Tag Archive for corporate gift items

Promotional Gifts Industry Slammed For Being Wasteful

December 7, 2010 Business & Finance, Misc

Jersey 06-12-2010: For Immediate Release

Promotional Gift supplier WOW! Promotional Gifts has just released a damming article on the industry suggesting that if you look beyond all the hype about Eco friendly products then you will find that the Promotional Gift industry is littered with companies that waste thousands of pounds producing promotional products that are poorly received by consumers, that do very little to enhance Brand awareness and are often immediately binned or placed in the bottom draw. Marketing departments should take this into consideration and look for ways to produce promotional products that are useful and will be gladly received by the recipients as all this wastefulness will have an adverse affect on the environment.

Paul Lakeman from WOW! Promotional Gifts asked this:

“How many times have you received a Promotional Product or a promotional gift that has little or no value to you or anyone else? Do you ever wear that embroidered cap sent to you by Acme Financial services or the Printed T-Shirt given to you by your local Hardware store? I blame marketing departments for this they just don’t give enough consideration to their targeted market, embroidered caps used to work when targeting youth culture but hey things have moved on. They should be thinking more along the lines of a Dappy Hat (A Peruvian/ Bolivian/ Nepalese ‘Chullo’) made popular by Dappy of N-Dubz. The neck scarf with your logo embroidered on won’t cut the mustard anymore; why not consider a Snood instead? It all too easy these days to go online and order 5,000 widgets and get your logo printed on them this old fashioned approach does not work anymore, marketing departments need to get more creative with their promotional products and the communication they send with them to avoid all this waste. Because Promotional Gifts are often low value items it does not mean that they should be regarded as low in value. Make them useful and wanted, give them the WOW! Factor. If companies go on about being Eco friendly this and Eco friendly that then they should start practicing what they preach and ensure the promotional products produced on their behalf will be warmly received and used.”

The Author Paul Lakeman has been involved in the Promotional Gift Business for over 30 years and produces Promotional Gifts and Personalised Gifts in the form of customised Teddy Bears for thousands of UK and European Clients. A regular visitor to China, Football Fanatic, Paul lives in Jersey with his Wife Gill and Chocolate Labrador Ella.

mrbearman@gmail.com  01534 856931

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Strengthening your Brand with Promotional Gifts

December 2, 2010 Business & Finance

Marketing your business and reinforcing your Brand using Promotional Gift Items can be a cost effective means of advertising and promotion. Taking time to select the perfect promotional product and distributing it with effective communication is imperative if you want an exceptional return on your investment.

Branding is similar to what happens on the ranch and should be about differentiating your product or service from all the other competing products and services in the market place. What you need to achieve with your Promotional Gifts, Business Gifts, or Corporate Gifts is to create in the mind of your prospect that there is no other product or service quite like yours. Businesses these days are bombarded with all types of Promotional Items and Corporate Gifts that act as Marketing tools for the Brands and Companies they represent. If you want to ensure the Promotional Gifts you are sending out will enforce your Branding then before you start your should always think about what you prospects are going to think about your Branding when they receive a Corporate Gift or Promotional Items from your company. How often do you receive a promotional gift that has the WOW! Factor and make you automatically want you to find out more about them and ultimately do business with them? Will your promotional gift surprise and delight the recipients and drive them to action? Will a cheap mug or a pen capture the mind share of you targeted customers? They could do but only if the promotional gifts and the communication you send with them have the WOW! Factor. You should always strive to send something that will become part of their memory so when they require an XYZ Widget or an Acme Financial service they will automatically think about your Brand. Seems simple enough doesn’t it? It’s all too easy in this situation to fall back on lazy thinking, go online type in promotional gifts in the search box. Look at what’s on offer (most sites will offer very similar products at very similar price points) order 5,000 pens with your branding and hey presto job done! This is the worst thing you can do and a complete waste of money. This is not going to enhance your Brand and is more likely to have a negative effect on how people perceive your brand. You are not sending them anything of value so why should they support you? They are hardly likely to view your company as a forward thinking innovative organisation if that’s all you can do. A Brand cannot get into the mind unless it stands for something. So ask yourself this question; what does your Brand stand for and how can you use Promotional Gifts to reinforce this?

When selecting Promotional Gifts and Corporate Gifts  you should ask yourself the following questions and consider these points in your marketing strategy.

Help: Could I send out corporate gifts that would help my targeted market in the day to day running of their business? We are not talking diaries here, we are talking about something that they are very unlikely to receive from other businesses in your industry something that will make their live easier.

 Grab Attention: Could I send out Promotional Items that have the WOW! Factor and will absolutely grab the attention of the recipient?

Most Wanted: Have you ever seen a colleague receive a promotional gift and thought to yourself, I really want one of those? Create a demand for your promotional gifts. If your promotional gifts have the WOW! Factor people are likely to talk about them and show them to others creating a buzz about your Brand.

Satisfaction: Don’t deal with Promotional Gift companies that offer 10,000 products and deal in satisfaction. You should be looking for a company you can work closely with to produce an outstanding promotional gift item that has the WOW! Factor.

Put an Element of Fun into it:  Make it memorable and quirky so it will be remembered, avoid the bog standard it will do nothing whatsoever to enhance your Brand.

Craft your communication: It is important to construct relevant, informative and engaging communication. The success of your campaign depends on it. If you can’t do it yourself find someone who can. We see instances of business spending thousands of pounds on Promotional Gifts and just posting them out with little regard to tailoring their content. Never ever underestimate the power of the written word.

Package the Promotion: You can use packaging to transform a mundane promotional gift into an exciting one. Think outside the box and work closely with your promotional gifts supplier. Brainstorm your ideas with work colleagues, friends and family members.

The Author Paul Lakeman has been involved in the Promotional Gift business for over 30 years and produces promotional teddy bear gifts. He is soon to launch http://www.wowpromotionalgifts.co.uk  to provide a large range of promotional gifts with the WOW! factor.

mrbearman@gmail.com  01534 856931

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The Big Idea: Marketing with Promotional Gifts

November 30, 2010 Business & Finance

Promotional Gifts are an excellent way to Market Your Business. They are a cost effective means of thanking your existing customers and attracting new customers. Make sure you send out Promotional Gifts or Corporate Gifts that have the WOW! Factor. When you send out Promotional Gifts you should not look at it as purely advertising it should be more than that and part of your overall marketing strategy. Most advertising is wasted so before you start thinking about Promotional Gifts that act as Marketing Tools for you business read this from Advertising Guru David Ogilvy; ”It takes a big idea to attract the attention of consumers and get them to buy your product. Unless your advertising contains a big idea, it will pass like a ship in the night. I doubt if more than one campaign in a hundred contains a big idea.” 

Ask yourself these questions.

What functions do you want your Promotional Gifts to achieve?

Are you sending out Promotional Gifts to increase you company’s recognition and reinforce you Branding?

Are you doing this to get your target market to know you exist?

Are you trying to sell a product or service?

Are you trying to retain existing customers and get them to spend more with you?

Will the sending out of Promotional Gifts be an extremely cost effective way of advertising and marketing your business?

Will this strategy increase your sales?

We spoke to Paul Lakeman from Flying Bears UK Ltd and asked him what he thought of the Promotional Gift Market and how effective Promotional Business Gifts can be. He said this “When we opened our Corporate Teddy Bear Business we had a customer base of zero and we obviously needed to sell product, we had warehouse full of Teddy Bears. We had a look at the local market and decided to target the local hotels first. We went out with a digital camera and photographed the signage of the hotel so we would have a good idea of the font they were using and their corporate colours. We took great attention to detail. We then produced sample Teddy Bears for 90% of the Hotels in Blackpool and crafted communication to accompany these Promotional Gifts. This communication was intended to serve two purposes: One to drive customers to our newly opened retail outlet and secondly encourage the Hotels to use us as a supplier of Promotional Gifts. When we had 20 samples made we would personally deliver them to the Hotels to introduce ourselves and our product. The Hotels were most receptive to this soon Personalised Teddy Bear were seen strategically placed in bars and Hotel receptions areas throughout Blackpool. The beauty about our promotional products is that the Hotels did not need to give them away they were selling them at a profit and promoting their establishment at the same time. They were also driving traffic and customers to our retail outlets so it was a win win scenario for all concerned. We had a Big Idea, we gave it thought, paid attention to detail and we have never looked back. Due to the demand from our valued customers 2011 we see us expand our business to incorporate other Promotional Gifts”

The Author Paul Lakeman has been involved in the Promotional Gift business for over 30 years. He visits China on a regular basis and has formed strategic partnerships will leading suppliers of Teddy Bears, Promotional Gifts, Corporate Gift Items, Business Gifts and Marketing Gifts.

Flying Bears (UK) Ltd-Rear of 42 Woodfield Road, Blackpool FY1 6AX

Paul Lakeman 01534 856 931

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