The Promotional Products Blog

The long running saga of who lies behind the helmet of The Stig was finally revealed today after the BBC lost their High Court battle to protect the secret identity of one of their top assets. The victors in the case, publishers Harper Collins claim it is “a victory for free speech”, arguing that the man behind the mask has an important tale to tell. But what does this say about the rights of the BBC, who have spent time, money and knowhow in creating an engaging character who they can use to sell their product worldwide? Should the BBC have the right to protect what is essentially their intellectual property from an aggressive attempt to make money from their creation?

The high profile nature of the case adds to the interest, but this it a matter that businesses have to deal with on a daily basis. It is often the case that once companies create an effective brand or marketing strategy, it is copied or manipulated by competitors who are looking to get their slice of the pie.

A similar case earlier in the year saw Sky TV forced to sell their Sports package for a cheaper rate to broadcasters who will then undercut their prices. Sky argued that as it was their money and expertise that helped to create their most money making prospect, The Premier League, that they should be entitled to protect their property from other companies looking to cash in. Again, they were unsuccessful and are now forced to sell their prized asset to their competitors.

So how do you tell the difference between a monopoly and protecting your corporate property?

It would certainly seem that the law is against companies who try to protect their brand in court, which certainly delivers a negative message to businesses who build an innovative and strong brand. It would seem to offer very little protection to businesses who try to protect their interests against companies who would wish to cash in on their efforts.

Some would argue that this action protects the customer, but if this is at the expense of penalising companies that use their resources to produce innovative and exciting brands, then surely this harms the customer in the long run.

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With advances in technology coming around every five minutes, there are always casualties. The humble floppy disc, the cassette and video recorder have all been condemned to gadget heaven over the last decade and in the years to come even the technology we take for granted today will go the same way.

But one unusual addition to gadget heaven appears to be the one that has driven the gadget industry since the very beginning. Yes, the button is dead.

It all started with the Ipod. The unique touch design that drove their control unit seems to have had an irreversible affect on how we use gadgets, and now everything from our phones to our computers are operated by a touch on a screen rather than the push of a button.

So has our ever faithful friend the button become a victim of fashion or is there something more behind its demise?

There’s no question that the touch screen wins in the cool stakes. Gliding your hand over a screen is reminiscent of sci-fi films and futuristic imagery that showed us what technology could be like. The sight of office yoga across the country as people conduct their gadgets through touch could well replace the tapping of keyboards, but will touch screen technology ever replace the way we use buttons?

The touch screen certainly has its place. From a practical point of view it can make moving through pages quicker and more like the offline experience. This can be particularly useful for electronic book readers and on computers where you need to flick through a number of different pages. When combined with motion sensing equipment, touch screens have changed the way we interact with technology, turning our electronic experience into a more lifelike, offline world.

If the future of gadgets is to make controlling them a more natural experience, using motion and touch over buttons, then it could well spell the end of the button as we know it.

The Business Gifts Company have a wide range of promotional gadgets that use the latest technology to sell your brand. Whatever the future has in store for the lowly button, our stylish range of promotional gadgets will reflect the latest trends and must have items that will enhance your company’s reputation. Browse our futuristic range of promotional gadgets to see how your promotion can benefit from looking to the future.

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They often say the old ones are the best. Promotional pens are a marketing classic and have been around as long as any of us can remember. But what makes them such popular promotional gifts choice for marketers and businesses?

Promotional pens are a simple concept. An ordinary pen in the correct colours and adorned with a logo is an item that most of us have in our homes and desks at work. So why their popularity?

The ideal promotional gift is one that is practical as it will be used openly, giving the most prominence possible for the brand. It will also reflect the brand not only through the logo displayed but with colour and design. It will also be affordable to produce and hopefully produce a return on investment through a raised profile and awareness. The ideal promotional gift should also be relatively simple, whether that’s by targeting the promotional gift to a specific audience or by making it something that is used everyday and solves a practical problem.

Promotional pens tick all these boxes. Their versatility and wide range of style available means that it is always possible to choose a design that reflects the brand. Whether it just needs to be plain to give the logo and colours more prominence, or something more stylish and expensive to enhance a company’s reputation, there is always something to suit the needs of a company.

Simplicity is also the key with promotional pens. Everyone needs a pen and so a free promotional pen is always likely to be kept next to the phone or put in the computer drawer at home for when we need a pen to hand quickly. They make such good promotional gifts as they are frequently used, meaning maximum exposure for the brand that is featured, and relatively cheap to make and distribute

If simplicity is the key then promotional pens are cheap and easy to produce, meaning that businesses can get more of them out to larger quantities of people, raising public awareness of the company. This will provide the return on investment, whether that’s through increased traffic to a website, more enquiries or improved brand status.

Promotional pens have a long history of providing effective promotional gifts and even with the rise of modern technology, this doesn’t appear to be about to change any time soon.

View a wide selection of promotional pens at The Promotional Gifts Company, or for premium promotional gifts visit The Corporate Gifts Company.

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Business gifts are an effective business tool for marketing, motivation and as a reward for achievement. As we emerge from the back end of summer, many businesses will be turning their attentions towards Christmas, but can business gifts be just as effective the rest of the year round?

It is a slightly depressing thought but in the world of business, Christmas is just around the corner. With the nights getting darker and the mornings getting chillier, autumn announces itself just in time for businesses to start concentrating on Christmas. For business gifts it is the busiest time of year, with companies looking to celebrate with their staff and reward clients whilst getting the word out about their brand. But can business gifts be used throughout the rest of the year to achieve the same results?

The answer is of course yes. Motivation and rewards don’t begin and end with the Christmas festivities and business gifts can play an important role within marketing and staff incentives.

Branded business gifts are the best way to spread the word about a company as the gift can embody the spirit of the brand.  They can be used to spread the word not only about the company but deliver it’s brand values to the end user. If a company are promoting their futuristic ideas and want to be seen as looking forward, this message can be transmitted by giving promotional gadgets, for example.

As well as marketing and brand awareness, business gifts also play a year round role in boosting motivation. Staff who are rewarded for their efforts will be more enthusiastic about their work, and this can only help productivity. Nothing replicates that feeling of receiving a gift whatever time of the year it is, and if that gift is given as a result of the work somebody has done it can have a profound affect.

In these times of austerity, where achievement cannot always be rewarded with a cash bonus, business gifts are a more affordable way for businesses to recognise the hard work of their employees. For companies who have been forced to make cut backs, they can give staff a welcome reminder that their efforts have not gone unnoticed.

With the attention of businesses starting to shift towards Christmas, don’t forget the benefits that giving business gifts can provide all year round.

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Promotional products play an important part in the success of marketing and promotional strategies, but to get the most out of them, planning is everything. We have assembled a list of strategies that will ensure your promotion hits the ground running.

1. The first step must be to determine and define what your objectives and goals are. This will help you to stay focused throughout the planning procedure. This advice will also help you when you are choosing promotional gifts as it will ensure you are choosing the right promotional products for your requirements. Your objectives and goals should be specific, simple and most importantly measurable.

2. Specify the promotional products strategy that is most consistent with your goals and objectives.  How will this promotion affect your client base?  Consider using as many promotional tie-ins as possible in as many mediums as you can.

3. Evaluate the prospect for sales or performance increase and its value in profits. You should ensure that your promotion has well thought out objectives that will positively influence income.

4. Review the successful promotions that you have used in the past.  Can these promotions be used again successfully?  If you want to avoid replicating past promotions, still consider where they were successful and where they let you down. Evaluating the success of previous promotions can be the key to unlocking a successful new promotion. If your new promotion is unveiling a new brand or product, ensure you have the right promotional products that will broadcast the message you are trying to get across.

5. Identify who can assist you in achieving your goals and objectives. Whether it’s internal staff who have the knowledge and expertise to assist you or consultants, agencies or external companies who can benefit your promotion. When using promotional products there may be people in different departments who may be able to help you with design demands, technical advice and reliable sources.

6. Decide what you will budget for your promotional products strategy.  How will the budget affect sales? Can your budget be determined by a percentage of sales increase? Budgets can be negotiable if you can show that your promotional products strategy can positively influence sales.

7. Determine how you will measure your promotional products strategy in terms of sales increase.  Decide when the promotion will begin and its extent. Be sure that you communicate your decisions with all the relevant personnel involved.  Make sure that everyone is on the same track.

8. Make sure that all promotional gifts are reviewed by your relevant departments (sales / marketing / customer service etc) in order to determine if any problems exist.

9. Communicate with all departments to make sure you order the right amount of promotional products. Other departments may have events they will be attending that they will want to take promotional products to. Ordering the right amount in the first place might save you money down the line when you don’t need to order more promotional products at a potentially different price.

10. Complete a post promotion evaluation of your promotional gifts strategy.  What worked and importantly what problems did you have with the promotion, what can you learn from it? Use this evaluation for assisting in planning promotional products in future.

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Choice can be a tricky concept. On the one hand, more choice can mean more variety, more competition and lower prices but on the other hand more choice can mean you are swamped with a million different decisions to make.

The same is true with business gifts. Once the decision has been made to award business gifts, so begins the endless searching through thousands of different products to try and find the right business gifts for you.

To try and make life easier for the business gifts buyer we have put together this list of hints and tips that will help you decide on what you want as a business gift and where best to find it.

1. Why do you want business gifts?

Seems a pretty straightforward question but it can often be the key to finding the right business gift. What are your motives behind getting business gifts? Do you want to reward your staff, promote your company, enhance your brand or appeal to new customers?

Once you have decided what you want your business gifts for it can make life much easier. Staff rewards come in many different forms but once you know what you want it can make things go more smoothly. You can choose a business gift item like an engraved picture frame or a business card holder, or something they can use at work like a promotional flash drive or other promotional gadgets. If you are looking to reward achievement or even provide a staff incentive, corporate awards can make an exciting business gift that can also improve staff morale.

If you are looking to promote your business or appeal to new customers then business gifts are an effective promotional marketing tool. They can of course be personalised with your brand to make a truly bespoke business gift that will carry your brand message in style. You can use promotional gifts that carry your logo to spread the word at an exhibition or conference, or use business gifts to provide potential customers with a reminder of your company and brand.

And talking of brand awareness, many companies use business gifts after a re-launch to help inform staff of their new brand and the values behind it. If you are looking to promote your green credentials for example, then eco-friendly corporate gifts can be used as an appropriate platform to show off your new logo whilst promoting your brand values to staff.

2. So I Know I Want Business Gifts, But What’s The Difference Between Business Gifts And Promotional Gifts?

It won’t take long on Google to realise that business gifts come in a range of shapes and sizes. Whereas business gifts fulfil the more tradition gift item role, being an attractive gift that people will use and display, promotional gifts are often cheaper items such as promotional pens, promotional calendars and umbrellas where the main aim is promoting your business. These are particularly useful to give out at exhibitions and conferences where you are trying to promote your company and spread the word about your business.

3. Where Do I Start With Branding?

While it may seem like a daunting task, getting your product branded is relatively straight forward. The choices are usually engraving or branding and you can discuss the different options open to you once you have chosen a business gift. Engraved business gifts are usually better when given as a gift whereas branded items are usually more appropriate for promotional purposes. When looking at the products online, your branding options will usually be explained and if not, experienced staff are on the other end of a phone to help you out

4. What If I’ve Left It To The Last Minute?

It doesn’t always have to lead to panic stations! Companies like The Corporate Gifts Company keep stock in the UK and engrave in house so you won’t have to wait for your business gifts to be shipped in before they start engraving. Holding stock in the UK means shorter lead times, so you can have your business gifts with you within 7 days. If you leave a bit longer then obviously you will have more choice, but quality business gifts are available even if you do leave it to the last minute.

5. So I Know What Business Gifts I Want, Now How Do I Make Sense Of The Prices?

The internet has it’s upsides. It means you can browse an seemingly infinite range of business gifts from the comfort of your own desk. But sometimes there’s no substitute for a person on the end of the phone to talk things through with. Most websites will make your pricing options pretty clear on their website but if you have multiple colours and engraving positions it can soon start to become confusing. If in doubt just pick up the phone and talk to someone and they will be able to give you an exact price in seconds. Remember, just giving someone a call doesn’t oblige you into buying anything, so if you’re unsure, just ask.

Hopefully this will have made the process a bit clearer and given you more of an idea of what you want. But now where do you go. Our family of websites caters for every promotional and business gift occasion. Once you’ve decided what kind of business gifts you want, just click on the link to be taken to the right website for your needs.

Corporate Gifts  Business Gifts  Promotional Gifts  Corporate Awards  Corporate Jewellery

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There are many benefits to having a strong brand in business, and it increasingly 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.

Which Promo 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!

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For Catholics in Britain, the Pope’s visit will be a huge event. It will take place between the 16^th and the 19^th of September and take in 3 cities across Scotland and England. For many it will mark an important moment and provide memories for a lifetime.

But in the last few days there has been a level of criticism aimed at those aiming to “cash in” on the visit by offering promotional products such as t-shirts, caps and jackets to mark the occasion. Some say it cheapens the experience and that a highly significant moment such as a mass from the Pope should not be celebrated in such a way, with the promotional products being more reminiscent of a heavy metal band than a papal visit.

Others on the other hand believe that they should be allowed to celebrate their faith in a way that they see fit, and that the freedom to wear promotional products that mark the visit are a harmless way of embracing the event.

There’s no doubt that it will be an important experience for the people who attend, and it is only natural to want a memento from the day. But is it fitting for religious items to be used in such a way when a Papal mass is usually a sober and respectful event? Can religion really expect to avoid the modern day clamour for souvenirs and promotional merchandise that act as memories for events?

It is a matter that will be discussed long after the Papal visit is over, but it would certainly appear that promotional products will be a fixture for the duration of this trip.

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Unlike other business sectors, charities depend on donations and hard, often unpaid work to raise the funds they need to be able to make a difference. Whether it’s voluntary workers in a charity shop, regular donors or someone with a high profile giving their time to increase the charity’s popularity, they often owe a great deal of gratitude to people making the effort on their behalf.

People often don’t expect to be rewarded or thanked for the work they do for charity as the effort they make is often for a cause that means a lot, so merely participating is enough. But charities, like every other business sector, need to maintain a motivated and inspired team in order to make sure their targets are met, and sometimes incentives and awards can help charities to improve even further.

Using corporate gifts and corporate awards to reward voluntary staff and principal donors can be an effective way of keeping charity supporters motivated and willing to continue to support the charity.

Corporate Gifts To Incentivise Staff

Whether staff are paid or voluntary they need to be motivated to perform to the best of their ability. When volunteering their time to help out charities they will often be driven by their support for the work the charity does, but once the reality of the work involved sets in it can be a challenge to maintain that level of motivation. By using corporate gifts to reward staff for their efforts it can help them to continue to feel motivated to work hard for the charity. Items such as branded
cufflinks and photo
frames can provide a wonderful keepsake that people will be proud to display, which will have the joint effect of motivating the staff and raising the profile of the charity. By rewarding volunteer staff with branded corporate gifts there will be more people showing off the logo of the charity and displaying their name, giving valuable visibility for the cause concerned.

Corporate Awards To Recognise Achievement

In every business sector there will always be individuals who exceed expectations. By hosting an awards ceremony or even handing out a trophy in the office, hard working individuals can be rewarded for their achievements. Corporate awards can be especially useful for charities as the amount of good work undertaken for the charity opens up a huge amount of possibilities for award categories, with staff, volunteers and even users of the charity eligible for a corporate award. An awards event can also bring with it much press interest, giving the charity concerned valuable exposure.

If you would like to use corporate gifts or corporate awards to reward your staff, visit http://www.corporate-gifts-co.com or http://www.corporate-awards.net for more information. If you are from a charity you can receive a 10% discount on your order.

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When shopping for anything, customers want to have choice. Whether it’s baked beans in a supermarket or a brand new car, consumers are increasingly facing an ever growing choice of products designed to appeal to their needs.

While this move towards consumer personalisation opens up a whole new world of choice, all these decisions can make life more complicated. When offered a whole world of choice, where do you even start knowing what you want?

When you are promoting your business through corporate jewellery it is important that your exact needs are met. That is why Corporate Jewellery offer a bespoke product service that will design corporate jewellery to your specific requirements. But this can open up the same consumer dilemmas that we face in everyday life. Once you’ve decided on which product to choose, you then need to think about size, shape, colour and a whole other range of decisions. When faced with so many options, it can be difficult to come to a decision.

That is why Corporate Jewellery will offer you a personal service that is designed to help you through every step of the process. Once you have requested a quote and mockup, you will receive a personal service from one of our experienced sales team who will talk you through your options to ensure you receive the corporate jewellery that meets your requirements.

Even if you aren’t sure exactly what you want, Contact Us to discuss your corporate jewellery needs.

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