Promotional Product International

Article from Michael Crooks from Crooks Advertisng Alliance in the USA.

The question wasn’t volatile. But it ignited a discussion that absolutely exploded with insight. A member of an on-line discussion group asked, “What promotional products would be good to carry an anti-gang message for middle and high school kids?”

Are you kidding me? ……… NONE!

I believe I put it best when I wrote, “ … might as well hand out bulls-eyes imprinted with "Gangs Suck" for children to wear on their back.” By and large, kids who live in gangland face a tough, up hill battle. I mean, when was the last time you woke up in the morning and gave any thought to the fact that bullets fly faster than you can run … or duck? Yeah, shaking the bees’ nest by putting an anti-gang message on something and giving it to children to carry around or wear — is a bad, bad idea

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Everybody knows them, the silicone wristbands. These wristbands are used for many different reasons. They are also used a lot for all kinds of events. The bracelets have also been used a lot for charity.

Not so long ago I had a client who also wanted to use the wristbands for charity. They used the text ¨All they need is food¨ as an embossed text in the silicone bracelets. The text only already says enough what the reason is. Here below you can see some examples of the wristbands that were made.

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Posted by Gagan Deep from www.fortepromo.com

Promotional Products are a great Way to promote your business among your target audience. Customized Products imprinted with your logo always keep your brand name in the mind of your customers every time they use them. The Success of your campaign depends on the promotional products you are going to give to your Customers. So I am going to discuss some Questions which you should ask yourself for getting best Promotional products for your campaign.

Whether my customer needs this Product? This is the most important Question to ask , Whether your customers are really looking for the product you are going to give them or they would always stay under drawers and cupboards of your customers. Whether the product you are going to give them is used daily or just occasionally.

Whether you would be happy to get this product as Free Gift? This is similar to previous Question but this would help you to filter cheap products or products which don’t look good. Select the products which you would like to receive.

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How to choose an "inappropriate" logo.


Mmm... what the hell the designer was thinking about when he draw this logo?

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Here is a nice idea from the USA, Little something offers you to opportunity to send a gift with personal message within 5 minutes to that client that just placed an order with your company.

It's not a printed promotional product but for sure it's a small gift that shows the client you're happy with his order. See the short video in which Mark Helsel explains it all to us.

Posted by John Young (www.mojopromotions.co.uk)

So you’ve found the product you think is perfect for your promotional campaign.

You’ve read the description, seen the photos and your ready to order. At this point it may be worth asking to see a sample of the product prior to placing the order.

If the product is inexpensive they can usually be posted to you free of charge. This simple precaution will ensure there are no nasty surprises when you recieve your full order. A great example to show the importance of this precaution, is when ordering plastic pens. They may look great on your screen but when you put the pen to paper they feel awful.

Now you’ve seen the product in the flesh and have placed the order…. The next step in the process will be to approve a proof layout. All respectable printing companies will provide this. The proof is very important as from your approval onwards there is no turning back. Take your time to check any spelling, punctuation and positioning. If you require specific pantone references check these are correct to. You could also ask a collegue to cast their eye over it.

If you follow the above suggestions then you might save yourself from receiving a 1000 little mistakes on your door step. There is little worse then handing out 1000’s of give-aways at an exhibition only to discover the telephone number on the product is wrong!!

MoJo Promotions
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t: +44 (0)116 261 6829
www.mojopromotions.co.uk

Boost Promotional Products, one of the leader company in Australia, enjoys chatting with business owners within many targeted industries and Online. They have been amazed at the amount of small businesses that do not use Promotional Products.

Below are just some of their reasons:

1. Too expensive for advertising
2. No idea what do with a Promotional Item or how to market it
3. No industry experience or new product fear
4. Don’t need it

What Kyle, from Boost Promotional Product, would like to do in this post is provide 5 core reasons why your business needs to implement a marketing strategy like Promotional Products.

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Posted by Gareth Parkin ideasbynet.com

Promotional gift companies have great ideas for promoting your business. Sometimes so many ideas that it is hard to choose what would be best for your company to give away. The promotional gift company that you want to choose should have a good customer service rep or salesman who can help you pick just the right product. Here are a few tips for when you are speaking with the promotional products company.

Explain in detail to the salesperson what type of event you are having. This will narrow down the products tremendously. For example if you your business is having a Christmas party you will not want to order in golf tees with the company name on them. Then again maybe you do. If you have a lot of golfers in your clientèle maybe you want to make a gift basket out of golfing items to say Merry Christmas with. So always give explicit details on the event itself.

Think about the type of customers that you are going to be giving this gift to. Are they business people or are they stay at home moms. Maybe they are sports fanatics or farmers but whoever they are you will want to make your gift one that they will use or one that they will see often. For example, a calendar for the computer puts your business name in front of their face all the time.

At this point you should have your gifts narrowed down to where you are going to have to get detailed. Choose your colors either to match your company or theirs. For example if you are giving products out at a specific school you might want your items to be in their school colors but with your logo.

Pricing is very important to your budget. You made be shopping for several items or just one item but either way your promotional products company should still be bending over backwards to help you. Do not be shocked though promotional products are not as cheap as what one might think.

Promotional give always need to be well thought out and that is what your promotional gift company should be helping you do. Make a list of questions before getting your customer service representative on the phone. This will save you as much time as it will the promotional gift company. You will go from a broad search to a much narrowed one which will make your choices much simpler. Remember sometimes we have to spend a little money to make more money. Everybody likes to get something for free so why not have your company’s logo on it.

Posted by Gareth Parkin Ideasbynet

Let me present you an article written by Samantha Fellows, from Clickpromogifts in United Kingdom, about the importance and utility for the firms to invest in promotional gifts for their employees, and not only for their clients! If you want to know all the benefits it can bring to your organization and how to choose the good gift for your staff, read this article!

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While it may often seem that price is the most important buying criteria for promotional products buyers, it turns out that there are quite a few things more important to them!

Deliver on these five, and you are much less likely to run into price discussions:

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Here is the latest article from Mickael Merry Crooks, a 23 year advertising veteran in the US and a devoted writer of our BLOG!

Come on Michael, please us one more time!!!

You know that guy that comes up with an idea that causes you to roll your eyes ? I'm that guy. I've caused more eyes to roll than a potato farmer.

I recently caused an eye-rolling episode for a local florist . I was holding a huge, soft rubber fist that serves the promotional market as a 20oz beverage holder, primarily in sports settings. I said, "What do you think, Jim? It's the Fistful of Flowers bouquet."

He rolled his eyes. His wife rolled her eyes. Why? Because, in their mind, flowers go in vases and baskets — not in big fists. After some prodding, they agreed to put arrangements in the fist. Suddenly, they realized the marketing value of themed arrangements and their ability to appeal to specific circumstances and situations in people's lives. This insight will help separate them from the rest of the florists in town.

Often my ideas are initially outside of people's comfort zone because I employ "Use Re-Invention" thinking. I simply reinvent how something is used. For instance, if I say, "Hey, let's put this tire on the car" you'd probably go along with it. But what if I say, "Hey, let's use this tire to grow potatoes." You may roll your eyes, even after I tell you that I know it works — because I've done it!...

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There are hundreds of ways of putting your promotional message across at a tradeshow or a promo event. Among them are methods as exotic as setting up a light show with multi-colored laser beams playing with your logo and slogan on walls and floors or of the trade show hole; or having some hot models (with large imprinted logo, slogan on those scanty pieces of clothes that cover their bodies) to stand in your booth or walk around the hole, handing out your promotional gifts to people to their shock and pleasure.

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You want to buy silicone wristbands to promote the logo of your company, club or association?
But you don't know how to choose the right supplier and the right product?

We are going to help you!

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Imagine, up from tomorrow, there are no promotional products any more in the world.
What is the impact apart from my own businesses to collapse?

What will a world without promotional product look like ?
Be careful, if you can’t give the answer, it might mean that promotional products are useless !

Here is an answer of Michael Crooks (Crooks Advertising Alliance), promotional marketer in the US and my favorite writer of this blog :

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Take out a condom and help fight against aids.



On December 1st ( World day of fight against AIDS), an outdoor poster showing the word "AIDS" written with more than 500 condoms was displayed in a lot of spots throughout the city of Rio grande do Sul in Brazil.
As people were invited to take condoms out of it, the word AIDS began to disappear, increasing awareness on the importance of using condoms to stop the spread of AIDS.

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Once you have defined the concept, product, need and budget, don't forget one aspect which is too often neglected when choosing a promotional product: its color!
What color should you chose for a promotional product? At first sight, the subject doesn't seem crucial and while in 95% of all cases, the advertiser chooses the color of the product according to the color of his logo, let's try and see if that is a logical choice!

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Normaly every professional in the premium and gift industry knows what PMS means: Pantone Matching System.

For those who don't know what it means and how to use it I'll try to explain in a few simple words what it is and how to use it.

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If your company is importing goods from China, be careful, next week, from 1st till 7th October 2007.

Most companies and forwarders won't work. Alike the Chinese new year, it means congestions of goods in airports and harbors, so potential delay.

Are you sure you have never bought or sold any illegal promotional products?


The risk is real and becomes higher each day.

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Let's try to mess up an order for promotional product in a few short steps! Everybody will try to explain how to buy promotional products in the best way, but I'm sure that this small tutorial will be even more helpfull.

First of all, what makes these promotional product orders different from other orders is the fact that the product will be printed with a logo or slogan. Whether a large or small quantity, problems are similar.

1. I'll start by selecting a product that has nothing to do with my own business and which most probably my clients will throw away as soon as I give it to them.

2. Once the type of product has been selected, I'll try to find it as cheaply as possible to make sure I get a real low quality product impacting on my company’s image.

3. In this case, I prefer to order from a supplier or distributor I have never worked with before. I would prefer that he has an awfull old website and that he would be located on the other side of the country to ensure bad communication. Another good criteria would be that his replies only get to me two days late.

4. Of course, I won't ask him for a sample, in that way the surprise will be funnier. The blurry and tiny product picture on his two page website shows me enough.

5. I need these items for an event at the beginning of February, so let's send the order at the end of January to ensure a printer’s a rush print.

6. I'll send him real bad artwork, a low pixel-count jpg will be perfect. If I'm lucky he'll accept the jpg and try to arrange the quality first by altering my beautifull logo.

7. I won't ask for an artproof, and anyway, this professional didn't even offer it to me.

8. Let's see what we can do about delivery time ... The distributor offered to send the goods via Fedex Ex, but I'm sure Standard Fedex will do, I'll call Fedex next day to speed them up.

Just be honest with yourself... I'm sure you already made at least one of these mistakes, didn't you ? :-) For some more serious info please check these previous entries :

• Corporate Gifts. What message are you sending?
  
• How to buy promotional products.
• Why use promotional products?

Thanks to Kim from Motivators Inc, Long Island, NY for the information below.
According to the Promotional Products Association International (PPAI), a new study proves that promotional products are a key ingredient to integrated marketing. Here’s the article in full:

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We all know the point of sending a gift. You could be rewarding someone for doing a great job, or thanking them for the countless hours they put in at the office.

And gifts sent around the holidays don't need explanations, but it doesn't mean they don't need serious thought put into them.
Most importantly, what message is your gift sending? Gifts always reflect the sender, so ask yourself some questions.

• What does your company stand for?
• What message are you trying to get across with this particular item?
• Do you want to send something luxurious or something hip?
• Will it be a classic conservative gift or something much more imaginative?

All these questions should be asked before deciding on a corporate gift.

source www.motivators.com

It's easy to buy promotional products :
you only need to have a catalogue of promotional products and money to pay the promotional products.
But it's not easy to buy the promotional products corresponding to your needs, the item that will fit perfectly to your promotional action.

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This site celebrates the use of corporate identity as a management tool, and credits corporate leaders and designers around the world for outstanding work.
It's worth to have a look as this subject is tighly linked with our promotional products industry
link to the website : www.identityworks.com

Why should your company use promotional products like pens, caps and other customised items?

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