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.

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.

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.

I came across this video and wanted to share it, because there are some great ideas here to apply to your business – any business – and brand is at the heart of all of them.

The guy speaking is Seth Godin, who has written a lot of really interesting things about marketing. You can find his blog here.

I hope it gives you some ideas and inspiration for your business in 2010!

In a world of too many options and too little time, our obvious choice is to just ignore the ordinary stuff. Marketing guru Seth Godin spells out why, when it comes to getting our attention, bad or bizarre ideas are more successful than boring ones.

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You should have a clear expectation of what you want your brand to deliver for your business. It might be raising your profile, so that you attract more clients. It might be helping you to stand out from your competitors, so you can increase your market share. Whatever it is, you should measure it, because if you don’t measure it, you can’t manage it.

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A lot of businesses look at their brand as cost to the business, so they look for the cheapest option. Saving money can look like a good decision in the short-term, but brand is about building long-term benefit. That’s why a business should look at it as an investment. When you invest in something, you look at what option is going to bring you the best return.

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by Jonathan at Alder and Alder

Going green isn’t just for hippies or treehuggers any more…

With concern for the environment and the effects of global warming and pollution on the rise, eco-friendly promotional products are becoming more and more popular.

Unless you’ve been living in a cave on Mars for the last few years, you’ll know that we all need to be doing our bit to be kind to the environment. Green issues are very much at the forefront of everyone’s mind at the minute. So we’re also continually looking for ways to help you to be a little greener.

To make sure we’re being as environmentally friendly as possible, we’ve introduced an eco-friendly product range made from Recycled, Organic, Sustainable or Ethically Sourced Materials.

Pens made from sustainable wood or Organic Tote Bags are two of the hottest categories on the market today.

Our tote bags are made from organic cotton

Bookmark the Purple website for even more earth-friendly products – we have big plans for helping to promote the green movement!

Looking for eco-friendly promos for your business? Find Eco Friendly Promotional Items & Caps & Clothing at Purple Promotions

A national survey by Source-e shows that promotional merchandise really works, and reveals what business people keep on their desk and why.

The survey provides an insight into the link between branding on promotional merchandise and sales. It also identifies the best and the strangest pieces of promotional merchandise that people keep on their desk.

The key findings included:

• Nine out 10 respondents (92 per cent) believe that branded Promotional Merchandise increases a company’s brand awareness.

• Over three quarters (76 per cent) said that they could name a brand or company/organisation featured on Promotional Merchandise on their desk without looking.

• Over half (52 per cent) purchased from the companies that were branded on a piece of Promotional Merchandise on their desk.

• 82 per cent said they would keep an item they were given rather than give it away.

David Lebond, Chairman of the British Promotional Merchandise Association (BPMA), commented: “These results offer a very strong indication of the positive link between Promotional Merchandise, Branding and Sales. The repeat exposure to a brand every day of the week has a positive effect on how business people react to that brand.”

“Advertising, direct marketing – any marketing medium – would be delighted to achieve such an impressive conversion rate from retained message to sales. It demonstrates why Promotional Merchandise should be an intrinsic element of marketing campaigns.”

Other interesting results included 53 per cent of respondents saying they had purchased something from the companies who supplied Promotional Merchandise.

The branded Promotional Merchandise respondents had on their desk, included Pens (13 per cent), Calendars (10 per cent), Post It Notes (8 per cent), Calculators (6 per cent) and Diaries (6 per cent).

When asked why they would keep the item, over 89 per cent cited usefulness. Memories came in second place, and the value of the item was third.

Over 22 per cent said that if they could only keep one item then it would have to be a Calendar.

Some of the more bizarre and unusual Promotional Merchandise that appealed to business people included Furry Animals and Plastic Ducks.

The survey results are based on a 429 respondents of which nearly two thirds (62 per cent) of those surveyed would describe their job title as CEO/Chairman/MD/Manager.

Looking for promos? Find Promotional Items, Corporate Clothing and Free Marketing Ideas at Purple Promotions

How do you engage with drivers of competitor vehicles and get them to look at another brand?

You tease them with an opportunity to participate in something extremely special. A really exclusive premium experience – the type of thing that money can’t buy.

The genius of this BMW campaign in New Zealand was in the pre-launch element. An unbranded pack with fake German stamps was hand delivered to Porsche and Range Rover drivers to make them think it had come from their existing car company.

The pack contained an MP3 player that had a mysterious message spoken in a German accent telling the targets that they had been selected to test drive a luxury German car.

So did it work? The expected response rate to a test-drive invitation is between 2% and 6%.The curiosity factor was huge and 72% of the target recipients responded positively to an invitation to be transported to an airport hangar to test drive the BMW X6.

The mailing not only produced an amazing response rate but it got Porsche drivers raving about the BMW X6. Outside, the fun really began. BMW closed a runway and set up a racetrack circuit.

Dashboard cameras recorded their comments on camera. They filmed each person as they put the X6 through its paces on the runway, and then edited the footage so that each driver had their own personal review on DVD. The most satisfying result was capturing Porsche drivers on camera raving about BMW.

Not everyone was able to take part in the experience. Those that missed out received an access code to a secret website to “experience the vehicle that defies the laws of physics”. (The secret website is at www.xcar.co.nz, enter access code: x65555 )

This was the most overwhelming response BMW has ever had in New Zealand. So overwhelming, in fact, that they had to stop mailing when they were only halfway through the list.

Source: Direct Daily

Looking for promos? Find promotional items, corporate clothing and free marketing ideas at Purple Promotions.