The Promo Direct Blog

It is a well known fact that out of all our marketing efforts and ubiquitous promotions, some will become an instant hit and some will suffer major hit back.  The one which resonates so well with your target audience will be the one to buzz around in the market for sometime and gives your brand a new look.

Marketers, often try to create such bustle which becomes the talk of the town for generating new prospects for your business. The idea of promoting your brand with promo items like promotional pens and personalized t-shirts is no different.

Here we will consider some of the best promotion and understand why they are so with a learning edge and try to figure out what could serve the best in the market.

In case of promo items

Remember the iconic bicyclist Lance Armstrong? In 1996, just after he was identified with cancer, he founded his Lance Armstrong Foundation the following year.

In association with Nike, his foundation developed a yellow silicon wristband imprinted with the Livestrong mantra for selling the item as a fundraiser. This, later reported by lancewins.com, resulted in generating more than 45 million of sale. The bracelets very soon became an instant identifiable symbol of Armstrong, who often used to wear the yellow leaders jersey while cycling to seven Tour de France victories.

Lesson: Make your brand unique with a signature look. This is important for your brand’s own identity in the market. This will connect your brand to your niche and customers which will promote stronger relationship.  With promo items like promotional pens and personalized t-shirts your brand can be a messenger which keeps your customers loyal to you along with generating new potential prospects.

You need to create promotions in a manner which easily recognizable in the market and wherever your customers see similar image your name should instantly come in their minds.

When it comes to branding, many marketers believe that change is the only consistent factor that keeps a brand alive and with this misconstruction they try implementing out of the box thinking, sometimes in the form of changing the logo, or may be adopting a new name because of launching of a new range of services. However, the important fact is that you don’t show your creativity just to prove that how radical you are in your business.  In case of your brand identity such creative fluctuations might be disastrous for you and your brand. Maintaining a brand consistency would only ensure your evergreen customers are always with you.

It is important for every brand to make its own identity and create an image that people can easily connect them with. That’s why repetition of activities through an identity is crucial for the success of brands. Over a period of time people associated with a particular brand will be able to connect instantly with that brand. Frequent changes in your brand identity will confuse your customers and this will result in poor branding which, soon, will get reflected in your sales volume.

Some of the important practices that have helped building brands worldwide are:

• The focal point of your brand identity and brand strategy should revolve around you customers deep insights.
• While creating brand identity keep space for accommodating future services and products that can be included under the same umbrella. This may include any possible industry changes or change in business model.
• Your brand identity should always be under a brand identity enforcer and overseer
• In case of any unavoidable situations wherein your brand needs to be repositioned then try to make the new one in a manner that it retains the same old flavor to some extent.

It would be judicious to think twice before you bring any new changes to your brand. Most of the time changes are not in the brand’s best interest. It is always advisable to think about a new product instead of thinking about changing your brand’s identity. Try to come up with a revolutionary marketing strategy if possible.

Getting customers’ attention by distributing promotional items may be a good idea to spread a positive message to a larger audience. This works most effectively when there is a restriction on budgetary allowance for marketing team. Selection of such goods can be crucial at times as this will decide the fate of your business for future and also make ways for your business in terms of congregating potential prospects.

Everybody loves to receive free gifts and if that gift includes some of the features that solves their regular small problems at home or work then people will remember your name. Some of the most popular gifts are Mugs, juggling balls, lanyards, bookmarks, badges, coasters, t shirts, pencils, pens and key rings which will give your brand recognition in the market.

Most of these gifts can easily be printed on. The printing could be in the way of a campaign slogan, a company name or logo or an advertisement of some kind. The type of gift should be considered before the printing is done. Certain gifts may work better with a particular message. The aim is to get the brand name out as far and as wide as possible. Important to know is that while the item may cost very little money, compromising on the quality of the item should not be a consideration.

Printing your company name and logo on these items are pretty easy and these will find widespread usage among your target audience. It is always better to get connected with your existing and prospective clients once a year to rejuvenate the warmth of relationship that you enjoy with them. This way—customers will remember you better and they will also rely on your products. By doing such campaigns you can very well gain market popularity with better brand visibility.

There are many masterminds who have committed some of the greatest mistakes while making a brand image of a company. Many new start ups including renowned established players in the industry also suffered from the creative thoughts which sabotaged the entire branding project. We will discuss some of those mistakes and how to keep them at the bay.

Not knowing your customers

It is quite inevitable for you to understand and know your customers like the way you know yourself. You need to know their needs and pain areas to let them know that your solution can bring a change to their lives. That’s how you create a perception about your solutions and this goes long way to build your brand.

Give it to your marketing department

We all know that organizations work in silos with multiple departments where one department is alien to the other. In such scenario giving the responsibility to one department will only add to your woes. Branding is a culture and not and not any promotion. For successful branding you need to practice it for years. It’s not a time bound activity. And most importantly every department in organization should reflect that essence in their daily activities.

Wrong partners

Branding is not a child’s play. You will not try to be experimental when you are serious about your branding. It needs planning, preparation and flawless execution. Your branding should be constructed on a sound, strategic track. It should be of concept driven with a creative angle that will accommodate customers’ tastes and emerging technologies.

Thought the silver lining is that most of the mistakes can be corrected, it takes lot of time and yes the most valuable money. Instead of learning your mistakes by the hard way it’s better to heed to your strategies.

What is Pinterest?

• It is a virtual scrapbook where people delight in ‘pinning’ about things as varied as wedding dresses, promotional products, cakes, flowers, or even iPad cases.
• It’s one of the fastest growing websites of all time—in the last quarter of 2011 it had a 815% growth in traffic and 31.7 million total visits, making it one of the top 10 most-visited websites
• Statistics show that 4% of all online sharing comes through Pinterest alone
• It’s popularity peaks in the design, art and fashion industries
• Top Brands are using it for marketing–brands like Gap, Pillsbury, Unicef, and even Sesame Street
• 81% of users are women while 19% are men

All this is amazing for the internet and for its users, but companies are having a nightmare with authorship issues of the shared content. Pinterest generates a massive amount of referral traffic and gives an amazing amount of exposure. This is fantastic for branding and marketing, but like other sharing sites such as Facebook and Youtube attributions of copyrighted content are bound to be lost in the ‘cloud’ of sharing.

Though a gargantuan task it is, Pinterest is now attempting to regulate this social sharing while not compromising on the right of people being deprived of the right to self-expression. Let’s see how this pans out!