Posts Tagged ‘promotional products’
Monday, September 6th, 2010
Tourist attractions in the UK have been one of the few sectors to benefit from the economic downturn, with holiday makers who are watching the pennies choosing to stay in the UK rather than jet off abroad. This is good news for a sector that has been largely hit by tourists from the UK choosing to take their holidays in other countries and a strong pound putting off foreigners from visiting our shores.
The site of packed beaches and queues outside attractions across the country will be welcomed by everyone associated with the tourist trade, but how can these attractions capitalise on this success?
While the customers are pouring through the entrances it is important to make the most of the opportunities this situation presents. After all, it could only be a matter of time before sun starved Brits are pining for warmer climes again!
One area where tourist attractions can make valuable extra money is by selling promotional products. Almost every tourist wants to take home a souvenir of their trip and when they visit an exciting attraction they will want something to remember the day by. Promotional gifts and promotional products such as key rings and bottle openers offer the tourist something to take away with them whilst making the attraction more money and getting their logo seen by more people. In this way, as well as adding to income tourist attractions can spread the word about their product, providing valuable marketing exposure.
Promotional gifts are a valuable and unique way of tourist attractions making money. The mind set of tourists is different to everyday shoppers, with people actively looking to spend their money on items that they wouldn’t usually buy. Promotional gifts offer people the chance to purchase a memory of their day, or even buy gifts for people back home.
If your attraction is looking to maximise the benefit of the increase in UK tourists, make the most of the potential that promotional gifts can provide.
Tags: promotional gifts, promotional products
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Tuesday, August 31st, 2010
They often say the old ones are the best. Promotional Pens are a marketing classic and have been around as long as any of us can remember. But what makes them such popular promotional gifts choice for marketers and businesses?
Promotional Pens are a simple concept. An ordinary pen in the correct colours and adorned with a logo is an item that most of us have in our homes and desks at work. So why their popularity?
The ideal promotional gift is one that is practical as it will be used openly, giving the most prominence possible for the brand. It will also reflect the brand not only through the logo displayed but with colour and design. It will also be affordable to produce and hopefully produce a return on investment through a raised profile and awareness. The ideal promotional gift should also be relatively simple, whether that’s by targeting the promotional gift to a specific audience or by making it something that is used everyday and solves a practical problem.
Promotional pens tick all these boxes. Their versatility and wide range of styles available means that it is always possible to choose a design that reflects the brand. Whether it just needs to be plain to give the logo and colours more prominence, or something more stylish and expensive to enhance a company’s reputation, there is always something to suit the needs of a company.
Simplicity is also the key with promotional pens. Everyone needs a pen and so a free promotional pen is always likely to be kept next to the phone or put in the computer drawer at home for when we need a pen to hand quickly. They make such good promotional gifts as they are frequently used, meaning maximum exposure for the brand that is featured, and relatively cheap to make and distribute
If simplicity is the key then promotional pens are cheap and easy to produce, meaning that businesses can get more of them out to larger quantities of people, raising public awareness of the company. This will provide the return on investment, whether that’s through increased traffic to a website, more enquiries or improved brand status.
Promotional pens have a long history of providing effective promotional gifts and even with the rise of modern technology, this doesn’t appear to be about to change any time soon.
View a wide selection of promotional pens at The Promotional Gifts Company, or for premium promotional gifts visit The Corporate Gifts Company.
Tags: promotional gift, promotional gifts, Promotional Pen, promotional pens, promotional product, promotional products
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Thursday, August 26th, 2010
Promotional gifts play an important part in the success of marketing and promotional strategies, but to get the most out of them, planning is everything. We have assembled a list of strategies that will ensure your promotion hits the ground running.
1. The first step must be to determine and define what your objectives and goals are. This will help you to stay focused throughout the planning procedure. This advice will also help you when you are choosing promotional gifts as it will ensure you are choosing the right promotional products for your requirements. Your objectives and goals should be specific, simple and most importantly measurable.
2. Specify the promotional gifts strategy that is most consistent with your goals and objectives. How will this promotion affect your client base? Consider using as many promotional tie-ins as possible in as many mediums as you can.
3. Evaluate the prospect for sales or performance increase and its value in profits. You should ensure that your promotion has well thought out objectives that will positively influence income.
4. Review the successful promotions that you have used in the past. Can these promotions be used again successfully? If you want to avoid replicating past promotions, still consider where they were successful and where they let you down. Evaluating the success of previous promotions can be the key to unlocking a successful new promotion. If your new promotion is unveiling a new brand or product, ensure you have the right promotional gifts that will broadcast the message you are trying to get across.
5. Identify who can assist you in achieving your goals and objectives. Whether it’s internal staff who have the knowledge and expertise to assist you or consultants, agencies or external companies who can benefit your promotion. When using promotional products there may be people in different departments who may be able to help you with design demands, technical advice and reliable sources.
6. Decide what you will budget for your promotional gifts strategy. How will the budget affect sales? Can your budget be determined by a percentage of sales increase? Budgets can be negotiable if you can show that your promotional products strategy can positively influence sales.
7. Determine how you will measure your promotional gifts strategy in terms of sales increase. Decide when the promotion will begin and its extent. Be sure that you communicate your decisions with all the relevant personnel involved. Make sure that everyone is on the same track.
8. Make sure that all promotional gifts are reviewed by your relevant departments (sales / marketing / customer service etc) in order to determine if any problems exist.
9. Communicate with all departments to make sure you order the right amount of promotional gifts. Other departments may have events they will be attending that they will want to take promotional gifts to. Ordering the right amount in the first place might save you money down the line when you don’t need to order more promotional products at a potentially different price.
10. Complete a post promotion evaluation of your promotional gifts strategy. What worked and importantly what problems did you have with the promotion, what can you learn from it? Use this evaluation for assisting in planning promotional gifts in future.
Tags: promotional gifts, promotional products
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Tuesday, August 17th, 2010
There are many benefits to having a strong brand in business, and more than ever brand awareness is being used as a way for customers to find their way around an increasingly saturated marketplace.
Whether you’re an online business, a high street retailer, even a political party, brand identity is becoming an important way of getting a company noticed and enabling it to speak with one clear voice.
Once a business has decided to enhance their brand it can be difficult to know how to use it to their advantage. Companies may have invested a great deal of time and money into developing their brand, only for it to stagnate as they have difficulty in realising it’s potential.
The Promotional Gifts Company have come up with a guide to getting the most out of your brand to make sure a company’s efforts don’t go to waste.
1. Make sure it gets noticed
Many businesses choose to rebrand in order to better communicate their brand values and create an identity in the market place. In order to do this, your brand needs to be thrust under the noses of the people who will take notice, whether that’s potential customers, existing customers, suppliers or shareholders.
Promotional Products can help to do this. Promotional stationery and promotional items can help with this, as it puts your brand in a prominent position in the workplace or the home. Whether it’s promotional pens, promotional t-shirts or promotional calendars, items such as these can help companies spread the word about their brand, their business and their product, getting themselves noticed by the people that matter.
2. Use your brand to motivate staff
The right brand used correctly has the ability to inspire and galvanise a workforce. It can be used to transmit the core message of the business throughout the company, ensuring everyone is pulling in the same direction. It is important that everyone working for the company is made aware of the brand and taught how to use it correctly to make sure the message is kept consistent.
Use a brand launch to make a special event out of the occasion. Rather than just replace old stationery and logos with new ones, give the event a real sense of occasion to get staff excited about the brand and it’s message. This will not only encourage staff to accept it but also provide an important occasion to educate them on the message and how to use it correctly. Promotional banners and branded corporate gifts can be used to give the event a special feel, as well as corporate awards to encourage staff to be an ambassador for the brand and raise awareness.
3. Be Prepared
The strongest brands are those that have prepared in advance. Before launching your brand, consider what message you want to portray and what voice you want to transmit. It can be easy to get carried away with colour schemes and logo designs, so think carefully about what you want your company to say before deciding on a brand image. This is especially important if you are a charity or an organisation that gives opinion and advice. If there are tricky or controversial issues that your company gives advice on, it is important to decide on your position before your brand launches. This can save answering tricky questions when it’s too late to change.
Once you have launched your brand effectively, don’t be shy about it! Use promotional gifts and promotional products to show off your brand to anyone who will listen!
Tags: Corporate Gift, corporate gifts, promotional gift, promotional gifts, promotional product, promotional products
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Friday, August 13th, 2010
For Catholics in Britain, the Pope’s visit will be a huge event. It will take place between the 16th and the 19th of September and take in 3 cities across Scotland and England. For many it will mark an important moment and provide memories for a lifetime.
But in the last few days there has been a level of criticism aimed at those aiming to “cash in” on the visit by offering promotional products such as t-shirts, caps and jackets to mark the occasion. Some say it cheapens the experience and that a highly significant moment such as a mass from the Pope should not be celebrated in such a way, with the promotional products being more reminiscent of a heavy metal band than a papal visit.
Others on the other hand believe that they should be allowed to celebrate their faith in a way that they see fit, and that the freedom to wear promotional products that mark the visit are a harmless way of embracing the event.
There’s no doubt that it will be an important experience for the people who attend, and it is only natural to want a memento from the day. But is it fitting for religious items to be used in such a way when a Papal mass is usually a sober and respectful event? Can religion really expect to avoid the modern day clamour for souvenirs and promotional merchandise that act as memories for events?
It is a matter that will be discussed long after the Papal visit is over, but it would certainly appear that promotional products will be a fixture for the duration of this trip.
Tags: promotional gift, promotional gifts, promotional product, promotional products
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Wednesday, August 11th, 2010
If you’re currently searching for promotional gifts then the chances are that you have been given the dubious honour of organizing a corporate event. Promotional gifts will make an impact at any company event, from a conference to a meeting, a presentation or party.
To make your life that little bit easier, The Promotional Gifts Company have put together a list of ten essentials for putting on any corporate event, which will make sure your event goes off with a bang.
1. Venue – be clear about your event objectives and match the venue. Ask the venue to suggest options and ideas – they know their venue best.
2. Consider venues other than hotels, sometimes an unusual venue can make an event (such as a private house, stately home, museum or club) and you can often get very good rates.
3. Lighting – try to use natural light during the day and softer lighting in the evening but also consider if delegates will need to read material.
4. Test AV equipment before the event.
5. Allow time for late arrivers – it does happen.
6. Try to make WiFi available especially during day events.
7. Remember attention spans are very short – make sure there’s plenty of refreshments and breaks.
8. Try to change pace and mood throughout the event; informal discussion periods, time for networking, or speakers or presentations.
9. Get to know the staff at the venue – this will help ensure the day runs smoothly and staff will be more willing to help if there are any problems on the day.
10. And don’t forget the promotional promotional gifts. And obviously don’t go anywhere else than The Promotional Gifts Company.
For more information visit The Promotional Gifts Company, who will use their expertise to ensure you have the right promotional gifts for your event.
Tags: promotional gift, promotional gifts, promotional product, promotional products
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Wednesday, July 21st, 2010
At The Promotional Gifts Company, we keep an eye out for stories of vintage promotional gifts and promotional products raising a fortune at auction, and the latest example comes from Michelin, as was reported on in this article from The Drum.
200,000 Euro was raised from the sale of classic promotional products, and for established names like Michelin, promotional items can be extremely collectible.
Michelin are not alone in producing much sought after promotional gifts. Brand names like Coca Cola and Guinness are world renowned for producing collectible promotional items, and both have made separate industries out of their promotional wares.
Although not every company can produce such collectible promotional items, it shows what can be achieved with relevant, high quality promotional products. By producing unique, brand consistent promotional gifts, you will not only enhance your reputation but you might well end up producing items that are sought after by staff and customers. Remember, the more people who want your promotional products, the more places you logo and brand will appear.
For more information and ideas on promotional gifts, visit http://www.promotional-gifts-co.com.
Tags: promotional gift, promotional gifts, promotional product, promotional products
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Tuesday, May 25th, 2010
In this blog we have discussed how to use promotional gifts to make an impression at an event or exhibition. Their role in raising your profile and announcing yourself to potential new customers are vital, and during a summer season of festivals and tournaments they can take your business to the next level.
But what about using promotional gifts as part of your every day marketing strategy?
When we talk about promotional gifts, the immediate thought is of getting an item to give to someone else. But they come in many different shapes and sizes and can have a great effect in raising and maintaining brand awareness in a company.
It can be difficult to motivate employees to keep to brand guidelines. A lot of the time it can mean extra effort for staff to make sure the work they do maintains the brand, and that can lead to people becoming complacent about it.
Promotional gifts and promotional items around the workplace are one way of reminding staff about the importance of your brand, and if you have spent a lot of time and money developing a logo and a brand that represents your values, displaying it on promotional items can go a long way to reinforcing it amongst staff.
Making sure you have a good supply of promotional items is also a good idea as they can be given to any visitors, displayed in public areas or used in any photographs.
If projecting brand values are important to your company, make sure you visit http://www.promotional-gifts-co.com and see what promotional items can do for you.
Tags: brand awareness, promotional gifts, promotional items, promotional products
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Tuesday, May 18th, 2010
The summer brings many opportunities for promotional gifts. Whether it’s a company event, exhibition or conference, the season presents many opportunities for giving out promotional gifts.
It is important that these opportunities aren’t wasted and that the gifts chosen provide the maximum benefit to a company. The Promotional Gifts Company has put together 3 handy hints to getting the most out of your gift.
1. Get something that people will use!
It sounds blindingly obvious but it’s a common mistake to make. You’ve spent ages choosing the item, putting your logo in the right place and getting it in just the right shade of green, but if it’s not a gift people will use or want then it’s all time wasted! Think about the people who are attending the event and choose a gift that will make an impression with them. Your branded item is doing nothing for you at the bottom of someone’s drawer, or worse, the bin.
2. Match the item to the event.
It’s important that the gift reflects the importance of the event. If it’s a major event, people will be expecting something on a grander scale. Equally, if it’s a smaller event, you don’t have to break the bank. For these more intimate occasions it’s possible to get a quirky, original gift that people will enjoy and hold on to but won’t cost the earth. If it’s on the higher end of the scale, you don’t want to take the gloss off proceedings by giving out a cheap gift! Make sure the gift matches the scale of the event.
3. Order in plenty of time.
If you know your event is coming up, get in and order your gift. The longer you leave it, the less choice you are giving yourself. Often there will be negotiations on colour schemes and type of product, so make sure you don’t leave it too late to get the gift you want.
You can see our range of promotional gift items at www.promotional-gifts-co.com.
Tags: promotional gifts, promotional products
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Wednesday, May 12th, 2010
An interesting blog on gizmodo.com got me thinking about the novel ways that the movie industry use promotional items as a way of promoting their films. The subject covered in the above blog concerns various Star Wars items that never made it past the drawing board, including a barbeque in the shape of the Death Star, that if were produced back in the day would be worth a fortune now.
Delving into the world of Hollywood promotional gifts you find many different ways of getting items to the end user. At the top there are the models and figures given away in fast food outlets, a sure fire way of getting kids interested in your film. Others, such as those companies who contribute to the $91,000 goodie bags given away at the Academy Awards ceremony, use corporate giveaways in an attempt to attract the glamour of Hollywood’s A list to their businesses.
A more familiar way that the movie industry uses promotional gifts is by producing novelty promo items to give away at premieres. These have included a glass ornament containing a wad of “wolf hair” for the movie “An American Werewolf in Paris”, a heart shaped car deodoriser for the film “Riding in Cars with Boys”, and an “evidence bag” for the film “Texas Chainsaw Massacre”.
While there’s no way that the average small to medium sized business can ever compete with the financial muscle of a Hollywood studio, it does throw up many novel ways of using promotional items to make a memorable impact.
I’ll presume that most companies won’t have the resources to give away products by the thousand through their favourite high street food chain, but the other options do offer some food for thought.
Occasions such as product launches, re-branding events and award ceremonies can be great opportunities to either give away freebies or even get your own star of stage or screen to turn up and adorn them with your products.
Giving away goodie bags ladened with gifts are also a good way of making an impression. As you’ve seen above, the quirkier the better and if you can produce something that is related to the event and has an element of fun, people will be more inclined to hold on to them.
Producing a similar bag of goodies for any press in attendance may also get your story some much needed coverage.
Not everyone can come up with the Death Star barbeque idea, but following Hollywood’s lead on promotional items can have a great effect on any business.
Tags: promotional items, promotional products
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