The top 10 eco-friendly giveaways for Earth Day 2010 are:

1.  Elephant-Poo Notebook – The ultimate recycled item, great for colleges and trade shows. 
2.  Bamboo Dinnerware – Perfect for office picnics, outdoor concert venues and fairs.
3.  Seed Paper Postcard – Ideal for environment-themed mailings and print promotions. 
4.  Shower Timer – Municipalities and utilities can promote water conservation.
5.  Recycled Tires Jar Opener – Auto dealerships and mechanics can give these to customers. 
6.  Pine Tree Seedling – Employees can participate in a tree-planting day at the office campus.
7.  Organic T-shirt – Give one to each Earth Day event organizer and volunteer. 
8.  Compostable Pens – Hotels, banks and shops can use these biodegradable pens.
9.  Nonwoven Bag – Local grocery stores can eliminate plastic and paper.
10.  Hemp-Blend Polo – Companies can use this earth-friendly shirt for summer uniforms. 

Choosing ecologically friendly promotional products is a fantastic and easy way to start being green with your advertising and marketing and Celebrate Earth Day 2010.  For more information about these products please visit http://www.cormarq.com. 

Elephant Poo Journal

Proper branding does not just mean slapping a logo on some business cards – successful brands are thoughtfully composed and developed, and promoted consistently across a variety of platforms, from promotional products and uniforms to the office decor and tone of company communications.

Most business owners confuse branding with marketing.  A brand is a promise about who you are and what benefits you deliver that gets reinforced every time people come in contact with any facet of you or your business.  Branding is the process of building a positive collection of perceptions in your customer’s mind. The branding process is the foundation on which the marketing is built. 

For example when you mention Volvo, the first thing that comes to mind for most people is safety. Google is on the forefront of every one’s mind when talking about search, and Disney has become ubiquitous with making dreams come true. The top brands of the world have achieved a dominate position, making them the first companies that people think about when it comes to their core business model, and this all came from early man’s need to rapidly identify threats and opportunities in order to survive. Today, this mindset directly relates to the survival of your business as you face challenging economic times. It’s critical that your consumers can quickly identify with your company, understand exactly what you do and how that benefits them.

Building brands takes focus, passion, persistence, and diligence.  Plus the brand building requires effort and money.  The pay, and it’s a big one, is that strong brands build business and equity for their owners. 

Great brands aren’t just known and trusted.  They’re loved!

Help make your clients dreams come to life with a Seed Paper Wish Kit. Each kit contains seeded paper circle cards that offer a space to write a personal wish, idea or goal. When planted, they grow into a garden of wildflowers! Wish Kits are perfect for non-profit and school fundraisers, product launches, client thank-yous, holiday gifts and more. The seeded paper cards are handmade in the USA from 100% post-consumer recycled paper. Each kit Includes a full-color custom-printed 4.5″ x 6″ vellum package, 10 custom-printed seed cards and a pencil.

WISH KIT

What do you get?

1. Branded Mobile Apps: Popular and useful paid apps to choose from with your brand and message always on the splash page and banner, downloaded for free as a giveaway. Non-Blackberry® users can download music instead.

2. Prepaid Branded App Cards: Give customers prepaid branded app cards to choose which branded apps they want to download and enjoy! This first-of-its-kind app card will be customized to your specs.

3. Dynamic Messaging: With Mobiroo’s patent pending technology, you can update your brand message frequently on downloaded apps, allowing you to support multiple initiatives, while also sending offers to your customers, surveying them, creating contests, and much more!

4. Tracking: With Mobiroo’s tracking, you can learn even more about your customers, in addition to tracking key ROI metrics, such as app usage and click throughs.

5. Data Management: We will manage and deliver all information collected as part of your campaign, including: email addresses, survey information, user information, etc.

Contact Cormarq at info@cormarq.com for more information on this innovative promotional product.

This product was featured in the Orpah Magazine on the “O” list for 2009 Holiday Items to buy.  You know if Oprah likes it your customer will LOVE it. 

Is your target market women?  Then this is a great product for your brand.  Perfect for a gift with purchase promotion.  Great for retail locations, hotel lobby retail sites, tradeshow expos, and client gifts. 

1.      Increase visibility in your community. Join local organizations that provide business networking opportunities, or start your own. Do volunteer work for a large charity. You’d be surprised at the marketing support such activities can bring.

2.       Creatively package your marketing campaigns. A postcard is one way to market your business. But how about putting a small box together with a fork, knife, spoon and a custom printed napkin that invites your prospect to “have lunch on us?” Think outside the box, and your marketing campaigns will have more impact.

3.      Yes, use Facebook and Twitter. Having a Facebook page may not earn you any new business, but not having one may cause customers to ask why you don’t. Take some good pictures of your offices and your employees (unless you’d rather leave those details to your customers’ imaginations), or, in some fashion, put a more human face on your company identity. 

 4.       Talk to your clients. It’s amazing how much money businesses spend to gather market information and attract new clients when they have a wealth of opportunity and information in their existing client base. One of the best ways to increase revenue is to talk to existing customers. Ideally, this should be done by someone outside your company so clients are willing to be honest and open.

5.      Get the word out with publicity. Think you can’t do PR or publicity without employing the services of a high-priced firm? You can! Although a good firm brings tremendous contacts and experience, most small companies can do enough PR on their own to spark the public’s interest.

6.      Use downtime for marketing.  When times are slow, keep employees busy contacting customers. Create e-mail marketing documents your employees can send to individual customers. Personal contact with customers gets results. Mass e-mails are less effective and, given today’s e-mail spam filters, may not be seen by many. Send Greeting Cards on a regular basis not just the holidays. Go for quality contacts rather than quantity.

7.      Leverage existing relationships. Most people know at least 200 people. Do the math: If you know 200 people and they each know 200 people, that’s 40,000 potential contacts! Spend time developing relationships with the people you already know-clients, colleagues, people you meet through professional networking organizations, friends and even family.

8.      Develop Strategic Partnerships. Establishing partnerships with other businesses allows you to combine your resources to overcome challenges. By creating an alliance with other organizations you can develop a synergy that improves your ability to meet the needs of your target market and decreases you marketing budget.

9.      Incorporate Promotional Products.  Promotional products move people to action. On average, 62% of end users do business with the advertiser after they receive the item, which makes them a great prospecting tool. The average Cost Per Impression (CPI) of an advertising specialty item is $0.004; as a result, you get a more favorable return on investment from advertising specialties than nearly any other popular advertising media.   

10.    Position yourself as an expert. Position yourself as the go-to expert in your field. It costs next to nothing and is the key to your success.  Positioning yourself as the expert can help you no matter what you sell. Write articles for a blog, engage in public speaking, and educate your clients.  You don’t have to have an advanced academic degree to use expert positioning to grow your business. You do need to be an expert in an area relevant to your business.

The key is to never surrender.  Getting new and potential customers to notice you is an ongoing—and sometimes uphill—battle, and one you can’t ever stop fighting. Pick a new idea every week or two and implement it, no matter how small it is. Call a meeting of employees, order a pizza for lunch, and brainstorm; offer an incentive for ideas you implement. Before long, your marketing might just pay off in new sales—and happier, more involved customers.

TripBuilder EventMobile’s features, including:

• Detailed Schedule of Events & Educational Session Info
• Our uniqe Build MyBooth List functionality
• Rotating Banner Ads
• Motivational Contests
• TripBuilder City Content with mapping features
• Text Messaging & Announcement Alertser EventMobile is a highly targeted mobile product that offers solutions to todays event and meeting

So who said that corporate America cannot rock this look as well?  I would like to introduce you to the new Kodiak boot.  This logoed boot is the perfect warm and cozy corporate gift idea. 

Kodiak Boot

Who would these promotional products be perfect for? Think lodges, winter sports teams, retail locations, events geared towards women and young girls.

BEFORE

AFTER DESIGNER GRAPHICS

There is a new trend in the promotional marketing industry that incorporates designer graphics into a product without the designer cost.  This is a perfect idea for the company who wants to present a Gucci image on al Old Navy Budget.

Cormarq  a promotional marketing agency offers a variety of these custom designer graphics to choose from.  When combined with your company’s logo and color you can create a variety of message-boosting themes.

Why Designer Graphic on Promotional Products?

• Add Value – without adding cost! Choose a designer graphic but only pay a standard imprint charge
• Make A Statement -The graphics make the product stand out. They’re BIG and BOLD!
• Design Something Unique -Thousands of unique combinations of images and colors.