Posts Tagged ‘promotional products’
Tuesday, August 17th, 2010
There are many benefits to having a strong brand in business, and more than ever brand values are 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 Corporate 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
Posted in Promotional Gifts | No Comments »
Wednesday, June 23rd, 2010
As the business and economic worlds try to find stability after a long global recession, the aims and strategies of marketing are in a state of flux. With many companies not surviving the downturn and marketing budgets cut across every sector, business bosses are having to come up with more innovative, meaningful ways of promoting their business to potential customers.
Rather than marketing to a large, general population, businesses now need to focus on how to appeal to a more specific target audience who will offer a much higher return on investment. It is important to make a connection to this audience in a personal way, and one technique that can be used to achieve this is promotional gifts. It is a powerful area of marketing which stands out amongst its peers for being able to offer a unique brand experience that cannot exist with any other form of marketing.
There is nothing that can rival the experience of receiving a gift. Most major holidays revolve around the theme of gift giving, and as a marketing tool promotional gifts can evoke an emotional response like no other. In order to achieve this response, promotional gifts have to follow some guidelines.
When a promotional gift is personalised, it becomes the embodiment of the company’s brand, and as a result people will associate that product with the company who gave it. To that end, it pays to give a durable, practical and novel promotional gift that will convey the message of the brand and of the company. If a gift breaks or isn’t fit for purpose, the disappointment of the customer in the promotional gift will be transferred onto the company that gave it. That means it becomes vital for a businesses to ensure the quality of the item they will put their brand onto. After all, it makes no sense to spend time and effort on perfecting a brand image only to let a promotional gift let it down.
As well as durability, businesses also have to think about the sustainability of the product and the ethical connotations attached to how the gift is produced. In today’s world of organic, fair trade produce, companies not only have to conduct their business in an ethical way, but also consider the business practices of the companies they choose to supply their products. With the values of the brand embodied in a promotional gift, companies have a responsibility to ensure their gift is produced in a way that reflects the ethical commitments they pursue themselves.
There will always be a cost consideration when it comes to sourcing ethical produce, but as more emphasis is placed on the importance of responsible trading by governments and businesses, it can become more costly not to conduct business in an ethical way. A company’s reputation can hinge on their business practices and with consumers more aware of where their goods come from, giving an ethically sound promotional gift can have a positive impact on that reputation.
With a new dawn emerging for marketing, quality promotional gifts can play an important role in securing a prosperous future.
Tags: promotional gift, Promotional Gifts, promotional product, promotional products
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Wednesday, August 5th, 2009
In today’s difficult economy many companies are seeing their traditional revenue streams shrinking. If there is one challenge to the sales promotion industry it is how to reach minority markets, currently estimated at about £400billion. Conventional marketing and promotional methods are not enough to capture those hard – to – reach minority markets This is made up of a range of markets including ethnic minorities, seniors and the LGBT community. A lot of the organisations have been unsure how to respond to these changes, opting instead for a, “one a size fits all,” generic approach.
During the recession, businesses should be investing in marketing strategies that target these diverse, groups through targeted products and messages.
An advantage of the promotional merchandise industry is that it provides the perfect platform for this short of approach to our increasingly diverse, cultural society. Promotional products and services can reach and engage with hard to reach audiences.
In terms of cost, promotional items and corporate gifts, can reduce wastage and maximise efficiency. According to the Office of National Statistics and Brand Choice;
1) Disposal income in the U.K ethnic minority market is access of £90 billion.
2) 18.7% of the U.K population is 65 and over.
3) 8% of the population in the U.K are ethnic communities.
4) 1/3 of businesses are owned and run by members of ethnic minorities.
A number of major brands already communicate well with ethnic groups in the U.K as part as their marketing, and PR strategies, such as Tesco and HSBC. They, have conducted specific very successful campaigns and built brand loyalty and revenue. Niche products tailored to meet specific needs, are also doing well.
In the good times, when budgets are generous and targets are perhaps less important, sales campaigns often are characterised by a scattergun approach – throwing spaghetti at the wall and hoping enough of it will stick. Obviously in a recession every marketing pounds or dollar needs to count and promotional items and corporate gifts can prove highly targeted and cost effective; different products can be chosen for each and target market with a range of branding techniques; from jewellery to keyings and flash drives .
Tags: Branding, corporate gift, corporate gifts, Cost Effective, promotional item, promotional items, promotional products, sales promotion
Posted in About The Corporate Gifts Company, Corporate Gifts Advice and Help, Corporate Gifts Business Opportunities | No Comments »
Friday, July 17th, 2009
Promotional giftware is a simple, low-cost, pleasurable, and successful promotional technique. Nevertheless, clichéd gifts like stress toys & Frisbees aren’t as effectual as they once used to be. When you come to choosing be sure to pick a gift that you think people will use frequently and that will remind them of you when they use it. The correct gift creates the correct reaction… Every action has an equal and opposite reaction! So picking your promotional giftware shrewdly is an imperative stride to getting the best return on your investment.
Business Gifts Tip 1 – Factor in what you know about your target audience are.
Be carful when choosing what events to use your corporate gifts at. If you pick an event whose target audience is not compatible with your own, you will be throwing your money away. So, think about who your target audience is and where they would likely be.
Business Gifts Tip 2 – The time of cheep and nasty promotional gifts is long gone.
Happy c**p has had its moment on the business giftware pedestal, but those style of products are not going to be able to speak much about your company. You should choose a gift that has attributes that are comparable to your company’s. If your business is adaptable, then give away a Swiss army knife). This gift communicates your company’s characteristic and can be regularly used.
Business Gifts Tip 3 – Creativity is the way forward.
Being scared to move outside the standard arena of business gifts is boring! Humans remember the extraordinary and we want them to remember you so be extraordinary!
Tags: business gift, Business Gifts, corporate gift, corporate gifts, promotion, promotional gift, Promotional Gifts, promotional products
Posted in Corporate Gifts Advice and Help, Corporate Gifts Business Opportunities | 2 Comments »
Thursday, July 16th, 2009
It should be the vision of all businesses to achieve new heights and expansion. In order to attempt this business owners work really hard and are ready to do almost anything. The promotional product marketing of your business is one of the most important business techniques at your disposal and could be considered vital for any type of business imaginable. If your business is marketed well then there is really no reason that its growth could stop. Advertising & marketing are the main strategies of businesses to promote themselves.
A good marketing strategy increases not only the profit margin but also the brand recognition of your business in the international marketplace. Corporate Giftware can be a big part of any business strategy. It has been shown that the distribution of business products and promotional giftware can help to create business as well as sales and hence profit. It not only develops the business but also can help you to develop longer lasting relationship with the clients and can be a key factor in getting that ongoing work.
If you want to grow your business then a promotional product strategy is a significant way to promote yourself. If you have a product launch then promotional products can be the best strategy to increase the products recognition among your client base. By utilising corporate gifts you can launch your business to new clientele. If you’d like specifically target a given group of customers then there can be no other marketing technique as effective as the distribution of promotional products.
Always put business giftware and promotional gifts at the top of your marketing strategy. It isa proven time and time again to work, contact us if you would like to discuss how we can help your promotional giftware strategy.
Tags: Advertising, business gift, business products, corporate gift, corporate gifts, promotion, promotional gift, Promotional Gifts, promotional products, The Brand
Posted in Corporate Gifts Advice and Help, Corporate Gifts Business Opportunities | No Comments »
Monday, July 13th, 2009
The choices that you make in deciding what promotional vehicles to use and the timing to publicise yourself can be very difficult and time consuming. Service introductions involve communicating to almost all of your organisation’s existing client base and potential client base. The challenge is to promote and stimulate the sales force and virtually everyone else in the company.
Sampling as a promotional vehicle is excellent for introducing a new product, product improvement or for entering new market areas with an established product. In the past, cigarette manufacturers have found this vehicle very useful. Sampling, however, is expensive and lacks precision. Sampling is probably the most dramatic, and expensive way to get your product into the hands of new clients. Target you sample giveaway effort to people most likely to buy, or many of your costly samples will end up in the bin. It is still the most effective way to get someone to try your product and subsequently purchase the product.
But if budgetary constraints are such that full sampling is a moot point then consider the possibility of using an existing promotional products and manipulating it into a sampling scenario. Consider a custom shaped flash drive we can literally create a bespoke flashdrive in any shape imaginable. A cost effective and useful product with fast lead-times… get your product out there!
Tags: Cost Effective, promotion, promotional products
Posted in Corporate Gifts Advice and Help | No Comments »
Monday, June 15th, 2009
As your business grows and the quality of your marketing becomes increasingly important to your continued expansion, you will inevitably ask yourself how best to organise your marketing functions. Given that marketing spend is often the second largest variable expense after suppliers, the importance of this question cannot be overestimated. When buying a promotional gift, the first thing to consider is what your business’s major challenge is: Distinguishing yourself from the competition? Extending your brand into other markets? Increasing customers’ lifetime value? Lowering the cost of customer acquisition?
Picking a Promotional Gifts Co out of the Yellow Pages is not advisable.
What should you look for when choosing a company to supply your corporate gifts. Well, much the same considerations as when we choose any company to supply your organisation with goods and services. But here are a few tips to help you make the right decision!
• Make Contact – new business is the lifeblood of any company, and if the speed of response is poor, imagine what it will be like once you’ve placed your order.
• Client List and Testimonials – check the website for testimonials; if there aren’t any it doesn’t mean you won’t get good service, but if they are present it should give you a degree of confidence. The Corporate Gifts Co has lots of testimonials which can be found at the bottom of each website page.
• Track Record – The Corporate Gifts Co has 18 years of experience in supplying promotional products and business gifts.
• Stock – is it held on site? In the UK? If not it could mean problems down the line. The Corporate Gifts Co holds stock on site.
• Branding – Is it done on site or subcontracted? Again sub-contracting such an integral part of the service means the company is not in total control. The Corporate Gifts Co has a dedicated branding department so we control the whole process.
• Accreditation: The Corporate Gifts Co is ISO9001 accredited, has been awarded Investors in People, and are members of BAGDA, Promota, and the Giftware Association. Also check out our CSR policy.
When you use Corporate Gifts to communicate with your customers your brand reputation is on the line. Choose The Corporate Gifts Co to make sure your promotion runs smoothly, on the time and in budget.
Tags: business gift, Business Gifts, corporate gift, corporate gifts, promotional gift, Promotional Gifts, promotional products
Posted in Corporate Gifts Advice and Help | No Comments »
Wednesday, June 10th, 2009
The vogue for nostalgia is at an all-time high for both young and old, according to a recent report by Euromonitor. Of course, when the future looks uncertain, there’s nothing like rosy memories of a time when life was supposedly simpler, to make us feel happy.
Leading London toy store Hamleys is hotly tipping a return in popularity for toys from the 70s and 80s such as the Rubik’s Cube and Monopoly!
The appeal of retro products and services is a quest for cool, young people who don’t remember these brands first time round are embracing them now because to them, they’re cool and different.
Three factors effecting the Retro revival:
1. eBay and other online marketplaces.
These websites have made the buying and selling of old and second-hand goods less Steptoe and Son and more “retro-chic”.
2. Revive traditional methods.
Handmade and craft based items are now very popular.
3. Add a retro element.
Stirring up the positive associations with a more glamorous age can help sell your product.
The Corporate Gifts Company specialises in classic, timeless design and desirable promotional products and executive incentives. We do have some retro gems in our comprehensive range, however, such as;
1. LOP6 Silver Plated Classic Letter Opener – To open letter with 60s class.
2. PEN06 Milan Ballpoint Promotional Pen in a chrome box – Perfect for retro writing.
3. CLK17 Duo Alarm Clock – Art deco styling
4. MIR25 Silver Plated Crystal Round Mirror – “Retro-chic” item – Return to 60s sure!
5. Sterling Silver Range – all have a classic retro feel
6. MYC06 Silver Plated City Money Clip – Great retro pattern.
7. NBK02 Pocket Notebook & Pen – Get the style of a 70s person.
8. YOY01/SP Silver Plated Executive Yo Yo – Perfect to return into childhood.
9. CST02 Linear Coaster Set – Art deco styling, perfect to impress your guest.
10. PCS01 Silver Plated Playing Card Set – Play cards in style – perfect for bridge.
11. LTG02 Silver Metro Luggage Tag – Great to personalise your luggage with a retro touch.
12. FLA21 Hunters Flask with Cup – Retro product perfect for outdoors.
Call our sales team today on: 0845 430 2902 to see how The Corporate Gifts Co can add value to your corporate retro gifts.
Tags: Corporate Duo Alarm Clock, corporate gift, corporate gifts, Corporate Hunters Flask with Cup, Corporate Linear Coaster Set, Corporate Pen, Corporate Pocket Notebook and Pen, Corporate Silver Luggage Tag, Corporate Silver Plated Classic Letter Opener, Corporate Silver Plated Crystal Round Mirror, Corporate Silver Plated Money Clip, Corporate Silver Plated Playing Card Set, Corporate Sterling Silver Range, Corporate Yo Yo, promotional products
Posted in Corporate Gifts Advice and Help | No Comments »
Monday, June 8th, 2009
Promotional products and business gifts are often the poor relation of “above-the-line” marketing activity, but corporate gifts have long proved that they can be far more targeted and cost effective.
A recent survey showed over 45 per cent of respondents chose live events, roadshows or promotions as the most cost-effective method of marketing a product. This compares with just 33 per cent for TV; fewer than five per cent for direct marketing, three per cent for Internet advertising and zero per cent for distributing flyers as the best method of promoting a brand. So why do brands still allocate so much of their marketing budgets above the line?
When compared with the number of consumers reached by mass media techniques, these methods cannot hope to compete. However, when the quality of the target and depth of engagement for promotional products with a brand is considered, the long-term benefits are more obvious.
50 per cent throw flyers away. Add a money-off coupon to the flyer and still only 15 per cent of respondents will be influenced to note the contents. However, when a promoter uses a more engaging “experience” to interact with people, the number of respondents usually encouraged to take and read the flyer as part of a wider “experience” jumps to around 50%.
Above the line activity armed at the wrong target market is more likely to turn a costumer against a brand or company than not targeting them at all. Interaction between a company and its potential customer with a corporate gift or promotional product has greater long-term benefits when it comes to building brand loyalty. Hence, it’s more cost-effective.
Here is a list of The Corporate Gift Company top 10 best selling promotional items (in no particular order):
1. CDC01/CH Chrome Business Card Case – perfect to keep those business cards in pristine condition.
2. KYR25 – Silver Plated Cushion Keyring – very cost effective product, great branding area.
3. DSK01 Desk Set – perfect for all sort of offices.
4. FRM53 Photoframe – Ideal to embellish your favourite photos! – Great at work or at home.
5. AWD02 Star Paperweight – Perfect for to be a veritable star at work!
6. AWD04 Star Trophy – Great award and really cost effective.
7. GLB01 Globe Puzzle – Ingenious item with great “fiddle-factor”.
8. WOT01 World Timer – Perfect to put it on your office and know the time in all countries you want.
9. PEN15 Floating Pen – Original and very innovative item.
10. PEN06 Milan Pen in Chrome Box – great item – you can incorporate your promotional message or logo.
Call our sales team today on: 0845 430 2902 to see how The Corporate Gift Co can add value to your marketing activity.
Tags: business gift, Business Gifts, Corporate Chrome Business Card Case, Corporate Desk Set, Corporate Floating Pen, corporate gift, corporate gifts, Corporate Globe Puzzle, Corporate Milan Pen in Chrome Box, Corporate Photoframe, Corporate Silver Plated Cushion Keyring, Corporate Star Paperweight, Corporate Star Trophy, Corporate World Timer, promotional products
Posted in Corporate Gifts Advice and Help | No Comments »
Monday, June 1st, 2009
All organisations have to market their products or services to the public, but getting their own employees to buy into the brand can pose a different set of problems.
1. Aim for staff buy in at all levels. A campaign is only truly effective if the whole company identifies with and lives with the company ethos.
2. Research employee attitudes and behaviour. If the objective of a campaign is to change these, you need to know your staff and what motivates them.
3. HR staff are not marketing staff! If companies employ marketing communications experts to market their brand and values to customers, why shouldn’t they do so with the staff? Many employee motivation and branding programmes fail because the message is not compelling or personal enough or because they are underfunded and under-resourced.
4. Form working parties to define the company ethos. Companies should do this across the business to define what they believe the brand should company for.
5. Apply internal marketing. Use the same principles and many of the same processes as brand marketing to customers, but focus instead on influencing the attitudes and behaviour of staff.
6. Set measurable goals. How can companies evaluate whether an internal staff branding campaign has worked? Which key performance indicators they hope to meet and the level of customer satisfaction or sales increase they expect. It’s also vital to set a realistic time-frame for meeting specific targets along the way so internal branding can filter through hand have a lasting effect.
7. Make it sustainable. Getting staff to live your brand is more than just a one-off campaign. Align key people and processes to sustain the brand values and culture of the company. An ongoing internal branding programme should be a key part of recruitment, learning development, staff training and communications.
8. Use events to create internal brand loyalty. Bowling, cinema, theatre, football, theme parks – there’s a lot that can be done with a little money and a bit of effort. The upside could be that your staff will feel that your company cares about them.
9. Customers need to see consistency, from marketing to sales to operations to delivery to finance – a complete experience. This requires communication understanding and engagement: understanding why things are important and what they mean to the business and the customer.
10. Incentivise and reward performance. Strategic incentive programmes can have an amazing effect on a company’s performance. This applies both to internal motivation, dealer or channel incentives and customer or consumer promotions. And don’t assume this is all expensive. Even a small corporate gift for each employee can make an impact on how people think.
Here are some great suggestions from The Corporate Gifts Company perfect for staff promotional products and incentives:
• Silver Plated Boomerang Letter Opener – Very practical, perfect for any sort of promotional desk.
• Deco Clock – very cost effective product.
• Sterling Silver Gifts Keyring – great engraving area for your corporate logo or promotional message.
• Sterling Silver Photoframe – great item – ideal to put it under desk employee.
• Floating Desk Pen – beautiful design to become more attractive desks.
You can incorporate your logo or a message on these gifts with a discreet and elegant engraving.
Call our sales team today on 0845 430 2902 to see how the Corporate Gifts Co can add value to your staff promotional products and incentives.
Tags: Corporate Deco Clock, Corporate Floating Desk Pen, corporate gift, corporate gifts, Corporate Silver Plated Boomerang Letter Opener, Corporate Sterling Silver Gifts Keyring, Corporate Sterling Silver Photoframe, promotional products
Posted in Corporate Gifts Advice and Help | No Comments »
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