This collection of promotional marketing articles represents some of my best "CrooksView Digest" thinking. If you like my thinking and concepts as they pertain to advertising and promotional marketing, then consider signing up for my free "CrooksView Creative Digest" newsletter. Better yet, consider the benefit of putting me to work on your promotional marketing project.  


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Promotional Marketing
        Smarter Business Practices
Deep Thinking

Promotional Marketing/Creative/Advertising Articles 


• Promotional Marketing: Extreme Sampling: Avoid Pitfalls That Will Doom Your Promotion
Develop an Extreme Sampling protocol and avoid pitfalls that will doom your promotion and make you look like an idiot.

• Promotional Marketing: Turn A Sponsorship Into a Powerful Promotion
Simply sponsoring and event often doesn't provide the measurable return a sponsor is after. This article sheds light on how to take a sponsorship a step further to be truly effective. You'll also discover a new use for toilet paper.

• Promotional Marketing: Effective Goody-Bag Marketing
Most companies slap their logo,  phone number  and website on some cheap do-dad, donate it to a goody-bag and pat themselves on the back for a job well done. Truth is, they just wasted a powerful promotional opportunity. Want better, more effective results from your goody-bag donations? Read this.

• Promotional Marketing: The Ingraining Technique, The Soul of an Effective  Promotion. 
Whether you’re a national brand or a local business, you can ingrain yourself into peoples’ lives by focusing on what they need, want, desire or care about. Develop concepts and ideas that will embrace your target — and they will embrace you back.

 • Promotional Marketing: Stealth Marketing: A Twist On The Willy Wonka Approach
Are you wasting money promoting your promotion? Imagine if it were possible to put more of your promotional budget to work actually creating word of mouth and possibly free media exposure. This article explores a concept that if not taken too literally, can open your eyes to new ways to cost effectively promote your business — without increasing your promotional marketing budget.

• Trade Show Tactics: Effective Use of Postcards As Tradeshow Handouts
You've tried handing out every cheap do-dad and trinket you can find under  $1 and still, your return on investment sucks.
For starters, it's probably not the products fault. It may no even be your fault. If you were sold a product without an effective methodology or idea to go with it, you got shortchanged. To prove the power of an idea over a product, let's hand out postcards at your next trade show.  This article is an eye opener.

• Promotional Marketing:  Marketing Lessons Mom Packed In My Lunch
Growing up I ate a lot of sack lunches at school. Not too long ago, I analyzed my childhood lunch experiences and found that my Mom had packed a whole lot more than lunch in my lunch box.

• Sales:  Using Promotional Products as Retail Babysitters
In retail sales, children can be your worst nightmare, sabatoging the sale and generally making for an anti-productive sales atmosphere. But with a little thought and the right promotional products to serve as Retail Babysitters, children can actually become an asset as you use them to leverage favor  —  and sales with the parents.

• Creativity:The Adventure of Creative Problem-Solving
Creative problem-solving is all about HOW you think about your problem. This article illustrates by entertaining examples how you can,utilize creative problem -solving in your everday life.Fact is, you probably have. 

• Target Marketng: How To Target Left-Handed Buyers of Blue Four-Door Fords®.
How do you target a market as specific as left-handed buyers of blue 4-door Fords? First ask yourself, “Who has access to those I want to reach?” The answer is the opportunity I call, “Reciprocal Partnership Marketing (RPM).

• Effective Promotion: Call Me When Your Dog Gets Too Tall.
Developing great ideas to promote your business takes a subtle shift in mindset and an understanding of what you really want to accomplish. The shift in mindset comes when you understand the difference between a giveaway and a promotion.

• Promotional Product Knowledge: Product Selection Does Matter. The Value of Sampling.
As marketers and businesses seek to promote themselves, their products or events, they need to think through the promotional products they use in the promotion. A product that may seem like a sure-fire hit ...  may actually turn into a public relations problem. (You thought I was going to say "nightmare".)

• Effective Promotion: "You Want Me To Put My Logo ... Where?!"
Placement of your logo on promotional marketing items should be given as much thought as is given to selection of the item itself.

• Tradeshow Tatics: How A Paper Airplane Can Stop Traffic.
Too often, tradeshow exhibitors believe that handing some cheap do-dad to everyone who walks by their booth is effectively promoting their business. Key words in that sentence are, “everyone who walks by.”  Here's how a paper airplane can stop traffic.

• Promotional Marketing:5 Surprising Benefits of Waterless Tattoos.
Eliminating the need for kids to use their spit to apply these temporary tattoos is just the beginning!

• Promotional Marketing: Effective Promotional Marketing Using Waterless Tattoos.
Because of their unique "waterless, no mess" characteristics, waterless tattoos can be used to promote your company, brand or event in exciting ways.

•Promotional Marketing: How to Generate Better Ideas; Chiropractor Focus.
There are ideas that are obvious to most everyone, then there are the better, more effective ideas that come to light only after a bit of intense mind bending. This article compares examples of the obvious and then the better, more effective. It has a Chiropractor theme it, but Roger von Oech's concept of "finding the second right answer" applies to just about everything.


Smarter Business Practices
 
• Smarter Business Practices: Promotional Marketing Contests: Making Winners Out of Losers
Make everyone a winner on some level and you'll make happy customers spend more with you.

• Smarter Business Practices: Beware Faux Guarantees.
You simply can't guarantee that over which you have no control. This article helps you create a guarantee you can back.

• Smarter Business Practices:Verbal Legibility & The Secret To Understandable Messages.
The whole point of leaving a phone number is so people can call you back. So why is it  then, that so many are so lousy at it?

• Smarter Business Practices:My 20-Minute Voice Mail Message Says I Care.
What does your voice-mail message tell your callers?  That you don't know whether your on the phone or away from you desk?


Deep Thinking

• Food For Thought:  Great vs. Truly Great.
This article explores how the quality of followership affects the quality of leadership. I use extremes to make a point comparing the leadership skills of Hitler and those of Jusus.  There is one key characteristic that seperates the Great from the Truly Great. Read this to find out what it is.

Extreme Sampling Part 1: 
Avoid Oversights That Can Doom Your Promotion

Fifteen minutes ago I was happy. Now I'm not.

In my right hand I hold the watch I just broke. In my left hand I hold the instructions that I couldn't understand, for setting the watch. In my mind I hold a negative impression of the company from whom I ordered the sample. Had I received this particular product from you … well, lets just say it's kinda hard to get me interested in your product or service when you just frustrated me to no end.

Product function and instructions are two areas often overlooked that can be extremely detrimental to your marketing and promotional efforts. As a safe guard, I advocate "Extreme Sampling".

With Extreme Sampling, instead of hoping the product works correctly — you pray it fails, breaks or otherwise would make you look like an idiot if you gave it to a prospect, client or customer. Role play with the product, use it, play with it and attempt to uncover the negatives. This includes using the product for a purpose for which it is not indented, because sooner or later, someone will.

Case in point. Several years ago a popular kids fast food chain changed the design of their coffee stirrers after it was discovered that drug addicts were using the spoon-like stirrers to snort cocaine. Not exactly the use the company had intended nor the publicity the company wanted.

Effective Extreme Sampling involves two steps. 1) Product Testing.  2) Instruction Scrutiny.

Product Testing:
Once you obtain your samples do more than "check them out" — try them out.  Extreme Sampling dictates that you must use it and abuse it. If it's a mug don't simply hold it in your hand. Pour liquid in it and drink out of it. First time you burn your lip on the edge of a steel coffee mug that doesn't have a plastic-lined lid —  you'll understand what I'm talking about. If it's a polycarbonate bottle that's supposed to be unbreakable ... throw it against a brick wall  — full. Wearables? Run them through the washing machine. Imagine what the end user will and might do with or to your product — then do it. You'll be amazed at the stuff you discover. 

For instance, I remember a tumbler I tested. The drink hole was open but when I went to drink nothing came out. This drove me nuts for about 10 minutes. I finally realized that as I tipped the tumbler up for a drink, my nose covered the air hole creating an "air-lock". The lid was too shallow. It's not the sort of thing you discover if all you do is look at a product.

In the summer, I put plastic flying disks (PFD's) in the freezer to simulate cold weather use. In the summer most PFD's will simply bend when you bend them. However, in cold weather, many PFD's will break, shatter and splinter into sharp pieces. Imagine a kid playing with his dog in the winter. The dog bites onto the PFD, it splinters and the dog earns a trip to the vet. Or the kid is running, falls down on the edge of the PDF you handed out. It stabs the kid when it breaks. And just because you're using a cheap PFD as a paper plate holder at an adult event,  doesn't mean the item won't end up in a child's hands. Best advice? Either wrap your arms around Extreme Sampling or increase your liability insurance.

Instruction Scrutiny:
Instructions are another area of sampling that's often overlooked. If instructions are included, you must read them. You may determine they must be rewritten to be understandable. If instructions are not included, you may determine you need to create an instruction or "about this product" sheet after you finish your product testing phase.

I remember testing a travel mug that plugs into the vehicle's cigarette lighter. The mug worked perfectly. It was winter and the mug kept the coffee nice and hot. A few days later, the mug stopped working. After messing around with it, I discovered that the in-line fuse between the mug and the lighter had blown. Reason? While there was still a little coffee in the mug, there was not enough to dissipate the heat from the mug's heating element. The mug overheated and, by design, blew the in-line fuse.

I discovered something else when I switched cars with my wife. I returned to a freezing car expecting hot coffee. Instead I had a coffee slushie. My first thought was the mug stopped working. Turns out, not all cigarette lighters or power outlets are wired to stay "hot" when the ignition is off. 

It would have been nice if the instructions explained any of this. Then again, it would have been nice if instructions had been provided. 

Product function and instruction issues are not issues you want your clients and prospects to figure out for themselves. Often, if a promotional product doesn't work, seems not to work or frustrates the recipient, they'll toss it and think less of you.

Expect to pay for samples but consider it an investment in your image. And when you order samples be sure and ask that any instructions that are shipped with a production run are included with your samples.

Extreme Sampling is fun. It's also necessary if you care about the success of your promotional efforts and the image of your company. If you have an interesting Extreme Sampling story to tell, send it to me, I'd love to read about it.  

Extreme Sampling: Part II
Don't Flush Your Underwear Down The Toilet

"Dad. I think I just flushed my underwear down the toilet."

I just sat there … looking at my nine-year old son, searching for words that seemed stuck in a mental quagmire of wonder and disbelief.

Finally, as nonchalantly as I could, I asked, "So … how did that happen?"

"Well, um, when I sat on my pen it broke and got ink on my underwear. So I thought if I like, put some soap in the toilet, and, um, flushed it … the turbo action would be just like the washing machine and get the ink out. I forgot the toilet like, eats everything you put in it."

Wouldn't it be great to be nine again? We could just test out … no wait, implement any idea that came to our mind knowing we were backed by the full faith and credit of mom and dad. But, in the world you and I live in, a creative or logistical faux pas costs real money and carries real consequences.

In Part 1,  I said that effective Extreme Sampling involves two steps.  1) Product Testing. 2) Instruction Scrutiny.

I was wrong.

There are three steps to Extreme Sampling. Step 3 is, "Process Testing". Process Testing is where you focus on logistics, distribution and final outcomes. In short, you conduct a trial run to the best of your ability to prevent, "Flushing your underwear down the toilet."

Case in point. I recently sent a client some waterless tattoo samples. The client tested them and found that they worked perfectly. They ordered 50k. Unfortunately, they did not test them through the bindery equipment on which the tattoos would be affixed to a card. Turns out the tattoos were too thin for the machinery to pick up and place properly. This could have been remedied by using a thicker stock … had we known.  Instead, they're affixing them by hand, which costs more. (Insert flush sound here).

Forcing yourself to test the process will help you think it through and avoid problems. For instance, that umbrella you want to give everyone at the conference. You've tested the product and scrutinized the instructions. Now let's test the process. The conference is in a city to which most people will fly. Grab your suitcase. Will that 4 foot umbrella fit?

Daily, marketers fail to test the process and find out too late that the product, premium or incentive …  won't fit in the bag, the box, the envelope or the suitcase. Or they find out at the worst possible moment, that leaving the chocolate parting-gift in the van, in the sun, all day … was a no-no.

Here's a few things to think about regarding step #3 of Extreme Sampling:

Carton Weight: Having UPS deliver five 40 pound cartons to your office is one thing. But can the person in your office who is in charge of getting those cartons to the event —  lift 40 pound boxes? We often under-pack cartons for our clients based on how much weight THEY want to lift. 

Effects of Heat/Cold: Can it melt or freeze? Do you need to keep something cool or warm at the event prior to distribution? And for how long?  Our chocolate vendor ships with ice packs to prevent melting in transit.  But if the chocolate is not stored correctly once you get it, well, you're flushing your underwear down the toilet. Will those snow globes freeze and break? Will the deodorant in the personal care packs liquefy in the heat?

Time/Timing: Your logo glowing at a night event on a t-shirt, tattoo or hat will look really cool. But, if you're placing your bets on a solar-powered, glow-in-the-dark item, make sure your event has daylight hours built in so the product has a time to charge up.

Fulfillment: If you are going to have a fulfillment center do anything with a product …make sure you give them samples to test before you place an order.

Rules & Regulations: If you're distributing your item at a conference, will the item be accepted by the airlines in checked or carry on luggage? If you're mailing your item, does it conform to postal or other delivery rules and regs? Some stadiums have rules banning noise makers. Some fairgrounds have rules banning balloons.  Contrary to the creative thought process, when you stand to loose money or worse, your job — it's best to ask for permission than to beg for forgiveness.

Now before you roll your eyes, these are all issues I've personally dealt with or prevented from happening in the last 60 days. Like the client who wanted to order a 4' high banner to be carried in a parade by children that were only 3' tall.

1) Product Testing. 2) Instruction Scrutiny.  3) Process Testing

I'd share more but I just spotted Junior headed out back with a lawn chair, balloons and my helium tank. I'm sure the word '"tether" isn't something he's thought of … yet.

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Promotional Marketing:
Turning A Mere Sponsorship Into A Powerful Promotion

    "Toilet paper?" he asked in astonishment. "Are you out of your mind?"

Roger was a travel agent sharing with me his sad tale at spending $500 on a golf sponsorship —  and getting no response. His sponsorship of the event made sense. The outing was a senior event, held at a country club attended by lots of seniors with enough disposable income to afford travel. Problem was, Roger confused "sponsorship" with "promotion".

"Roger, sponsorship itself is not effective promotion," I said. "The sponsorship is merely your "Option Cost". Before you cough up $500 for a sponsorship, you have two options. One is the option to donate, which is what you did. Two, is the option to promote, which is where the toilet paper comes in."

"So what do I do with toilet paper," he asked.    

I bit my tongue for a second, then continued.

"Before you agree to sponsor, explore the ability to integrate with the event. That means having a physical or interactive presence.

"A physical presence is an event booth or table. At a golf event, you can host a putting or chip-shot contest where prospects can win a prize. In your case, a prospect plays your game, you jot down their name and phone # and reward them with your promotional item."

"What do I give 'em", he asks.

"That's where the toilet paper comes in," I said. "I'll get to that in a minute."

"The other approach to integration is to have an interactive presence. This pertains mainly to door prizes and is designed to drive traffic from the event to a retail location. Use this tactic when you can't have a physical presence. But it's most effective when used in conjunction with a physical presence.

"You offer a door prize that is too valuable, large or fragile to have at the event. The winner receives a prize certificate directing them to pick up the prize at the retail location.

"For you, I recommend the physical presence. You offer an event-related game of skill or chance and reward them with the toilet paper up front and award the grand prize— a trip or whatever —during the awards banquet."

Roger was growing impatient so I shared my idea.

"Roger, you being a travel agent, imagine the talk you'll generate if you handed out rolls of toilet paper imprinted with your logo and the message, "Where Do You Want To Go?"

Understanding how to turn a sponsorship into a promotion can yield powerful results. And you can mold the concept to nearly any event.

First, ensure the event is a good fit for your business. Ensure attendees want or need what you have to offer and can afford it. If it's a good fit, then consider paying the "Option Cost" a.k.a. sponsorship fee.

But before you do, ask if you can have a physical presence at the event. If you can, the goal is to collect actionable data to facilitate effective follow up. Collect business cards as the "admission price" to play your game or ask people to "register" while they wait in line.

In lieu of a physical presence, ask about door prize options allowing you an interactive presence. If you can't have either option, then you're about to make a donation. If it's a worthy cause and you'll be satisfied generating goodwill for which R.O.I. can't be measured, then go ahead. If not, pass.

If you can have a booth or table, talk with the event coordinators. Find out what other companies are supplying so you can plan your prizes appropriately. And just because you're sponsoring, say…  a golf event, doesn't mean your promotional item has to be golf related ie: toilet paper. Remember, these people do something else when they're not golfing.

Example: You sponsor a golf outing for real estate professionals. Offer a logo'd tape measure with built-in note pad and pencil to use when prospective home-buyers want to measure closets and what-not.

Again, using golf-outings as an example, the next best thing to having a table or booth is driving the beer cart. You wear a logoed shirt and have access to everyone on the course. Perhaps you can distribute the drinks in your logo'd drink holder. If it's hot, keep some logo'd bandannas in a cooler of ice water and hand them out.

Last on the list of event opportunities is the "goody bag".  Most events allow you to donate "goody bag" items for free. This can be the most cost-effective promotional tool of all. Think in terms of how the item can generate phone calls, drive people to your website or your retail location.

Keys attached to a key tag inviting them to stop by and try their luck is an option. A restaurant can imprint their "To Go" menu on a banner pen. Other ideas that can afford a good imprint area include bandanas, playing cards and imprintable paper clips attached to a card with a special offer.

With a subtle shift in mindset, you can turn a passive sponsorship …  into a powerful promotion.
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Target Marketing:
How To Target Left-Handed Buyers of Blue Four-Door Fords.
Target Marketing isn’t as hard, difficult or complicated as many marketing professionals would like you to believe. With a slight shift in mind-set, you can quickly target a market as specific as left-handed buyers of blue, four door Fords®. How? Pretty much the same way you target mothers-to-be, pink toilet owners and those who have a bobble-head on their dash.

First ask yourself, “Who has access to those I want to reach?” The answer is the opportunity I call, “Reciprocal Partnership Marketing’ (RPM). RPM is a powerful marketing concept. It allows you to literally — and effectively — put your message into the hands of your prospects. Here’s how:

Mr. & Mrs. Baker buy a $1000 necklace from Albert’s Jewelry. After completing the transaction, the clerk hands a package to the Bakers and says, “Alberts Jewelry and Jim’s Insurance want you to have this jewelry cleaning cloth as our gift.” Inside the package is a jewelry cleaning cloth bearing the logos and phone numbers of the jewelry store AND the insurance agent. A card explains the importance of “protecting your investment” by keeping it clean. The card also points out under what circumstances a jewelry insurance rider might be beneficial to “further protect your investment”. The card carries the logos and contact information for both the jewelry store and the insurance agent.

The insurance agent reciprocates by referring people to the jewelry store for appraisals in advance of writing insurance jewelry riders. In addition, upon completing an insurance sale, the agent gives the client a nice document/policyholder, again bearing the logos and phone numbers of the agent AND Alberts Jewelry. Inside, a card reinforces the value of annual insurance check-ups. The card further points out that nothing “insures” (creative license, the correct usage is “ensures”) fond memories of annual events such as anniversaries and birthdays  … like fine jewelry.

Under this partnership, each company has access to prospects that have a high likelihood of needing or wanting what they have to offer. Each company’s message is delivered to the prospect in a relevant manner at an appropriate time. The concept works across a broad spectrum.

A clothing store that wants to target women for a Friday sale partners with an appropriate nightclub (bar) that features a Thursday Ladies’ Night. Specially imprinted cocktail napkins, a couple of drawings for dual-logoed prizes and a few posters could drive sales for the clothing store’s Friday event. Of course, the clothing store hypes next Thursday’s ladies night for the nightclub by handing out the nightclub’s promotional item, other promotional information and displaying posters.

And the targets I mentioned earlier? To target mothers-to-be, partner with an OB-GYN, they know who’s pregnant. Pink toilet owners? Partner with a plumber. Those who have a bobble-head on their dashboard? Partner with an instant oil-change firm. And if you really want to target left-handed buyers of blue 4-door Fords®? It’s as simple as partnering with someone who sells Fords®.

Harnessing the power of RPM begins by asking yourself a couple simple questions. “Who has access to those I want to target?” “Where do my prospects spend their time when they’re not at work?” “Who sells a product or service that is related to my product or service?”

Reciprocal Partnership Marketing can be as simple as passing out each other’s literature. However, through creative thought, the right promotional products and approach, you can really drive up the RPM’s on the ‘ole sales-o-meter.

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Promotional Marketing:
"Call Me When Your Dog Gets Too Tall"
The Difference Between A Cheap Giveaway & An Effective Promotion.
My friend Ken, the toy poodle breeder, called the other day asking about imprinted pens to give away at dog shows to promote his kennel. From previous conversations I remembered something about height restrictions.

"Ken, isn’t there a rule that when a toy poodle gets to a certain height, you can’t show it any more?" I asked.

"Sure," he replied. "Ten inches. Then the owner needs to get another poodle."

"So give your prospects a ruler imprinted with your kennel name, "Breeder of Champion Poodles", phone number and a line that says, ‘Call Me When Your Dog Gets Too Tall.’"

"Now that’s a great idea," he exclaimed.

Developing great promotional ideas that are relevant to your audience isn’t that hard. It simply takes a subtle shift in mindset and an understanding of what you really want to accomplish. The shift in mindset comes when you understand the difference between a giveaway and a promotion.

All too often, business owners give away some cheap doo-dad thinking it will create goodwill and effectively promote their business. They are mindless of the fact that the item is irrelevant to their business or the prospect's need — such as a breeder giving away an imprinted pen. The recipient takes the item home and: 1) puts it in a drawer, 2) gives it to the kids, 3) throws it away. 4) perhaps uses the item with no real intention of doing business with the advertiser.

A giveaway is a one-way street.  You cannot measure your return on investment. You gain practically nothing meaningful … certainly nothing you can actively follow up on. And, as far as building business? Few will say, "Wow! They have me a cheap piece of junk with their name on it! I’ve really got to do business with them."

A promotion is a two-way street. You determine what your want your target to do, then you figure out a way to get them to do it. Trade shows are a good example.

As I said, most companies give away something cheap to everyone who stops or walks by. But as a business owner/marketer, you don’t care about everyone – at least you shouldn’t. You should care only about those who are interested in your product or service and can afford to pay for it. Being a smart promotional marketer, you should offer something of value to those who first fill out a short need-assessment or questionnaire providing you with their name, contact information and an idea of their interest level or purchasing time frame. This is how you qualify your prospects and obtain meaningful, actionable data. And because you're not giving something to everybody, you can afford to offer promotional product that costs a bit more and will give your prospect a reason to remember you.

For instance, a Financial Planner that’s giving pens to everyone, would do better to offer an imprinted booklet about Managing Your Finances ONLY to those who fill out the short questionnaire. Sure, the booklet costs more than the pens. But, the Financial Planner obtains information on which he/she can effectively follow up. The added bonus is the fact that the return on investment is measurable, and, the prospect has a meaningful item that is relevant to their interest.

Cheap giveaways have their place when donating to goody bags or as prizes for contests or token thank-you gifts. However, when your goal is to promote your business, secure qualified leads or increase traffic – an effective promotion beats a cheap giveaway.

"If you want to giveaway your business, well ... that's your business.
If you want to effectively promote your busness, well ... that's my business."

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Promotional Marketing:
"Avoiding a Public Relations Problem"
Effective Product Selection Does Matter.
As marketers and businesses seek to promote themselves, their products or events, they need to think through the promotional products they use in their promotions. While they need to consider the positives they also must explore possible negatives. A product that may seem like a sure-fire hit may actually turn into a public relations problem. Take Temporary Tattoos for example.

It’s no secret that kids love temporary tattoos. They’re the “stickers” of the 2000’s. And on the face of it, temporary tattoos and kids are a perfect match. In a retail setting, give the kids a couple temporary tattoos to keep them busy and you can effectively have a conversation with the parents. At festivals and other public events, if you hand out temporary tattoos to the kids, it’s like having 100’s of little billboards running around with your logo on their forehead, cheeks and hands.

The downside is, most temporary tattoos require water to apply. That’s not a problem when there’s a supply of clean water handy. But when kids don’t have access to water, they use the next best thing … their spit. Therein lies a health concern.

Germs and bacteria in saliva can spread all kinds of diseases from the common cold and the flu to Tuberculosis and Meningitis. While one solution is to take away the temporary tattoos … an alternative is Waterless Temporary Tattoos.

Because they don’t require water to apply, waterless temporary tattoos eliminate the need for kids to use their saliva when there’s no water available. That greatly reduces the spread of saliva-related germs and the mess commonly associated with applying temporary tattoos.

Because of their sanitary issues and ease of use, waterless tattoos are quickly finding a following within such organizations as the March of Dimes (MOD). A Michigan MOD chapter began using them for their walkathon in the fall of ’06. Word quickly spread within the organization. Currently, the MOD uses waterless temporary tattoos in 14 states.

Another example of a fun product with potential for calamity is flying plastic disks (FPD). Many companies manufacture  or otherwise offer FPD's for the promotional market. On the face of it, most people see little harm in throwing the disk back and forth with a friend or perhaps teaching your dog to make spectacular catches in mid-air.  The problem is, not all plastic flying disks are the same.

Many of the most inexpensive are made of plastic that can splinter when broken. If, as a promotional item, the FPD's are intended for children or the pet market, physical harm can come to a child who falls and breaks a FPD or to a dog that breaks one while biting it.

On the other end of the spectrum, the more expensive flying disks are made of a more pliable plastic that may tear and become deformed through rugged use —  but will not break and splinter.

One way to avoid possible problems is to test samples of products you are considering for use in your promotional marketing campaigns. Role play with the product, use it, play with it and attempt to uncover the negatives. Can the product be used in a way other than its intended purpose? 

Several years ago a popular kids fast food chain changed the design of their coffee stirrers after it was discovered that drug addicts were using the spoon-like stirrers …  to snort cocaine. Not exactly the publicity the company wanted.

Probably the best way to avoid problems is to consult a local promotional marketing or advertising specialties professional.  These knowledgeable people can provide valuable insight and steer you toward products that will serve your best interests.   

When the purchase is based solely on price or without proper thought … the results can be undesirable at best. However, with a little guidance, thought and sampling … products such as temporary tattoos and flying plastic disks can be used safely and effectively to promote your company or event. 

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Effective Logo Placement
"You Want To Put My Logo WHERE?!"
I should have known better to say what I said, seeing how the caller was from an accounting firm. I merely suggested she put the firm’s logo on the back of a baseball cap. Her silence caused the sort of anticipation you experience when someone keeps blowing up a balloon until it pops. The words came slowly at first … finally she blurted, "You … you want to put my logo WHERE?!"

Trying to regain control of the conversation I asked, "Claudia, why is your firm’s sign out front?"

She replied, "What?  Well, because that’s where everyone will see it."

"Right. And if everyone could see your sign out back, you’d put it there too, right?" I asked.

"Of course," she replied.

"Well," I said. "When your employees are sitting in the stands at the baseball game, or standing in line for a hot dog or to use the restroom — everyone behind them will be looking at the back of their head. Would you like all those people to see your logo?"

"Hmmmmmmmmmmm."

Placement of your logo on promotional marketing items, such as baseball hats, should be given as much thought as is given to selection of the item itself. For sake of this article, lets assume you’ve chosen an appropriate item for your event or promotion. And, your primary goal is to broaden your name I.D.  Now, let’s give the same serious thought to logo placement. Consider the following: how will the product be used, where will it be used, venue, day or evening event, indoor or outdoor, will people be sitting or standing?

With ball caps worn to a sporting event, most want to put the logo on the front. But if you want to maximize the advertising potential of a cap, put the logo on the back as well.

Folding, portable chairs are another place people commonly misplace the logo. Why put the logo on the front of the chair, where it is covered up when the chair is in use? Better to put the logo on the backside of the chair where everyone behind the user can see your logo.

What about pencils and pens? If you think about it, you’ll ensure that the imprint is as near the eraser end as possible. This way, your logo remains to be seen  … even after multiple sharpenings. Same goes for pens but for a different reason. People hold a pen towards the bottom. If your logo is imprinted toward the bottom it will be covered up when the item is used properly. Fat lot of good that does you.

With mugs, ask yourself, "Who do I want to see my logo? The person drinking? The person sitting across from the person drinking? Both? Pick up a mug and drink from it paying careful attention to what you see. Imagine your logo or message on the INSIDE lip of the mug. How about the bottom inside of the mug. And remember the bottom outside of the mug too. All these areas are imprintable with your logo. You need merely decide who you want to see your logo and how much you can afford to invest in a mug.

Say you want to have your name seen at the beach. "Hey! How about beach towels?", someone yells. Beach towels are an ok idea, except for the fact that when people lay on them they’ll cover up your logo. And while some people may leave your towel stretched out while they take a dip or play beach volley ball, many will scrunch the towel up to keep sand off of it. So a beach blanket may be a great idea. But again, when in use, your logo is covered up.

A better idea for the beach may be a cooler. Here again, most people will want the logo on the lid of the cooler. That’s fine and dandy … if you pretty much want your logo to be seen only by the owner of the cooler and then only when they’re right on top of it getting in it. Better, is to put the logo on the front and/or back of the cooler. This way your logo can be seen by most who walk by the cooler and from a greater distance.

As far as the accounting firm? After some thought, Claudia put the logo on the front AND back of the hat and had a successful ballpark outing. She said that once at the ballpark, the back of the hat made perfect sense.

Big or small, put your sign (logo) where people will see it.

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Smarter  Busness Practices
Marketing: Effective Outgoing Voice-Mail Messages.
People Like My 20 Minute Voice Mail Message
So I’m on a tight deadline and I get this guy’s voicemail, “Hi. I’m either on the phone or away from my desk. Leave a message and I’ll get back to you as soon as I can.”  I’m thinking, “Well that’s just brilliant Einstein. Now tell me something I don’t know, such as WHEN you'll call me back!”

I'm either on the phone, or away from my desk? Apparently, he doesn’t know. There's a real confidence builder. Worse, I have absolutely no idea when he might call me back. He might as well leave a message that says, “Leave a message and have fun twisting in the wind until I call you back.”  Even worse is, “I’m either out of the office or away from my desk.” Yep. That’s helpful. Reaaaaal helpful.

Today, the technology exists so that we don't have to leave people twisting in the wind. Giving customers and clients some idea of when they’ll hear from you, shows them that you are mindful of their need or want to get a hold of you. Here’s how I handle it.

About 9 years ago I discovered a little thing called busy call forwarding. If I’m talking on the phone the call is forwarded to a message that says, “Thank you for calling. I’m in the office but I’m on the phone. Please leave a message and in most cases I’ll call you back in 20 minutes.” I get lots of compliments on my “20 minute message”. And, it impresses people when I do in fact, call them back in 20 minutes.

If I’m out of the office the call goes to my regular answering machine that says, “Thank you for calling Crooks Advertisng Alliance. We’re out of the office, but please leave a message. We’ll call you back as soon as possible … most likely, today. If you need to reach me sooner, call my cell phone at xxx-xxx-xxxx.”

Either way, the caller has SOME idea of when I’ll call them back. They can also call my cell phone. If I’m not in a meeting, I answer it.  I usually check my office messages about every hour when I’m away.
 
Now some people, mostly real estate types, are right on top of things with voice mail messages that say something such as, “Today is Friday (insert date) I’ll be out this morning but back in this afternoon after 2pm. Please leave a message … etc."  Ahhh, the sweet sound of predictability.

Marketing your business is more than ads, signs, press releases and business networking. Marketing encompasses everything you do to influence the decision of your client, prospect or inquiry. That includes your outgoing voice-mail message. Call yourself tonight. Listen to your outgoing message. If that voice-mail message is the first impression someone has of you, is that the impression you want them to have? Ask yourself,  "Is that the best first impression I can make?"

Life is unpredictable enough. Any time you can add predictability to someone’s life —  you’re  telling them that you’re in control. You’re also telling them you care. What is your voice mail message telling your callers? If it does little more than tell the caller that you don't know whether you're on the phone or away from your desk  …  you might wanna change it.

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Smarter Business Practices
"Developing A Guarantee with Teet That Won't Bite You Back"
Beware The Faux Guarantee
I hadn’t come unglued for quite some time and, I suppose, I was due. Cause when the guy in the TV ad said,  “Satisfaction guaranteed. Or your money back!” …  I lost it.

“If my satisfaction is guaranteed,” I shouted, “then what’s with the “or” part. A guarantee is supposed to be an absolute. It’s supposed to be without fail. There should be nothing like “or your money back" after a guarantee. All the "or" does is tell people that the guarantee really isn't a guarantee. It weakens the whole premise of a guarantee. It waters down the very thing you’re attempting to lure your customers with!”

At this point, I realized that my sudden outburst had scared the cat who plowed through the popcorn bowl on his way out of the room at Mach I. As my wife and two kids retrieved popcorn from all parts of the room, it was strongly suggested that I give the subject of guarantees some additional thought  … in another room.

Fine. Here’s my admittedly philosophical thinking. Time was, a guarantee was a solemn edict that meant something. Today, it's almost a cliché'.  Let's say you're guaranteeing "On-time" delivery. The very nano-second your delivery is late, the guarantee is null and void — proving that your guarantee really wasn't a guarantee. That makes you a liar.

Part of the problem with guarantees is the wording —  and the fact that people are attempting to guarantee that over which they have no control.

When developing a guarantee, think in terms of what you control. I can guarantee I'll give you your money back. For example,  "If you’re not satisfied, I’ll give you your money back... guaranteed."  In this case I’m guaranteeing I’ll give the money back. I’m not, however, guaranteeing your satisfaction. How can I? I have no idea what satisfaction means to you. One person's satisfaction is still another person's longing.

See the difference in the way the next two are written:
1) On time delivery guaranteed - or your money back.
2) On time delivery or your money back - guaranteed.

The first one guarantees on time delivery, as though I have control over mother nature, mechanical failure and a million other things that can prevent a delivery from taking place on time and ruin my reputation. With the second, I’m guaranteeing your money back. The first may ultimately prove to be an empty promise, which discredits me and gives my client or customer no reason to believe in my "faux guarantee" in the future. The second has teeth. It's strong. It sounds good. But most importantly, I’m guaranteeing what I will do.

If you offer a guarantee, or are in the process of developing one, read it carefully to determine exactly what it is that you’re guaranteeing. Ask yourself,  “Do I have control over what I’m guaranteeing?”

You see, I can’t guarantee my family uninterrupted t.v. time, because apparently, I can’t control myself.  And I can’t guarantee they’ll let me back in, even if I make more popcorn. But, I can offer them this, “If you let me back in, I’ll make more popcorn. Guaranteed!

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Promotional Marketing: Tradeshow Tactics
"Effective Trade Show Traffic Arrest Tactics"
How A Paper Airplane Can Stop Traffic
My client was dumbfounded. The answer wasn’t complicated, costly or hard to do. The question was, “How do I effectively engage people at the tradeshow?”

 “All you gotta do,” I said, “is invite people to take a sheet of your letterhead, make a paper airplane and see if they can fly it into the open window of one of your units.”

My client was a Recreational Vehicle (RV) dealer selling motor homes, travel trailers and 5th wheels to the upscale camping crowd. She was spending a wad on tradeshows but wasn’t getting the results she wanted. So I went to an RV show and had a look around.

Talk about BORING!  Every booth was staffed with polite people standing outside their RV’s smiling and saying, “Hi. Howyado’in” to everyone that passed by. RVing is supposed to be exciting and fun. But not one single dealer at that show had a mechanism by which to break the boredom, arrest and engage attendees.

I went back and told my client, “You gotta give these people something fun to do. Something that captures the spirit of RVing.”

That’s when I shared the paper airplane concept with her. “If they get the airplane through the window,” I explained, “then they have to go inside to retrieve it and receive their prize. You’ve got ‘em where you want ‘em —  INSIDE THE UNIT!”

Too often, trade show exhibitors believe that handing some cheap do-dad to everyone who walks by their booth is effectively promoting their business. Key words in that sentence are, “everyone who walks by.”  The whole point of a trade show is to find qualified prospects. That means you have to find out who is interested in your product or service AND can afford it. You can’t do that if everyone is walking by.

Here’s how I engage people at tradeshows. I use a water globe game where you attempt to get a golf ball to sit on a tee. I stand at my booth with the thing in my hand with 2 or 3 more sitting on the table.

I play with it and invite passers-by to try it. I tell them, "If you can get the ball to rest on the tee, I'll give you a free flashlight." You can offer anything you want, I just happened to get a heck of a deal on flashlights.

While they're trying to accomplish the task, I ask them what they do and ask appropriate follow ups from there. Most people can't get the ball on the tee. So after a couple minutes I say, "Would you like an easier way to get the flashlight?" I then hand them my "Needs Assessment Profile".

I say, "This sheet pretty much mirrors our approach to promotional marketing. 1) What do you want to accomplish with your marketing? 2) Who do you want to impact? 3) And most importantly, what do you want the target to do? Because after all, what's the point if you don't get your target to do something."

Each section has check offs to make it easy. If they fill out the form, I give them the flashlight. If they take it with them and fax me the form, I mail them their gift.

A number of important things happen here: 1) If they fill out the form, it’s likely on some level they are interested in what I have to offer. 2) I only give away something IF, and ONLY if, I get actionable data first. 3) I and my company are associated with a happy/fun moment in their life. 

This tactic stops people and engages them. While they're playing with the game, their guard is down — they're likely to open up a bit more. The focus gently transitions into my creative problem-solving approach and how they can benefit from it.

There are hundreds of ways to arrest trade show attendees. A paper cup, a golf ball and a putter. A magnetic dartboard.  Ring toss. Throw a ball in a basket. Firing rubber bands with your finger to knock over a cup. Drop a coin into a shot glass that’s inside a large jar filled with water. Some of the best activities are the ones that elicit the comment, “I haven’t done this since I was a kid,” such as hula hoops, paper airplanes, silly putty … playing tic-tac-toe.

With a little creative thought, you can come up with a simple, fun activity that will arrest trade show attendees and increase your ability to achieve your trade show goals.  Remember, you don’t have to be in law enforcement to arrest someone. Sometimes, you can stop traffic with a paper airplane.

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Promotional Marketing:
Five Surprising Benefits of Waterless Tattoos.
My association with waterless tattoos began quite innocently with a library-quiet car ride  despite having a 10 year-old daughter and an 8 year-old son in the back seat. The peaceful respite from the calamity that usually takes place behind me should have been my clue that something was up. But I was enjoying the rare serenity to the point that I was actually lost in my thoughts — until this strange "popping air" sound elbowed its way to the forefront of my consciousness.

Turns out the "popping air" sound was the two of them spitting on a temporary tattoo and themselves and my upholstery in an attempt to apply a water type temporary tattoo. The police officer — to whom I first related this story by way of explaining a series of questionable lane changes I made during my discovery of the happenings in the back seat — agreed with me that perhaps we need to rethink this whole temporary tattoo thing. 

The event caused me to look deeper into a new promotional product just introduced at the time called waterless tattoos. My research over the next several months brought to light five distinct benefits of waterless tattoos over the conventional temporary tattoo (CTT) that required water to apply.

Sanitary
By and large, I believe eliminating the need for kids to spit on each other is the single biggest benefit of waterless tattoos. Germs and bacteria in saliva can spread all kinds of diseases from the common cold and the flu to Tuberculosis and Meningitis. Waterless tattoos are heat-activated thus eliminating the need for water — or in the absence of a clean water supply – spit. 

Less Mess
Because there’s no water involved, waterless tattoos are less messy. This is a great benefit especially when you have little kids at an indoor event. You don’t have to worry about spills or water on the carpet.

Less Planning
In order to effectively use CTT's during a promotional event, you must plan for water.  With waterless tattoos, water is one less thing for which you need to plan.

Cold Weather Comfort
Application comfort in cold weather is another benefit of the waterless tattoos. Here in Michigan, there’s a nip in the air during football season. It was at one of my son's games on a chilly Saturday in November, I watched a mom apply a CTT on her kids with a wet paper towel. The cold sorta took the fun out of it for the kids. With waterless tattoos, children enjoy the warmth of mommy or daddy’s warm hand pressed against their cheek.

Positive Image
An important benefit of waterless tattoos for corporate promotions involves corporate identification policies. Because of the way CCT's are applied, the image and words appears backwards prior to being applied. Waterless tattoos on the other hand, make a better presentation because everything —  company logo, picture or wording is right-reading, right from the start. That also makes it easier to proof the artwork.  What you see is what you get.

Proper Storage of Waterless Tattoos
One thing to be mindful of with waterless tattoos regards the fact that they are heat-activated. Storage in direct sunlight, near a high-heat source such as a radiator or in a sun-soaked car is discouraged. When stored at high temperatures the tattoo may adhere itself to the cover sheet. For that reason, storage in a cool place in an airtight container is recommended. If the tattoos will sit around at an outdoor event or in a car prior to distribution, keeping them in an insulated lunch sack or small cooler will preserve their integrity.

I remember as a kid, my friends and I would do just about anything, including behave, for a sticker. Today, temporary tattoos are the stickers of the 2000's. Kids love 'em.  But as adults, we must recognize that kids will be kids. And as marketers of our brands, companys and events, we need to make appropriate promotional product choices for their sake …  and our image.

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Promotional Marketing:
Effective Marketing With Waterless Tattoos.
Background
Before waterless tattoos came to market, the only type of temporary tattoo available required water to apply. The concern among parents and marketers is that children were, and still do, use their saliva to apply the water-type temporary tattoos when a clean water supply is unavailable. As an effective alternative, Waterless tattoos eliminate the mess associated with water and they eliminate the need for kids to use their germ and bacteria-infested saliva to apply temporary tattoos to themselves … and their friends. 

By eliminating the basic health concern, marketers are finding that waterless tattoos are fast-becoming a top marketing tool of choice. In general, waterless tattoos are great for walk-a-thons, open houses, school pride events, school fairs, church special events and more. But because effective promotional marketing is about specifics, we'll take a look at specific ways you can use waterless tattoos to your strategic advantage.
 
Drive Trade show Traffic to Retail Location
Waterless tattoos can be used to effectively drive local trade show traffic to a retail location. Again, because they require no water to apply, they can be applied immediately with no mess. Lets say your company will exhibit at a local trade show. You hand out waterless tattoos to attendees telling them that if they wear the tattoo when they visit the retail location in the next 3 days they’ll receive (fill in the blank). For instance you can offer an in-store trade show special or allow the person to enter a promotional drawing. Getting people to register for drawings is a fantastic way to establish or build a database. Remember, they can't register to the tradeshow, they can only register at the retail location and only if they are wearing the waterless tattoo.

Smarter retailers use in-store signage before the trades how to let customers know the benefit of getting their free waterless tattoo at the trade show and of the benefit of a post-show return visit. To get maximum leverage, plan to launch a new product, offering or service at the tradeshow and hype it with your in-store signs. This tactic helps improve booth traffic at the trade show. Once people attend the booth they are introduced to the new product or service, given the waterless tattoos and told of the incentive to wear the tattoo into the retail store within the next three days.

Taken a step further, encourage trade show attendees to apply the tattoo (usually to the back of their hand) right away. Tell them that company representatives are wandering the trade show floor randomly awarding, special prizes to those who are sporting the tattoo. These special prizes can range from store gift certificates to store-related promotional items. One good approach is to award people with a large trade show bag. The bag is big enough that attendees put all their other stuff into your imprinted bag, giving you even more exposure. 

The combination of the waterless tattoo and the bag exposes your company logo to everyone in attendance. When others see people being rewarded for having the waterless tattoo, it can further increase booth traffic giving your company/business exposure to possible new customers. What you reward people with depends on your promotional budget, but can range from bags and t-shirts (that the recipient is encouraged to don right away) to flashing lapel pins, flashing pendants, hats and bandannas.

Promote Entertainment/Special Events
In this scenario, you have a booth at the local county fair and you want to promote an event that will take place in a couple months to which you'll charge admission. As you hand out the waterless tattoos, imprinted with the event name, date and ticket order #, let people know that your representatives are walking the fairground. Those sporting the tattoo will be registered to win free tickets to the event. Again, this is an effective way to establish or build a database.

Another approach is to simply allow them to register at the booth once they apply the waterless tattoo. In either case, you'll want to ensure that your waterless tattoo design is bright and colorful and that your booth sign matches the tattoo. This will let people who see the tattoo on others, make an immediate connection when they approach your booth. I know of one case where a community art center is using this tactic to promote … a Tattoo Exhibit. You can use this tactic whenever you get a booth at a public event such as art fairs, festivals and mall kiosks.

Event Contests
This concept carries with it an inherent public relations component that is absolutely powerful. Because waterless tattoos are an inexpensive adverting/promotion medium, they are perfect for design contests. Let’s say a school wants to launch a school pride or school spirit program. A design contest is a great way to add excitement and interest.

Students are encouraged to enter their drawings for a “School Spirit” tattoo. The winning design or designs are produced as a tattoo to be worn during “Spirit Week”. This type of program is great because of the earned media component. It’s worth several press releases and can be a great vehicle for a local business or several to gain sponsorship exposure. And of course the winning students will be thrilled to have their name in the local media.

Cities, towns and villages can use this idea to create hype for such events as Down Home Days, Summer Fest, Do-Da Days and other local festivals and events. County and state health departments can hold design contests addressing such topics as abstinence, anti-drug messages and other health issues. Corporation HR departments can use this idea as part of Founders Day or other corporate events.

Inserting Into Publications
Waterless tattoos are custom manufactured to your specifications. That means they can be produced for insertion into magazines, periodicals and newsletters no matter if your publication is saddle stitched or case, perfect, spiral or comb bound. Because they are light, they're perfect for direct mail campaigns giving you the ability to target your audience.

Retail Babysitters
Retail sales is hard enough without having to fight your customer's or prospect's kids for the parents attention. As retail babysitters, waterless tattoos are perfect. This tactic works well for everyone from real estate professionals to car dealers.

First, produce a number of different custom designs. Next, when the parents show up, give the kids a few waterless tattoos to play with after getting the parents permission. If after a while they get bored, give them a few of your alternative designs.

In most cases, this will keep the kids busy long enough for you to make some headway with the parents. And because waterless tattoos don't require water to apply, you have no mess. Perfect when showing a new home a new car or in a carpet showroom.

This is also a great tactic for the bank drive though. With the kids content in the back seat with a couple waterless tattoos, mom or dad can concentrate on the transaction.

Waterless Tattoos Design Considerations
The key is simple, colorful design and the ability to have an effective distribution system, whether they are handed out, mailed or inserted into publications.  When designing a waterless tattoo, be mindful of how your logo or design will show up on dark skin. In most cases, the problem is solved by laying down a white base, then overprinting the other colors.  In other cases, a simple white outline will do the trick.

Summation
We've covered just a few of the many promotional and marketing applications of waterless tattoos. Because children love them, it's not difficult to gain major exposure at local events by handing out waterless tattoos to the children. In no time, you'll have hundreds of little billboards running around promoting your logo, brand or message.  With a little creative thought and a good idea of what you want to accomplish, waterless tattoos can be an extremely effective promotional tool. Sure, I'll admit many of the ideas I've outlined can be utilized with regular temporary tattoos and stickers. However, kids sometimes put stickers where parents don't want them and regular tattoos still have that water/saliva dogma to deal with. From a promotional marketing standpoint, on comparison, you can't beat the good, clean fun of waterless tattoos.

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Effective Leadership Begins With Effective Followership
The Difference Between Great and Truly Great
Some leaders are good. Some are bad. What's the difference between the two? And what can we do to help ensure that we get more good leaders than bad leaders? This article explores the concept of great vs. truly great and considers that truly great leadership …  begins with truly great followership.

Hitler was a great leader. Through his guidance, dedication and sense of what was right, he changed and influenced the lives of millions of people. So did another great leader. Jesus. Hitler and Jesus. Both were great leaders of our past. Both possessed classic leadership qualities and characteristics. Each had a strong belief in what he was doing. Each, possessed the quality of selflessness, an absolute devotion to his cause. And both, had the outstanding ability to influence and motivate people and events to facilitate their cause. As far as pure ability to lead, they're really no different from one another … Hitler and Jesus. Except for the fact, that Hitler was sick, deranged and twisted! While Jesus was virtuous, pure-hearted and immaculate.

In my mind, it is unjustifiable to describe both men with the same words. Words like great and leader. There has to be a way to distinguish between a leader of people who brings death and destruction, like Hitler. And a leader who spreads hope and salvation, like Jesus. A way to distinguish between the evil that lurks in one leader's heart, like Hitler. And the good that dwells in another leader’s heart like Jesus. There is a way.

In his book, "The Essentials Of Leadership", Herman H. Horne describes the philosophy of greatness. In chapter three he writes, "To be great involves only 3 things: to have extended influence, recognition and QUANTITY of influence. But, to be truly great, is to have QUALITY of influence." Where Hitler had quantity of influence and was a great leader. Jesus had quality of influence and was a truly great leader.

So how do leaders like Hitler get into leadership positions and garner such power? How does that happen? It happens, because people just like you and I let it happen. People, just like us, sitting around waiting for someone else to take responsibility for minding the store. FOLLOWERS, who drop the ball. Followers who don’t know an issue from a snowshoe … who won’t state a position, let alone defend one. One reason? A lack of knowledge. In order to help assure quality leadership, you have to practice quality followership. And a vital component of quality followership is knowledge. Knowledge of the issues, of leadership and of history.

Knowledge of the issues gives you a stand you can defend intelligently. Be bold enough to carefully examine all sides of an issue. Too often opinions are formed without creating a foundation of knowledge on which to form our opinion. We then feel vulnerable when asked for our opinion … or our stand on an issue. The result? We say nothing. We shrink back and allow those who have opinions that differ from ours have the last word … sway public opinion  … rise to power.  

Knowledge of leadership yields a better understanding of what leadership is and what a leader’s responsibilities are. That way, you’ll know when leaders are abusing their power. You'll recognize there's an issue that needs to be addressed. And hopefully, you'll examine the issue giving yourself a solid, powerful foundation on which to form … and defend your position.

Knowledge of history sheds light on how terrible leaders got to power in the past, the mistakes they made and how they affected people. This knowledge allows you to foresee and prevent history from repeating itself.

In a nutshell, knowledge, is the key to ensuring a quality future.

But you have to become involved now! Because the future isn’t a year from now. It’s … 2 seconds from now. Now it’s the present. Now it’s the past. The future becomes the past with each passing second.

Leadership is a responsibility. To lead in a way and direction that serves only to benefit and give value to the lives of every man, woman and child your actions affect. To be wise, merciful and benign. To achieve good, like Jesus. A TRULY GREAT leader. Not to spread grief and despair like Hitler — a great leader who was virulent, poisonous and demented!

But if you don't want to take the lead, be mindful that followership is a responsibility too. To follow with knowledge. And instead of being led blindly like a herd of sheep over a cliff … having the intestinal fortitude and the knowledge to say, "Hey! Wait a minute! Something is wrong here" or "I have an idea that might work better."

I have used two extremes, Hitler and Jesus, to formulate a quality continuum if you will. With evil on the left and good on the right. Great on the left … Truly Great on the right.

Where on this continuum will the leaders of your future sit?  The answer to that question may very well depend on what kind of follower you choose to be. Great … or TRULY GREAT?

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Smarter Business Practices
Verbal Legibility: The Secret To Leaving Understandable Phone Messages
After my third attempt to de-code the phone number from my voice mail … I gave up. Seems Frank Janson … Johnson …  Jorson or something like that from some company in Mauzoula or Missouri wants me to call him back. His number is 269-6 something, four, 36 or maybe it’s 3 zero then 6, 8 then something. Whatever! Point is, I’m not calling him back. And if he ever does get a hold of me, I’ll be less than enthusiastic about dealing with him since he’s already wasted my time and caused me a fair amount of frustration by leaving a message I can’t understand. He has what I call a “Verbal Legibility” factor of zero.

Where I come from, the whole point of leaving a phone number is so people can call you back. But too often, the person leaving the message is too bored, tired, lazy or busy to put a cohesive, understandable sentence together. Or they try to be cute with the way they say 55 triple 4 oh 2. Is that 50 then 5 or is it 55? And by the way, it’s a zero not an “oh”.

It seems silly to tell people to speak clearly and slowly. But an enormous number of people talk way too fast, way to soft, talk “mush-mouthed” or combine 2 or more of these traits to create a message they themselves couldn’t possibly understand. So yes, while it seems silly … I’ll do it anyway. “At the tone, PLEASE, speak clearly and slowly.”

As far as the number goes, here’s a tip I use. While you’re saying your number — write it ... neatly.  Say your number NO FASTER than you can write it. Then repeat it. If you have no writing utensil, pretend to write it in the air. 

Another tip, leave your phone number at the beginning of the message. In the event your target doesn’t get your number the first time they hear it, they don’t have to listen back through your whole boring message to get it.

How’s your verbal legibility when leaving messages? Record yourself some day when you’re busy returning phone calls. Listen to yourself … you just might learn something.
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Promotional Marketing: 
Better Idea Generation: Chiropractor Focus

I walked into the office of my Chiropractor/Acupuncturist and signed in. There on the desk were three pens. One looked like a syringe, another was a crooked pen and the third looked like a bone.

"What are these," I asked, knowing full well they were pens.

"They're pens," the doctor replied. " I'm trying to decide which one to promote my practice with. What do you think?

It took me a minute to respond. I was dismayed that someone was trying to sell him such cliché ideas. Who ever this someone was, had little understanding of the good doctor or his practice. I was also a little irritated that he hadn't called me in the first place.

"Let me guess," I said, holding up the syringe pen. "Our patients love it when we needle them."

"Yeah," he blurted out in amazement.

I held up the crooked pen and said, "We'll get you back on the straight and narrow."

"Well, yeah," he exclaimed.

I picked up the bone-shaped pen and said, "The imprint involves the phrase no bones about it."

The doctor came to the sudden realization that the ideas he thought were so clever only moments before, were neither clever or original.

"You're always talking about blood flow, energy flow and balance, that's your message." I said. "So when it comes to your promotional marketing, why is your message suddenly bones, needles and crookedness?" 

I told him if he wanted ideas that supported his message and what he was really about, we'd have to look beyond the obvious. 

Too often people stop at the first thing they think of when searching for creative ideas to promote their business, event or brand. And while the first thing they think of may indeed make sense, these ideas are usually cliché and tired. But by digging deeper, better promotional marketing ideas can be discovered. The key in this case is to focus not on the "tools of the trade" such as needles and bones, but to focus on the philosophy of the doctor:  balance and flow.
 
Several promotional marketing ideas came to mind. Imprinted mugs and imprinted packets of tea with multiple tea bags inside. Patients could think of the doctor numerous times when they enjoy the tea. And, he can always offer them more tea bags on return visits, reminding patients to share with a friend.

I believe mugs make great sense for doctors and other medical professionals. They can serve as a nice handout to first-time patients. But often their real promotional marketing value becomes evident when a few mugs are stored at the local florist. When the doctor learns of a patient illness, they have an arrangement created and delivered in the doctor's imprinted mug. This also works great for congratulatory events.

As far as pens go, there are pens that contain a liquid with a custom float inside. As the liquid flows back and forth, the logo or some other icon flows back and forth as well. A blood flow or energy flow message is now appropriate.

Stretching is also an important part of a Chiropractic therapy regime. So an exercise band might fill the bill. 

Then I thought of bandannas. Bandannas are being used creatively in a broad range of venues. Festivals, communities and businesses are printing maps, schedules and take out menus on them. Along that line, a Chiropractor or Acupuncturist can imprint a map of the body on a bandanna. The map could show how and where an imbalance creates pain. Or I could show acupuncture points and to what part of the body those points relate.

Thinking creatively is something that can be learned. There are two books I discovered early in my career that have been especially helpful in generating new and better ideas for my clients.  The books, both by Roger von Oech, are, "A Whack On The Side Of The Head" and "A Kick In The Seat of The Pants".

As for the Chiropractor? We co-branded a body-map themed bandanna with other businesses such as a fitness center, a drug store and a massage therapist to offset the higher cost of the item.

Perfect! Creative, relevant, useful and affordable promotional marketing.

 

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Creativity:
The Adventure of Creative Problem-Solving

I racked a fresh shell of 00 Buck into the chamber of my 12-gauge shotgun and drew the weapon to my shoulder. As I took careful aim at the dead tree branch about 30 feet above and 10 feet down range of me, my friend asked, " What are you doing?"

"Creative problem-solving," I answered.

The smooth squeeze of the trigger was followed by a bellowing thunder, followed by the thud of the branch hitting the ground.

"Problem solved," I said.

The problem I just solved wasn't a saw problem. No, I had chainsaws and regular saws. What I didn't have was a ladder tall enough to reach the branch. If I couldn't get up there, what could I send up there instead? I thought of creating a bolo where I'd duct tape a couple of rocks to either end of a short rope, tie a longer line in the middle and throw it up there in hopes the line would wrap itself around the branch and I could pull like crazy and break the branch off.

I remembered reading that back in the pirate days they'd shoot bolos out of a cannon to tear down the enemy's sails and rigging and disable the ship. That's when it hit me … using buckshot and my shotgun as a cutting tool.

Sometimes, creative problem-solving involves looking at an item differently than you normally look at it. The best example of this type of thinking was the old tv show McGyver, who with little more than a ball point pen, a disposable butane lighter and a paper clip could create a rocket capable of taking down a small airplane. In the real world of promotional marketing, employing creative problem-solving may not be quite that exciting but, nevertheless, is just as effective.

For instance, using plastic flying disks (upside down) as paper plate holders or snack trays. Why spend the money on expensive traffic cones for your bike rally when less expensive, imprinted 7" orange megaphones will do the trick? How about using coffee mugs as handled flower pots?

A few of our clients keep a supply of their imprinted coffee mugs at the local florist. When they need to send a get-well, sympathy or celebratory flower arrangement, they have the florist create and deliver the arrangement in my client's mug. The mug remains long after the flowers wither, reminding the recipient of my client's thoughtfulness. And because there is sentiment involved, the mug is more highly regarded.

You've employed creative problem-solving if you've ever cut three holes in a 33 gallon trash bag to use as an emergency poncho, or used a piece of cardboard as a dustpan or rolled a piece of paper into a makeshift funnel. I've used my pocket comb as an ice scraper, a kazoo (wrap a piece of tissue paper around it), a letter opener and to hold a small nail to keep from whacking my fingers.

Another approach to creative problem-solving is to question why something is done the way it is. I once met with a new client about her annual membership directory. The book had always been saddle stitched, meaning two staples in the middle held the thing together. But this new lady-in-charge didn't like the fact that the book wouldn't lay flat when you opened it. She wanted to bind it using comb binding. But that would cost more and they didn't have the budget.

I asked one simple question that made all the difference. "Does the directory have to be the size that it is?" She thought for a moment and said no. I resized the book to use less pages, which meant less paper, less signatures, less plates, less plate changes, less gathering and collating. The savings went into the more expensive comb binding and we were able to deliver a membership directory that laid flat when you opened it …  for the same price as the year before.

My final example of creative problem-solving was used by the criminal element when they went on a wheel-stealing rampage in the parking lot of my father's auto repair facility. They had a wrench but no jack. So they loosened the lug nuts, took rocks from around the building and blocked up the undercarriage of the cars. Then they simply let the air out of the tires.

Children are some of the best creative problem-solvers in the world, because they don't know "how things are supposed to be."  They question … they ask why and they ponder. For most people, that ability is taught out of them by the end of grade school through such statements as, "Do as you're told," "Follow the rules" and "Color inside the lines".

The adventure of creative problem-solving is still within you. You just need to let your mind think like a kid again. If you have trouble … go find a little kid to play with.


   
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Promotional Marketing Tactics 
Using Promotional Products As Retail Babysitters

I almost laughed out loud. A clerk tried to explain the features and benefits of a hair dyer to a woman who had a small child with her. The clerk's sales attempt was interrupted every 20 seconds with, "Mommy, look at this!",  followed by mommy's horrified look as she foresaw three possible outcomes: 1) Junior was about to maim himself; 2) Junior was about to maim someone else; 3) Mommy was about to spend way more than she intended on something that she didn't want —  that was about to be broken into at least 5 pieces.

Since it wasn't my kid, I found it hilarious. The salesperson was exasperated. And mommy? Well, mommy finally said, "hell with it", took Devil Child by the arm and left the store after a carefully stacked display of towels suddenly became un-stacked — because Junior wanted the towel on the bottom.

When children hinder the sales process, salespeople can't effectively do their job and profits suffer. Smarter retailers know they MUST occupy the children if they want mommy and daddy's attention. That's where Retail Babysitters come in.

For a promotional item to serve as an effective Retail Babysitter it should meet the following criteria:

1) Be age appropriate;
2) Be clean and mess free;
3) Consume children's time.

A fourth criteria that, while not mandatory to keep kids from sabotaging your sales efforts, is VITAL if you want to get the best R.O.I.:

 4) Whenever possible, Retail Babysitters should contain a tangible component to aid in the continuing promotion of your business or service off-premise.
 
Logoed items that meet the above criteria include stickers, sticker sheets, waterless tattoos, coloring books, crayons, your letterhead and custom activity sheets.

Businesses such as flooring showrooms, vehicle dealerships and  furniture stores where children remain visible, can create a children's area with carpet, a table and chairs. Suggesting to small children that they make a card or picture for mommy and daddy can work wonders. You can provide your letterhead, 8 1.2" x 11" sheets of construction paper, logoed boxes of crayons and logoed stickers or sticker sheets.

Waterless temporary tattoos can also be used in this way as they transfer well to paper products as well as the skin. Themed coloring books with your imprint on them along with the crayons are another good option.

For older children, create custom activity sheets. For instance, the sheet for a flooring store could contain a word search where kids search for words such as flooring, carpet, vinyl, etc.;  a word jumble; a maze and other activities.

If you can't create a Kid's Corner, placing a coloring book & crayons with some stickers and waterless tattoos in a logoed paper lunch bag can fill the bill. Many kids will sit on the floor next to the parents, look through the bag and begin to apply stickers, waterless tattoos, use the coloring books or decorate the paper bag.

To aid in off-premise promotion of your business, offer a monthly coloring contest. The kids either finish a coloring book picture while at the establishment or finish it at home. The parents can drop the finished picture off later. (This gets them back in the store). Pictures are displayed and once a month, one or more winners is chosen and goes up on the winner's wall. Each child who turns in a drawing gets an entry prize of some sort with the monthly winners getting larger prizes. (Monthly winners must come in to claim their prize.)

To provide the most benefit to your establishment, all prizes (water bottles, plastic flyers, knit caps) carry your logo and contact information. You can also get lot's of play out of featuring selected children's drawings in your monthly newspaper/print ads and on your website. You can also use the drawings to create a custom business calendar.

If you work with a competent promotional products consultant, they can be on the lookout for and bring select items to your attention that are on closeout or are seasonal specials. This will also serve to keep your prize selection fresh and seasonally appropriate.

Children can be a salesperson's worst nightmare. But with a little thought and the right promotional products to serve as Retail Babysitters, children can actually become an asset as you use them to leverage favor  —  and sales with the parents.


 

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Promotional Marketing Lessons Mom Packed In My Lunch

Remember when you were a kid? Lunch time held a certain magic. What did mom pack? The anticipation … the apprehension … the delight — and sometimes the disappointment at finding your stupid apple had crushed your snack cake.

If you’ve been using the same approach with your customers and clients for very long ... it’s sorta like getting peanut butter and jelly in your lunch for 37 days in a row. It’s boring, predictable and memorable …  for all the wrong reasons.

Lesson Learned: Keep your main offer fresh.

In today’s market, a fresh new approach can mean the difference between clients eating up what you have to offer … and getting your snack cakes crushed.

For example, I remember the day I opened my insulated bottle to pour my milk and out came CHOCOLATE milk! Mom had my attention. Yeah, making sure I had milk to drink showed she cared. And for a 9 year old that's all well and good. But chocolate milk?  Well that just moves mom up on the list of "stuff that's swell". And from that day on, there was a little twinge of excitement when I opened my lunch drink. Problem was … it never happened again. After a while, the slight twinge of excitement that came with opening my drink …  disappeared.

Lesson learned: Every now and then, you have to change it up to keep the excitement alive. Putting a different type of juice or chocolate milk in my lunch one day every three weeks would have done it. 

By the same token, if you've been sending the same old postcard announcing the "Sale of the Month" … next month try sending the card in an envelope instead.
Better yet, send it along in an envelope with a 25 sheet sticky notepad with your logo, name and number imprinted on it.

Think about that for a minute from the receiver's standpoint.  You've been getting a postcard from LMNOP for 2 years. SUDDENLY, you get an envelope from LMNOP. You'll open it with renewed interest. Why? Because you don't know what's inside. Something unexpected and out of the ordinary happened. But because the same old postcard in an envelope could be anti-climactic, you want to include a little "excitement enhancer" with an inexpensive sticky notepad.

Mom's lunches weren’t all bad, though. Part of effectively changing your approach is understanding that while an apple, an orange and a banana are all fruits … they are different fruits. Mom added variety to my lunchbox fruit course by constantly changing the fruit. She did the same with the veggies, alternating carrots, celery, sweet peppers, radishes and pickles. Similarly, a postcard, an envelope and a package are all direct mail, but they're different. The same way a pen, a note pad and a refrigerator magnet are all promotional products —  yet different. Even with postcards, you can change the design while maintaining the integrity of your corporate identification.

And now the main course — the offer! Mom knew I would be ok with ketchup on bologna even though I preferred mayo. Mustard is fine on pork/ham. PB &J was fine. Egg salad would fly like a lead balloon, sandwich spread was great and I'd eat anything with cheese on it …. except PB&J, hold the cheese, please.

Lesson Learned: Want to keep your target relatively happy and interested? Get to know them, keep changing the main offer and give them what they like.

What do you know about your clients and prospects? Do you know what they like, how much they buy or how often they buy? For small retailers it can be as easy as utilizing a punch card program. Swipe type cards coupled with the right computer program can allow you to capture a lot of useful data. But even the smallest retailer can send/give a survey and reward respondents with a low-cost, high perceived value promotional item. This is an excellent way to start or expand a database.

For national brands, using mass media to effectively drive traffic to a website with the promise of logo'd merchandise for filling out a survey can work wonders. Another tactic is on-package or in-package directionals to the website.

Change the main offer. Even if all you sell are chairs. Change the featured chair, Tell why it's a great chair – features and benefits. Tell them something they don't know. Give them something they can sink their teeth into.

Finally, the treat! Whether it was a piece of candy, a snack cake or a fruit pie, I always looked forward to the treat!

Lesson Learned: Treat your clients, customers and prospects. Treat them to a mint (regular and sugar free) at the cash register, have fresh coffee and hot water for tea available, have stickers or waterless tattoos available for the kids.  Train your staff to treat customers and prospects like they are welcome. Treat them … like your business depends on them.
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Trade Show Tactics
Effective Use of Post Cards As Trade Show Handouts

Tired of handing out pens and other junk at trade shows that don't give you any return on your investment anyway?  Consider the benefit of a 4" x 6" postcard.

A postcard is a great trade show handout .... IF, it is backed by an effective idea. Many describe a great postcard handout as little more than a giant business card. While a postcard may be better than a business card, it's still a yawner —  unless it contains something of value or potential value to the prospect.

Lets explore some examples. Let's say you own a high end women's clothing store. In that case your postcard could offer the prospect a "Private In-Home Showing". High-end buyers like to be catered to. A private clothing showing in the prospect's home or place of business speaks to that desire. The card asks the prospect to call to make arrangements. Over the phone you get her preferences, likes, dislikes and sizes. Then you make the appointment and take a fine selection of clothing to her. This also allows you to gauge your Return On Investment (ROI). Best of all, it allows you to develop a personal relationship with the prospect.

Lots of marketers, eager to cast a big net like to offer discounts and freebies on their postcards. By and large, I detest dollar-off coupons, discounts and freebies to build a loyal, money-spending client base. Mostly they attract "bottom-feeders" with whom you are establishing a relationship based on price. If your goal is to make money, then a relationship based on price works in the prospect's favor — not yours.

If you insist giving away the store to get new clients or prospects ... at least make it a buy one get one, a buy one get the second for 1/2 off or a dollar amount off with a specified dollar amount in purchases.

A more effective approach to rewarding prospects and getting your name spread around is to offer an imprinted promotional item or gift with purchase. This can really help drive trade show traffic to your retail location. This way, you are only giving promotional products away if they actually take the time to visit your location and spend money. For instance, a restaurant could offer a free steak knife with purchase of two dinners. Combine this with a punch card program and give customers the opportunity to collect a complete set though subsequent meal purchases.

Another way to use a postcard is to make it a ticket to a special after hours store event. You can give the highlights of your product or service at the trade show. Those who seem genuinely interested, receive the "ticket" for a more in depth demonstration, product review or test drive at the special event. In this case, you  only give the postcard  to those who express a desire for your product or service. Those who show up for the event are genuinely interested. And genuinely interested prospects and are YOUR golden ticket.
 
If any of the product lines you sell has a co-op program, check to see if the post card can qualify for one or more of your suppliers co-op programs. This will help you lower the cost of the entire program.

Use of the tactics described above can also help drive traffic to your website. In cases where the postcard is used as a ticket, you can give people the option of reserving their place at the event via phone or through your website.

By and large, a postcard that's little more than a glorified business card is a waste of your time, energy and money. However, if you marry the postcard with an effective idea … then you may have promotional marketing trade show gold.

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A Stealth Marketing Concept: Make Your Marketing $Work Harder

It seems silly to spend money to promote a promotion. What if it were possible for the promotion to promote itself?

Let's pretend a major snack food manufacturer wants to spend a million dollars promoting itself.†The first thing most marketers do is figure out a "promotion" then figure out how to spend the money on radio, tv, print, internet, in-store signs and displays promotional products to promote it. This is how we generally promote a promotion.

It takes tons of planning, coordination and meetings. A good portion of your $1,000,000 will go to art directors, copywriters, designers and production crews just to produce your ads, collateral material and signage. Then, another big portion of your budget will get eaten up buying space for your radio, tv and print ads and 15% of that money goes to paying the media buyer.

Now consider for a moment, how much promotional power you could harness, if you put that $1,000,000 to work directly from you to the consumer. Instead of spending $1million to promote the promotion, you simply put that money directly to work.

Imagine what would happen if the company secretly and randomly put cello-wrapped $1, $5, $10, $20 and occasionally $50 and $100 dollar bills right into the snacks, sorta like Willy Wonka did with the Golden Tickets.†But while Willy Wonka let the world know that he did it, in this scenario, no one says anything to anyone.

The company doesn’t tell anyone what its doing. The only people that know up front are those putting the money in the bags.

This strategy would end up capturing more free media and publicity than the company ever could purchase with its $1 million. Here’s a likely scenario:

1) After distribution has begun, word is leaked "accidentally" around the factory and soon after the word leaves the factory because there's always someone, thankfully, that can't keep a secret.

2) People start finding money in their potato chips and corn chips. They tell others. Word spreads person to person and on internet chat rooms and forwarded e-mails, across the country and around the world.

3) The media gets wind of it and contacts the company.

4) The company says, "Yeah, we secretly and randomly placed $1,000,000 in the form of $1’s $5’s, $10’s, $20’s, $50’s and $100’s in our snacks and have shipped them nationwide. We have no idea where the bills are, it’s totally random."

6) The media reports it to the public.

7) Feeding frenzy on the company’s snacks and tip of tongue/top of mind placement and news stories for weeks and write ups in magazines.

By-pass conventional wisdom. Cut out the middle man. Put your promotional dollars directly to work promoting your company. Again, why spend money promoting the promotion?

What's that? You don't have a million dollars to promote your company? And even if you did, you don't sell a packaged good that would allow you to distribute money like that. No problem.

The point is, nearly every company can employ some aspect of what I call "Stealth Marketing" to promote itself, generate word of mouth and perhaps publicity.

Maybe it’s gift cards hidden in random products. If they’re never found you're only out the cost of producing the card.†Perhaps it's scratch-off, lottery-style tickets randomly placed in a shoppers' bag or in a customer's delivery box. Every card is a winner of something. Why? Because you can control what's printed on the cards and how many are given away each week, or month.

Imagine the surprise of a home-owner if three months after they took delivery of a new dining room table set they found a scratch-off card, a gift card or perhaps a $20 taped to the underside of the table or one of the chairs?

What if a coffee shop imprinted sayings at the bottom of the inside of its to-go cups. Every so often, someone would get one that read, "Bring this cup in and receive $10 cash." Hey, if they throw the cup away, you're out nothing! If they read it, and get the $10 they're going to tell everyone they run into for a week. You can't buy that much word of mouth for $10.

Think about it. Who wouldn't be delighted to find a $5 bill crammed into the toe of their new shoes?

The concept is to give your advertising and promotion budget, or a portion of it in one form or another, to those who buy your product or service They will promote your product or service for you.

What Stealth Marketing ideas can you generate for your business? Be mindful that it’s done without fanfare. And the end result is effective word of mouth and in a best case scenario, earned media. Bottom line, you don't want to spend a lot of money promoting the promotion. Let the promotion promote itself and get more promotional marketing mileage for your money.

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The Ingraining Technique: The Soul Of An Effective Promotion

What may be the world’s largest promotional product is in a flooring store in Battle Creek, Michigan. You can’t see it from space … heck, you can’t even see it from the road. It’s not imprintable and there’s no way you’re going to take it home with you. However, it’s probably one of the most brilliant promotional products I’ve ever seen. It’s a meeting room.

Now because it’s a meeting room inside a flooring store — it’s a beautiful room. It’s equipped with all the presentation equipment any local social or civic organization needs to hold an effective meeting. And the room is available to them, free of charge. Sure, you’ll find imprinted pens, note pads and coffee mugs to outfit the room. But those things alone, aren’t driving sales. It’s the fact that hundreds of people a month, including REALTORSÆ, interior designers, builders and mortgage people are attending meetings in a very nice meeting room INSIDE the flooring store!

And while this particular brilliant promotional marketer is not a client of mine, I still admire his ability to employ an effective promotional marketing technique I call Engraining.

Ingraining means to find a way to more deeply connect (or ingrain yourself) with your target audience on a physical and or emotional level. In the case of the flooring store, the owners are fulfilling a community need — while showcasing their product line. Promotional items such as pens, pencils and note pads are merely convenient reminders of the store’s contribution. And when people see the name of the flooring store, they relate to something that’s of interest and has personal meaning to them: "That’s where we have our club meetings."

Now maybe you can’t provide a meeting room for the local civic and social organizations. But ingraining isn’t about meeting rooms … it’s about connecting with your targets through effective concepts and ideas. By example, lets look at two banks or credit unions that want to highlight children’s accounts at a local trade show.

Bank/Credit Union #1 will hand out imprinted coloring books and crayons to the children at the show while encouraging the adults to open up a savings account for the little tykes. Coloring books are appropriate for children, and the adults will be exposed to the bank or credit union’s logo at least a couple of times when the child colors a picture and shows it to mom or dad. O.K. While it’s a little warm and fuzzy, it falls far short of Ingraining or being highly effective.

Bank/Credit Union #2 will use the same coloring book and crayons … except they have a better idea of how to use the products. They want to emotionally charge the promotion. Instead of simply handing out the coloring book and crayons, #2 tells the kids and the adults, that if the child colors a page in the book and takes it into a branch office, they will receive a free piggy bank and be entered into a drawing for a $25 savings bond. Plus, the child’s drawing will be on display for a whole month in the bank or credit union.

BAM! You know who the best salesperson for the bank or credit union will be? The children. Because in addition to showing their "work of art" to mom and dad, they will likely nag and hound them until they get to go to the bank or credit union and get their free piggy bank and display their picture.

#2 will get interested prospects inside the branches and thinking about their children’s future. The branches will collect actionable data from everyone who enters the drawing. The opportunity for multiple, meaningful "touches" by bank/credit union #2 is much greater because the promotion didn’t end at the trade show. Plus, this type of promotion is worth a couple press releases and some earned media when you announce the promotion and publicize the winners.

The power of promotional products is not inherent within the products. The power of promotional products lies within the ideas and concepts behind the products. Merely giving away product with your logo and website or phone number on it doesn’t automatically produce a result — except for maybe draining your budget without providing measurable R.O.I.

Whether you’re a national brand or a local business, you can ingrain yourself into peoples’ lives by focusing on what they need, want, desire or care about. Develop concepts and ideas that will embrace your target — and they will embrace you back.

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Promotional Marketing Contests: Turning Losers Into Winners

"We're Sorry. You Are Not A Winner."

That makes me a loser. I don't like being a loser. And I don't like companies who make me feel like a loser. 

Granted, I have free will and I can choose to feel like a loser or not.  But there's something to be said for the fact that I did everything the company asked me to do. I spent my money at their stupid store or bought their crummy product. I read the dumb contest hype. I wasted my time logging on to their website. I played their retarded game. Just to read,

"We're Sorry. You Are Not A Winner."

The whole thing is anti-climactic and leaves me feeling a bit empty.  If not less, I certainly do not have MORE love for the company.

"Not A Winner" is just another way to say, "Loser!"

Everyday, around the world, companies waste big dollars handing out cheap junk to every Tom, Dick and Harry that walks past their trade show booth. They are handing the stuff out without regard to whether the person they're handing the stuff to has any intention of ever buying anything from them. They measure the success of the trade show by the number of items they "got rid of."

On the other end of the spectrum, thousands of people who have spent money with a company, jump through a bunch of hoops to play the company's promotional game ….  are told they are a loser.

That doesn't make any sense. Yet companies do it every day.

When considering a promotional contest, serious thought should be given to making everyone a winner on some level. It doesn't have to be much.  It could be as simple as a rebate coupon that I print off. When I collect x number of dollars worth of receipts from the store, I can send them in with my rebate coupon and get a couple of bucks back. It could be a coupon redeemable for that cheap pen you're handing out at the trade show. It could be a button, a pin, a pencil, a coupon, a two for one, a Buy one Get One -  ANYTHING that says, "You did everything we asked you to do. We appreciate your effort. While the main prize (s) is still up for grabs, you win "X".

You're A Winner!

What will work for your company and your customers and prospects depends on a lot of things. The point is, doing it right requires some thought. And the more thought you give to making your clients, customers and prospects feel like winners … the more winners there will be giving thought to spending their money ...  with you.


Effective Goody Bag Marketing
Goody Bags may be one of the most powerful promotional marketing opportunities available to you. It's certainly one of the most overlooked and under-utilized. The "Goody Bag" is that bag-full of "goodys" that is handed out to participants at golf outings, conferences, seminars and events to add value to participation.

Most companies mistakenly donate some "cheap" do-dad such as a pen, pencil or refrigerator magnet imprinted with their corporate info. The practice is long on "feel good" for the donators. But, because little or no actual thought usually goes into the donation, the practice has little or no real promotional value.

Key Point: More important than the item you donate, is the idea behind what you imprint on the donated item. That's worth repeating, because it's the cornerstone of my theory on promotional marketing, "More important than the item you donate is the idea behind what you imprint on the donated item." Because with a little more thought you can turn a giveaway into a powerful promotion.

Here's a couple of examples:
Two health-related companies. Both want to drive traffic to their website. Company #1 imprints their website address on an pen and donates it to the goody bag. Company #2 donates a pen. But their imprint says, "Visit www.fakewebsite.com for 10 secrets to keeping your family healthy."

Company #2 promises a benefit for visiting their website. The sad truth of the matter is, most companies do what company #1 did. Company #2 could have printed their message on a sponge a band-aid dispenser, or an antimicrobial light switch cover —  it doesn't really matter. What matters most is WHAT is imprinted on the product.

Remember, anytime you can tell people what's in it for them — before they even ask — you're a step a head of the game.

Here's another example:
Many companies who are fortunate enough to be able to donate the Goody Bag itself for an event — totally blow the opportunity. They'll print their logo and maybe their contact info on the bag and call it a day.

You can make better use of the opportunity by imprinting an actual offer on the bag. Drive traffic to a website by imprinting a special code on the bag. Or, drive traffic to a retail location by designating the bag as a coupon.

Main Benefits of Goody Bag Marketing
It's Free!
One of the biggest benefits of Goody Bag marketing is that most events allow you to donate items to the bag for free. Because most organizations view the Goody Bag as a benefit to the event participants, they will gladly accept just about any item you want to donate. That makes the Goody Bag a great free way to impact a target audience.

Extremely Targeted
The ability to specifically target your audience is another huge benefit of Goody Bag marketing. Whether your target is senior citizens, stock brokers, chamber of commerce members, business-owners or employees of a specific corporation, there is a golf outing, seminar, conference or other event that will give you access to your target.

The key to making Goody Bag marketing as effective as possible, is to think in terms of how the item you donate can generate phone calls, drive people to your website, your retail location or other wise secure actionable data that you can follow up on later.

If you are a local retailer your goal may be to drive traffic to your store. If you are a B2B supplier or a non-profit, your goal may be to drive traffic to your website. Whatever your goal, it usually takes more than simply slapping your logo and contact information on a pencil, pen or note pad. It takes thought and planning.

Here are a few things to consider when planning a Goody Bag marketing strategy.

1) Determine Your Target: Make a physical list of targets either on a legal pad or in your computer. When creating your list, think in terms of industries, occupations as well as individual interest. For example, if you sell flooring, perhaps you'll write down REALTORS, builders, interior designers and plumbers. If you sell computers, consider Chamber of Commerce, IT professionals and manufacturers, computer users. If you sell athletic shoes your list may include school athletic directors, gym teachers, fitness centers and marathon runners and podiatrists or chiropodists.

2) Research The Possibilities: Once you have a list of possible targets, research how to reach the target. Google "associations list" or "list of associations" and you'll find resources for locating an association that represents exactly who you want to target. You can also do the same for "clubs", "service clubs" or whatever other type of group, club, association, individual or business group you are interested in targeting.

3) Contact: Contact them and find out what upcoming golf outings, seminars, conferences or other events they have planned. Once you learn of an event that interests you, find out if they plan to offer Goody Bags and if they are accepting donations.

4) Get Details: Get the details regarding event date, when items need to be delivered, if they have any rules regarding donations and if they have anything in particular they're looking for. Note: be sure and find out specifically what's NOT welcome for the goody bag. No sense investing in a promotional item you can't use.

All of this information will impact the promotional marketing concept you'll develop to effectively impact your target. Because the variables are simply too broad to address in a single article, specific tactics for using Goody Bag marketing and how to develop a meaningful promotion will be covered in future articles. If you have questions in the mean time, please call us at 517-589-0008.


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