One of the effects of the economic crisis has been the growth in popularity of pens as a promotional product. The recent research by PPAI has revealed that pens top the list of promotional products with the greatest advertiser/message recall due to usefulness or uniqueness:

The relatively low cost and the usefulness of the product itself make the pens the promotional product of choice especially when budget is the most important consideration. No wonder that many promotional products suppliers see the return of the pens to the top of their best seller list.

Looks like it is back to basics, back to pens …

Photo: promogifts

It is hard to succeed in a big tender without careful and on the limit price calculation. But there are times when such calculation is almost impossible … Like for example when client provides not exactly clear image of a bag or backpack and expects quick price calculation for large quantity. On top of that the price needs to be quoted for transport by air.

With no time to produce the sample there is no chance to calculate the cost accurately. The unit cost can only be estimated. Too high estimate results in no business, too low estimate results money loosing production. Make your pick.

With no samples on hand the packaging info like carton dimensions and weight can also only be estimated. May be manageable if only sea shipment is expected. But estimating a bit too little or bit too much can mean big money when it comes to shipping by air …

And then the cost of air shipment itself. With airfreight costs effectively doubling in past month or two and no clear direction for the near future what rate to select for price calculation for goods expected to be shipped in about 3 months time ?

Pricing can be fun …

The current global financial crisis is slowly but surely spreading from banks and financial institutions to other sectors of (global) economy. How it does, can or will affect the BizGift industry ? I say it will but hopefuly (thanks to the nature of this industry) less than some other industries. Here is why that can be the case.

BizGift industry does not target the retail customers (at least not directly).

When crisis hits people start spending less. First go the pricy items (cars for example) but if the crisis hangs on even cheaper but non essential things remain unsold. Retail sales suffer. But BizGift products are not out there for people to buy. They are out there to motivate people to buy other stuff.

When sales are falling companies have even more reason to invest in marketing.

When sales are falling companies can either give up and shut down or do something about. If the pie is shrinking (buying power of consumers) the aim has to be to take bigger share of that pie. Marketing activities have to go on and they do include purchasing of BizGifts.

Big corporations are cutting marketing budgets

This may sound like bad news and it well may be but not always. The BizGift industry is massive but cost of the promotional products that accompagny marketing campaigns is usually only a fraction of the total campaign cost. Imagine what you can get when you decide to spend USD100,000 on promotional products and then go and try to see how much advertising time on TV or ad space in media you can get for the same money. Cutting only a fraction from spending on media advertising probably saves more than cutting the BizGifts out altogether would. And BizGifts do work.

Look out for opportunities

And lastly – every crisis creates brand new opportunities. Taking them may require some courage as risks may be involved, but some time all that is needed is to approach the things differently in these new and changing conditions.

So aren’t there any dangers ?

Yes, they are, of course. Perhaps not for the entire industry but for individual companies.

Many BizGift companies rely of few major accounts to survive and prosper. The major account can be for a large company, for some other one or two local business. Some companies cut their spending but there are those that go under. Loosing one or more of the key clients may be devastating for BizGift company.

Many BizGift companies keep significant stock of merchandise in their warehouses. Without that it would be hard to provide superfast service people are used to these days. That stock has to be financed somehow, usually by banks. While business is steady or grows there is no problem. But drop in sales may result in inabality to meet the payments to banks and all sorts of troubles may follow rather quickly.

Many BizGift (as well as other) companies give favourable payment terms to their good clients. But even good clients may get in short term difficulties. Delays or defaults on payments may create serious cash-flow issues. Not a pleasant situation.

The promotional products are sometimes funny and also well received by the public . Here is a video with advertisement for vitamins for children. The green man from Mars is the character that represents the brand.

The gift that came with purchase (and features at the end of the clip) is a voice changer that changes the voice into some kind of voice from Mars . Simple but effective.

Recently I read an interview on wired.com with the French designer Philippe Starck. Among other things he touched the question of using the recycled plastic and bioplastic.

Wired: Recently, you have begun to look at the environmental impact of your designs. How does a plastic chair fit in?

Starck: The stupidity of the ecological movement is that people kill trees for wood. It’s ridiculous. The best ecological strategy is to make products of a very high creative quality, so you can keep them for three generations. I prefer to make a very good chair in the best polycarbonate than make any shit in wood that will be in the trash one year later.

Wired: Why not use recycled plastic?

Starck: It’s a little joke of a material. You can do almost nothing with it. And I also refuse bioplastic, which comes from something that people can eat. Scientists agree that we have a real food problem, a famine approaching. It’s a crime against humanity to take something you can eat and make a chair — or use it as gas for your SUV.

These “green” items have recently became very trendy also in the promotional products and gifts and premiums industry. I have nothing against some environmental consciousness but feel that as it often happens the whole industry has jumped on the wagon without really thinking about the actual impacts these “green” products may have. The parallels with biofuels spring to mind. We can run cars on fuel made of corn or soy beans but at the same time as a result the global food prices keep rising threatening stability and lives of people in many parts of the world. One of the aims of biofuel use was reduction of the CO2 emissions. At the same time however huge areas of Amazon rain forest are disappearing so the land can be used for biofuel crops …

Of course those few million pieces of plastic pens made of corn are just a drop in the ocean if compared to the biofuel production. But do we really need to start turning food crops into plastic pens at exactly the time of increasing food prices ?

Is the motivation behind this “green” items craze really the concern about the environment or is this all simply because being considered green is cool these days, no matter what it takes to create that eco friendly appearance ?

One more note on the recycled plastic. Not sure if I would call it a joke of a material, there perhaps is some use for it. But products produced from the recycled plastic rarely can pass the safety lab tests in order to be allowed to enter developed markets.

I will elaborate further on BizGifts and environment in future posts.

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.

Here are more images – click.

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

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

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 …

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.