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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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

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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

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