Ideas For Holiday Gifts for Employees

Spending was down about twenty percent in 2009 on gifts for employees.  That followed a 10 percent drop in 2008.  This year most think there will finally be an increase in spending on gifts for employees.  We will cover some ideas that span the spectrum from expensive to useful but less costly. As expected technology items are near the top of the want list for many this season but with budgets still lean for most it will be better to spend on less gratuitous items.

The most desired technology gift this holiday season is the iPad. That is way above the budget most can afford so give the next best thing, an iPad case. There are now some custom printed ones showing up but it is hard to beat the Apple version of a protective iPad case.  Newegg is one of my favorite stores to shop from when I need to buy online.  Prices are fantastic, service is usually very good and shipping rates are affordable.  There are also a bunch of iPad carrying cases available from stores like Best Buy. 

Jumping all the way to the other side of the spectrum mugs and drinkware are always popular.  Branded products are forever holiday hits and the Wenger Stainless Bottle is no different as it carries the symbols of the Swiss Army.  It’s really just a basic stainless bottle, but Wenger has a huge following and they’re inexpensive and a better alternative than using throw away water bottles.

Somewhere in the middle are nice winter jackets.  North Face has stayed out of the corporate markets.  They don’t want their products co-branded so you will have to take a look at Dicks Sport Goods to buy the North Face Chromium Thermal Jacket.  The North Face makes some great apparel items, all of which are at a level of quality rarely seen.  They are very expensive when compared to brands like Columbia but many feel they hold up longer, look better and are warmer.  

We will take a look at some additional gift ideas in the coming week including tools, sporting goods and gift cards.  Sears has released some great new tools including an all in one ratchet that has already been knocked off by a bunch of competitors including Kobalt.

Creative Naming Can Provide Distinction in a Crowded Field

The marketplace is filled with brands and products that have similar names.  It is as if the marketing or product managers responsible for product naming were on vacation during this critical phase.  The surest way to make your item a commodity is to give it a name that sets it firmly in the middle of a crowded field.  In the advertising specialties industry one of the most crowded categories is the drinkware and particularly the up and coming ceramic tumbler segments.

Luckily there are a few manufacturers that understand how important it is to give your product a unique name.  One trick is to use geography in your favor and the New Yorker Ceramic Tumbler is an instance in which this works while also identifying the product in one of the larger markets in the nation.  There have been a few other promotional items that have come along with a similar name most notably from Bullet Line but none in the already filled mug market.  Instead of using the size capacity like every other company on the planet they actually took a few minutes to come up with a name that was not already being used by a competitor and in doing so clearly identified their product is different.  This makes it easier for customers to find when they search and easier for them to remember when they want to order in the future.

To take it one step further the Manhattan Ceramic Tumbler goes on to identify the financial capital of the world in what is probably the most utilized drink on Wall Street, coffee.  If your target is large institutions which are one of the few segments still actively buying these products there is no better way to get a distinct product to market than to name your product after your target.  Neither of these tumblers are particularly wonderful in that they are not really all that different from the competition.  They do provide some nice features which would include a silicone top and grip and dishwasher safe usage but other than that they are run of the mill.  What distinguishes them from the competition is the naming which is not the standard ounce capacity by type of product. 

The tendency when things go poorly in the economy is to go into the bunker mentality.  Sometimes that results in a lack of creativity which in turn results in some poor marketing choices.  Even if staff is being cut this is no time to skimp on product development at least in terms of product naming.  It does not take much effort to separate your product from the competition.  You can use geographic reference points, historical figures, names or even go outside the box and use a totally new name that may not even be a word.  When coming up with product names there are no rules other than being different unless you want to make your item a commodity.  Save the product specific information for the description and use some creativity in coming up with a name.  It costs little and has the potential to add significant value to your brand. When Gordon Sinclair was looking for a name for a new ceramic cup the I’m Not A Plastic Cup was born and it brought to the table a popular phrase that was not patented by a similar product years prior.   The earlier item included a gift box which kind of ruined the whole eco-friendly atmosphere surrounding the product but the name in this case is brilliant.  Most customers think they are looking at a regular plastic cup from photographs and this name makes it very clear that you are not looking at just another cup.

The Green Green Grass of Aluminum

You normally would not hear green grass and aluminum in the same sentence because they really would never go together.   Aluminum is easily recycled but it is rarely associated with enivornmental causes until now.  What Leed’s has attempted to do in the new fall line is introduce some aluminum products with a purpose.

So far what I have seen of the fall line has been impressive.  At face value the Green Grass Aluminum Bottle has a lot to offer with the carabiner and pre-printed grass look.  When you dig a little deeper you will see it is part of the Global Releaf program which means for every dollar you spend 10 cents will go towards Globe Releaf.  The program itself has been around for several years and has been responsible for teh planting of thousands of trees worldwide and the successful maintenance and rehabilitation of thousands more.  What is nice about this particular program is that it is maintained and operated by the manufacturer which means the end user purchaser does not have to worry about the distributor followign through and contributing as promised.   The moment a sale is made the manufacturer is on the hook for donating the money and with a huge multinational firm like Polyconcepts you are almost assured the donation will be made.

You can learn more about Global Releaf by following the provide link.  From there you will be able to find merchants and retailers that support the program and also the application to sign up if you are interested.  The beauty of this program is it does not cost anything to participate.  The manufacturer or retailer bears the entire cost and if they offer commodity items that means they are contributing without increasing your costs which is particularly important in this economy.

Increasing Backpack Storage Cushions Bad News

By the end of business on Thursday there was no longer any doubt the economy of the United States was once again slowly falling into negative growth.  Across the spectrum the news was terrible today from the housing markets to the employment picture.  There is no good news and all a sales organization can do at this point is steam ahead and introduce new products.

I was introduced to Wenger many years ago while traveling in Iraq on business.  They make a lot of high end military type gear and their Wenger Scan Smart Compu-Backpack is but another example of the high grade construction the Swiss Army people have always been known for using.  There are almost no manufacturers using 840d ballistic grade construction because it is so dense and heavy.  Although they use a lower grade material the Slazenger Sport Vertical Compu-Messenger Bag will hold up to 17 inches of laptop but please note that few of these screens are being designed for the newer widescreen laptops.  When buying a promotional compu-case or compu-messenger bag please make sure you take that into consideration.

As we look forward to the coming months we see that many of the promotional products industry suppliers are gearing up for what they thought was a full recovery.  They do not however understand the average purchase cycle for a majority of ASI distributors is 50 days which means orders coming into the pipeline now were started back in June.  The pipeline is now running dry which will mean much more difficult times ahead.  Smart distributors will have kept expenses to a minimum but the fear is that many thought the good times were back and spent a fortune in the process.  Time will tell as it always does.  Meanwhile the hurricane season has so far sputtered providing a welcome relief from natural disasters.

Lighting the Way to Better Promotions

There has been a lot of news lately from organizations like the American Marketing Association that brand turnarounds are very hard to come by in this economy.  That goes right against what we have seen with Toyota and their massive turn of fortune from near disaster to promoting their way to great success in 2010.  Toyota is using the Key-Light Bottle Opener which comes from Bullet to solidify relationships with new clients. 

Why would they give away something as inexpensive as a promotional keychain?  Because they realize it isn’t the cost that the customer considers but instead the thought.  They also were offering extended service at no cost to the new car buyer which is a nice touch.  We have seen over and over again that simple gestures provide tremendous bounce to overall customer satisfaction.  Six months ago a local water delivery company that had been in an accident promoted a new safety program with The Nite Owl Key-Light with the promotional aspect of the program focused on lighting the way to a safer future.  The fact that they were willing to provide these items to their customers went a long way and retention went up 20% during the campaign.

One of the fastest ways to build brand loyalty is giving the customers something they may want.  It does not have to be an expensive custom gift, just something that the targeted customer may find useful.  Focus on utility more than on cost or perceived value and you may well find you win over customers that had previously had poor experiences.  After all is said and done even an inexpensive promotional gift touches the customer again after the initial interaction and provides you with the opportunity to improve on previous experiences.  In future articles we will discuss some additional ideas that may help you promote your corporate logo to a new customer base.

Putting Your Name Out There Via The Web

There are countless ways to get your name out there.  Radio advertising was big for awhile and still is for some.   Print advertising is all but done with newspapers devastated from the revenue lost.  Telemarketing is all but gone with the changing laws which leaves us with the web.   There are dozens of choices from major directories like Yahoo that cost a lot of money to free directories scattered all over the web.

I have followed with some interest the saga of the company that provides my business with a good portion of our tradeshow items.    My interest is two fold, one is a natural curiousity and genuine well wishing with also a good bit of interest in duplicating their success.  The value of a good eco friendly directory cannot be understated as we approach one of the biggest green days of the year.  If you are selling something that is recycled obviously you want to be into a recycled directory, if you sell organic stuff you should look for and get listed in an organic products directory.  The two directories I just listed are very popular in their respective categories.  Foot traffic from these sites may not be huge but it will drive some decent business.   According to my promo folks the traffic from run of the mill niche sites like those above actually exceeds more popular and sought after advertising listings.   The question comes down to cost and time, adding directory listings can take a lot of time and energy.    Our experiences are a little different as we actively publish our listings in Yellow Book and on the fairly expensive Yahoo directory as it suits are  needs and our revenue structure.   Someone selling a t shirt probably does not want to spend $1000 a year for yellow page and general directory listings.

 

Sometimes You Just Can’t Choose

I’ve got a 3 day conference coming up and I’m trying to decide between three different coolers.  This is kind of a meet and greet with a lot of time spent around the pool and beach.   I figured the best gift would be to give a cooler someone could take with them when we’re done.

I’ve narrowed it to five choices, the Glacier 10-Can Barrel Cooler, the slightly larger Glacier 24-Can Barrel Cooler or the huge Glacier 45-Can Barrel Cooler.  I like all three but I’m worried that they look too much like a beer keg for the corporate market.  They’re great coolers, I’ve played with a sample and they keep things pretty cool for a good period of time.  The same company I’ve used since last fall offers a whole bunch of promo coolers most of which are fairly inexpensive.

The other two coolers I have considered are from Rubbermaid and are just the regular store bought brands from Walmart or Target.  The problem with buying these is although I save about a dollar an item I cannot get a logo put on them and would have to use stickers or go with nothing at all.  It kind of defeats the purpose.   I try to keep my supplier honest so I check prices and what I found shocked me as shipping ran up to $400 from others and I get it free from them.  One other vendor was close on price but wanted $100 for a setup charge and $345 for shipping so in the end they were about $500  more expensive on a $5000 order.

 

Alchemy Needle Random Haystack

After almost two full weeks away I returned to host a “small” gathering today of 200 local entrepreneurs.   For a nominal entry fee each person was provided with a kit which included the Leeds Vortex Deluxe Sling and a Leeds Navigator Zippered Padfolio both of which arrived as usual with a perfect embellishment courtesy of my usual suppliers.

 I did also throw in some local chocolates which I ordered from the candy house nearby instead of going with the same people that supplied the padfolios.   Surprisingly this was on their recommendation as chocolate I guess tends not to travel well and generally the stuff you buy locally is better than the stuff that can be brought in for a reasonable price.   I do use my local printer for the banners and other assorted stuff as I have found that the cost of shipping in banners and similar items is so high now it is outrageous.  Staples hooked us up with the various little items we needed.  We had it catered by the local restaurant and overall I think things went great.

Well that is until we got down to discussing the matter at hand which is the economy and how it is effecting businesses.  Universally the answer is not well.   Realtors are dying, many are changing businesses and going back to school.   All forms of contractors are doing the same  with many picking up second jobs.  Some of the lifetime contractors are fine from repeat customers but those that focused on new construction are hurting.  All other associated businesses are struggling including banks which were busy signing note after note during the boom.  An informal survey showed about 40%, almost half planned on laying off people if things did not improve.    Nine out of ten indicated they had no new plans to hire staff.   A year ago it was two out of ten at the same conference!

The biggest complaint is lack of funds.   Clients are broke and cutting back and as a result so are the small businesses being hurt.   Really it is not a great situation and almost everyone felt it is too little too late by the politicians and Federal Reserve.    I think things will rebound faster than people think come this summer but it is still going to be a slow uphill climb.

Oh and of course I do know that I spelled Savy wrong, that was by design.  Kind of like the weird title I picked for this post.

Not Even Good Promotions Can Save This Economy

Well I keep tooting the horn of a company I found several months ago so I might as well do it one more time before I leave for a two week vacation.  I had our last tradeshow today and once again the promo items we received from our new provider arrived and were a huge hit.  I made the mistake of giving the wrong address and later confirmed the wrong address yet through a lot of hard work on the part of Promo Managers they got the package to me by re-routing it through UPS.   A couple of years ago I dealt with another company where they screwed up the address and basically washed their hands of it so this was a pleasant change.  I did 500 padfolios which looked great.   That kind of ends the good news.

 We ordered 500 because last year we ordered 400 promo items for this show and we ran out halfway through.  This time we came home with three boxes not because people did not want them.  We gave some people two or three but there were just no visitors.   Across the board all of my partners and affiliate businesses are reporting a huge downturn in business over the last two or three weeks to the point of being worse than anything in the last fifteen or twenty years.  Most are saying literally the business has just vanished.  One of my large customers whom I have organized tradeshow events with for over fourteen years is not attending their industry show this year.   The costs due to high fuel prices are too high to ship and fly everyone in and the returns low.  This appears to be a trend as several other industry insiders report the same type of dwindling returns.

People that would typically drive to shows cannot afford $3.50 per gallon and most see prices going higher which means they have less interest in going.  With prices expected to tip over four dollars a gallon by spring it is just going to get worse.  With the news today of a huge bank bailout you have to wonder how close to the edge we are of a historic failing.  One of my other longtime clients had already pulled the plug on one of their summer events as they cannot justify a celebration in the face of such terrible financial news.  

I am on my way to fun in the sun for two weeks.  We made the reservations forgetting that this is spring break time so this should be an interesting few weeks down where it is warm.  I am pretty certain things are going to get worse before I get back.   For the first time in maybe ten or more years I leave with the fear that business many not return to the levels we saw earlier in the decade until the beginning of the next decade.   I also am coming to the realization that the economy of 2010 is going to be totally different than what most of us know.

Save A Tree By Using USB

The advent and incredible popularity of USB flash drives over the last few years has driven prices way down.   Although it is far from a perfect environmental solution using USB memory keys to carry your marketing slogan is a reusable medium that customers will keep in hands.  There are dozens of choices available from personalized versions to store bought and my recommendation to you is shop purely on price, here is why.

Your target market will care much more, or I should say should care much more about what is on the memory drive than what is printed on it if you are using it as a marketing message.  Simply put if you are using a flash drive as a promotional channel the message inside the drive is most important.   That is not to say getting a drive printed like the Leeds Beetle USB Flash Drive 1GB is a bad choice so long as the price is good, but there are less expensive alternatives that are just as effective.  If you are buying small numbers something like the Sandisk 1GB can save you a few dollars if you are buying small quantities especially when you consider shipping and setup charges.  The Sandisk requires a rebate and there is no loading capability at the store.  This means you will have to open each package and load up your marketing files yourself.   If you go with a factory drive that is printed you can pay a little extra money to have your message uploaded in bulk.   There are still cheaper alternatives but it surprised me greatly to find that the printed drives are now often less expensive than blank retail drives.  I am not really sure why this is unless competition is fierce or they are becoming a huge commodity.

The environmental benefits of going with a USB drive to put your catalog on are negligible in theory.  I am sure some company will try to claim they are green because they are reusable – that seems to be the big rip right now, everything is green if it is reusable.   At the very least it is a neat idea and one that your customer will almost certainly keep even if they delete the marketing material and use it as an in house drive to carry their own data.    Remember these are now commodities and prices will vary weekly so look around for the best deal and you will hopefully save yourself a few dollars.   Note the Circuit City listing I gave includes a rebate which would be a royal PITA while the Promo managers listing is direct pricing.  You can find even better deals in your local Costco or similar warehouse store.