PROMOTIONAL PRODUCTS - CORPORATE GIFT IDEAS

‘Tis the season – I have been in various sales & marketing roles during my career, approximately 12 years. Each year, top customers are sent gifts to celebrate the relationships that were formed and the business they have provided. So, what are you sending – cookies, food baskets, etc.? While each of these things are nice and mostly effective, the goal is to show your appreciation and create a deeper relationship – ultimately making it harder for them to leave. What are you doing to connect your audience to the gifts you are sending?

One year, while working for a print marketing firm that focuses on the real estate industry, our National Association of Realtors (NAR) conference (over 10,000 attendees) was held in New Orleans. That year, rather than sending the usual gifts I stopped by Café Du Monde - a popular local coffee shop, and ordered a couple cases of their most popular coffee. I sent over 100 containers, each with a personalized letter to my top 100 customers/prospects. The response was amazing! I received 9 hand written thank-you letters and several emails sharing personal experiences from Café Du Monde. Not only did that $5.00 gift show each of these customers that I was thinking about them, it helped tie back in an experience and joyful emotion the French Quarter and New Orleans has to offer. Not to mention I retained 100% of those clients and gained 5 new accounts because of it.

The letter went something like this…

Dear Customer,

I hope you had a fun and successful trip to New Orleans for the NAR conference. I am not sure if you had a chance to stop by Café Du Monde while you were there, but the coffee and beignets were truly amazing. Their one-of-a-kind flavor made me think of you and how you might enjoy a cup this holiday season. Bring it home or share it within your office, either way I am sure it will be a hit.

Thank you so much for your business this year, I truly appreciate it.

Cheers!

As you see, the majority of the letter is geared towards drawing out certain emotions - connecting them back to the conference, Café Du Monde, the French Quarter and New Orleans in general. Although you want to be sure and thank them for their business, you do not want to dwell on it and say “thank you for spending $XXXXX with us.” They do not care about your year and your sales; they care about how you were able to help them and that you will work hard for them.

What gifts have you been successful (or unsuccessful) with?

YOUR LOGO IS NOT YOUR BRAND!

In our line of work, as a promotional products distributor we often catch ourselves using the words “brand” and “logo” interchangeably. Unfortunately, this is also a common occurrence in the business world. While it is understandable since the logo is the most recognizable feature of a brand, this is an oversimplification of what a brand is.

A brand is not a flashy logo or catchy slogan. It is what happens inside a person’s head when they see the flashy logo or hear the catchy slogan. It is an emotional connection between the entity and its audience. That connection is formed based on a combination of how the brand presents itself and a person’s perception and experience with it.

A brand can help shape its perception directly through its positioning statements, value propositions and taglines. For the brand to be perceived the way it is marketed to be, those elements must match with the individual’s attitudes, values and experience.

Logos serve as a reinforcement of a person’s perception of the brand. If the brand’s position and value resonate with a person, the logo becomes a banner of their loyalty. If they have had consistently positive experiences, the logo reminds them of the positive feelings associated with the brand. Of course, the same is true about negative feelings.

We cannot really control the minds our target audiences (yet?). However, we can control how we present our brands and how we interact with those we do or want to do business with. Each interaction a customer has with our business - reading an ad, talking to customer service, using a products or service - shapes their perception and therefore the brand.

Does your logo match your brand?