Monday 4 April 2011

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.