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October 2018 .PROMO

Professional Inspiration for Promotional Products Buyers

PROP 65 What You Don’t Know Will Hurt You MEASUrING SUCCeSS You Can Determine ROI CO-OP MARKETING WINS Keep Your Costs Low & Get Many More Impressions CASE STUDIES

COCA COLA OLYMPIC PROMO BRANDS BIG Trump’s Tariffs

One Answer -- Buy in Advance

Marty McDonald 515-276-2587 www.mcdonaldimagingsolutions.com marty@mcdonaldimagingsolutions.com

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.PROMO

Contents Wearables 2019 18 Watch for trends 52

Prop 65

56

Social Styles

Gather data to make informed decisions

60

Trump’s Tariffs

Case Studies 22 Coca-Cole’s Olympic promo Measure Success 38 Know your ROI Althetic Co-Ops 48 Working together equals success

Info you really need

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Wearables

2019 Fashion as we all know changes a lot from year to year but at the same time it kinda remains the same. For example, men’s suits have notch, peak, and shawl lapels—that’s been the case for decades—and while the colors, patterns and fabrics change, those styles are a foundation for styling each year. But fortunately the promotional products industry is not limited to suits and we’ve

come up with quite a few outstanding wearables that break that mold. What can you expect for 2019? Read on…

BELLA + CANVAS features a hot line of clothing for both men and women. Imagine your logo on those shirts...WOW...what a great branding impression. Why use an ordinary t-shirt when you can have an upscale one!

Wearable tech is super hot!!!

Keeping on top of the trends is an important factor when addressing your market, customers & clients.

But combine tech & wearables that can carry a phone wins big…from leggings to shirts…make sure you catch that wave. People are going to have cell phones for a long time to come and the more you make it convenient for them, the more they are going to want to wear your logo.

Wearable tech is also growing by leaps and bounds and 2019 will reflect that. From headphones to smart watches or self-wicking shirts that keep you cool and have a pocket for your cell phone, there are many fashionable wearables that can sport your brand and make a big statement.

Design is and has been very important in the promotional products industry for some time now but it’s becoming a bigger and bigger ideology to promote your products with “better looking, better performing” wearables.

The average wearable lasts for years and the cooler it is the more people will wear your brand creating thousands of impressions.

Studies also found that one in two consumers said they walked around with a promotional product such as a wearable item or a pocket product. About 50% of men & 46% of women said they have worn a promotional item. In addition, 82% of consumers agreed their impression of a brand positively changed as a direct result of receiving a promotional product.

Wearables dominate in promotional popularity for our Buyers. Studies found that wearables products were ranked highest by consumers across all generations. Promo products expose your brand & personally endorse... you.

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Case

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Coke Blows Out Olympic Winter Games with Compressed T-Shirts Promo We all know that Coke is a trend setter.

And most of the promotions that they run always result in big wins (they are a good company to follow for promo program development).

Benefits?

Coca Cola was delighted with the outcome of their promotion that featured branded T-shirts and towels in the shapes of their products.

Huge distribution, competitively priced, exclusive custom shapes, easy to give out...all things that added significant value to the brand. With dozens of orders placed, this can mean only one thing: SUCCESSFUL PROMOTIONS. Coke achieved what they set out to do: The whole point is to make a lasting impression on customers and then get their customers to display their brand by wearing it. Compressed t-shirts will certainly do that.

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Case Studies

Connecting a Cell Phone Company to University Students

Industry--Education/Sports A high school wanted to raise money and sell a sports related item in their “spirit shop”. Selling hats wasn’t going to cut the mustard because they’d have to sell a ton of them. Instead they chose an item that was priced to make them a decent profit while at the same time not be out of their parent’s price point.

Simple as this seems it is, picking a folding chair with the school’s logo was the right item. These promotions frequently sell out immediately because of fan fever and parent’s need to support their kid’s schools.

If your business co-sponsors these types of promotions, you can really save a lot of money and at the same time really support your community. Your clients remember this heartfelt contribution.

All Three Promotions Reached Measureable Goals

A large University co-oped a promotion with a cellular provider. After a long search they chose a sports pack with zipper and drawstring shoulder straps.

Students use this kind of bag all the time so it was super popular. Thousands of impressions were made over the entire year by students wearing this inexpensive but pretty cool bag.

The bag was given out at a stadium event, which was the perfect venue.

The cellular provider got lucky too, the game was covered by their local TV channel showing the giveaway.

Bank Sets Sights on $200,000 in New Deposits The bank set a goal, and that was to gain 200 new customers that would deposit $1,000 or more.

The budget called for spending $20 on an incentive in exchange for opening the account. The bank needed a high perceived

value item that customers would use...and need. So for $4,000 the idea was to create $200,000 in new deposits. When the Bank chose an auto-safety kit as their incentive they provided a gender neutral item that everyone would use.

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The most successful promotions have these features: --Harmonized appearance of marketing materials.

--Focus on brand recognition and increasing brand loyality.

--An end goal, one that is achievable and with measurable conclusions.

--Perfect execution.

--Achieve or exceed the results for the intended promotion.

Over Sales base

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Profit Having a data driven approach and measuring your results will show you what your invested funds have achieved, and prove whether your field efforts are actually improving your sales.

At the end of the day, data is your biggest ally, as it will tell you where you’ve been, where you’re heading, and where you want to be.

Here are the four main metrics you should use to collect data on the success of your promotion, as well as some suggestions on how to leverage this data:

In or in sa base moti colle the d comp find

Promotions, like other investments, fundamentally work by earning revenue in exchange for a smaller investment. It is important to evaluate the impact of sales promotions on profit because it is possible for promotions to lead to higher sales but lower profits. In order for a promotion to be profitable, incremental customer sales must increase and the cost of obtaining one dollar in increased sales must not exceed a dollar.

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es Volume

rder to accurately measure the increase ales volume, you need to know your eline (what sales were prior to the proion). Using both the data you already ected and data you collect throughout duration of the promotion, make a parison. This equation can be used to your overall increase in sales:

rall Sales Lift = Lift in Promoted Item s (the difference between the sales eline and the new sales volume).

tomer Satisfaction

tomer satisfaction is a key facet to customoyalty and long-term brand switching, so it mportant that you measure customer satision by collecting data to measure exactly w satisfied customers were with your proion and with your overall product. Some gs to look at: What are people saying ut your brand or product online? If you interested in gaining deeper insight, try ting your customers to fill out a quick vey or use a hashtag with the promo to tell what they think of your brand. Using the rmation you gather, you’ll be able to hear truth of what customers thought of your motion.

Achievement of Set Goals Take another look at goals you set for the promotion. Does your data show that you have achieved them? While the principal, overarching goal of your promotion should have been to boost sales and increase brand recognition, another main goal of your promotion should be to record and analyze the results for future use. Even if your promotion was not “successful” in the way you planned, having accurate measurements of all of the factors at hand will allow you and your team to identify areas for improvement. As we mentioned earlier, sometimes a promotion can seem successful on the surface, but can actually not produce the intended results. Make sure you are setting multiple goals ahead of your promotion so you are able to track metrics for all of them and determine the true effectiveness of your efforts.

Crunching Your Numbers Baseline sales that would have occured prior to the Promotion-+incremental sales to clients +sales from weeks during the promotion =Total sales during promotion -Cost of Promotion: $X? Divided by Baseline=Your Gain from the Promotion

IDENTITYEDGE.PROMO 17

IDENTITYEDGE.PROMO 9

Report on

Co-Oping Promotional Products Progra

Athletic events

with

In

the September issue we promised to do a follow up on Co-Oping your promotional products campaigns with athletic programs and non-competing companies. Here are some suggestions we want to share with you.

Think of all Co-Oping can do…from increasing local market penetration; brand/ messaging consistency; or ensuring customer satis-

There are many common and probably obvious reasons companies invest in co-op performers, and reward marketing... your contractors.

But when you put Co-Oping to work with athletics, it takes on a special charm of its own.

faction and fostering brand loyalty, Co-Oping is a money maker and impression getter.

It can also do other jobs, like recruiting, training top

Sports people are fanatical and when you put the right co-op together they will rant about it and could collecti it for years. Co-Oping with sports both locally and nationally is hot and will reap lots and lots of impressions.

Let’s take a look on the very inexpensive side of a promotion that will get a ton of impressions/branding.

You are introducing a new product at your bank and your goal is to attract at least 500 new customers. You have been given virtually no budget.

You find a company to Co-Op with—a local contractor that

you’ve done business w and know. What’s the A free home inspection What has this got to do withsports?

The bank and contract pay for printing the loc colleges school footba schedule and some of signage for games. Of course their company name’s would be on th schedules/signage. Th of the 1,000’s & 1,000’s impressions and brand they got. Sounds too s think not. In situations this you can monitor th success in terms of imp sions and having a hig number of impressions will hit your bottom lin In this case, the measu ment is in how many h inspections are made a how many referrals go the bank to open a new account. For about $5 they split costs and ma

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Another example, your company is growing and you need to recruit people and make your company known to the community at the same time.

Doing co-ops with local companies will get you into the right door—why go it alone? Using promotional products gets huge impressions especially when you combine them with sports and the locals.

Sports memorabilia for most—from items like really cool t-shirts to a bobblehead—will bring the highest number of impressions per dollar. By the way, bobble-heads are one of the most sought after items used promotionally at major league parks. Now think of all that publicity you’ve gotten and you only spent half of your budget because you Co-Oped with another company!

Co-Ops can also be incentives to your employees, (non-competing of course). Offering a Co-Op is a great way to provide an incentive to your employees. Think about it this way…your partner can provide products that you can’t and vice versa. Trading encouraged!

Bobblehead by

IDENTITYEDGE.PROMO 27

PROP

65

Wha

ONE

These n tional p Buyers In orde tions a one in nicate parties

On August 30th new Prop 65 labeling requirements go in to effect. Here’s what you need to know to protect your promotional products campaigns and the products you use to support them.

Prop 65 is the Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986, legistlation that requires businesses to notify Californians about significant amounts of chemicals in the products they purchase.

Starting August 30th, Prop 65 will require more rigorous warnings for products that contain chemicals the State has deemed to cause cancer or reproductive toxicity.

What rules are changing? The new warning labels will be hard to ignore as they’ll feature a triangular yellow warning symbol with an exclamation point. In addition, the new warnings will say a product “can expose you to” a Prop 65

chemical rather than saying the product “contains” the chemical. Other guidelines include having the name of at least one chemical of the more than 850 listed by California that prompted the warning, and the internet address for the OEHHA’s Proposition 65 warnings website, www.p65warnsings.ca.gov, which includes additional information on the health effects of listed chemicals and ways to reduce or eliminate exposure.

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new guidelines force promoproducts companies and their s to increase their due diligence. er to comply with these regulaand avoid vulnerability, everythe supply chain has to commuwith each other to make sure all s are on the same page.

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ugh California states that facturers have the primary nsibility for providing Prop rnings, everyone in the supain is liable. Take care, spend tra couple of pennies to proabel your promotional ct.

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enalties for not following the 5 guidelines are generally done gh bounty hunter fines extrapolatough civil cases. Law firms are g for violators and usually find when people find improperly d products. Generally, only then ey brought to attention.

Keep a good eye out‌Ask questions!

First and foremost, don’t worry, your promotion will still do what its supposed to... and that’s to win lots of impressions.

Manufacturers have to handle labeling issues, determining which products need attention, which chemicals should be highlighted and then potentially removing labels for products not heading to California.

Starbucks In-Store Labeling

Catalogs mailed to clients in California must include warnings for products containing listed chemicals. When clients are search for products online, some companies have enabled warnings to pop up when a California ZIP code is entered.

WARNING: Prop 65 Has Changed. If Your Product Is Sold or Distributed in California OR You Do Business in California...

PAY ATTENTION!

Social Styles 2019 Social Styles today revolve more and more around the internet. From whatsap to twitter, facebook, even Game of Thones, social styles change when some new app pops up and makes millions. Keeping up those changes and applying that knowledge to your promotion products buys is a daunting, but critical task.

You’ve got start incorporating your promotional products programs with social styles because they are so tightly wrapped around your client’s daily behavior. The more you incorporate social styles/media into your promotional products buys, the more impressions and advertising you will get.

Look at our President, he uses twitter.

He constantly promotes his agenda through twitter. You can do the same and incorporate this trend into your advertising campaigns and seal the deal by using promotional products.

Some people would argue Social Styles are really a discussion about personalities such as-analytical, driver, amiable, or expressive--but we’d like to bend that for a moment and ask you to consider it from another perspective.

Social Media Trends Are Taking Over

19

We’d like to p your promot really puts yo thing is you c impressions

present the notion that combining tions with social styles and social media ou on the cutting edge. And the nice can measure it by how many hits/ you get from that social connection.

Here’s our general premise for this notion. You can safely assume that every person using social media carries one social style or another.

Now you can also assume that your clients are using social media in what ever fashion they do. Capture both in the same moment--combine their social styles with their social media choices in your marketing observations, apply promotional products as your deal closer-and it will result in a direct hit to increase your impressions and you can measure your success.

How do you initiate this program?

Start with sizing up your customers.

Get to know their overall personality types. Start putting stuff on spread sheets. Find out where they spend their time on social media. Requires some marketing data collection!

After you can make a reasonable assumption about what social media to use.

Start to think about what promo products would cause them to participate on social media. Then start your social media campaign.

At the end you’ll reward them with a really cool promotional product.

People will chat up the promo product (if its cool) on social media and you’ll get a lot of free press as well. ALWAYS make sure you have a visible goal in mind, like increasing walk in traffic or opening an account.

You can measure your success instantly when you read the reports from the social media you’ve chosen to be your platform for the promotion. Last word of advice...do the research...don’t shoot from the hip.

IDENTITYEDGE.PROMO 33

Beautiful Products We Make

Designed for You

Update Trumps

Effecti

ARE New Tariffs

President Tump announced on September 17th that he’d impose nearly $200 billion in Chinese goods as the trade way between the world’s two superpowers intensifies.

The 10% tax on Chinese imports will take effect September 24th and rise to 25% by the end of the year. Anticipating a response, Trump has threatened to impose an additional $267 billion if Bejing retaliates. More than 5,000 US goods will be affected.

President Trump’s policy is not just America First but “America Decides”. He is attempting to show that it will be for America to call the game on trade, in spite of warnings from governments all over the globe. For example, Free Trade Deals with the US and UK will be on American terms but not if PM May has any say in that.

Taking a tough stance is good, but some of the countries we are strong arming have a pretty big stick and some are allies. Other thoughts: China holds $1 TRILLION worth of US debt. If China decided to call in that debt , it would spell “ruinious result” to our stock markets. Additionally with the big increases in steel and aluminum tarrifs, all autos are going to increase in price big time. Will America Be First then? Most say this is sure to slow our economy down and puts people out of work.

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Case

Study

Game Day Promos are big at Buffalo Wild Wings, just check their website.

There’s an entire section on their website exclusively for promos. Recently they used a portable grills shaped like a football as an incentive.

There’s no better combo than something as original as a football shaped grill and Game Day.

Let’s Play Ball!

Game Day