Did you know that 79% of people hold onto old t-shirts for sentimental reasons? PPB Magazine recently ran a great article reporting on the results of a survey on this subject by BlueCotton. The survey provided evidence to back up what we’ve know all along (and blogged about not too long ago!) – people are very attached to their t-shirts, and this attachment cuts across age groups and demographics.

According to PPB, the BlueCotton study found that:

• Four out of five people hold onto at least one sentimental old shirt, and some keep two or three.
  Vacation t-shirts are the most kept of any category.
• Survey respondents aged 18 to 24 are the most likely to keep old t-shirts, and they are also more likely to keep a t-shirt from a concert or a political election.
• Post-grad degree holders are twice as likely as those with only a bachelor’s degree to have a t-shirt from a sorority or fraternity.
• People are more likely to keep a shirt they got as a sports spectator than as a participant.
• Employer or work t-shirts are most often kept by those in the highest income brackets.
• Shirts from church events are most cherished by women, non-whites and residents of the Southern United States.

So what does all this mean? T-shirts are a great promotion for anyone. Whether you are targeting highly-educated, high net worth professionals, GenX or Y voters, or middle-aged sports enthusiasts, the love of t-shirts cuts across all generations, ethnic groups, and income levels.

And, like we’ve said before, the perceived value of t-shirts (and SWAG in general) is often significantly higher than the actual cost, making them one of the best promotions when evaluated in terms of value for money. Every time someone pulls your t-shirt out of their drawer, they are reminded of your brand – and every time they wear your t-shirt, your brand gets exposed to new audiences. What other advertising medium provides that kind of long-term value?

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Today’s New York Times reports that the National Academy of Sciences, Institute of Medicine has come out with a report recommending that doctors stop taking much of the money, gifts and free drug samples that they routinely accept from drug and device companies. This comes on the heals of similar reports by the Association of American Medical Colleges (which last year proposed tough new rules governing interactions between companies and medical schools), the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (which last July released updates to its voluntary Code on Interactions with Healthcare Professionals that took effect in January 2009), and the Advanced Medical Technology Association (the revised Code of Ethics prohibit gifts of any type, including all non-educational branded promotional items, regardless of value).

Given the slew of new ethical guidelines and gifting rules, it can be mind-boggling trying to understand the options for marketing to healthcare professionals. But never fear! Even with the new rules in place, there are still a variety of ways to reach out to medical professionals. For example, the PhRMA Code allows the gifting of “items designed primarily for the education of patients or health care professionals” if the items are valued at under $100 and don’t have value to health professionals outside of their work environment. So, under these guidelines, you could give out an anatomical model to be used in an exam room, but not a DVD player with a DVD explaining anatomy (because the DVD player has a use outside of the medical environment).

The key for promotional products distributors such as ourselves is to become well-versed in the educational needs of physicians and their patients. In this way, we can better advise our customers – particularly those who are marketing and selling to the healthcare industry – how to strengthen their brand in a way that is ethically acceptable.

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The world of promotional products is filled with useless tchochkis and dime-a-dozen pens, mugs and t-shirts. Don’t get me wrong – there is a place for all of that stuff. But every now and then a product comes along that is so unique and clever, I feel like I’ve found the promotion – now I just have to find the customer for it (kind of like when I buy a dress and then need to find the special occasion for it). Meatcards are one such product – business cards made from meat and lasers. Huh?!

Somebody has found a way to take a piece of beef jerky and customize it with your information, logo, name, etc. I know it sounds crazy, but imagine the smiles you will get when you hand out your piece of meat at a networking event or send it to prospects through the mail. You can bet that this promotion will be talked about long after it is given out.

Clearly, a beef jerky business card isn’t for everyone, but for the right person (with a sense of humor – and an appetite!), these would be a great way to send a message. Imagine it…

… Don’t be a jerk – call us today!
… Hungry to make a deal?
… Want a taste of success?
… Do you ever feel like you are just a piece of meat?
… “Meat” me at the Expo!

Want to be my first Meat Card customer?

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Few things are worse than lying on a beach towel covered in sand. Let’s face it- once the sand is on your towel, it’s staying, no matter how many times you shake it out. If you’re like me, you’re on the beach all of 10 minutes before you’re covered in sand. It doesn’t really bother me, I just deal with it. But I know it bothers a lot of other people - especially my best friend from college, Katie.

I have never met someone so obsessed with keeping sand off their towel! After all, when you are at the beach, a little sand anywhere is to be expected. But not on Katie’s towel! If we’re at the beach all day, she’ll probably shake her towel off at least 20 times. She even has a specific way of laying onto her towel so she doesn’t kick any sand on it. Her technique, while admirable, doesn’t always work – hence all those shake-offs.

I think I’ve found a solution for Katie and all you other Eremikophobics (Eremikophobia is the fear of sand or deserts). And even if you don’t hate sand- keeping it off your towel is always than better than laying in it!

Beach Bottoms are the solution for sand haters. They are the ultimate beach blankets, stretching to over 85” x 65” – plenty of space for even the biggest and tallest sprawlers. After you lay out the Beach Bottom, you lay your towel on top and voila! Step onto the Beach Bottom before your towel and the sand goes on the Beach Bottom, not your towel! They are made from durable, lightweight, stretch fabric and have two zippered storage pockets with iPod cord access.

Why is a Beach Bottom a great promotional idea? Well, Beach Bottoms’ large size makes plenty of room for branding. There are 8 imprint areas that expand edge to edge, so while the user is putting a towel on top, you logo or message will still be seen. This is a great giveaway for corporate events, event room gifts, executive retreats, or any other summer promotion.

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Today is Earth Day, in case you didn’t already know. What began in 1970 as a grassroots, nationwide protest on behalf of the environment has evolved into a well organized annual event that involves people around the globe. The theme of this year’s Earth Day is “The Green Generation.” According to www.earthday.net, the core principles of the Green Generation are:

• A carbon-free future based on renewable energy that will end our common dependency on fossil fuels, including coal;
• An individual’s commitment to responsible, sustainable consumption; and
• Creation of a new green economy that lifts people out of poverty by creating millions of quality green jobs and transforms the global education system into a green one.

I think “The Green Generation” is a very fitting theme for this year’s Earth Day celebrations. The core values of environmental protection and sustainable living have gone mainstream and are here to stay. According to Advertising Age magazine, 2009 will see triple the number of launches of new, eco-friendly products as 2008. And sales of these products are increasing as well, with Nielsen Co. data showing sales growth of organic food at 5.6% year over year in December from a year ago, and green product manufacturers such as Seventh Generation experiencing a 50% increase in sales last year (with early data indicating that the pace of growth will keep up in 2009).

So what does all of this mean to you as a marketing professional? To me, it means that none of us can afford to ignore the issue of sustainability in our marketing and promotional strategies. Here are some tips you can use as you market to the Green Generation:

• Broaden your definition of “Green”: These days, most people consider “sustainability” to encompass more than just environmental protection. According to advertising agency Saatchi and Saatchi, many are more concerned with social and economic issues such as poverty, employment and health care than they are about the environment. When all of these issues are linked together with the environment under the umbrella of sustainability, they become a powerful selling point. Does your organization have a corporate Sustainability Policy (see ours here)? If not, now would be a great time to put one in place. If you do, then its time to take a fresh look at how sustainability is defined and make sure that consumers know that your corporate value system is in line with theirs.
• Consider cause-related marketing: You don’t have to sell green products to benefit from the green revolution that is taking place. Instead, you can build your brand equity by associating it with causes that promote sustainability. In an era when corporate greed is being blamed for our broader economic woes, consumers are hungry for opportunities to ally themselves with companies that stand for more than just profit. By linking corporate identities with nonprofit organizations and good causes, CRM aims to connect brands with consumers beyond the traditional point of purchase and to form long-lasting and emotional ties. CRM comes in a variety of forms – you can sponsor events such as an Earth Day forum, promote internal programs such as employee volunteer work in the community, promote causes by encouraging your customers to get involved (for example, by giving away tree seedlings for planting on Earth Day), or incorporate purchase-triggered donations into your business model. Check out the kinds of CRM that we’re involved with here.
• Practice sustainable purchasing: Everyone buys promotional products, but how many of those products are eco-friendly? Did you know that just about every kind of promotional item can be found in an eco-friendly form? From t-shirts made of organic cotton or bamboo, to mugs made of recycled corn plastic, to gadgets that help save energy, there is an infinite variety of ways to incorporate the theme of sustainability into your promotional product purchasing plans. Sometimes, you can do this simply by changing the nature of the items you are buying. For example, rather than buying branded bottled water, why not consider making the switch to a branded water bottle that can be refilled and reused time and time again?
• Buy local: One of the main ways we can all cut down on our carbon footprint is by reducing the emissions generated by vehicles used to ship products over long distances. You can do this by working with your supplier of promotional products to find sources in your local area. Not only will this help the environment, it’s a great way to support local business and contribute to a stronger community!

At this point, it’s a little late to start planning an earth day-themed event for this year, but now is the perfect time to consider how you will adjust your marketing strategies to more effectively target the Green Generation. Its also a great time to start thinking about what you will do next April when we celebrate the 40th anniversary of Earth Day!

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It’s tough to get people’s attention these days. With the economy the way it is, people seem jaded by traditional advertisements. Added to this is the onslaught of information available via social media – Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc. Plus, with all the bad news, people seem to be gravitating towards anything that is funny, clever or uplifting. In an era of shrinking budgets and changing advertising paradigms, how can companies – particularly small or medium-sized ones that don’t have in-house creative teams – get the attention of the marketplace?

In my opinion, this is the perfect time to revisit (or test out for the first time) guerrilla marketing. For those who don’t already know, “guerrilla marketing” is a term first coined in 1983 by Jay Conrad Levinson in his book Guerilla Marketing. It refers to unconventional promotional strategies that rely on time, energy and imagination rather than a big marketing budget. Guerrilla marketing tactics target consumers in unexpected places (which can make the idea that’s being marketed memorable), generate buzz, and the best ones spread virally.

Take for example a recent promotion by HBO for the new series Eastbound and Down, produced by Will Ferrell and starring Danny McBride of Tropic Thunder and Pineapple Express fame. The show is a comedy about Kenny Powers, a former baseball star who returns to teach physical education at his old middle school. To get the attention of the show’s target audience – men age 18 to 34 – HBO sent street teams wearing Eastbound and Down branded baseball shirts and caps to sports bars, gyms and liquor stores in New York and Los Angeles. There, they put 5,000 half-baseball static clings to windows and mirrors. On the baseball it said, “Kenny Powers Was Here Motherf&@#ers.”

The tone of the promotion, with the expletive on the ball and the shattered glass, is consistent with the in-your-face, irreverent tone of the show and HBO marketing executives are hoping that people will like the baseballs so much that they steal them. Meanwhile, the street teams are prepared to hit the street again to replace any ads that go missing.

What is so brilliant about HBO’s marketing strategy is that it is comparatively much less expensive than other, more traditional forms of advertising that networks typically use to promote their shows. That static cling baseball costs a little less than $8 for 5000 pieces (the number that HBO distributed) – that means HBO spent about $40,000 on this promotion. Sound expensive? Smaller quantities (for smaller budgets) can be purchased for approximately $13 each (for 50 pieces) and can be imprinted with any logo or message. With the right placement, imagine what you could do and who you could reach with just $500 to $1,000!

In his article “Guerillas in the Real World,” Jay Conrad Levinson says, “Marketing is a waste of money and time if you’re not attuned to the real world. Reality is not necessarily what you want it to be or what it used to be. Instead, reality is what really is. To many marketers, that’s a major problem, but to guerrilla, it’s an inviting chance to stand apart from the competition.” Now, more than ever, marketing professionals must be aware of reality and find creative, yet budget-friendly ways to attract the market’s attention. Sometimes, everything old is new again – and right now, the guerrilla marketing concept of the early 1980’s seems perfectly suited to 2009!

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Skin cancer - it’s pretty preventable, if you don’t spend time in the sun without wearing a high SPF sunscreen. But how many times have you ended up with severe sunburn because you forgot your tube of lotion while you were out on the water, golfing, or at a picnic?

Are you listening? Because I’m about to drop some knowledge! Order SUNSCREEN STICKS for your next promotion for two main reasons. First, sunscreen sticks are relatively inexpensive (under $3), and second, they’re a “throw and go” item meaning they are easy to throw in a beach bag, car, boat, or golf bag.

No one likes greasy hands after applying lotion, especially if you’re golfing or on a beach where the sand will stick to your sticky self. These sticks solve that dilemma - you just twist the stick and slide some on. They are also ideal for applying sunscreen to fidgety little kids and their tiny but very sun-vulnerable faces.

There’s a good chance your target audience is buying sunscreen sticks like these at the store already. Why not step up and give out something people will actually use? Plus, the tube will have your logo or message, which will be seen every time the user needs some quick sun protection.

According to the American Academy of Dermatology, 1 in 5 Americans will develop skin cancer in their lifetime. If that’s not a good enough reason to give out sunscreen sticks, then I don’t know what is!

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Annapolis, MD April 15, 2009-

Quintain Marketing announced today that it has become a member of the Annapolis Sustainable Business Alliance (ASBA). In an effort to promote the local economy, ASBA encourages local individuals and businesses to “think local” and buy from local, independently-owned businesses. The group also educates the public on the importance of supporting the local economy, and encourages businesses and consumers to be environmentally sustainable and socially responsible.

“We thought that this was a really important cause for Quintain to get behind,” said owner and CEO Kathleen Booth, “Since we are a locally owned and operated business, we understand the impact of local support. We’ve also made sustainability a cornerstone of our business – we introduced a Sustainability Policy in 2008 and have also been purchasing 100% wind power for our energy needs – so the ASBA’s focus on environmental sustainability was a good fit for us.”

About Annapolis Sustainable Business Alliance
The Annapolis Sustainable Business Alliance is a non-profit group comprised of local, Annapolis-based, independently-owned businesses. ASBA has launched a Buy Local campaign (www.buylocalannapolis.com) to tout the benefits of buying close to home, which keeps money invested in the community, helps the environment and emphasizes what’s unique about the region. ASBA is a member of the BALLE network: an international alliance of independently operated local business networks dedicated to building Local Living Economies. Visit www.livingeconomies.org for more information.

About Quintain Marketing
Quintain Marketing is a promotional strategy consulting firm located in Annapolis, MD, and offering unique, creative and high quality branded products, dimensional marketing, and web-based employee and customer gifting and incentive programs.

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By Kathleen Booth

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When I think about the month of May, I usually think Cinco de Mayo (May 5), Mother’s Day (May 10), and Memorial Day (May 25). As if those occasions don’t provide enough reasons to celebrate, did you know that the month of May is also “Creative Beginnings Month” (the time to begin things like garden or home improvement projects), “Family Wellness Month”, “Gifts from the Garden Month”, and “National Barbecue Month”?

In addition to these, there are a number of other commemorative days and events worth celebrating in May, including:

• No Diet Day (May 6) – I really like this one! Bring on the Krispy Kremes…
• National Miniature Golf Day (May 9)
• National Receptionists Day (May 13)
• Fishing Has No Boundaries Days (May 16-17)
• National Backyard Games Week (May 18-25)
• Indianapolis 500 (May 24)
• National Tap Dance Day (May 25)

My head is starting to spin just thinking about it…!

Whether you want to celebrate National Receptionists Day by recognizing your “Director of First Impressions” or you’re planning a race-themed event to coincide with the Indi 500, it’s not too late to start planning ways to celebrate all the special days in May. From creative invitations that incorporate dimensional mail, to signs and banners, to gifts and giveaways, we can work with you to put your brand on just about anything from tap shoes to mini golf balls to a barbecue tool set or gardening gloves. Give us a call to learn more!

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One of the main reasons that promotional products should represent a significant proportion of any company’s marketing mix is that time and time again, they have proven to outperform traditional media (TV, radio, print and outdoor billboard ads) in terms of return on investment (ROI). Companies are beginning to recognize this and direct their spending accordingly. According to TNS Media, traditional ad spending fell by 2% in the third quarter of 2008, whereas sales of promotional products have been increasing year on year by approximately 3.5% (according to PPB magazine).

There are a number of reasons that promotional products sales are growing:

• They are cost effective: In an earlier blog post, we talked about how the average cost-per-impression (CPI) of an advertising specialty item is $0.004, whereas the CPI of other media forms ranges from $0.005 for spot radio ads to $0.033 for a national magazine ad.
• They are tangible: At a time when marketing budgets are shrinking, promotional products are highly visible and let the buyer see and touch what they are getting for their money.
• They make a strong impression: In another blog post, we discussed how promotional products are the only form of advertising that can appeal to all five senses. This multi-sensory appeal has a powerful impact on the emotions of the recipient.

Perhaps most importantly, promotional products can be used in a way that enables companies to accurately track their ROI – something that can be difficult if not impossible to do with traditional media.

Before you can track your ROI, you’ve got to define what you mean by “return on investment.” To us, it is quite simply the total profit or savings less the original investment. To measure ROI, you therefore must determine what the objective(s) of the campaign are and how achievement of those objectives will be met. How you do this will depend upon the type of campaign you are undertaking. Some examples:

• If the objective is to increase traffic at a tradeshow booth by sending out a pre-show mailer containing a promotional product, ROI would be measured by the number of leads or booth visits that the mailer generates, and the resulting sales to those new contacts.
• When the direct mail campaign is aimed at reaching out to prospective clients, you can use tools such as PURL campaigns (personal URLs or microsites that are used to capture direct-mail campaign responses) to quantify the outcome.
• For a company looking to increase sales, incentive programs can be used to reward salespeople who outperform their objectives and ROI can be measured by dividing the increase in profits by the cost of the incentives.
• Promotional products can also be used for recruitment and employee retention programs. In those cases, to measure ROI a company must first understand what it costs them to recruit new employees (either through payments to staffing consultants or advertising costs) and to retrain new employees (to replace those who have left). With this information in hand, it then becomes easy to understand ROI if the cost of the promotional items is less than the alternative amount that the company would have spent.

These are just some of the ways that ROI can be tracked.

Here at Quintain Marketing, we place strong emphasis on tracking ROI and we’ve seen great results from doing so. If you check out the Success Stories on our website, you’ll see lots of case studies such as the one about our work with City Dock Coffee, where we were able to achieve an ROI of 20 to 1 through a dimensional mail campaign that incorporated a branded fishing lure!

What does all this mean for you as a consumer of promotional services and products? You need to ask your promotional consultant how they will work with you to set goals for your campaign, measure whether those goals have been acheived, and track ROI in a way that is concrete and measurable.

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