Happy 25th of July everyone! What significance does the 25th of July hold? Well it’s the world renowned phenomenon that is ‘Christmas in July!’ This celebration isn’t a new concept, in fact 125 years ago in the French Opera ‘Werther,’ a group of children are portrayed as rehearsing a Christmas song in July, to which one of the characters exclaims (in French) “When you sing Christmas in July, you rush the season.”
Being in the promotional products industry we think that Christmas should never be rushed… as a matter of fact we actively encourage companies to start thinking about their Christmas merchandise as soon as feasibly possible! We understand that many merchandise buying professionals are busy all year round, but what we want to avoid is something we see all too often, many companies leave their Christmas merchandise buying too late. This leads to them often panic buying, limiting themselves to products with short lead times.
So why think about your promotional Christmas merchandise in July? Firstly you can plan and outline a full Christmas based strategy, the promotional products market has hundreds of thousands of products, each ready to be branded with your chosen Christmas message. Obviously some products will be more Christmas orientated than others, and by getting your orders in early you’re making sure that your chosen products are in stock and leaving plenty of time for them to be branded and delivered to your customers. By placing your orders as early as July you may even obtain better pricing as products don’t need to be rushed logistically, and can be economically delivered.
I can tell you now bespoke products aren’t as expensive as you’d expect, in fact some of our silicon moulded options are budget friendly and look amazing. The factor that impedes people from this option is lead times, with bespoke products taking anywhere from 4-8 weeks. Undoubtedly the results worth every penny and every working week for them to arrive. Bespoke products are perfect for companies who are precious about their brand guidelines and Pantones, not only would they be brand unique, but will look superb with some creative branding options.
Whatever you choose for your Christmas campaign, even if it is too early, we definitively recommend avoiding the December rush and considering Christmas merchandise earlier this year (with some of our clients already placing orders this week!).
The impressive display has been created by Liverpool based ADHD foundation. Chief executive of ADHD Foundation, Dr Tony Lloyd, said: “The name for the project was actually chosen by the brilliant children who work with the foundation, ADHD and autism are ‘umbrella terms’ for a whole variety of neurodevelopment difficulties and we want to highlight that fact and challenge the stigma of what can be ‘invisible’ disabilities.” Local businesses are also getting involved, for just £250 they can sponsor one of the umbrellas, which in turn will pay for a whole programme of support for families.
Have you ever wondered what place promotional clothing has in high fashion? Well if your conclusion is absolutely none, as a matter of fact, you would be mistaken! What if I told you in 2016 French high fashion designer Vetements, debuted their latest clothing creation, a simple yellow t-shirt, donning the logo of a worldwide popular logistics company. In fact it actually opened their Spring/Summer 2016 fashion show in Paris. Vetements a brand that is worn by A-list celebrities and featured in Vogue Magazine not only opened their fashion show with this t-shirt, but went then went on to sell these t-shirts for 185 dollars each.
According to Vogue magazine there is a new branded garment from another worldwide delivery company that’s also getting attention in 2017. Worldnet International is a premiums logistics company that specialises in the world of fashion, retail and technology.
So why is this, is it because we love our mothers more than our fathers? Well Dr Lars Perner, consumer psychologist thinks it is because we think our mothers deserve more being spent on them, being the larger contributor to home life, whilst at the same time fathers are less gift orientated, less likely to want to receive memorable expensive trinkets or a bouquet of flowers.
Today in the UK millions of people will be visiting polling stations across the country exercising their democratic right to vote for their chosen political party. Each party has their own manifesto, idea on how to run the country, and criticisms of the other parties. One thing they do have in common however is that they all have campaign merchandise! Here at BTC Group we’re always interested in the use of promotional merchandise for all kinds of reasons, with political use being one of them.
Starting with the Labour webshop, the first thing you notice when you visit their products page is information, information, information. Almost all of the products on the first page of their shop are leaflets and posters containing information on their manifesto, education reforms and some leaflets containing information on why not to vote for the other parties. The promo product that did make it to page one are balloons, which is not surprising as promotional balloons provide an inexpensive way to visibly have your brand seen. In the world of politics even without seeing the printed logo, just the colour of the balloon can identify which party is being promoted. The labour party shop has 4 more pages with merchandise e.g. pens, stickers, mugs, t-shirts etc. totalling a healthy selection of over 80 products to choose from.
When you find yourself on the Liberal Democrat’s webshop you will notice their product offering is considerably less than the other parties, with 23 products in total. Giving a smaller range generally isn’t a bad thing. A Study by TED speaker Sheena Lyengar in 1995 shows that shoppers are more likely to purchase jam from a small selection of flavours rather than a large selection. We know that all studies are situational and may not work in every instance, but it might work here for the Liberal Democrat merchandise. The second thing I notice is their product range is very similar to the product ranges we put together for charities, containing products like badges, fundraising boxes, keyrings, pens, clipboards, balloons, flags and bags, all products we have actually stocked for a charity client of ours. These products are considered the essentials for campaigning; the one thing that I see lacking from these essentials is t-shirts. Campaigning t-shirts are at the forefront of the other stores but for one reason or another is not included in the Liberal Democrat offering.
He then went on to test this study in 1978 alongside Dr. John Ott, together they experimented with a certain shade of pink, and had incredible results exhibiting that this shade of pink now known as Baker-Miller Pink did consistently show reductions in hyper excitability. The colour is called Baker-Miller pink because when doing the tests at the Washing State Department of Corrections, only Commander Miller and Warden Baker were willing to have their rooms fully painted in this colour to allow the tests to proceed.
So how does this translate to creating a hoodie that relaxes you? London based creators Steve and Nick Tidball created a super technical hoodie especially for athletes, so they could wear the item and relax before a big event. Steve and Nick are quoted as saying they would like to treat athletes the way NASA treats their astronauts. The hoodie is perfectly designed to calm you down, it possesses a hood that zips all the way over your face, apart from the fact that across the eyes it has a section of Baker-Miller coloured mesh which, doesn’t allow people to see in but provides you with the ability to look out but with a baker-miller pink filter providing 80% visibility. The mesh also slows heartrate by slowing your rate of breathing, delivering a two pronged calming feature through the colour and the fabric. The hoodie also has two very specifically placed pockets perfect to rest your arms over your diaphragm, that act not only as a protective sling, but allow you to be naturally in tune with taking deeper breaths. If all of this wasn’t enough the hoodie also comes with its own soundtrack that puts the wearer into a state of meditation whilst regulating brainwaves.
Earlier this week across the UK the retro styled Nokia 3310 went on sale in mobile phone shops across the country with demand for the device being called astonishing. The original 3310 was released 17 years ago, selling over 100 million devices becoming a cult classic for the ages. The biggest gripe with smartphones today is battery life, something that the 3310 had no issues with previously holding up to two weeks battery life, this is something that has been reintroduced into the new style 3310 which gives you 22 hours of talk time. The new phone isn’t for everyone, and is lacking many smartphone functionalities, but for those only after a phone to make calls and send text messages, this would be the phone for you.
The world has changed a lot in the last 17 years, and with it so have mobile devices, so what is with the new influx of interest in retro gadgets, why the sudden affinity for nostalgic products? To put it simply retro is cool again, anything 70s, 80s, and 90s is making its resurgence, you only have to look at the cinema industry to see that old popular household names are making a comeback. This nostalgic comeback isn’t a simple coincidence, it is the product of clever decisive marketing, companies know that people whose childhood were in the 70’s 80’s and 90’s are likely to now be employed with some being in top paying jobs. These companies appeal to their demographic through nostalgia from their childhood, as a strategy to sell them their product, with this people possibly being in high paid jobs, they are able to charge slightly more, and still make healthy sales.
It is hard not to notice the fact that fidget toys are all the rage at the moment, they are absolutely everywhere, on the high street, on the internet and more than likely you or a family member own one, or have at least seen played with one. History tells us that fads do not need to make sense to become prevalent, I mean do you remember how popular the Crazy Frog was? Fidget toys on the other hand at least have an underlying justification for their existence.
In a study into the condition ADHD (Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder) it actually showed that young boys with this disorder performed better in memory tests if they were allowed to swivel in their chair. As a matter of a fact the ever so popular fidget spinner was initially created as a soothing toy that could help children release pent up energy. Catherine Hettinger originally applied to patent her fidget spinning device in 1993, and pitched it to several toy companies. After Hasbro decided not to pursue the idea, Catherine let the patent lapse in 2005. From this point it is unclear where the resurgence in the fidget spinner came from, but it got to the point that in December 2016 it was identified as the must have office toy for 2016.
With more and more companies using and producing great promotional merchandise, it began to become hard to stand out. Companies found it essential to be the ones with the most innovative promotional tools. This movement lead to a whole new niche in the market which was the need for promotional merchandise suppliers. Companies would no longer produce the merchandise themselves, they would go to these companies and give a list of what they want, and then it was on the shoulders of the promotional merchandise traders to make, source and brand the desired items.