branding

A customer’s opinion of a business is most often based on an interaction that occurs between the individual and the company’s employees. This effectively means that your clients are hiring workers to be ambassadors for their brands and, according to Business.com, “a new customer will develop an impression about your employee (and your business) in their first seven seconds with your employee.”

Recently we're noticed that sometimes the best ways to market using promotional products is with a packaged set of something useful. Two ideas are gaining attention right now with both SMBs and major companies.

Tool Sets and Safety Kits

Fall is certainly filled with themes on which businesses can capitalize. For example, there is back-to-school, turning leaves and pumpkin-spiced everything. There is also the second-most lucrative holiday for most retailers, Halloween. Other important events include Thanksgiving and Veterans' Day, as well as marketing-driven occasions such as Sweetest Day.

If you read our weekly blogs or follow Idea Custom Solutions on social media, you know we like to talk about the topic of rebranding. With all of the logo changes that occurred over the past few years, we have much to discuss!

Reminder advertising — that's what people outside the industry used to call promotional products.

They are an excellent way to put businesses' names and contact information in front of future customers, helping to make contact at the right time. They are also effective for small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) to brand at public events, such as trade shows, 5K races and fun runs, music fests and even in swag bags.

You hear it now and again: print is not dead! Every day, Americans still pick up magazines and newspapers to read. Plus, the rise of digital media has not stopped the steady flow of printed circulars, promotional postcards and coupons to our physical mailboxes at home and at work.

But does marketing collateral still work for the average business?

It's arguably one of the most useful kinds of promotional products out there. The drinkware category continues to be a tried-and-true choice for promoting small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) in every sector.

It's been said that "imitation is the greatest form of flattery". That concept has inspired some of the best works in popular music, comedy and fine arts for ages. But when it comes to crafting corporate identities and brands, copying other designs is not a good idea. Small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) should always strive to be unique.

Last week on the Idea Custom Solutions blog we pointed out three must-haves for any business that participates in trade shows. Granted, we mentioned the obvious: trade show attendees love to get promotional products.