Dinosaurs are extinct because they just didn’t make the natural selection all-star team. The behemoths might have been chosen for sheer muscle power, but honestly, they weren’t moving fast enough, and no amount of spring training can knock the evolutionary destiny out of a potential competitor.
Read MoreAuthor: Christen Gruebel
The Great Outdoors
If you love someone, set them free.”
This, the worst relationship cliché of all time, is routinely followed up by the brilliant logic, “If they don’t come back, they were never yours; but if they do, you own them for life,” blah, blah. Terrible. However, despite its existence on many a tween’s Facebook page, when taken out of the context of a tumultuous love affair, it’s strangely relevant in the realm of promotional products.
Summer School
Before you even ask, no, “X” will not be making a cameo on the following list. Why? Frankly, we don’t want to insult your intelligence by insisting that a xylophone is a summer-wardrobe necessity. Not to turn off all the xylophone enthusiasts out there, but it’s kind of hard to throw in a beach bag.
That omission aside, read on for an alphabetized list of styles, tips and information to help you create the perfect summer promotion.
Red, White and Gray
ida was quick to note that although 90 percent of LarLu’s products are made in the U.S. (and are marketed and labeled as such), Display-Tec’s line of promotional clocks are assembled in the U.S. with some foreign components. It could be argued that, since the imprint is a promotional product’s essential element (as considered by this industry), and the clock is merely the vehicle for the imprint, it could pass muster for a qualified “made in the USA” label. Yet, “[It] is something that I’m not comfortable putting on our Display-Tec catalog pages because the key part of the clock is … imported,” he explained.
Read MoreSafety in Numbers
According to Jackie Barker, vice president of sales for ERB Safety, a division of Woodstock, Georgia-based ERB Industries, “We sell to a couple of school-supplies catalogers, so maybe … some of our safety glasses might be used in the science lab for protection.” Just this past November, the Federal Highway Administration (FHA) issued a revision to its Worker Visibility Law that makes wearing high-visibility apparel mandatory for workers on federal-aid highways. Equipped with the proper technology (fire-retardancy, reflective stripes, etc.), vests, jackets, gloves and the like are effective promotions for those who work outdoors or are exposed to elemental hazards on the job. […] though it might seem self-evident, she gets asked “Is it a real hard hat?” quite often. Since there are price differences as well as occupational risks associated with each, asking the right questions can be the difference between getting the sale and not (not to mention keeping end-users well protected).
Read MoreCheck, Please
This is, by no means, a comprehensive list of what to do before conducting a site redesign (or even building a site from scratch, for that matter). However, based upon information from professional designers, marketing strategists and usability experts, it’s a pretty good jumping-off point.
Read MoreThree Under Par
EVERYTHING IS BACKWARD in golf.
While a lot of golfers out there reading this might take offense to that statement, think of the layperson’s language comprehension. In normal, everyday conversation, “under par” is not exactly the most ringing endorsement of, well, anything. Who would want to hear their mechanic’s work described that way? Or worse, the skills of their heart surgeon?
Lost in Translation?
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Read MoreRed Alert
FIRES, FLOODS, HURRICANES—for more than a century, nothing has stopped the American Red Cross from assisting those in need around the country and the world. But, when an organization that prides itself on helping others needs a little help of its own, where does it turn? Luckily for the Red Cross of Gloucester County, N.J., Susan Freiberg, president of Turnersville, New Jersey-based Proforma ABF Direct, was on the case. With an army of tote bags from Mason, Ohio-based Vitronic Promotional Group, and some savvy fundraising skills, Freiberg not only raised awareness of the chapter’s financial situation but she helped them collect enough money to thwart impending closure. Here, she shares with Promo Marketing just how a well-placed promotional product saved the day.
Read MoreFrom Trash to Treasure
THEY’RE COMPLETE RUBBISH. Well, that’s the rumor, anyway. Yet, for the latest in alternative fabrics, the distinction is not necessarily a bad thing. The items formerly known as garbage—cork, plastic bottles, seaweed, the list goes on—are having a bit of an identity crisis, and the fashion world is primed to reap the benefits. “Not everything that every clothing company wants is necessarily [a] natural fabric,” said Summer Rayne Oakes, an independent sustainability strategist with an emphasis in eco-fashion and the spokesperson for Planet Green, the Discovery Network’s new enviro-centric channel. In particular, she noted, performance-based companies such as Nike and Patagonia look
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