The Beauty of Recycled Products

Are you one of the millions of people who have received lots of promotional items from your business partners or potential vendors? Maybe you are beginning to design a marketing or promotional campaign and want to avoid adding to this situation, or maybe you are hoping to limit the amount of plastic or harmful materials used in your "giveaways". If so, you can find a good solution in the vast array of promotional recycled merchandise available.

Now, before you leap to the conclusion that your choices are going to be limited to a few items, you should know that recycled merchandise includes everything from fleece jackets and customizable umbrellas, to gorgeous mugs and all kinds of office supplies. This means that nearly any target group can have an ideally matched freebie available.

What is a target group? When you plan on using promotional products it is always essential to consider the primary audience of recipients in order to be sure that the merchandise they receive has some sort of relevance and usefulness to them. For instance, if your clients tend to operate away from their desk or office, you would want to give them promotional merchandise that could easily transition between their desk and their briefcase. This would mean that recycled note pads, writing implements, and mobile device holders would make for truly useful, relevant and meaningful giveaways.

Meaningful is also an important word in any discussion about the creation of promotional campaigns, and this is because it is a term that serves a dual purpose. For one thing, any promotional product has to somehow form a connection between the consumer and the business (such as a tech firm handing out imprinted USB devices to new clients), but it can also send a much more subtle message too. This is particularly the case where recycled goods are concerned.

For example, let's say that you have decided to hand out pencils to all of your new or potential clients since these are a very affordable form of advertising and promotion. This is a very practical approach to marketing, but if you also add another element to the message, such as giving out only recycled pencils, then you are telling your customers a bit more about your business ethic. By choosing a recycled product you are conveying a concern about the environment, the future, and the way that resources are consumed and used in the modern world. Simon Patnick, Managing Director of http://www.MerchandiseMania.co.uk mentioned such corporate responsibility initiatives in a recent blog entry, and affirmed that ethics and responsibility are two key factors in business success in the coming decade.

If this is the sort of message that you want to send to your potential customers or to an existing customer base, then it is always going to be the recycled goods to choose. You can, however, also consider handing out recyclable or biodegradable goods as well.  What would these include? Generally, you will find an enormous array of shopping bags and totes that are made from recyclable or biodegradable materials and there are few people who don't appreciate such a promotional product. These can be used for weekly shopping, toting recyclables to the curb, and much more. They are also an excellent form of free advertising, and can serve as a core feature in any marketing plan.

The Earthquake in Japan will Affect us all!

Ok, so first things first. The earthquake that struck Japan last week followed by the Tsunami and subsequent aftershocks is a terrible tragedy for Japan its people and all associated and affected by it. My heart goes out to the whole country.

I cannot see how anyone could not be moved by the images and the scenes of destruction shown by the media.

I have been asked by my team here how this will affect us over here and in our business. Clearly our hope is that our Japanese customers are ok and unaffected by the quake, however right now we are yet to hear.

Right now there is a huge shortage of electrical components due to the earthquake in Japan. The Financial Times (FT) states that 30% of the worlds flash memory (our USB’s included) are made in Japan! 10-15% of D-Ram which is a key component in every personal computer also made in Japan along with approximately 40% of the worlds technology components.

Toshiba Corporation, the world's second-largest maker of NAND chips after South Korea's Samsung, has halted operations at its plants in areas affected by rolling power outages. Also, Shin-Etsu Chemical Co. and Sumco Corp., which both make silicon wafers needed to produce semiconductors, have temporarily stopped operations because of damage from the earthquake.

Clearly there will also be huge impact on the car industry with Honda, Toyota, and Nissan all having huge manufacturing plants making vehicle parts in North east Japan.

When supply goes down the price goes up, simple economics!

Any flash memory that was available to the market was brought in bulk by Apple, Dell and HP over the weekend leaving the world with massive shortages, hence the increases we are seeing daily in the price of USB’s. It is unlikely to end in a couple of weeks and my gut feeling is that prices have some way to go before they come down again. I would advise clients to buy when they need and to accept the increases, I don’t believe this problem will be going away anytime soon!

Last Friday's earthquake and subsequent tsunami killed more than 10,000 people, while millions remain without power or adequate food. Near-freezing temperatures have forced 450,000 Japanese into shelters. Concerns continue to rise about radiation leakage from Japan's Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant. Despite the Japanese government pumping $183 billion of emergency funds into its economy, the country's stock market has fallen more than 10% in the last two days.

Take some time out of your day and say a prayer for the people of Japan.

Simon

Top Tips for Surviving Challenging Times

So a couple of years ago, HSBC asked if I could give any tips to surviving in the challenging times we were in. I said yes and the video above is the result of the interview they did with me. What I find really interesting about the words I said a couple of years ago is the nothing, and I mean nothing has changed. They all still pass my test of being sound, at least in my mind.

I mean, come on, why would we not manage our cash better. It makes sense, doesn't it? Lets be absolutely clear things have improved, but this country and our people are far from safety yet. The government has mountains to climb in reducing debt, we the people are paying more in stealth tax than ever. Diesel yesterday at £1.3299 per litre. Or in old money.....£6.05 per gallon. Personally I thought extortion was illegal!

Where is it going and where will it end, I have no idea.....but what I do know is that we all need to toughen up and accept the road will not be straight and lovely, there will be some serious deviations along the way......ultimately as the scouts say....Be Prepared!