Cheap pens!

Yes, we have cheap pens. As a matter of fact we have a lot of cheap stuff. We have more than 26,000 pens from more than 1000 manufacturers and suppliers. If you need a quantity of 1000, our database shows over 1100 pens from over 100 suppliers for under $0.50 each. 32 of the pens are under $0.25 each.

Yes, they are cheap.

You know it.

I know it.

The person you give it to knows it.

There is a reason that they are cheap. Here’s the thing. Cheap pens fail much quicker than other pens...sometimes they fail as soon as you open the box! It may leak, it may skip, it may just not work at all. As it fails, your customer will look at this ‘cheap #@!%* pen’ that he really needed to work and while throwing this failure of a pen in the trash what will he see? YOUR logo. Is that how you want to be remembered? The giver of the ’cheap #@!%* pen that failed’?

I am at the brink of requiring any customer who purchases a cheap pen from us to sign a waiver excusing us from any fault when the pens fail. I do not want to be associated in any way with the failure and so you are warned. Cheap pens fail.

There is a difference between cheap and inexpensive. When it comes to inexpensive, I am a big believer in staying with the brands. They did not get to be the 'big dog' in their field by being cheap. With pens under $1.00 we recommend sticking with Bic, PaperMate or an advertising specialty name like Gold Bond, Hub Pen or Perfect Line. We have more than 11 years in the business. These are names we trust. There are others we might be ok with (no waiver required), but these are our go-to guys for inexpensive pens.

Thanks for letting me vent. Sorry that it has been so long since my last entry. I will try to do better.



Steve Raggo
www.raggo.com

The Questions I Hate Most

There is a question that I really hate being asked. I get it in networking meetings like BNI. I get it on sales calls and I get it at social events. I hate being asked ‘What is the hottest promotional item out there right now?” I don’t hate it because I don’t know the answer. I hate it because it does not matter what the new, hot, gotta-send-one-now promotional product is. The question that everyone should be asking is, “What advertising specialty would be most effective at achieving my business goal?”

By the way, the new, hot gotta-send-one-now item is probably anything which can claim to be an environmentally friendly promotional product - recycled pens, biodegradable bags, organic cotton or bamboo shirts and the like. Second to that is anything USB related - flash drives, hubs, fans, rechargers, etc. Both of these may or may not be of any use in your advertising campaign, but there, I said it. We will talk about environmentally-friendly promos in future entries.

The second question I get asked all the time is, “What is the best promotional product?” There are lots of answers to this question because the effectiveness of a product is best measured by how it achieves it’s intended goal. In order to correctly answer the question we need to know what the goal is, who the target is and what the price range, delivery method and time frame is.

On my list of “Favorite Promotional Products”, I would probably have to list mugs, promotional shirts, Sticky Note pads and calendars as among the best. Mugs because ceramics last forever (Can you say Ming Dynasty vase?). Golf and tee shirts because their perceived value is usually higher than their actual cost, which means people will hold onto them. Sticky Notes because no one throws a pad of sticky notes away. Calendars because they last at least 365 days, most people need more than 1, they are looked at multiple times every day and when placed properly, they are seen by more than just the person you gave them to.

Choosing the Right Promotional Product (Step 5 and 6)

Here is our list of questions that we must answer when choosing the perfect promotional item:

1) What do we want to happen?
2) How will we measure success or failure?
3) What is our target demographic?
4) How will we deliver the item?
5) How much can we spend?
6) How quickly do we need the product delivered?

Details…Details...Details

Real estate agents know (I used to be one of them) that it does them absolutely no good to show someone a house that they cannot afford to buy. Similarly, it does me no good to show you products that are either too expensive or too cheap for your budget. One of the strengths that promotional products have over all other types of advertising is perceived value. They are actually worth something to your prospect. Sometimes they are worth more than you actually spent on them! How much use or pleasure will your prospect get from a newspaper or television ad or any other type of ad for that matter? Absolutely none! With advertising specialties you are giving them something tangible, and in most cases, enduring. A stainless travel mug or an flash drive or a sleeve of golf balls or a pound of Godiva all have value. They are things that your prospect will probably go out and spend their own money on if you don’t give it to them. THEY ACTUALLY WANT THESE THINGS!.

Now, cost, quantity and speed are all intertwined in the budget equation. Yes, we can sometimes produce just 1 or 2 of an item if that is all you need. However your cost per piece will be significantly more than producing 50, 100 or 10000 of them. Your cost for just one 11 oz white ceramic mug with a full color imprint is somewhere between $11 and $15 plus shipping. If you can find a use for 72 full color mugs, then your cost per piece would drop to somewhere around $3 each plus set up and shipping. That is a savings of $7 per piece, so it behooves us to think of other ways we can use them...door prizes, gift baskets, sales contest awards, thank you gifts filled with candy, board of directors meeting or whatever.

Yes, we have a lot of products that can be produced very quickly...some we can ship tomorrow if we have everything ready by 10 am today. But please don’t wait too long. Not only will the production cost be more, but the shipping will be more as well. Shipping 144 mugs via UPS ground might cost you $90. Shipping them UPS Second Day will probably cost around $190 while UPS Next Day will cost $350 or more. That is more per piece for shipping than for the mugs themselves.

That's it. These are the things we have to know in order to help you pick the best promotional products for your particular needs.

Steve Raggo
www.raggo.com

Choosing The Right Promotional Product (Step 4)

Here is a list of the questions we must answer when choosing the perfect promotional item for your campaign:

1. What do we want to happen?
2. How will we measure success?
3. What is our target demographic?
4. How will we deliver the item?
5. How much can we spend?
6. How quickly do we need the product delivered?

Delivery method is a very important consideration when choosing an ad specialty for your campaign. Promotional products are most commonly handed out at sales calls, trade shows or expos or at the front counters of offices or retail establishments. Other delivery options include direct mail or through third pardies - like donation them to non-profits or business organizations for their golf tournament or other event.

The delivery method helps determine the size, shape, weight and fragility of the advertising item we will choose. A customer once decided that they wanted to send champagne flutes out to all of their customers as a thank you on their business’ anniversary. Flashing red lights started going off in my head as we talked this out on the phone. While an attractive gift with a lot of perceived value and promotional endurance, wine glasses and champagne flutes are bulky and highly breakable, especially when we are ’sending them out.’ When I asked how they were going to deliver 2000 champagne flutes to their customers the only response was…”Oh, wow.” We decided to send out a brass key tag with their anniversary logo instead, along with a post card invitation to their Anniversary Celebration directing the customer to bring the card (filled out with their contact information) into their nearest branch on that day for a free anniversary flute.

Steve Raggo
www.raggo.com

Choosing the Right Promotional Product (Step 3)

Here is our list of questions we must answer when choosing the perfect promotional item:

1) What do we want to happen?

2) How will we measure success or failure?

3) What is our target demographic?

4) How will we deliver the item?

5) How much can we spend?

6) How quickly do we need the product delivered?

Taking Aim

We have discussed what we want to happen as a result of our promotional campaign and how we will determine if we are successful. Now a little bit on the target. In many cases, the people receiving the promotional products and the products' targets are not the same. Banks, police and fire departments, medical providers and most non-profit organizations have become quite adept at this sort of indirect approach. Advertising balloons or coloring books featuring a popular theme with the organization logo prominently displayed are generally not handed out with the hope of the child opening a bank account or making a donation, but can help influence the parent to do so.

If you are giving an anti-drug presentation to a classroom of pre-teens or you are participating in a "Career Day" at the local high school, your promotional products can be handed to the student who will carry them home and end up influencing the parent later that day.

You know your prospects better than we do. Imagine where your prospect is when he or she realizes that they need your product or service. Are they at their desk, in their kitchen, in their car or are they somewhere else? The most effective product we can offer to them - the one that will have an impact on them in that place at that time - is one that is in their vision at that moment.

Say, for example, you own a pizza place and want to increase deliveries to a neighborhood nearby. The neighborhood is made up mostly of young commuters who arrive home in the evening hungry and tired from their work and commute. They open the refrigerator and think to themselves, “There is nothing here I want to go to the trouble of cooking” They close the refrigerator and see the magnet from Donato’s Pizza holding up their To Do List, and Donato's Delivers! No looking through the phone book. No need to go online to find a restaurant. No need to find the newspaper to see who has a special. No need to cook or to drive! Just call Donato's.

One of the strengths of promotional products is their endurance. Check out your refrigerator. I still have a magnet given to me by a real estate agent with a 1999 calendar on it!

Steve Raggo

www.raggo.com

Choosing the Right Promotional Product (2)

Here is our list of questions we must answer when choosing the perfect promotional item:

1) What do we want to happen?

2) How will we measure success or failure?

3) What is our target demographic?

4) How will we deliver the item?

5) How much can we spend?

6) How quickly do we need the product delivered?

Measuring Success

For us, measuring success is an automatic result of deciding to accomplish something. We didn’t open our business just for the sake of opening it. We do not buy printing and postage and Sticky Notes so that we can spend the money. We buy them to make the phone ring or to make the cash register beep or to keep our employees on the job. We make sure that those things happen by keeping track of the phone calls or the daily cash register totals or retention rates. By keeping track we can determine if the promotion was a success. If it is, then we will do it again. If it is not, we will need to make it better by changing the item, the target or the delivery.

There are many ways to keep track. Simple log books and spreadsheets work fine for most goal tracking. In other cases we may need to conduct surveys or send out questionnaires. Let’s say that your goal is to:

“Increase traffic at our trade show booth by 10%”

The plan then might be to send out invitations with flower seed embedded paper (maybe adding "We will help you GROW your business" to the invite text to tie it in) to all of the prospects that you would like to meet. In order to generate excitement, you might choose to offer an MP3 player as door prize, but everyone who stops by your booth will receive a pre-paid music download card in return for their business card. Tell them about the prize in the invitation. Draw your door prize winner from the business cards you collect. The number of cards will tell you if you have met your goal.


Steve
www.raggo.com

The purpose of this blog is to:

1) help you pick the appropriate promotional item for your needs
2) discuss the advantages and disadvantages of the hottest, newest advertising products
3) highlight the best methods for getting the most out of your promotional product investment


Let’s get started.

Choosing the Right Promotional Product


There are lots of factors which go into choosing the right products to achieve your promotional goals. Here is a short list of the questions we must answer. We will discuss each question individually in later blog entries.

1) What do we want to happen?
2) How will we measure success or failure?
3) What is our target demographic?
4) How will we deliver the item?
5) How much can we spend?
6) How quickly do we need the product delivered?

First, we have to decide what we want to happen. If you are not sure that you want anything to happen, then save your money or invest in your people, plant or product. This outcome or promotional goal can be as precise as:

“To increase referrals from our current customer base by 15% in the coming year”

to as imprecise as:

“To remind our volunteers while they are at home of how much we appreciate their work.”

Whether the goal is carved in stone or fluttering by on the wind we need to know what the goal is before we can begin. For instance, sending a Bic Clic Stic home with your volunteers will probably not accomplish the goal for them that we stated above, but it could be useful in helping to remind your customers to write out a referral for you. Send the pen along with a few self-addressed, stamped postcards and an Audio Thank You Card thanking them for their business and their past referrals and asking them to write out a few more referrals - you will pay for everything. The paper, the postage, even the ink. Who could say no?

Steve Raggo
raggo.com