Promotional Products | Colorado Marketing and Promotions

28Mar

Pepsi Shows Off “Eco” Plant-Based Bottle

Tags: Advertising, Eco-Friendly, EcoFriendly, Green, Marketing, Pepsi, Promotional Products

In a move that’s sure to eventually influence beverage containers in the promotional products industry, PepsiCo. announced last week a new type of bottle made entirely from vegetable material. Pepsi says the new bottles look and feel just like the current PET (Polyethylene terephthalate) plastic ones, but are made from switch grass, pine bark, corn husks and other materials and are completely free from petroleum-based materials. Ultimately the company hopes to develop a bottle using food scraps such as orange peels, oat hulls and potato scraps from its food divisions.

The bottles are in a test phase now and it will be at least next year before consumers start seeing them on shelves.

Does Size Matter?

Tags: Advertising, Marketing, Promotional Products, Social Media, Twitter, YouTube

When it comes to marketing, the question of size is an important consideration in your plan. One of the most frequently asked questions I get in regards to promotional products is “What is the newest, and most unique thing out there that we can give-away?” and my answer is that it does not matter what that is if the item ends up on the “FREE” table at a garage sale.

The reason I bring this up is that if a business wants to give away 1,000 “New” and “Unique” items and they are not “useful”, the money spent has been wasted. If the same business gives away 100 items that their potential prospects use on a regular basis, then they are reminded of you and your message regularly. Or, even better, when the item is given to a “qualified” prospect in exchange for their information through which you are able to further market to them, then your potential ROI is significantly increased.

In my opinion, this is true with Social Media Marketing as well. Everyone seems to want 1,000 fans or 10,000 followers. When the fact of the matter is that if you have 1,000 fans that are not interested in your product or service, then you may as well have “ZERO” fans. The point and purpose of using social media is to build a tribe of people who know, like and trust you. Then when they are in need of what you offer, you are at the top of the list of “go to” people for what you provide.

So, does size matter?

To this, my answer is yes. However, it takes time to build and one must be patient. Size alone is not important, because size without quality is actually insignificant.

Promotional Products – Then & Now

Tags: Advertising, Marketing, Media, Promotional Products

The first known promotional products in the United States are commemorative buttons dating back to the election of George Washington in 1789. During the early 19th century, there were some advertising calendars, rulers, and wooden specialties, but there wasn’t an organized industry for the creation and distribution of promotional items until later in the 19th century.

Today, these items are used by large companies like Coca Cola to the local kids sports teams…Why?…because they work. The vehicle of promotional products is one that has withstood the test of time. And the best part is that they can be used by anyone (with almost any budget) from that large corporation to your home based small business.

Promotional products, with their long history, proved to be an effective means to advertise and/or promote a message, logo, image and/or event. When businesses realized early on that promotional products could be used to advertise and promote, the promotional products Industry began to grow by leaps and bounds, giving way to new and exciting products and providing businesses with new tools for growth.

Aside from being practical, promotional products have also come to be recognized for their historic and artistic value as each company tried to put its own individual identity forward in increasingly unique and attractive ways. As a result, the promotional products of yesteryear may be worth a tidy sum to collectors and historians today as a valuable piece of “Americana”. In other words, dust off those elaborately decorated metal Coca-Cola trays and get them on Ebay!

So why do people Love promotional products so much? Well, there are many reasons from the practical use stand point to the importance of a keepsake or reminder of an experience that was shared. Today, so many things are going to the way of technology like e-mail in lieu of a letter or card in the mail to texting instead of a phone call. I believe that we like to have keepsakes. When we participate in a running event, visit another location for vacation, or enjoy a Wine festival; we like to have a t-shirt as a trophy or a water bottle, coffee mug or etched wine glass as a souvenir. So, c’mon…share the love!