Why Use Promotional Gifts?

HOW & WHEN TO USE? WHAT TO EXPECT?

The main features of promotional items can be summarised as follows:

Low relative cost. Other advertising methods can be much more expensive. Promotional goods also have that ‘hang around’ value. They are worn, used, or seen sometimes on a daily basis e.g. desk items, and so can achieve considerable reach and ‘impressions’ / ‘repetition’.

High perceived value. These items are ‘gifts’ – they are perceived as being given free. It’s fair to assume that most people like to receive something free, and also like to receive gifts. The emotional and behavioural responses to receiving such gifts far outweigh the low cost of the items themselves.

Flexibility. The product and product decoration variations are really limited only by budget. The right gift can be produced to appeal to your target market.

Generally the benefits of promotional items can be grouped under several headings including the following, although it is accepted that there can be some crossover:

The BRAND and company image
Goodwill, and a positive attitude toward the company and brand can created in customers who receive promotional business gifts. The same positive attitude, goodwill and loyalty can be instilled or strengthened in employees who are given promotional gifts e.g. baseball caps, t-shirts, or desk goods.

Customer loyalty and even improved customer relations can result from the clever use of promotional gifts.

Motivate, reward and celebrate
Promotional gifts can be given as employee incentives e.g. reaching certain status within the company or reaching targets.

• Customers can be encouraged / motivated to contact the company in order to receive the gifts e.g. to collect tokens on packaging in order to receive a promotional gift.
• To celebrate an anniversary, a marketing event or a company achievement, you can reward customers and / or employees with appropriate promotional gifts.

Raise awareness, increase recognition and remind
Your logo, company name, and contact details are usually included on promotional gift items. This means that your company name is advertised e.g. when promotional clothing is worn, or promotional umbrellas are used.

Exposure to the promotional items can help to raise awareness of the company or a marketing / advertising campaign, increase recognition of and support, e.g. the brand or a company celebration / event, or an advertising campaign.

Customers can be reminded where to go for goods and services e.g. if they have a promotional pen, or desk item with your company details on it.

Increase / stimulate leads, conversion and sales

• Employees / sales people can be motivated and rewarded by certain higher end promotional goods.
• Trade show traffic (which can produce leads) can be increased by offering appealing promotional gifts.
• A business contact or a customer prospect lead can be converted to a customer with the right use of promotional gifts as motivation to take the final step. Lapsed customers can be encouraged to become customers again in the same way.
• Preparations for running a promotion using promotional gifts.

Prepare a system for measuring the effectiveness of the promotion. This will allow you to manage the promotion and compare it with future promotional activity.

Make sure that copies of your logo are prepared in the correct format, i.e. prepare a large clear image of over 300 dpi resolution, use a vector format (EPS or PSD), have RGB and CYMK colour versions at the ready, use a qualified professional with a good software package e.g. Adobe Photoshop.

Allow adequate turnaround time for the promotional gifts to be prepared and sent e.g. 3 weeks.

Check the service (e.g. advice and assistance), check product samples for quality, and check the shipping / distribution options before committing yourself to choosing a promotional gifts supplier.

What to expect when ordering promotional gifts

• A set-up cost to prepare your order.
• A minimum order number.
• A lower price per item for larger order quantities.
• FREE Advice on products that would work best for YOU.
• 1000’s of items within your budget in time for your event.
• Options of ‘Environmentally Friendly’ products.

If you require any more information, please contact us as the team at Purple like to HELP you GROW.

Marketing, Branding, PR …what’s the difference?

The most effective debt collecting email I ever wrote

Running a Branding business means that I divide my time between the things that I love doing (project planning and dealing with people) and the things that I don’t enjoy so much (business planning, accounting and debt collecting).

Along the way, one of the facets of business that I’ve had to learn is how to handle those very rare occasions when people seem reluctant to pay promptly. Oddly late payers are rarely those who owe thousands for regular orders, but instead owe very little for small quantities of clothing or merchandise done at the last minute, to help them out!

What at first might seem like a simple oversight, can become a long and drawn-out series of repeat invoices and statements, phone calls, emails or reminder letters. You might, in the end, spend more time chasing payment than you spent on the order. With every email or phone call – your profit diminishing.

To me, late payment is rarely an issue about money and more about a lack of respect. This is particularly true if you are unfortunate to work with people who expect you to respond quickly to service their needs, but don’t apply the same standards to yours.

So, I chose to abandon a stiff business approach of debt collecting and instead write one email, carefully worded to express how I personally felt. After all, business may be business, but people work with people.

Hi [..],

A quick note to say that I am really disappointed that you have still not paid the [..] that Purple are owed for the order you received. In the grand scheme of things, it’s not a lot of money, more a matter of respect.

I would like to think we have always been there at the drop of a hat to sort out any requirements and last minute merchandise you might have. I love working with you and have always taken our relationship as more than just client/supplier. Although if I can’t rely on you paying promptly or it takes several attempts and reminders to get our money, that’s just not good business as it diminishes any profit, just by the time it takes.

I’m not saying that I don’t want to work with you, or have your business. As we really do. But if we don’t receive the outstanding amount within the next couple of days, we will have to think twice about helping you in the future.

Kind regards

Amanda

This exercise taught me that even the trickiest situations can be handled better and resolved faster by plain, honest speaking. After all, we are all just people and if we treat others as we like to be treated we should be OK.

In business, are you an Antelope or a Lion?

Antelope or Lion? Either way you’d better hit the ground running….

Here’s an African story that helps me manage my business. It goes like this…

“Every morning in Africa, an antelope wakes up. It knows it must outrun the fastest lion, or it will be killed. Every morning in Africa, a lion wakes up. It knows it must run faster than the slowest antelope, or it will starve. It doesn’t matter whether you’re the lion or an antelope – when the sun comes up, you’d better be running.”

To me this says, if you don’t prepare today to be running when tomorrow comes, you’re already in big trouble.