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Great Promotional Products Story

 

Matriarch Gets Creative With

Family Reunion Gifts

 

Sarah Clarke Walburten, eldest sibling and family matriarch of the Clarke Family, decided to gift her family with memories and she used promotional products to do it.

Sarah has always been great at keeping family photo albums up to date. With 7 brothers and sisters, all of their kids and grandkids, as well as her 6 grown children and their offspring, there are a lot of pictures.

When the family decided to get together for an extended family reunion this spring. they reserved an estate in Nantucket; finding a vacation property that sleeps 60 adults and dozens of children wasn’t easy but they did it!

The special 3-day weekend event, which is scheduled for upcoming Memorial Day, is bound to be a terrific time, but Sarah wanted to do something really special for everyone. She got out the family photo albums along with a scanner and got to work. After all of her scanning, she jumped on Facebook too and started downloading pictures from there. Before long, Sarah had a few hundred awesome images of the entire family and, with the help of her youngest son, she put together a beautiful power point presentation and set it to some fun music.

Sarah has been a real estate agent for over 30 years and has always used promotional items to show her gratitude for the home sellers and buyers she works with. She asked her company graphic artist to do her a favor and put together a simple, yet beautiful design of a family tree with the first names of each family member drawn on the leaves. Then, she contacted PENSRUS, her go-to promotional products company, and ordered 100 custom drives, which she had pre-loaded with her power-point presentation.

The plan is to present the slide show at the Saturday night dinner party, but Sarah also wanted to send it home with every family member in the family, along with all the pictures that are sure to be taken over the weekend.

Upon arrival, each family member including any children over 3, will receive a disposable digital camera with instructions to take as many pictures as they like. When the weekend is over, Sara will collect all of the disposable digital cameras and download the images into a file marked Family Reunion 2013, load those files onto each drive and, voilà!, each family member will go home with a thumb drive full of memories.

We love hearing great ideas about the creative ways our clients use our products. Not just intended for promoting business, promotional items are a really great way to create something special for an event. What have you done with customized promotional products in your personal life?

Eco Friendly Promo Products

 

Top Ten Eco Friendly Promo Products

 

& Why You Should Use Them

 

 

Many consumers are concerned with the delicate environmental state the world is in today. Smart business marketers are striving to appeal to conscientious “green” consumers by offering or using renewable, sustainable and eco-friendly processes, products and energy.

 

Regardless of the nature of your business, product or service, you can appeal to those same consumers by showing your earth friendly values when you gift green promotional products.

 

Here is our top ten:

 

1. Water bottles allow us to refill from a larger water source again and again so we don’t ad to the plastic problem that is filling up our landmasses and oceans with non-biodegradable “disposable” plastic.
2. Grocery tote bags are greatly appreciated as many cities are now passing laws that ban plastic grocery bags.  Just about every consumer market has jumped on the green bandwagon by offering grocery tote bags for purchase in stores. Why not show your concern and gift your clients with beautifully branded bags?
3. Eco friendly USB drives eliminate wasted paper from printing and eco friendly USB drives will be appreciated by your recipients and you will be remembered when you gift them with a practical, eco friendly promotional item.
4. Recycled pens & pencils are made of recycled plastic, bamboo or wood; eco friendly promotional pens and pencils will start conversation and be used again and again.
5. Seeded paper products help the environment by planting new trees when the paper is used up and discarded.  When you gift your prospects with seeded paper promotional products, they won’t just ad to the land fills when they’ve used up the product, they will plant a tree and remember you each time they see it.
6. Recycled polyester apparel helps curb discards, prolong landfills and reduce toxic emissions. Do your part by branding and gifting recycled polyester promotional apparel.
7. Bamboo products are wonderful because bamboo is the fastest growing plant on the planet and is a good, degradable replacement for wood; it produces more oxygen, prevents erosion and can grow without pesticides and chemicals. Gifting promotional products made of bamboo gives a message that your company is environmentally conscious.
8. Hand cranked flashlights help save the planet from eroding batteries while making a good impression by promoting your business with branded hand cranked flashlights
9. Organic cotton apparel reduces the use of pesticides and chemicals that are destroying the planet; organic cotton is the best answer and when you gift promotional apparel made of organic cotton, you are helping Mother Earth and promoting conservation along with your business.
10. Recycled paper products help save trees, mark your brand as eco-friendly and promote education and conversation.

 

 

The Promotional Products Story

Promotional Products in History

 

It may not be surprising that promotional products got their start on the political front. Not only were they used to demonstrate affiliation and support of the winning candidate, but also they may have had a subtler, political motive.

 

In 1789, New York, New Jersey and Connecticut colonial button makers made George Washington Inaugural Buttons; the commemorative buttons were sold to Citizens who were eager to commemorate the ceremony of George Washington as the President of the United States. It is believed that those attending the ceremony on April 20th 1789 wore many of the buttons, and some theories have been put forth that the buttons were also a demonstration that American manufacturing could easily replace manufactures in Birmingham England.

 

The idea caught on and in the 19^th century, there was some early promotional item marketing with advertising on calendars, wooden specialties and rulers, but it wasn’t until the later part of the 19^th century and early 20^th century that an industry really started to form around it and distribution of promotional products became a little more common place.

 

Jasper Meeks, a printer in Ohio, is widely considered by many to be the real pioneer of the promo products industry, when he convinced the owner of a local shoe store to give book bags with his store name imprinted on the side to local schools for their students. Grabbing on to the idea, Meek’s competitor Henry Beach began customizing items and soon the two were branding everything from buggy whips to aprons, horse visors, fans and calendars for local businesses.

 

It would not be until the 1970s, however, that the promotional product industry really took off when large companies started to recognize the benefits of promoting their brand identity; however, the gifts were usually limited to seasonal corporate gift giving.

 

As companies became more inventive in their marketing and branding efforts, promotional item gift giving became commonplace and took place year around as corporations and small businesses began using the tactic to marketing their brand, services and products at events, through the mail and in their offices and stores.

 

Today, there is such a wide variety of useful, interesting and even industry specific promotional items that can be utilized, that the sky is the limit; and, as studies have shown time and again, the use of promotional products is one of the most valuable and highly effective marketing strategies available.

 

Teachers Get Creative With Promotional Products

School Teachers use Promotional Products

 

to Increase Study Efforts & it Works

 

When most people think of promotional products, they think of businesses trying to get their name out there by branding promo items and giving them away, but two high school teachers at a private school had a better idea for them.

 

Always searching for ways to increase the motivation of their students, two high school teachers in Southern California decided to use promotional products to help motivate students to study harder, do their homework, do extra credit assignments and be good citizens by offering a point system to earn customized items. Branded with the school mascot, each product was color coded according to the level of achievement; that way the award would stand out brightly, announcing to all that could see the award the student had earned. Given out on a monthly basis at the monthly assembly and pep rally, students worked hard to earn those brightly colored, coveted and useful awards.

 

Every student could be a winner, as awards were color coded according to accomplishment. Different awards were given out each month so that 9 in total were given through the year. The students who earned the most top awards throughout the year got a grand prize at the end.

 

The point system, based on 100 points each month, was awarded with certain percentages being given out for homework, test scores, attendance and good citizenship. 100 points meant a red gift, 75 meant a green one, 50 meant they got the blue prize.

 

Giving out mascot-imprinted products, the promotional items included pencils, pens, rulers, pocket highlighters, eraser sticks, file folios, pencil bags, ball caps, lip balm, book bags, t-shirts, bleacher blankets and beach towels. Starting out small, with pens, pencils and erasers, the prizes gradually became more valuable and coveted as the year wore on. Of course, all of these beautiful mascot items were available for sale at the school book store in white with the school colors of purple & gold, but, when earned, the color coded point score items were much more valued.

 

It worked. The students absolutely loved it and test scores and grades increased overall by 38% at the school.

Teachers getting creative with promotional items; Just goes to show there are all kinds of ways to use them!