Food n Drink Ideas

Looking for something a little more unique in terms of employee rewards? Ever thought of giving a pen that also works as a bottle opener? Great to hand out at company outings. Do you give a bottle of wine out around the holidays but want your company's logo to last with the customer you give it to? Looking for a very unique gift to give to special clients? Check out some great ideas below in Joe Show video...a video from a promotional products researcher...



Thanks,

Josh

Logo Boys Image Builders

Ready for Fall?

I know, its a crazy thing to say considering how much rain we just received here in Northern Indiana, but fall is right around the corner. The dog days of August will soon be behind us. High School and College football games will be starting up soon and what better item to have with you than a heavyweight sweatshirt to keep you warm in the evening as the weather cools. What a great way to get some easy advertising by having your proud employees wearing a corporate sweatshirt while out supporting their local school. Check out the link below for a great video that highlights some fantastic options!

Super Heavyweight Fleece

Thanks as always,

Josh

Creative Marketing

In these tough economic times, companies have to get more creative to get people's attention and reach a larger market audience. With marketing budgets shrinking, doing the standard marketing strategies may not be feasible. There are many different creative ways to get your message out there. With new social networks like Twitter and Facebook growing popularity, these can be new means to reach your audience with relatively no cost involved. YouTube is another avenue where you can post videos about products or services to get your message out there. There is currently an ad campaign from Evian water that is sweeping the viral video world. In case you haven't seen it, here it is for you.



Now granted, there was some cost coming up with a way to have babies dancing around, but it has become an Internet sensation! With over 4 million hits online, its reaching a large audience. Evian chose to launch this video online first, and it seems to be working. It just goes to show that as a company you have to be willing to adapt to different media formats to get your message across...oh...and dancing babies always works!

Thanks,

Josh

Logo Boys Image Builders

Prepared for a storm?

Summer officially started over the weekend! I know I'm excited about thunder that shakes picture frames off walls and knocks my power out during a White Sox game (or Cubs if you prefer). Losing power can be a frustrating thing. You have to remember where you kept the flashlight or matches. It's an odd feeling not being able to check your email, facebook, twitter....etc. There are many promotional items out there than can help out with this problem. An item that would have great value with your customer and one that they will truly appreciate in thier moment of need. It is something that definetly won't get discarded so it will have last impressions. In the image included in this email is a flyer of some great options. A flashlight that works as a lantern...an auto charger for your PDA, MP3 player, and more...

For more information on other great items, check out this link.



Thanks as always,

Josh

Logo Boys Image Builders

4th of July Festivities

The 4th of July is a great time for friends and families to relax and enjoy a good cookout and some great fireworks. Logo Boys just sent out a great flyer on blankets and grill accessories that work perfectly for the 4th. It is not to late to get these great gifts to thank your customers or to show your employees how much you appreciate their hard work during these tough times.

Contact us this week to get your items in time for the 4th of July!

info@logoboys.net

Thanks as always,

Josh

Logo Boys Image Builders

Score High at Your Next Golf Outing

Tis the season for the golf outing. Weather it be for a corporate celebration, cause fundraiser, or networking event, golf outings are a great way to promote your company. I mentioned earlier that if you are heading to a public event, wear a company garment to showcase your company's image. The same applies for golf outings, but you can be more creative here. I strongly encourage anyone who is participating in an outing to have on apparel with your logo on it. However, you can also have other items with your logo. Golf club heads can be customized to reflect your image in many ways. Your golf towel can be embroidered with your logo. All of these ideas are ways to easy and inexpensive ways to promote your company...and as long as they are focused at looking at your really unique golf head cover...they might miss that shank you had on 17!

Now, if you are sponsoring a golf outing, you have many options. You have probably contacting many of your customers or vendors and asked for donations. Don't miss out on this opportunity to promote your own company as well. Have door prizes that have your logo on them. Golf balls, koozies, tee packs, umbrellas, golf towels, head covers, and many more items are great giveaways. See if your local embroidery vendor won't donate a couple of polos for the event (like Logo Boys does). I would recommend putting your logo on the sleeve or back yoke of the garment. You want to make sure that the winner of this item will wear it again. If it looks like a billboard, it will probably stay in the closet. I have found using tonal colors works very well. It gives the item more of a retail look, it keeps your logo there, and is subtle enough that the item can be worn anywhere. If you do it right, look at all those impressions you will get, which is the name of the game!

Thanks as always,

Josh

Logo Boys Image Builders

The New ABC's of Selling

There is an old saying in sales, Always Be Closing. Basically, it means that a salesperson should always be trying to close the sale. In this economy, that takes on even greater importance. However, I think there are more subtle ways that a salesperson, and a company in general, can do this. The Advertising/Marketing budget always seems to be the first department that feels the hit of corporate cutbacks. So, you have to get more creative. What is a way to have your company's image out in front of your potential customers at minimal cost? Be active in your community! Attend festivals, parades, downtown events, networking events, etc. These are enjoyable activities to begin with, and by attending them with a polo with your logo on it, you are also broadcasting to everyone there that you/your company care about your local community. It is a great way to boost your image in the community. Maybe you are close to a deal with a company and they just happen to bump into you at the local art festival. Your company gets another "impression" on your potential customer and could be a tipping point to finish the deal. You could land that next big account and get a balloon animal at the same. Sounds like a winner to me!

Josh Anderson

Customer Relationship Manager

Logo Boys Image Builders

How to select the right product?

How many pens have you been given in the past year from sales people? If the answer to this question is a large number, how many of those have you actually used? This is probably a much smaller number. As a distributor of promotional products, I get A LOT of pens. I only use a small number of those. Why? I like them, for different reasons, the way it writes, the feel in my hand, etc. So, as we talked about earlier, promotional items work, but you have to use the right ones. So how do we find an item that will really connect with your customers? I have found that the best promotions that work are the ones that showcase your company's image. If you give out a cheap pen to someone, that is what they will think of your company. Quality items can be more expensive, however, when you look at the numerous impressions a good quality item will get your company, as well as the high perceived value your company presents itself with a high quality item, its a win-win situation. This item could be with your customer for a long time and possibly showcased to their customers, so a good, quality item is key. There are many options out there, but check out our website for some great ideas that we recommend. Promotional products should be looked at as an investment into building your company's image.



Thanks as always,

Josh Anderson
Customer Relationship Manager
Logo Boys Image Builders

Eco-Friendly Gift Options

Good afternoon and welcome back friends. My apologies, with prepping for our recent trade show, I have not been blogging as much as I would have liked. I hope you all found my previous article about why doing promotions now to be informative. I look to do that today in discussing what "Going Green" can mean when it comes to gifts you offer your customers and employees.

There are many items that are "Environmentally Friendly", so what does that mean. Let's look at cotton as one example. Organic cotton can be found in tee shirts, grocery totes, pique polos, and sport shirts. These are items that we wear at work, out at outings, or even at your local grocery store. So what is the difference between regular cotton an organic cotton? Organic cotton is biodegradable and hypoallergenic. It is also machine washable and dry able. So it works and wears just like regular cotton, but at a much friendly price to the environment.

Bamboo has also become a popular alternative to twill and sport shirts. Bamboo is one of the world's most renewable plants. Bamboo can grow up to one foot a day without the use of chemical pesticides. As someone who consider himself eco-friendly, that was news to me.

There are numerous products that you can buy for your employees or customers, and now those products have environmentally friendly alternatives. Same style product, but at an environmental conscious price. It's a small way for us all to better serve our community.

For more information on items available, check out our website.

Earth Day is April 22nd.

Thanks,

Josh Anderson

Customer Relationship Manager

Logo Boys Image Builders

Why do promotions now?

I have heard from many customers and their clients that it is very challenging to do promotions right now. Times are tough and everyone is cutting back and they can't justify spending money on promotions when they are forced to lay people off. It is a very compelling issue and one that I would like to discuss today. In sales there are always going to be objections and you have to find a way to find a solution to each objection. These are rough economic times, but we still need to find ways to generate more business and to keep current customers coming back for more. A company called the Advertising Specialty Institute, ASI, recently conducted a survey of 618 business people in four major markets. The purpose behind this survey was to find out how effective promotional products were and do a cost analysis comparison to other forms of marketing and advertising. It was quite the extensive survey, but I'll give you the short summary of conclusions that came out of this.

• 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 time.


• 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 the 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 1,038 impressions per month!


• Most Impressive: The average Cost Per Impression, CPI, of an advertising specialty item is $0.004; as a result, marketers get more favorable return on investment from advertising specialties than nearly any other popular advertising media.

So what does this all mean? To me, it means that we have to be more creative to reach our customers. Just running a TV commercial or a newspaper ad isn't enough. We have to look at new avenues to promote your company. Maybe you send a thank you note with a pen attached to it and say "I would like to help you write your next order" It gets you in front of your customer again, shows your creative side, and shows that you care by giving them a useful item. There are many different creative options that can help your company stand out from the rest. The use of promotional products is a cost effective way of reminding your customers that you are there to help them to continue to strive and grow.

Thanks as always,

Josh Anderson

Customer Relationship Manager

Logo Boys Image Builders

*"Research provided by the Advertising Specialty Institute, Copyright ©2008, All Rights Reserved."

Just Getting Started

Good Afternoon,

Logo Boys is happy to be joining the online blogging community. My objective in doing this is to be able to share ideas on ways to promote your company. I hope to be considered a guide and source in helping your company promote itself and to be as bold as you can be. I want to share promotions that have been successful, highlight new creative ideas, and work together in a partnership to help us all do better. In this challenging economy, a company has to find a way to differentiate itself from the pack. This requires being more creative, not necessarily more aggressive. You may have to develop a core niche that satisfies a unique need. Luckily for us, there are great tools out there to help us stand above the rest.

One very unique option I recently discovered I would like to share with you today. I feel this product would work great in grocery stores. It is called the List Caddy. It is a magnetic clip that fits perfectly on the handle of a shopping cart. As people watch their pennies even closer, they will naturally gravitate towards coupons and sales. They may develop shopping lists if they haven't already done so. This clip is perfect for holding those options. See the picture above for an example of how this works. What a powerful branding opportunity for grocery stores to show they are there to help their customers.

Josh Anderson

Customer Relationship Manager

Logo Boys Image Builders