Please Download This Timely Whitepaper Entitled: Avoiding Marketing Mistakes during a Recession
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Comments Regarding Whitepaper:
Like you, I worry about the effects the current recession will have on my company. So crafting a strategy to ensure continued success is top priority for me. I know the value of learning from my past mistakes and above all, learning from history.
I began examining the tactics used by companies in the past that allowed them to successfully navigate their way through tough times. What I found was impressive research on the topic and some great ideas on how to market and advertise my business in today's troubling economy. So I thought it important to share this information with you.
I organized this material into a brief whitepaper entitled 'Avoiding Marketing Mistakes during a Recession'. This paper includes research from firms like McGraw Hill as well as a study from Harvard University. Some of their findings will surprise you.
The topics covered in this paper include:
a) Advertising during a recession b) 5 business recession mistakes c) 5 steps to successful marketing during a recession
I also added a recent study completed at the end of 2008 describing the value of specialty advertising. With the need to find creative and cost effective ways to keep your name in front of customers and prospects, this study comes at the right time.
Please feel free to contact me at bob@mprinted.com and let me know if you find this content valuable.
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Top 10 Best Valued Promo Items
1) Inflatable Ads: Helium inflated blimps, balloons and spheres are an effective and a cost-efficient way to promote an event, sale, or to simply increase the visibility of your company. Helium inflatables can be visible from several blocks or even miles away, depending on the size of the unit and the height at which is flown. Our blimps can be customized with imprinted logos or text and manufactured in a wide variety of body and fin colors.
2) Banners & Signs: Are an excellent indoor/outdoor advertising tool that will immediately increase exposure and visibility. The innovative design of our banners ensures continuous visibility of your logo or company name, and is easy for your customers to see. Banners and signs provide a classy, effortless way to promote your logo or brand name at events, store promotions, real estate sites, shopping centers, outdoor sporting events and other occasions.
3) Trade Show Displays: Can convert from a compact unit to an impressive 10ft graphic backdrop in seconds. Containing a one piece full color graphic panel made of wrinkle resistant poplin fabric. Free soft sided carrying case included.... Your full color / photographic design is dye sublimated on stretch-able fabric that zips securely in place over a sturdy Lt. weight PVC frame. These portable display kits includes frame of your choice and imprintable graphic panel based on supplied art convert your full color ad or company display information into an instant eye catching exhibit!
4) The Silent Salesperson - Embroidered Apparel: Why do I call these the silent sales persons? As the wearer of the branded apparel is seen around town, in elevators, at trade shows, in offices, the observer has the opportunity to read the name without asking who you work for. This also helps people keep on their best behavior because of the name identifier sewn into the shirts.
5) Desk and Wall Calendars: Advertising calendars have been perennial favorites for many years. While we continue to offer tried and true classics, the evolution of digital printing lets us offer great prices, low minimums and even personalized imprinting on custom full color items. Check out all of our cool products. We truly have something for everyone!
6) Memory Sticks: While others are splurging a bunch of money on conventional advertising like TV, radio, and newspapers, there are cheaper ways of doing so by targeting your preferred market in order to optimize your advertising dollar. More and more people cannot live without touching a computer even for a day. What better way to get your companyfs message across by giving away a free USB flash drive? After all, everyone could definitely do with more portable memory, and a USB flash drive is the perfect tool for the job at the moment. Did you know there are thumb drives that can hold as much as 8 gigs of memory?
7) Eco-Friendly Promotional Products: Earth-friendly business gifts given to clients and employees say you take an active role in ensuring a better world. Long-lasting reusable branded merchandise will help make a difference on the environment by reducing waste and saving energy. A thoughtful, high quality eco-friendly promotional products with your company name prominently displayed will deliver a lasting impact and provide a positive impression of your business.
8) Walking Billboards; the ever present Tote Bag: Giveaways at trade shows and conventions are important. No one ever turns down a free promotional pen or imprinted notepad; but branded merchandise like this ends up in a pocket, purse, or briefcase. What wandering customers and prospects need to relieve their bulging pockets and overflowing purses is a tote bag. Your logo will trek all over the convention floor, proudly creating brand awareness everywhere it goes. A custom tote bag calls out to a large audience, and it will certainly cause other attendees to ask where it came from.
9) Magnetic Ads: According to a study at Purdue University, the average American visits their refrigerator 22 times a day. So, your magnetic promotional product offers you around 8,030 impressions on a consumer each year. That's one of the lowest costs per impression of any item in our industry! Moreover, another popular and cost effective method to increase public exposure for your school sports team, your church, a charity group, or your business is the Car sign magnet. This as well as many other forms of magnetic ads are incredibly popular and offer the most inexpensive way to get noticed.
10) Achievement Awards: Recognition boosts people's esteem and performance. Recognition signifies that someone notices and someone cares. It satisfies a person's essential needs and leads to new motivation, improved performance and higher self-esteem. Bottom line, an organization that wants to be competitive absolutely needs to make employees feel valued so they perform their best work on a daily basis and stick around to make a continuous contribution.
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The Long Term Effect of Specialty Advertising
The most cost effective way to keep the company brand in front of your target audience is through the use of specialty advertising. Moreover, an economic recession is the best time to invest your marketing dollars in this valuable and diverse advertising tool. Promotional products help improve and strengthen your brand equity at a fraction of the cost of other advertising methods. As you will see from the conclusions found in this recent study, your return-on-investment is far greater when your marketing budget is spent on specialty advertising. But simply placing your logo on an item does not ensure higher sales or stronger audience appeal. You need to partner with a promotional marketing specialist who becomes an extension of your marketing team; helping to customize the right promotional product or logo apparel to fit your brand image or event marketing requirement. Their primary goal should be to help make the process easier; from concept to completed project, helping select the right product within budget while accurately managing the details and delivering measurable results. This study reveals the extensive value of specialty advertising. But keep in mind that a promotional marketing specialist can help you convert this value into maximum visibility while delivering a positive and lasting impression of your enterprise.
Background:
In June and July of 2008, a team of interviewers surveyed 465 businesspeople in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and Philadelphia regarding promotional products they had received. The purpose of the interviews was to understand how advertising specialties influence end-users' purchasing decisions; determine the number of impressions of popular advertising specialties; and analyze the Cost Per Impression (CPI) of advertising specialties compared with other popular advertising media. Further, during October 2008, an online panel survey was conducted among recipients of advertising specialties to augment the sample from the in-person interviews. Results have been combined in the report where appropriate. There were 213 completed Web based interviews, for a total of 618 completed surveys for this study. Respondents were asked if they had received any promotional products in the last 12 months. Most respondents were business/professional people (84%) and all were age 21 or older.
Summary of Conclusions:
- Instant recall: More than 8 out of 10 (84%) respondents remembered the advertisers of the promotional products they received.
- Very impressionable: 42% of respondents had a MORE favorable impression of an advertiser after receiving the item. And nearly a quarter (24%) said they are MORE likely to do business with the advertiser on the items they receive.
- It's all business: Most respondents (62%) have done business with the advertiser on a promotional product after receiving the item.
Pens are in: Writing instruments are the most-recalled advertising specialty items (54% of respondents recall owning them), followed by shirts, caps and bags.• User-friendly: The majority (81%) of promotional products were kept because they were considered useful.
- Staying power: More than three-quarters of respondents have had their items for more than 6 months.
Bag it!: Among wearables, bags were reported to be used most frequently with respondents indicating that they used their bags an average of 9 times per month. They also deliver the most impressions: Each bag averages 1,038impressions per month.
Most impressive: The average CPI of an advertising specialty item is $0.004; as a result, marketers get a more favorable return on investment from advertising specialties than nearly any other popular advertising media.
Sponsored By Advertising Specialty Institute. The full report is available upon request.
The Advantages of Local Promotional Products Showrooms
One of the best ideas I've seen in the promotional products business is the availability of local showrooms offered by Logomark in various cities throughout the country. My customers and prospects in the Dallas/Ft.Worth area love the idea as well. Anytime there is a need to visualized a promotional product that may fit well into a marketing campaign, we simply head down to our local Logomark showroom to view a broad spectrum of promotional items on display. Each time I visit the Logomark showroom with my customer or prospect, the knowledgeable Logomark rep. gives us the red carpet treatment. The first product display we visit in the showroom is the one we're considering for the current promotional campaign. But our visit doesn't end there; we then take a full tour of the showroom to gather more ideas which always proves helpful in organizing a successful promotional products campaign. We can even order branded merchandise samples right there in the showroom for immediate delivery.
Pictures on a Website are a good beginning, but nothing beats the actual viewing and handling of promotional products in the Logomark showroom. My prospects and customers can make immediate decisions about whether or not a particular promotional product will fit into their marketing campaign. The Logomark showroom saves on time and money. Waiting days on the arrival of a sample is no longer required and the cost of shipping a branded merchandise sample is avoided. So whenever I need help in generating solid marketing ideas, my first step is to take my customers and prospects to the Logmark showroom. Bravo Logomark!
Back by popular demand;quotes from famous characters. Take a moment to enjoy these insightful observations with present day application.
"The true measure of a man is how he treats someone who can do him absolutely no good." - Samuel Johnson (1709 - 1784)
"In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends." - Martin Luther King Jr. (1929 - 1968)
"I find the harder I work, the more luck I seem to have." - Thomas Jefferson (1743 - 1826)
"I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work." - Thomas Edison (1847 - 1931)
"Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake." - Napoleon Bonaparte (1769 - 1821)
"Victory goes to the player who makes the next-to-last mistake." - Chess master Tartakower (1887 - 1956)
"Do or do not. There is no try." - Yoda (The Empire Strikes Back)
"Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goal." - Henry Ford, (1863 - 1947)
"Whenever I climb I am followed by a dog called Ego." - Friedrich Nietzsche (1844 - 1900)
"Don't be so humble; you are not that great." - Golda Meir (1898 - 1978)
"Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgment that something else is more important than fear." - Ambrose Redmoon
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Heather McCloskey, president and founder of McCloskey Partners, a full-service human-resources firm located in Perkasie, Pa., sees employee recognition programs as a vital piece to a companyfs overall management strategy. gRecognition programs of any kind are a great way for employers to retain employees,h said McCloskey. gPlus, they communicate messages of both support and respect to staff members.h
