I received few photos from a friend the other day.  Here is one of them. The sight of the porcini makes me hungry . But look at the knife just next to it. There are places in the world, especially in Europe, where wild mushrooms picking is a popular outdoor activity.  A special knife may be a practical and appreciated gift especially ahead of or during mushroom season.

Mushroom Knife

The knife comes with a slightly curved blade (to help cut the mushrooms easy from the ground) and a brush for brushing away the soil and dirt. And of course there is a safety lock to prevent injury by accidental closing of the blade.There is enough room for branding too. It can be laser engraved either on the blade or on the metal part of the handle.

Popularity: 3% [?]

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The green fever spreads in our industry. Here is one product marketed as green - the water calculator. Well I am not sure if I would call it green. It does not use any recycled material, it is not even packed in a box made of recycled paper. The only thing that can be considered green is the fact that it does not have to use a battery. How is this going to save the environment .

But while I think the “green product” label attached to this product is just a misleading marketing trick it still is a fun item. Kind of cool promotional product for a drink company.

You run promo for soda - print “Runs on Soda” on the box, you run promo for coffee - print “Runs on Coffee” on the box, you run promo for water - print “Runs on Water” on the box.

The best product to promote with this calculator would however be some energy drink

Popularity: 36% [?]

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The nature of BizGift business means there is always some sort of trouble on horizon. It is pretty much impossible to have things going smooth. What is possible however is to lower the likelihood of disaster.

First of all - do not be suicidal and do not promise impossible to your customers. It is very tempting to say OK to every request from client in order to secure the deal. But this may and will came to haunt you. Yes, most of the things can be done, but not all can be done within the time and budget constrains of a BizGift project. You will not get paid for your promises for the goods delivered. If you promise and do not deliver, you end up paying !

Make sure you select a reliable supplier. Get references from people you know, use suppliers that you had good experience with previously. If you still do not know, choose a market leader in your area, there is always a reason for someone to become a market leader. Take the pricing into consideration, but do not make your choice solely based on price. At the end, you often get what you are paying for …

Once you select your supplier, make sure you brief them well. Not every supplier can read your mind.

Then when you secure the order remember that is when the real trouble starts. This also when you have no way to back off anymore …

“Murphy’s law is an adage in Western culture that broadly states that things will go wrong in any given situation, if you give them a chance. If there’s more than one possible outcome of a job or task, and one of those outcomes will result in disaster or an undesirable consequence, then somebody will do it that way.” - from Wikipedia

So here are few examples of possible problems:

• While you were closing the deal with your client, someone else beat you and occupied your supplier’s production facility. There is no chance you will make the order on time.

• The moment you place the order, your suppliers apologizes (in the better case) to you for making mistake in calculation and gives you nicely (in the better case) two options - higher price or no production.

• Due to time or technical constrains you concluded the deal with your client without having the final product ready and approved. While fine tuning the product in the preproduction stages of the order you and your supplier realize, that what was ordered actually can’t be done …

• After you place the order your supplier changes the payment terms, take it or leave it. The new conditions are either impossible for you to comply with due to your cash flow or simply too risky to accept.

• You loose your cool during a routine meeting with your supplier, and the supplier simply walks away. You get dumped …

• You conclude the deal, you are ready to place the order with your supplier. Then you find out the supplier closed down the business.

This is in no way exhausting list of possible trouble. The closest you get to the complete list would be by checking out the Murphy’s laws. So watch out, do not let Murphy to mess with your BizGift project.

Photo: www.murphys-laws.com

Popularity: 50% [?]

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I admit I never thought highly about luggage straps as an advertising medium. But after recently spending more than healthy amount of time on the planes and in the airports I realized, these straps are great.

First of all, people would appreciate them because they are useful:

• they help to keep your luggage closed in case the zipper breaks or the buckle on the suitcase snaps open

• if colorful enough, they help you to recognize your bag

• and if colorful enough, they make it clear to others, that your bag is not theirs

When looking at them as an advertising medium:

• they have large area for branding - the logo or the message can be big

• they are very visible and move around the world with the owner of the luggage

• they are inexpensive

• they can be produced fully customized in relatively small quantities

Just recall those long minutes at airports standing by the carousel waiting for your luggage to appear, looking at hundreds of others…

Everybody’s attention is firmly focused on the bags going round and round and round. Which ones attract your attention ? Usually the colourful ones or those with loads of stickers on them, or those with something that makes them different. A well designed luggage strap may do the job. And it comes cheaper than branded travel bag or suitcase …

Popularity: 39% [?]

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Wherever you look you see collection of something on display. OK, maybe not wherever, but collecting stuff is something that people definitely like to do. They do not even mind if the stuff is not useful. A thing looking OK would often do. Sometime they do not even have to look OK, as long as it is cool to collect them .

Marketing campaigns quite often exploit this human inclination to collecting things. Look around the shops, supermarkets, restaurants and see how often you see some sort of “Collect them all !” or “Get them all !” message on a poster or a board. Well, this is because these things do work if done right. And so promotional products are often made in sets and meant to be collected.

One of the first projects we handled after setting up our business about a decade ago was a set of retro design coasters. The idea from client (or his agency, that I do not remember) was simple. What would people do if they see a really nice coffee coaster attached to the pack of coffee in a supermarket? There is a chance they choose that pack of coffee to get the coaster. And what if they come back to the supermarket again and see the same coffee but with different coaster ? And next to it a poster announcing few more designs coming out soon ? The “collector mentality” would very likely kick in. People may feel that by drinking what they always drink anyway (but sticking to the same brand) they may collect a nice coffee coaster set. And so our client went for it.

The original plan was a set of 4 coasters. The coasters were made of offset printed tin with cork backing and frankly, they looked great. Moreover the coaster is light and flat product, perfect for attaching to the pack of coffee. The campaign turned out to be a huge success and after only a month or so another 4 designs were added. Later on the best collectors received also a storage box for the coasters, also in retro design. All together almost 2 million pieces of coasters were produced. I sure did not complain …

Promotions like this can work miracles and usually do. But that does not mean they always turn out well . More on that in part 2.

Popularity: 32% [?]

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