens, mugs, mouse mats and flashdrives to corporate clothing and executive gifts. The first promotional gifts were said to be branded buttons from the early 1920s but I would like sometimes to think that perhaps we could find examples going back even further. Sponsorship is said itself to go back to the days when a Royal personage or wealthy baron or lord would fund an event like jousting. Could we find examples of promotional products back then, given out to worthy knights and the crowd like branded ladies hanker chiefs? Who knows but I do think that promotional products date back further than the 1920s. As we approach the next decade, with 2010 just around the corner, one thing is for sure branded promotional products will be with us well into the next century. They are an essential marketing product because they help to build relationships.

Have you given much thought to your new year promotional gifts? Most companies enter the planning and forecasting cycle around now in preparation for the year ahead. Part of this process can include a marketing audit, review of activities and setting of marketing, promotions and incentives related objectives for the year ahead. In addition, 2010 is also the start of a new decade and with the UK recession coming to an end, what better time is there to review your marketing and plan your promotional gifts campaigns for the coming year. So what’s going to be hot and what incentives are going to prove absolute winners in 2010? This is very much industry related but there are some seasonally related products like promotional calendars and personalised diaries. This is the busiest time of year for calendar and diary suppliers with thousands leaving the print houses en route to end users within the next few weeks and months. Pens, mugs and mousemats will remain top gifts in 2010 as will flashdrives, especially if they have an ECO (environmentally friendly) angle. Off course we also have some major events coming up in 2010, like the South African Football World Cup, and we can expect to see football related promotional merchandise launched shortly into the new year. Our advice to anyone thinking about promotional gifts is to set a budet and maximise this to ensure you carry a range of suitable gifts to compliment your marketing activities for the year ahead.

Getting cheap promotional products is the name of the game. The promotional gifts industry like so many others is very competitive and only suppliers running lean processes, with a ‘can-do’ customer-focused attitude will survive. To supply the lowest cost promotional products without sacrificing customer service requires a real dedication and focus. It also requires a collaborative approach from our suppliers and a partnership. One such example is with our credit card authorisation supplier. We have got the costs down so low that Redbows is one of the few companies to not add any extra charges to an order for credit card payments (excluding American Express off course!). In this way we make sure we supply the cheapest promotional products, efficiently and supported by the best possible service. Don’t forget as well that we also run the industry leading ‘Price-Busters‘ promise to make sure that we are always competitive, even if we have to adjust our website pricing to do so and our Money Off promotions are always a real hit with clients.

When it comes to promotional products like flash drives, there is a huge range to choose from but two types out sell the rest. The first is the humble Aluminium Flash Drive. Now this is your everyday flash drive (aka memory stick), with an aluminium case and plastic sides that can be coloured matched (at the right quantity) with your logo. The aluminium flash drive case also offers a great imprint area, suitable for screen printing or laser engraving. This type of USB flash drive is also available on an express delivery with shipments possible within 24 hours from artwork sign off. Now at the other extreme of the promotional flashdrives range we have bespoke custom USB flash drives. These use the same inner workings for memory storage and off course USB connection but have a custom designed outer case. Now this is generally made to a specific mould and can be in the form of your logo or some other specific shape. The cost of mouldings has come down so much that many clients are surprised at the small price difference between a volume hitter like the Aluminium Flash Drive and a custom USB Flashdrive. So when it comes to promotional products like flash drives, you can afford to think ‘outside the box’ more than you probably realise.