What is Branding and How Important is it to Your Marketing Strategy?

By Laura Lake About.com

The American Marketing Association (AMA) defines a brand as a “name, term, sign, symbol or design, or a combination of them intended to identify the goods and services of one seller or group of sellers and to differentiate them from those of other sellers.
Therefore it makes sense to understand that branding is not about getting your target market to choose you over the competition, but it is about getting your prospects to see you as the only one that provides a solution to their problem.
The objectives that a good brand will achieve include:

• Delivers the message clearly
• Confirms your credibility
• Connects your target prospects emotionally
• Motivates the buyer
• Concretes User Loyalty

To succeed in branding you must understand the needs and wants of your customers and prospects. You do this by integrating your brand strategies through your company at every point of public contact.

Your brand resides within the hearts and minds of customers, clients, and prospects. It is the sum total of their experiences and perceptions, some of which you can influence, and some that you cannot.

A strong brand is invaluable as the battle for customers intensifies day by day. It’s important to spend time investing in researching, defining, and building your brand. After all your brand is the source of a promise to your consumer. It’s a foundational piece in your marketing communication and one you do not want to be without.

Promote Your Business Through Local Business Trade Show Expo events

Author: Mary White

Posted: Aug 06, 2008

One of the best things a small business owner can do to increase visibility for his or her business venture is to participate in local trade shows and business expo events. Most communities with an active Chamber of Commerce or other membership based business organization have at least one annual expo designed to spotlight local businesses. The exhibit fees are usually very affordable, and participating is a great way to gain exposure for your organization.

Finding Events

To find out about trade show events in your area, it’s a good idea to get involved in appropriate professional organizations and networking groups. You should also scour the business section of your local newspaper on a regular basis to find out about upcoming opportunities. Many television stations, municipalities, and convention and visitors bureaus also post upcoming exp events on their online community calendars. The good news is that once you participate in a show, you’ll start to receive email and snail mail announcements of upcoming events.

Exhibit Considerations

Before you can participate in a trade show or business expo, you will need to develop or purchase a booth display. Displays can be as simple as tablecloths with a few brochure holders, or as elaborate as a full screen multi-media presentation. They can range from being very inexpensive to costing thousands of dollars.

Before deciding what type of display best meets your needs, it’s a good idea to visit a few trade show expos so you can see several types of displays in person. In addition to cost and design, factors you need to consider include: ease of transportation, ease or difficulty of set-up, and versatility.

Giveaway Goodies

In addition to creating or purchasing an attractive display, you’ll also need to come up with some type of giveaways to have at your booth. You should purchase some type of promotional items that include your company name, phone number, and website to give away during the events in which you participate.

Many trade show attendees look forward to collecting pens, mugs, notepads, coupons, and other goodies from vendors. Promotional items don’t have to be expensive to be appealing. They’ll attract people to your booth and serve as reminders of your company long after the event is offer.

Get Contact Information

You need to have a plan to get contact information from the people who stop by your booth. This will allow you to place visitors on your mailing list, as well as make follow-up phone calls once the event is over. Many trade show participants bring a door prize, and require visitors to drop their business cards in a basket or fishbowl in order to register. This is a win-win proposition for the exhibitor, who gets contact information from visitors, and the booth visitors, who get a chance to win a great prize.

Staffing Plan

When you commit to participating in a trade show, you have to be prepared to staff your booth throughout the event. An empty booth isn’t going to attract visitors or help promote your business. A major advantage of participating in trade show expo events is having an opportunity to meet new people and chat with them about what your business does.

Get Ready to Grow Your Business

Now that you know how to find local trade show events, it’s time to research opportunities in your area and create a winning trade show display. You’ll be on your way to developing new business opportunities in no time at all.

When choosing to buy promotional products for your business or organization, it is important to know that all distributors are NOT created equal. The majority of promotional product distributors are simply “order takers” who will take your money and offer you no real guidance to help make your project or marketing campaign more successful. I have a few pointers to help guide you in the right direction of choosing a reputable and knowledgeable promotional products consultant.

1) Check out the distributor’s website. Is it a well-designed website? If not, that may be a good indication of their quality. A site with lots of misspellings, poor grammar, and poor content should raise a red flag. If the distributor does not even have a website, that too could be a red flag. This is the 21st century, and if the distributor is not online, chances are he/she doesn’t know the current trends of the industry. Without knowing these trends, they won’t be able to offer much guidance to help your campaign be successful for the current times.

2) How long has the distributor been in business? There are many fly by night distributors that are here today and gone tomorrow. Make sure you choose one that will be in business the next time you are ready to order. Also, a distributor with many years of experience has withstood the tests of time and most likely has a lot of knowledge that could be useful for you.

3) Is the distributor part-time or full-time? Many of the promotional products distributors are part-time distributors which means they earn their bread and butter doing an unrelated job and the job as a distributor comes second to their primary career. This means you would also come second. This also means that they don’t have as much time to keep up with the current trends of the industry. They are not able to offer you the freshest advice on how to improve your campaign.

4) Check with the Better Business Bureau. You can search the BBB online database and check for complaints. Specifically, check for the resolutions. If a company consistently doesn’t respond to their complaints in a positive manner, I would steer clear of that business. If a company is not listed with the BBB, that should also be a red flag. They are probably not listed because they are afraid or they were not approved due to too many complaints.

5) Trust your gut! When you speak with the distributor, do you get a good vibe or a bad one? If it is a bad one, trust your intuition and call the next distributor that seems reputable to you. Keep searching until you feel comfortable with your choice.  Promotional products distributors are a dime a dozen, but knowledgeable consultants are harder to find.

Using a reputable and knowledgeable distributor will help ensure that your next promotional products marketing campaign is more successful.

Perfect Imprints.  Copyright 2009.

Make Your Tradeshow Display More Successful

Have you had mediocre results with your tradeshow booths in the past?  Have you spent hundreds or thousands of dollars on your tradeshow display with little to no return on your investment?  Research has shown that promotional products increase your tradeshow traffic to your display and that promotional products of great value generate more sales leads than products of lower value.  In plain English please…If you give someone a $0.41 cheap pen, they probably won’t remember you.  If you give them something of value such a personalized USB flash drive, then not only would that tradeshow attendee remember you, but they would be more likely to do business with you.  In addition, the flash drive would be used over and over again yielding repeated advertising for your company.  Here are a few statistics:

• 72% of tradeshow attendees who received a promotional product emembered the name of the
company that gave them the product.
• 76% of attendees had a favorable attitude toward the company that gave them the product.
• Including a promotional product with a pre-show mailing increases the likelihood of an attendee
stopping by the booth.
• As a rule, promotional products of greater value generate more sales leads han products of lower
value.

If you are able to get the names and addresses of the show attendees, be sure and send them a promotional product and tempt them to visit your booth to receive a FREE gift.  When they get to your booth, you can give them a promotional item of value so they will remember you increasing your chances of closing a sale.

Source: 2004 study titled The Effectiveness Of Promotional Products In Tradeshow Settings conducted
by Georgia Southern University

Promotional Products—The Key Ingredient to Integrated Marketing

How Promotional Products, Print and Television Advertising Impact Consumer Perception

Many traditional forms of advertising and promotion are losing ground to newer media. This trend presents opportunities for the promotional products medium. However, very little research exists documenting the effectiveness of promotional products when compared to and combined with other traditional forms of advertising such as television and print.

To further research this, a study utilizing the most critical demographic group ages 18-34 years was conducted for PPAI by researchers at Louisiana State University and University of Texas at San Antonio. The study which was conducted in a controlled environment, measured the:

• effectiveness of promotional products and compared them to two other media, television and print advertising
• synergistic effects of promotional products when used along with these other media
• consumer’s preferred medium for information about a product or brand

Those in the 18-34 age group are among the hardest for marketers to reach, one that nicely coincides with the population available in a university setting. From an advertising perspective, this audience is usually highly desirable.

If promotional products have an impact on this critical demographic group then the utility of the medium is likely to be expandable to other age segments.

The Method:

Participants in the study were exposed to three forms of advertising—television, print and promotional products. They were then asked to complete a 60-item questionnaire measuring their perceptions of the advertising.

In particular, the questions measured the following:

• advertisement credibility
• attitudes toward product, advertisement or promotional product
• product purchase intention
• referral value
• impressions of the advertisement
• perceptions about the product

East of Chicago Pizza graciously provided the advertisements for the study for a new pizza product. The company had previously run both the television and print ads. The promotional product created for the experiment was a 6 1/2” x 3 3/4” refrigerator magnet reproducing the front page of the print ad along with a calendar for the coming year. The sample consisted of 310 college students of whom 57% were female and 43% male in the 18-34 age group. Seven different groups of students were recruited for the study and each group was exposed to a different condition. These were:

Additionally, the research instrument also involved questions about media use, including an item requesting respondents to rank their preferred information sources.

Key Findings: Chart 1
Advertising Effectiveness Of The Three Mediums

• While the print ad came in first overall, the promotional product outperformed television across the board.

• Respondents preferred advertising through a promotional product to the television ad in terms of their positive attitudes toward the ad (41% to 18%), positive attitude toward the product (20% to 16%), message credibility (54% to 33%), purchase intent (25% to 17%) and referral value (26% to 16%).
• Adding a promotional product to the media mix generated favorable attitudes toward the ad in all cases (up to 44%) (See Chart 2).

Chart 2
Advertising Effectiveness Of Promotional Products In Comparison With TV And Print

* No statistically significant differences were found for purchase intent and hence is not presented in chart above

• Integrating a promotional product with the television commercial outpaced the two other media alone in message credibility and referral value.
• Integrating a promotional product with television and print increased referral value as well as credibility of the message.

Synergy

Promotional products when used in synergy with other mediums led participants to develop a more positive outlook toward the ad and the brand.

• In this study, groups who were exposed to promotional products tended to rate the message more positively than those groups not exposed to a promotional product (See Chart 3).

Chart 3
Respondents’ Evaluation Of Advertising Messages

(Exposure to TV and Print together vs. TV and Print with Promotional Product vs. Promotional Product alone)

• In some instances, the use of a promotional product as the ad medium alone achieved maximum impact, up to 69% in increasing brand interest and 84% in creating a good impression of the brand.

Brand Evaluation and Product

• In most conditions, the receipt of a promotional product as an ad medium is more effective in developing positive attitudes toward the product or brand than exposure to a TV commercial in conjunction with a print advertisement (See Chart 4).
• In all cases integrating the promotional product with a TV commercial and print advertisement proved more effective than the use of promotional products alone, or TV commercials and print advertisements in combination.

Chart 4
Respondents’ Evaluation Of Brand Or Product

(TV and Print vs. TV and Print with Promotional Product vs. Promotional Product alone)

Media Information Preferences

In addition to the actual experimental testing, respondents were also asked to indicate their top three generally preferred sources of information on food. The findings revealed:

• Promotional products were the second most preferred source of information following television advertising (see table below).

• Interestingly, while respondents advised that they prefer television commercials as a source of food product information, the experimental study revealed otherwise; statistically showing a more positive product and brand response with print advertising and promotional products over television commercials.

In a nutshell, promotional products

• may be effectively employed as a stand-alone advertising medium (second to television in terms of reported information value)
• add to the media mix, creating impact by supplementing other advertising media such as television and print
• are a useful information and reminder medium
• enhance impressions about both the brand and product
• Contribute to consumer intent to buy

The Authors

This study, using scientific methodology and statistical techniques, serves as baseline research to further document the value of promotional products in today’s competitive marketplace. The experiment was conducted in November 2006 for PPAI by Dr. Richard Alan Nelson, Ph.D. (Professor, Louisiana State University), Dr. Ali M. Kanso, Ph.D. (Professor, University of Texas at San Antonio) and Dr. H. Paul LeBlanc III, Ph.D. (Assistant Professor, University of Texas at San Antonio).

Be Unique

Some businesses have encountered triumph with customizable websites and promulgating operations that sanctions a high crosswise of interaction with their young aim audience.

The Personalize-It Philosophy

As a terminal communication on the youth market, you ought save in head that they have a very high view for individuality. That said, you may like to appraise augmenting promotional t-shirts as element of your selling mix.

Promotional garments can be supposed as the faultless approach because it sanctions the enterprise to imprint customized communications on the garments for their aim market to wear. But the actual snare here is in disclosing the right result that passes on the sensitivities of your youthful aim market where endorsing your brand. This may sense to be a consuming endeavour, but in certainty, there are more ornamental ways of attaining this.

For case, you can placement your enterprise as the greatest result to a youth segment deficiency that has to be addressed. The first thing you have to do is to identify the need. Second, compute effects if your brand label can in seeing gratify this need. Third, study the lingo of the youth and be their voice. Now, join them all together. There you have it. You’ve personalized your brand label to engender it more youth-friendly.

custom t-shirts for your youthful market

Now, by imprinting this conduct result aggregated with your logo on a promotional t-shirt, you have understood two population things. One, you have typed a garment that the youthful market would be optimistic to become threadbare since it aids them go beyond on their circumstances and attitude. Two, you have left your brand label as the act against for a separate someone deficiency of your market. It’s like vanquish two population birds engaging one boulder right?

There are other promotional wares in the market to give support you understand the Personalize-It Philosophy. Though if you’re rightly directing at the youth subdivision, promotional t-shirts are your best bet. Promotional t-shirts and clothes are commonly a vanquish amid the youth. For its charge, it moves a lengthened way in ROI (Return of Investment).

—–

Eva is a Promotional Adviser specializing on Custom Imprinted Items, Personalized Gifts, and Custom Polo Shirts.

Value for Money Promotional Products

To continue afloat in this financial downward spiral, you ought explore chances and pinpoint ways to enlarge your reach. It’s not adequate to expect that the novel head Barack Obama will carry our economic procedure its much-needed respite.

If you have been account for several deal clearly present endorsements in the past, now is the time to left this arrange into action.

Trade clearly present endorsements are a cost-efficient and very fruitful way to accept your brand label in front of provincial and worldwide development customers in a solitary event. Certainly, the accuse of connecting a deal clearly present is not for you, if you are of the insipid of heart. You deficiency to be coordinated financially to shoulder condition payments, plane vouchers, rental accommodation, and trip expenditures, selling elements, and promotional items. The revisits, even so, of joining in a deal clearly present are enormous. In such an industry-specific function, you will be competent to find customers any someone who are staring for wares that you trade, but you will in addition have entry to to development studying that will give support your money grow.

Maximize the instructive plausible of deal clearly present promotions. You are there not just to engender money but in addition to construe the industry.

- Attend gathering dialogues and discussions. Industry players will engender it a purpose to existing important or magazine on legislative assesses that may give support or obstruct the development from growing. Listen and take notes.

- Ask questions. The basically way to recognise more or to get clear of anxious is to ask.

- Observe. See what your contestants are doing and study from them. Knowing the elements and implements they task with will empower you to diversify and alter on your products.

- Strike higher a two-way chat with deal clearly present endorsements inhabitants and disclose their consideration draw close fasten the show. Find out if they assume expansion in the industry’s future.

- Get opinion from buyers. Find out what new approaches or elements they’d like to use. Get their view on how to alter on your product. As they are your overpass to clients, they would recognize more what trades and what does not.

More than an environs to pinpoint new customers and enlarge your draw close, deal clearly present endorsements must in addition give support you alter your workmanship, wares, and services, to assure your longevity in the industry.

Commentary: Promotional Products Retain Value — in Good Times and Bad
Promotional products have proven their value in the marketplace. Have you proven their value to your customers and prospects?
June 11, 2008

By Richard Lebovitz

Last month, I wrote in this commentary that promotional consultants should not forget that all economics is local and that the state of the national economy might not represent the economy in your state or even within your locale.

Furthermore, even in a downtrodden economy, marketers still need to advertise their products and services, and there is probably no more effective and efficient way of doing so than via promotional products.

If your customers don’t believe the latter statement, then you need only point to the Promotional Products Association Intl.’s (PPAI) growing body of research that supports the use of promotional products either alone or in conjunction with other forms of advertising. For example:

• 71% of an audience consisting primarily of business people reported having received a promotional product during the past 12 months
• 34% of this group had the item on their person
• 76% of respondents could recall the advertiser’s name on the product they received
• 52% of respondents did business with the advertiser after receiving the promotional product
• 55% kept their promotional products for more than a year
Source: PPAI

Certainly the tangible impact of promotional products contributed in part to the 3.5% rise in promotional products sales in 2007 to a record $19.4 billion, as just reported by PPAI. Considering the downturn in the housing market, the credit crunch, the declines in employment and the escalating price of energy during the last half of 2007, this milestone was no small feat.

Moreover, in achieving this record, the promotional products industry held its own against other forms of advertising, including event marketing ($19.1 billion), cable television ($17.8 billion), Yellow Pages ($14.6 billion) and outdoor advertising ($7.2 billion). In fact, it’s right up there with Internet ad revenue, which rose to $21.2 billion last year, according to a report by the New Media Group of PricewaterhouseCoopers.

But that was then, this is now, and it wasn’t too long ago, in 2000, to be exact, that the industry hit another high, $17.8 billion, followed by two years of declining sales after the triple whammy of the dot.com bubble, the March 2001-November 2001 recession and the 9/11 terrorists attacks. It then took the industry five years to surpass its 2000 high, reaching $18 billion in 2005.

Now that we’re faced once again with what seems like wave after wave of economic woe, we should make a point of keeping our customers and prospects mindful of the value of promotional products and continue to provide creative solutions for businesses suffering from the bad economy. At the same time, we need to focus our attention on markets that are recession-resistant, such as the institutional market. The latter includes education, healthcare and government — three employment sectors that have continued to rise during the past 12 months, though much of the news on the May 2008 Labor Department jobs report overlooked that fact.

In addition, we need to be mindful that all economics is local and that plenty of sales opportunities exist in our own backyard if we take the time to do the necessary homework*.

To comment on this editorial or other promotional products issues, e-mail rlebovitz@impressionsmag.com.

*A place to start is with the information we’ve provided in this issue and prior issues of Promotional Impressions in which we’ve covered both healthcare and education. Another place is MCH Inc., where you can download a free White Paper titled “The Local Government Marketplace for Direct Marketers” and the company’s new “BudgetAware Bulletin,” which provides a regional look at the education market.

6 steps for a worry-free promotion

1. Plan your program as far ahead as possible – Planning ahead helps keep your order under budget and gives your distributor time to research ideas and product sources.

2. Select a distributor that fits your company and your needs — Look for a distributor with a solid reputation within the industry and one that is willing to supply you with references verifying quality, service, and quote and order accuracy. Look for a range of references to see if they service a variety of clients with equally successful results.

3. Make your distributor part of your planning early in the process — Capitalize on your distributors knowledge and experience. Use them as an experienced consultant, not just an order-processor. They can offer suggestions on how to effectively use specific imprinted items to achieve your desired results. In addition, ask them to send imprinted samples so you can inspect the quality of the product you are considering before placing your order.

4. Good artwork will improve your order processing time — If you do not have camera-ready artwork, look for a distributor who can create or clean up artwork for you. This option may be costly and delay your order if additional steps are required — so get a quote ahead of time or look for one that offers free, timely art preparation as part of their normal services. They should explain what type of artwork is needed and what will work best for your product.

5. Make sure you specify the date you need your products — Most imprinted products are ordered for a specific event or promotion. Make sure you specify the date you need the product in your office at the time you order. Make sure they guarantee on time shipment to meet your event date.

6. Inspect your order upon arrival — Your order should arrive in top condition exactly as you ordered it. In the rare instance where there is a problem, your distributor should make it right for you. However, it takes time to re-run an order. The sooner you notify them of any problem, the sooner your problem will be resolved. Source: The Ryder Group