The Value of Promotional Products

When working on your marketing plan, do you consider just the cost of your program or do you also consider the value of it. For instance, you sell a product or service. How do you get that out to market? Through trade shows? TV or print advertising? Networking? Promotional Products? What's the value of each of these? What is your return on investment for each of these? TV and print advertising lasts as long as the commercial airs or until your throw away the newspaper or magazine. Networking? How long does someone really keep your business card, or even if they keep it, how often do they look at it? Here's the value of promotional products. Choosing the right product for your audience can have lasting value for weeks, months and years. They can be used in conjunction with events where you market your services. Next time you go out in public, look at how many people are wearing a tee shirt advertising something, how many men are wearing a golf shirt with a corporate logo on it? How many backpacks or computer cases are branded? They are everywhere! If you're considering a promotional product to give to clients, rather than just give someone a pen (and the right pen is a good gift!) consider these things. Giving something that is useful will typically give you continued face time with the recipient and something they will appreciate. Give something they will remember. If you're giving chocolate, give them the best piece of chococlate they have ever had. Make your marketing dollars an investment, not an expense.

USB Drive Standards and Quality

In the promotional products industry, there are about 3-4,000 suppliers who can logo anything from a pen to a refrigerator and just about anything in between. So I was recently doing research for a client for some usb drives. Because they wanted a small number, I contacted 3 different suppliers who each had a 5 star rating (the highest) and the prices were just about the same. In the distant past I had shied away from selling them because I wasn't educated enough with the quality or guarantee or pretty much anything else about them except that I knew you could store data and transfer data using them. Here's what I've discovered over the past year or two. USB drive technology is a commodity and prices are usually set every week by the factories that make them for that week. And as I read in a recent article, you get what you pay for. There are no standards to supervise the quality. Manufacturer ID is very important when buying them as it's just about the only identifying quality standard. USB drives usually have a failure rate between 2-10% on a straight duplication of information. USB drives purchased from a top tier supplier have a failure rate of .1%. Big difference! In the article, the writer stated he was duplicating drives for a top end car manufacturer and discovered a 30% failure rate. He went back and reran the 70% that had passed on the first run and came up with another 30% failure rate - in the end, most of them were bad. So, if you're in the market for usb drives, it's important to know the brand and that it's from a top tier manufacturer. Be sure that the company you purchase from is going to guarantee the product. Sometimes the quality of the logo product you give to a client or prospect can reflect on the quality of your company.

A New Leaf

I've not written as frequently as promised or as frequently as I would like because I get writers block sometimes. Really, how interesting is it for you to read about promotional products all the time? Right. So, my goal is to write more frequently and I will write about promotional products but also about life and the joy of it - and whatever else strikes my fancy. Hope you will continue to tune in.

Memory

Not the human kind, but how much memory do you need when ordering MP3 players? 128MB holds about 30 - 4 minute songs. Whereas, 2-4GB holds 500-1000 songs. If you need an MP3 player for video files, 4GB is the solution. A video file is around 800MB. So, now that you know the capacity, which size do you buy? Consider what you expect to get out of any promotion when giving away an MP3 player as part of the promotion. What's the age group? Are you giving music download cards with it? It may be worth your while to spend a little more money - and it is only a little more money - to get a 2 GB than a 128MB and you'll see a much better bang for your buck. With technology constsantly evolving, someone who receives an MP3 player with 4GB of storage is more likely to use it for a longer period of time than 128MB. Think of cost vs. value.

Cheap Tee Shirts

Do you ever use tee shirts or logo apparel to brand your business? If you do, do you use cheap white tee shirts or do you spend a little more and get a quality shirt? Depending on your intended result, carefully consider which to use. If you're buying hundreds or thousands of tees for a company picnic or 5K, it's OK to use an inexpensive shirt and I'd recommend it. But if you're giving a shirt that you'd like someone to wear, don't give away cheap shirts. It won't get worn as often (if at all) and the recipient will associate the quality of the shirt with the quality of your brand.

Festival Time

I have been remiss in writing this blog for quite a while. I just noticed the last blog I wrote was Feb 17th - the week before Mardi Gras and I haven't stopped moving since. Living in New Orleans, it seems time just flies by. Mardi Gras, Jazzfest -formally known as the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival and a wide array of other festivals here in our fair city. This past Saturday, my husband and I attended the Greek Festival and Bayou Boogaloo - two festivals with lots of music and food. And while you may think we party alot in this city, it takes alot of work to produce these events. Many of them are done as volunteer work and to promote entrepreneurial ownership and for charitable causes. I invite you to check your local listings for upcoming events in your community and the next time you attend a festival, remember the money you spend there stays in your community and promotes entrepreneurship.

Earth Friendly Anyone?

Eco-friendly gifts are hot and trendy these days and rightfully so. But what exactly is eco-friendly or green or sustainable products? It appears that these terms are used interchangeably but an eco-friendly gift is not necessarily a sustainable product.

Sustainable products are those products providing environmental, social and economic benefits while protecting public health, welfare, and environment over their full commercial cycle, from the extraction of raw materials to final disposition. Bamboo, wool, solar and wind power are sustainable products.

Eco-friendly products are those that are considered to inflict minimal or no harm on the environment. This could be a reuseable grocery tote made from recycled material.

With Earth Day fast approaching in April (22), you can use this time to sponsor an event to bringing awareness to our fragile environment and to your brand.

Recognizing Performance

I read an article in the paper the other day about one of the larger banks cutting back expenses while continuing to recognize performance. With expenses being cut all over, that doesn't mean you need to stop rewarding outstanding performance. Rewards = motivation = results. Be creative. Have team competition within departments. Reward the highest performing team.

Rewards could be anything from movie tickets to branded mp3 players and music downloads. If you have to cut out the golf outing at a resort across the country, why not have a local golf tournament and hand out branded golf items at the tournament?

Whenever you show your employees that you appreciate their efforts, they continue to set their sights higher. That benefits you!

Planning A Successful Company Event

To ensure high levels of productivity, it's important to keep your employees motivated and to continue to show your appreciation during good times and challenging ones. Several years ago, I was asked to plan and facilitate a party for a large corporation. I hadn't done this before, but because I had been involved in planning events at my former employer, and my husband and I entertain frequently - and we LOVE themes - I felt comfortable saying yes. The mission was to put on a party luncheon for a couple of hundred employees - on a limited budget. It was Cinco de Mayo. Because I had previously lived in Texas for many years, it was easy to envision. Here are some tips to plan a successful event.

1. Set an overall budget. Your budget needs to include food and drink, venue, decorations, staff and volunteers, entertainment, a main event, and a giveaway and/or prizes.

2. Plan your theme - If this is an employee event, consider a fun theme. You can choose from an upcoming holiday, an upcoming marketing program theme, your company's mission statement or your favorite Hollywood movie!

3. Staff and Volunteers - if you're relying on committee members made up of company staff, be sure everyone knows their assignments; from picking up food at the caterer or buying decorations to the afterparty cleanup. No detail is too small. Make it easy for them so that they'll volunteer the next time around.

4. Name Tags - If it's not an intimate group where everyone knows everyone, have name tags for all participants.

5. Food Menu - Since this is probably the largest part of your budget, you may consider setting all of the details for this first. Be sure the food is appropriate for the event and tie it into the theme if possible. Also, choose food that doesn't require alot of handling or care. You want everyone to relax and have a good time and enjoy the event. Remember there are vegetarians in every crowd, so plan for that. Your menu should include appetizers or snacks, main meat dish, veggie, starch and dessert (include fresh fruit - you'd be surprised how many people will eat it) and drinks. If you're outside in the heat, have plenty of water.

6. Decorations - For our Cinco de Mayo party, we had serapes, maracas as table decorations, colorful mini pinatas and pennant borders hanging all over the place. Try to make it as festive as possible to get everyone in the mood as soon as they arrive. Another event we did for this same corporation was a Fall Hayride theme. Because it was at the company's location in the middle of a large city, we couldn't have a hayride, so we rented huge hay bales, pumpkins and corn stalks from a local farm, strung up theme lights throughout their warehouse. Your guests will notice and appreciate the fact that you kicked it up a notch.

7. Music - You may want to consider a live band, a DJ or get a couple of employee volunteers to have music playing during the event.

8. Entertainment - Try for interactive involvement (don't forget props; i.e. microphones, prizes). One of the events we did was a luncheon workshop for managers. You'd think we would have contacted a nice restaurant or hotel meeting room, but we decided to go to the same local farm that we rented the above hay bales from and used their outdoor deck and kitchen. We had the food catered. This was a small group so we divided them up into two teams. We gave them each a CD player with CD, paper and pens and each team had to pick one song from the CD and write their own lyrics to the song - and the theme was teamwork. Once they rewrote their song, they had to sing it as a group. It was absolutely hysterical and I saw one of the managers from the group 5 years later and he recognized me and came over to tell me how much fun that was. One company picnic that I attended as an employee, we had a pie throwing contest and the managers were the recipients. Each department had a bidding war to throw the pies in their managers face and all of the money went to charity. (Just make sure your managers have a good sense of humor)

9. Giveaways and Prizes. If you budget will allow, plan for a giveaway for each participant. For instance, if you're planning a company picnic, give each person a tee-shirt or hat with your company logo imprinted on it or if it's a beach theme, you can give away beach towels or a suncare kit. Stay with your theme.

10. Make it Personal - get involved. You can't imagine the goodwill you generate with your employees by interacting with them at the event. (This part works on a daily basis). Just like in foreign policy, when you show people you're rooting for them and you want them to succeed, they're gonna like you! If it's a large organization, this is where those name tags come in handy!

10. Enjoy the party!

A Marketing Success Story

We send out catalogs several times every year. And each time we do a mailing, we usually send out 100 catalogs at a time to our best clients and we typically don't send out catalogs to companies that may have ordered one case of a product. Last year, while putting together a mailing, I was going through the list and came upon a company that had ordered one case of chocolate. I decided to send a catalog. You never know. Within a week of the mailing, we received a call from this company and they placed an order for 5000 pens. That one mailing grossed us $15,000 in sales. So, if you're thinking of cutting back on your marketing budget, think twice. If you stop marketing, your business will go any which way but up.

Trendy Ideas for the Spring

When I attended the latest industry tradeshow last month, I invited my daughter along so that we could spend time together (she lives 1500 miles away) and to get her input on gift ideas as she's in the "under 30" age group. The show had over 1000 exhibitors and so there were many tens of thousands of gift ideas. One of the first items we saw was at the Cross Pen Company Booth. Beautiful leather journals in different sizes. Over the course of the two days we saw many other journals of all sizes and colors. Journals are the perfect gift and one size fits all. Take it to a business meeting with clients or staff to keep notes. Keep a personal journal. Use your journal for business goals. A leather journal is a perfect gift to encourage staff to reach their business goals. A perfect gift for my clients, I thought. Something they'll use everyday with my logo tastefully branded on the front. I'm looking forward to their arrival next week and can't wait to get them in the hands of my clients.

A History Lesson

As I was doing research and development, I came across an article I hadn't seen for some time. It was about the history of promotional products and advertising specialties. It seems that the first promotional products were commemorative buttons when George Washington was inaugurated.

Skip ahead a few years and travel to Ohio. Jasper Freemont Meek owned a small newspaper in Coshocton Ohio and was looking for ways to supplement his income. He saw a girl drop her schoolbooks in the dirt. Mr. Meek approached one of his newspaper advertisers, a Mr. Cantwell, who owned a shoe store. Mr. Meeks sold him on the idea of buying imprinted burlap bags with the message "Buy Cantwell Shoes" and to give one to each child that came into his store. He would build store traffic with his message being seen all over town. Both entrepreneurs reaped the rewards. Mr. Meek officially started his own promotional products business by then selling imprinted horse covers which were seen on almost every horse in town.

Other early pioneers in this industry were other newspapermen looking to supplement their income, including Mssrs. Murphy and Osborne of Red Oak, Iowa. They printed a watercolor on cardboard and attached a calendar pad to come up with the first art calendars. Current statistics show that calendars are still one of the most successful and effective promotional products even now.

A New Beginning

Wouldn't you like to wake up tomorrow morning, turn on the news and the new administration has fixed the economy? As I listened to President Obama's inaugural speech, I felt renewed hope about the future of our country. I loved that he talked about personal responsibility and how we all need to pull ourselves up by our bootstraps and dust ourselves off. What a motivating thought. For myself and my country - I promise to get busy with my marketing plan for the year and to build my business during these hard economic times. It's good for the economy. And to paraphrase what he said, not to question if it's a big company or a small company, but if it works. I've spent the beginning of January taking a look at CT Corporate Gifts from a different point of view and have begun making changes. What have you done to kick it up a notch?

Happy New Year!

I returned home last night from my industry's first trade show of 2009. I was surprised to read today that attendance was up from last year in spite of the current state of the economy. The trip was awesome. My daughter met me in Orlando for a whirlwind trip. We went to Epcot - a first for both of us and attended a private industry function at Universal Studios (another first). The tradeshow showcased dozens of new items including a larger than ever group of green products. But the highlight of the trip for both of us was a two hour keynote with Tony Robbins and 1200 of our closest friends. What an electric event!!! The topic was "Harnessing Your Competetive Edge". This meeting started at 7:30am sharp and last two hours. And for over half of it, Tony had everyone on their feet yelling and laughing. I came away knowing that I can change my emotions by changing my focus. I can change my results by changing my focus. And that's what I'll continue to do in 2009. Happy 2009!