I really enjoyed sitting down with Tim Hutchings  founder of the Brighton Marathon at a local Networking breakfast in Brighton. You see, you never know who you will meet!

Tim is obviously a fan of Promotional Products as he said this must be great for you, surely everyone in this room uses your products? My response was that ‘yes, surely everyone should use our products, but in the room my guess would be that less than 30% purchased promotional products.’

This morning my son came to me with a form from school, a consent form to allow him to travel by minibus to a cross country running event. No problem Ben, grab me a pen from my work bag.  

Ah – ‘Peninsula’ yes that was a really interesting presentation they gave on Employment Law and Policies & Procedures on Friday……I must action that this week. Here you go Ben, form signed.

So Monday morning, 8AM ’Peninsula’ through the use of  a 30p Promotional Printed Pen, have reminded me of the event, and my need to action. The Business card & literature will soon be hidden in an in tray but the pen is and will be used repeatedly after the event, and each time is reminding me of them, brilliant, and how much more effective, less intrusive and cheaper than repeated telemarketing after the event.

Sure the pen will soon be lost, replaced by another, but in the key 30 days after the event it is the pen of the moment. Of course it is useful, but it also writes really smoothly making it a pen that I will be looking for when I need to write something down, which let’s face it is every hour of every day.

How many times will I see this logo until I lose this pen, 10 times a day for maybe a month, that’s 300 times for a cost of 30p, that’s a cost per impression of £0.001 which makes this pen an extremely cost effective marketing tool.

Why doesn’t every business in the room use printed mugs, pens and other promotional products that will be useful to their customers, but at the same time act as a constant reminder of their business?

Please tell me, feel free to use the comment box below?

Andrew is Managing Director at Sussex Promotions, the UK’s Promotional Product Experts. Established over 10 years, ISO & BPMA accredited, Sussex Promotions are your one-stop shop for printed promotional products from printed mugs and printed pens through to branded umbrellas and promotional clothing.

One of the attractions with stress relievers is the huge choice of amusing and business related shapes which makes finding a suitable shape to a business or profession, marketing campaign or message easy.

From stars and hearts, every conceivable fruit through to spanners and other tools, you can have a house or create your very own farmyard! New for 2012 include Olympic themed shapes such as a weightlifter and gold medal.

With a little time and creativity, from just 500 pieces you can design your very own shape, or take any existing shape and create in your own corporate Pantone colours.

To add further creativity you can add a sound chip or vibration to your stress shape. Standard sound chips include a cow, pig, chicken, aeroplane and phone however it is possible to create your own unique sound be it music, a sound effect or someone talking for a completely personalised promotion.

For those concerned with the environment there are stress shapes available manufactured from recycled materials that are also biodegradable.

But can a stress ball actually relieve stress? Yes, they really do! Repeated squeezing of a stress shape, gradually increasing the squeeze induces progressive muscle relaxation where each time you squeeze harder the more you relax after.

If you are looking for a product to give-away at a trade show, or manufacture a low cost, fun replica of a shape linked to your business or product, please give us to call to discuss ideas further.

Andrew is Managing Director at Sussex Promotions, the UK’s Promotional Product Experts. Established over 10 years, ISO & BPMA accredited, Sussex Promotions are your one-stop shop for printed promotional products from printed mugs and printed pens through to branded umbrellas and promotional clothing.

So how are you going address the need to find more customers, and equally as important keep the current ones?

• Networking? Great…
• Social Media? The new kid on the block…ok.
• Telemarketing? Recommended
• Emails? Yep
• Direct Mail? Excellent
• Advertising?
• Etc etc..

All of the above, done well, not in isolation, that are customer focused will create results.

What about Promotional Products?

The “greatest marketing tool in the mix”…..or the “cr**” that sits in the desk drawer?

Barrack Obama has just signed an Executive Order designed to cut drastically federal spending on such items.

The PPAI (Promotional Products Association International – USA) President & CEO Paul Bellantone’s response “…while it might be tempting to limit the purchase of promotional products in order to yield short-term savings, in the long term, this prohibition may unintentionally diminish the good work of federal agencies.”

You see the problem as I see it, and it appears also the US President, is that many ‘perceive’ the promotional product as unnecessary and a waste, and as we witness on a daily basis a marketing tool that is an add on, a last minute consideration, and not the important tool that it is.

Sure if the budget is pennies, there is 48 hours, and choice is limited to budget pens or a cheap keyring then there is every likelihood that the product will be ineffective and ultimately wasteful.

What is daft, to my mind, is the reality that long after the trade show is packed away (you know that carefully designed £10k exhibition stand that was central to the show, and is now in the storeroom?), and the printed brochure, leaflets and business cards….now ‘filed’ or was that recycled? It’s the last minute promo product that is still potentially out there…

It is the 30p printed pen that has every chance of being grabbed today, from the printed mug (that acts as a pen pot) to scribble a brief message on the printed sticky note to stick to the printed mouse that sits on printed mousemat that sits on the MD’s desk.

And it’s because all of these items are good quality, every day items….that work….and that are USEFUL that they are kept, and they are used time & again, day after day.

And the best bit….they are your corporate colour, they have your message, your strap line, your web site, your telephone number, your email printed on them…and when the customer needs you…you are but an arms length away.

But if you are not on the desk top, in the car, in the draw, on the fridge, in the golf bag that’s fine, because I’m sure they remember you from the exhibition 3 months ago….I’m sure the emails get opened and the tweets are being followed.

And that Mr Obama is why Promotional Products work, in the ‘Stop Smoking’, ‘Check your battery in the Smoke Alarm’, ‘Drink Drive’ campaigns…because the message can be printed on a useful, everyday product that communicate far more powerfully, and cost effectively than other apparent forms of media.

Andrew is Managing Director at Sussex Promotions, the UK’s Promotional Product Experts. Established over 10 years, ISO & BPMA accredited, Sussex Promotions are your one-stop shop for printed promotional products from printed mugs and printed pens through to branded umbrellas and promotional clothing.

Yes in 13 weeks, having promised myself 12 years ago, “never again”, I will be running the Brighton Marathon, Sunday 15th April.

My time before 4hrs 3 mins, current training suggests I’ll be somewhere close, which is red rag to a bull and of course I want to beat the time of a 29 year old, and even more so have the time start with a 3.

If you had seen me huff & puff, run & walk last autumn as I tried to do

2.5 miles you would raise a little eyebrow at the prospect of my crossing the finish line at all, let alone in under 4 hours.

But I am now running that pace, and I’m up to 9 miles on a Saturday, with 13 training weeks to go.

How?

Following a focused, itemised running schedule, running Tues, Wed, Thurs followed by longer runs Saturdays. Each day, for another 13 weeks, the distance is set…9th March 5 Miles, 15th February 3 miles etc.

So I knew exactly where I was at last autumn, the ‘Now’ i.e. very unfit!

I knew exactly ‘Where’ I wanted to get to, on April 15th 2012, and with a training schedule I know exactly ‘How’.

I have a business plan for Sussex Promotions, I know exactly where we are ‘Now’ and I know exactly ‘Where’ I want us to be, April 15th 2015.

But it struck me how 100% confident I am in my Marathon goal, but less so in the business goal. Now I could justify that with the Marathon being 100% in my control, whereas business has factors such as customers, suppliers, economy etc.. But I can’t change or affect these anyway, so I need a business schedule that can be flexible to change but sets out the road map from January 2012 to April 2015.

In Nigel Botterill’s Entrepreneur’s Circle the focus every day is on Marketing, ‘The Getting & Keeping Customers’. April 2015 ‘s goal can only be achieved through getting more customers and keeping (if not growing) existing customers.

Have you noticed how many marketing ‘pillars’ there are, from direct mail, to radio, to advertising, to email, networking and of course the new kid ‘Social Media’.

With so many marketing opportunities it is easy to become a rabbit stuck in headlights, bombarded with ideas and doing nothing.

Nigel Botterill bangs two big drums, IMPLEMENTATION, i.e. getting things done, and the key through 90 MINUTES every day of focused marketing, 90 minutes every day focused on the The Getting & Keeping Customers.

So on Tuesday, I found a quiet room, with no distraction…..no staff, no radio, no email etc. and I downloaded every marketing idea, marketing pillar I could think of on to a flipchart pad, I then went through my notebook and recorded all the notes and ideas I’d jotted down…..effectively all the noise.

I then focused on those areas I knew that were key in my business, with the way my customers work that would ensure we find more customers and we’d look after the ones we have better. 

These I then grouped into what became 6 distinct categories, and a total of 22 marketing ‘pillars’.

These marketing pillars are now being costed, and work in progress is the diarising and appointment setting with myself for when each of the pillars will be worked on.

I very nearly have a plan that looks very similar to my marathon training schedule, the noise and the overwhelming to do list has gone, my next action for this morning is already set.

So from my confidence in my training schedule, I have created the same thing for my business, with a little blue sky thinking from the Entrepreneur’s Circle, now I’ve just GOT TO DO IT!!!!

Andrew is Managing Director at Sussex Promotions, the UK’s Promotional Product Experts. Established over 10 years, ISO & BPMA accredited, Sussex Promotions are your one-stop shop for printed promotional products from printed mugs and printed pens through to branded umbrellas and promotional clothing.

Sourcing City surveys all Business Gift Distributors & the Trade Suppliers & Manufacturers within the industry to determine those regarded as the best, those best distributors are highlighted from a starting list exceeding over 2,000 companies nation-wide, the winners recognized for quality of service, business ethics & being a “pleasure to do business with”.

Andrew Nash, Managing Director at Sussex Promotions, said he was “really pleased that the team had been recognized as one of the best, while gracefully gliding along the surface like a swan there is a terrific amount of paddling going on under the surface and gaining such recognition is a real morale boost for the team.”

Sussex Promotions itself surveys every customer after invoicing each job, to see what our customers think click here: http://www.sussexpromotions.co.uk/testimonials

Four of our preferred suppliers joined us with Table Top displays to demonstrate the sheer width of product beyond mugs, pens & mouse mats that the promotional product industry is able to supply.

I’ll let you into a secret, in 2021, 10 years from now, I’ll turn 50, my personal goal is that I want to be a full-time smallholder / farmer, so all my yearly plans for myself, my business and staff have to help me step closer to that longer term goal.

There are all sorts of considerations of what is needed to be achieved by then, farmers tend to be asset rich, but very cash poor, so long story short I need to create quite a large sum to invest in such assets (land, machinery, livestock etc.)  to effectively become poor, no my accountant doesn’t “get it” either, nor my wife!

The message above however is simple, we need to understand our goals, the “Why am I doing this?” to then be able to plan for next year.

From my long term personal goal, it is possible to set targets for business, the business objective for Sussex Promotions is to turnover £2M per annum, we did set a goal of £2,012,000 by 2012, I’ll admit I don’t think we’re going to achieve that, but it is still the business goal, and our yearly business plans are focused on it.

I believe there are three types of customer:

1.      Existing buying customers

2.      Lapsed (current non-spend) customers

3.      Prospective customers

and each, I would suggest needs a different marketing communications strategy to maximise their potential

Existing customers may have already had months if not years of marketing investment directed at them so it would be a shame to lose them so soon! It is typically far easier to increase sales through happy existing customers than it is to find new customers, so marketing activity such as:

• Telephone & face-to-face communication with dedicated Account Managers
• Surveys to ensure satisfaction and provide a means to encourage dialogue if not happy so concerns can be addressed
• Emails giving advice, announcing new product ideas and special offers
• Send Thank Yous! Make a customer feel wanted, appreciated, do please come back to us again, emails, letters, hand written cards, gifts at Valentines, Easter or Christmas etc.

Lapsed customers, a customer can stop spending for many different reasons the key is to know why! If the opportunity still exists then it is important we stay in touch, it is not after all the customer’s responsibility to remember to do business with us, but for us to stay connected with them.

Marketing activity such as:

• Email communications, however this can be done for speed, for cheapness, in bulk and without personality and achieve little
• Direct Mail is more expensive, but doesn’t need the frequency, but done well can provide the customer with the little reminders we are looking for
• Telephone, no other medium can provide the level of 2 way communication and understanding such that we learn the next buying date, and can be sure to be in touch on-time

Prospective Customers, the prospective customer is one that starts freezing cold, they have no knowledge of us, of our brand of our culture. Through our marketing pillars we aim to “touch” with the future customers in multiple ways. Provide the prospect with knowledge, with a sense of understanding and knowing about us, our products & services, for the prospect to want to get to know us better, for the prospect to want to buy from us.

The activity list is vast, the marketing “pillars” might exceed 20 activities: direct mail, email, telemarketing, magazine advertising, radio advertising, sponsoring, exhibiting, Facebook, Linkedin, twitter, networking, web building, blogging, video production, sales presentation, Google+, Google PPC, Facebook Ads, Competitions, Referall Programmes, Public Relations, Targeting Awards  etc. etc. etc.!

What the above tells me first is the need to ensure we have the knowledge of who our customers are, those spending, those lapsed and by understanding who our spending customers are, we can identify our ideal prospective customers.

It is interesting to further analyse the nature of our existing customers, using a Pareto Analysis we can identify that just 20% of our customer base generates 80% of our turnover, further identifying who our prospective marketing activity should be aimed at.

One thing is clear from the above, the more we think, and the more clearly we use the information available to us the more accurate we can make our marketing.

As our marketing becomes more intelligent we can use this accuracy to even greater affect, Dee Blick author of “The Ultimate Small Business Marketing Book” described the need for marketing communications to be “Charming” so as to develop the relationship with a customer.

One way we can create “Charming Communications” is to tailor our direct mail and other marketing activity to the individual, to the buyer and not to ourselves.

Dale Carnegie (How to Win Friends and Influence People)  writes that there is no more powerful word in the individual’s language than to hear their own name, so just imagine the delight when you see your name printed throughout a calendar, or if given a conference folder personalised with your name, or a business card holder?

Modern digital print technologies make such personalisation a reality, this is Charming, this shows effort and is a very powerful communicator to your customer, be they current, lapsed or prospective.

For more information regarding products that be individually personalised please contact our sales team on 01273 493618.

Sussex Promotions are the UK’s Promotional Product Experts. Established over 10 years, ISO & BPMA accredited, Sussex Promotions are your one-stop shop for printed promotional products from printed mugs and printed pens through to branded umbrellas and promotional clothing.

1)     For me the worst response from any business at Christmas is an email with a pretty Christmas message that says we’re not sending cards this year, but all the monies saved on time, cards & postage we’re giving to Charity.

Funnily enough I’ve never been sent an email after Christmas with a snap shot or video from any of these companies showing exactly how much they “saved” and passed to Charity

2)      Next up of poor business responses to Christmas is to do nothing! I actually don’t think it’s as bad as the email, because with the email you’ve stuck your head up and said as much, by doing nothing, the chances are you just won’t be remembered for good or bad!

3)      Now the Christmas Card, well you’ve made the effort (some more than others with creative thinking into the card design), you’ve hopefully hand written and signed the cards, personalised where possible, so points for making an effort….and to No.1 above you can buy cards that support Charity, you can buy cards that are sustainable.

The biggest problem for business is that you’ve made the effort but this too is somewhat wasted, better than 1 & 2 above but very much lost in the crowd, whether you get 2 or 200 cards, tell me one Christmas card you recall from last year.

For the time invested, cost of cards & postage return on investment is practically nil.

So let’s question why and then what?

First off, let’s recognise it for what it is, it may be Christmas but in this case Christmas can be defined as “a great business marketing opportunity in the month of December” just as Valentine’s Day is an opportunity to send a heart shaped stress ball in February, Easter an opportunity to send Chocolate in March/April etc.

So for this great marketing opportunity the above examples will send an email, do nothing, or get lost in the crowd.

Are you responsible for your Company’s marketing? What is the norm? What does the competition do? Is this an opportunity?

Next year we know is going to be tough, batten down the hatches or up the ante and treat those customers that are your business with a thank you and something they’ll keep, use, see all of next year?

Let’s plan December’s marketing campaign.

1)      What is our objective?

I believe December’s marketing campaign is an opportunity to say thank you for the past year’s trading, within the marketing plan it is the month to offer customers a small gift, but that gift will follow the merchandise rules for any promotional gift:

• It will be useful
• It will have longevity
• It has a suitable print area

2)      What customers are we going to include in this campaign?

For me the best tool for this is “Pareto Analysis” which uses the ratio 80:20 typically meaning 80% of success is from 20% of activity, the key is identifying the 20% that works!

In this case 80% of company sales is likely to come from just 20% of the account base, so for Christmas we don’t need to say thank you to everyone but we want to say thank you to our better customers, and Pareto just identified 1/5 of our customers.

In our case 116 customers from 593 spending customers created 80% of our sales in the past 12 months, 19.5%, 116 customers being so much more manageable & affordable than 593.

3)      What do we wish to send out?

An email, a letter, a card??

Not very special for Christmas, so let’s find a business gift, after all it is Christmas, the season of giving and presents.

4)      Customer Profile?

Is the list of customers a particular demographic or industry sector where certain products would make more suitable gifts than others, or do we have a mix of male, female, 20 years to 65 years, office, remote, secretary to engineer etc..

5)      What is the budget?

This is our top list of customers, those that generate 80% of our sales, our profits, our orders or whatever it is that we have measured our list against.

How much do we want to spend per customer?

Do we break down further and identify the Top 5%, the next 15%, then 30%, and 50% and buy 4 different gifts?

How much do we want to spend per customer? How much do we want the campaign to cost?

6)      How will we distribute to the customer?

Can we hand deliver 116 gifts to our target customers based all round the country? No, so a product that lends itself to the mail.

And how much does the packaging and postage add to the cost of the campaign?

For help selecting a suitable Business Gift let us know the answers to the above questions and we’ll do our best to find something that answers the above, but follows the rules! It will be useful, it will have longevity, and it will have a suitable print area.

To end let’s just think about that print area….

While this is a “promotional” gift it is a gift, it is December, it is Christmas.

Those 6 red wine glasses given to you by your Mum & Dad last year don’t have Mum & Dad printed over them, but you still remember who gave them to you.

Subtlety is key, if the chosen gift is a bit of fun at Christmas and is a Father Christmas stress ball then a colourful logo suits the product.

If the gift is a leather wallet or purse, a red & white logo printed to the outside is just about the worst thing that could be applied (and has been asked for), this product can be embossed, it’s a subtle reminder, but a reminder to the receiver only, not a message that tells everyone in the bar who gave you a wallet for Christmas!

Embossing, engraving, small inconspicuous prints are the order of the day this month.

Sussex Promotions are the UK’s Promotional Product Experts. Established over 10 years, ISO & BPMA accredited, Sussex Promotions are your one-stop shop for printed promotional products from printed mugs and printed pens through to branded umbrellas and promotional clothing.

The BPMA survey revealed that Printed USBs are:

Regarded as the most useful promotional gifts:

• USBs 21%
• Electrical 11%
• Writing 10%
• Mugs 8%

and the second “longest kept” promotional product:

• Mugs 18%
• Usbs 15%
• Writing 12%
• Electrical 5%

At Sussex Promotions we believe the best promotional products are:

1. “useful” for the target audience
2. have a large enough print area
3. ones that can be used/kept for months if not years

A printed USB stick fulfils all the above, despite their small size there are so many shapes, styles and print techniques that can be applied that we’ve never had a problem with the message to be applied.

Of course the added feature of a USB is the ability to upload and “lock” a file onto the USB storage, so while the print area is small, the content is only restricted by memory capacity.

When I started Sussex Promotions in 2000, the USB flash drive was in its infancy, we loved the potential of the product but 16MB was costing over £40.00, in just 10 years the market has exploded, 16MB are no longer available, with typical memory starting at 512MB and costs are below £5.00 each!

So the USB has seen huge demand, and with it an ever increasing competitive market, and with it of course numerous sources and probably less widely recognized a wide range of qualities from a wide range of factories across the Far East.

Even less widely recognized is that 2 laws exist surrounding the importation of USBs, laws that are so poorly implemented, those that stick to the rules feel penalized as such rules lead to increased cost, but too often the end user is only interested in “best price”.

Sussex Promotions takes ethical sourcing seriously, this means we:

• Only use Grade A sourced chips – you buy the best quality product
• Only use factories that are inspected and provide workers with a fair wage and accepted working conditions
• Meet the TWO European Directives for RoHS and WEEE

Not all imported USBs in the UK meet the above criteria.

RoHS – Restriction of Hazardous Substances Directive

Adopted in February 2003 by the European Union and took effect on 1 July 2006.

This directive restricts the use of six hazardous materials in the manufacture of various types of electronic and electrical equipment, best known being Lead, Cadmium, and Mercury.

The directive aims to protect workers during manufacture but also recycling of electrical product.

Is your USB importer RoHS compliant?

WEEE – Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive

RoHS is closely linked with the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive (WEEE) which sets collection, recycling and recovery targets for electrical goods and is part of a legislative initiative to solve the problem of huge amounts of toxic e-waste.

Importers of Electrical Product from overseas have a duty to meet the WEEE directive and have infrastructure in place to recover waste electrical product including batteries.

Is your USB importer WEEE compliant?

Sussex Promotions are the UK’s Promotional Product Experts. Established over 10 years, ISO & BPMA accredited, Sussex Promotions are your one-stop shop for printed promotional products from printed mugs and printed pens through to branded umbrellas and promotional clothing.

At Sussex Promotions our focus, when helping a client find a suitable promotional gift, or recommending a solution to a brief will be to ensure the product is:

1. “useful” for the target audience
2. has a large enough print area to carry the customer’s message
3. ideally is a product that can last months if not years

When considering the above three points you can understand why Mugs are such a large product category with the promotional products market. The BPMA survey revealed that Promotional Mugs are:

Regarded as one of the most useful promotional gifts:

• Usbs 21%
• Electrical 11%
• Writing 10%
• Mugs 8%

and are in fact the “longest kept” promotional product:

• Usbs 15%
• Electrical 5%
• Writing 12%
• Mugs 18%

and obviously we know they have a large print area, consider 216 x 92mm compared with the largest pen print area of 50 x 20m.

So now we know Printed Mugs are a winner, what factors do we need to consider when ordering?

Mug Colour:

Promotional mugs are available in a wide range of colours, however do beware, people do not like drinking tea out of a mug that is coloured inside, strange, but very true!

So what is the answer? The best solution I believe (and use for Sussex Promotions) is a Pantone Matched Mug where the outside is spray painted to any pantone reference but inside is kept white.

Mug Shape:

Shape is subjective, but the best sellers by far would include the Durham also known as the Cambridge, and the Marrow Mug.  Historically the Sparta shape was the No.1 best seller but inspired by the coffee shop franchises and their novel mug shapes the consumer has become more adventurous with shape.

Mug Print:

The decoration can determine whether a mug becomes a favorite or just another mug in the cupboard and as such needs more thought than logo, plus phone, plus web, job done!

Mugs can be printed using a wide range of print techniques which can take anything from a simple one colour logo design through to full colour complex images and be recreated accurately around the mug.

• Screen Printing
  • Usually up to 4 solid spot colours
  • Simple registration
  • No Half tones
  • Many thousands can be produced in a day making the process most cost effective
• Dye Sublimation 
  • Stunning photographic full colour reproduction
  • Small order flexibility
  • Fast turnaround
  • The design is printed on to a special paper using Sublimation inks, these inks evaporate under heat & pressure which the mug with a special coating “absorbs” to its surface
  • Not as accurate as the below
• Transfer
  • For complex tones & full colour artwork
  • Critical registration
  • Printing on the full surface area of the mug
  • The design is screen or litho printed onto special paper, the resulting print is then applied by hand to the mug by sliding the transfer from the paper to the mug under water.
  • The process is slower and more labour intensive than direct screen printing.
  • Printing is possible on the full outside area of the mug, inside the mug, and to the base as a back stamp. 

For us at Sussex Promotions the recommendation is either:

Using your brand “colour” if it’s strong, unique and what the company is associated with, e.g. Sussex Promotions uses the pink in its colour pallet for merchandise such as mugs & pens, or Redgate as shown below.

Or

Using full colour imagery such as that used on web sites or in corporate literature that supports your business, such as the Entrepreneur’s Circle using imagery of its founder Nigel Botterill to help communicate the mug’s message. 

In both cases above, the mug will either be a stunning, stand out, vibrant colour, or it will have a stunning visual, both making the mug attractive to the intended user and ideally the mug of choice for drinking throughout the day, reminding the customer of YOU!

Sussex Promotions are the UK’s Promotional Product Experts. Established over 10 years, ISO & BPMA accredited, Sussex Promotions are your one-stop shop for printed promotional products from printed mugs and printed pens through to branded umbrellas and promotional clothing.