The Promotional Items Choice

I recently realized that I use promotional items as a method of “accessorizing” my office space. My coffee mug, my notepads, my calendar – they all give the space in my office a little touch of me. Then it struck me. Why not give my customers more choices when giving away promotional items? You can actually get customers excited about choosing which promotional pieces they want.

If you think about it, the opportunities are pretty limitless. Instead of printing one type of custom calendar with cute kittens or big cars, give your customers several choices. With printing becoming more and more affordable, there really is no excuse to not give this one a shot.

Sizes
First of all, even if you don’t want to take the time to develop several different promotional pieces, you can easily adjust the size. Small and large notepads, big desk calendars or the smaller picture calendar, give the customer a choice, and instead of passing up your offer, you might see them grabbing several different pieces.

Graphics
Another set of options you should consider is to give the customer several color schemes or designs from which to choose. Not everyone wants cute kiddos on their wall, but they might reach for the calendar with a landscape scene.

Types
Don’t limit yourself to one type of promotional item either. Bookmarks, calendars, notepads, and posters – you have lots of options for giveaways. Don’t limit your customers to one or two items.

The goal is to transform the experience of accepting your promotional items into a shopping experience. By engaging in the process of choosing items that reflect a piece of their personality, the customer takes ownership and enjoys promoting your company for you.

Attention Printers: File Transfer is Greener Than Overnight Mailings

FileTransferIsGreen.org found that using an FTP (file transfer protocol) site to upload printing files is much more eco-friendly than sending an overnight package. The organization compared the carbon footprint of an online file transfer and the carbon footprint of sending an overnight package.

Overnight Mailing Carbon Footprint
FileTransferIsGreen put the following scenario to the test: they pretended they were going to send a printed document weighing 2 pounds overnight from Atlanta, Georgia to Salt Lake City, Utah. They listed all of the elements that would need to go into the overnight package:

• The shipping paper for the envelope or box.
• Paper for the address label.
• Driving the package to the dropoff box.
• The carrier picking up the package and driving it to the distribution center.
• The package being driven from the distribution center to the airport.
• The airplane flying to its destination.
• The package being driven from the airport to the distribution center.
• The package being delivered from the distribution center to its destination.

FileTransferIsGreen admits that certain factors are impossible to calculate, like the paper needed for the envelope or how far the carrier drives to or from distribution centers. But, they did calculate what they could, including:

Package Dropoff: 2.2 pounds of CO2 (for two miles roundtrip)
Carrier Trucks: 2.2 pounds of CO2 (for another two miles roundtrip)
Airline Travel: 60 pounds of CO2 (for a Boeing 737-300 to travel 1585 miles)

TOTAL: Approximately 64 pounds of CO2 for one overnight package, not counting the paper used in the packaging.

FTP Carbon Footprint
FileGenius, one of FileTransferIsGreen’s sponsors, estimated the power used to service one of their customers on a FTP upload. They estimated that each one of their servers uses 400 watts, or 288 kWh per month. And since each server can service 50 customers, each customer’s monthly portion would be about 2.88 kWh per month. (Is this correct? I’m not great at math, but I would think 100 customers would equal 2.88 kWh per month. Anyway, this isn’t my study, but I’d appreciate a more broken-down calculation!)

Using a CO2 calculator (the same one used to determine the CO2 used in the overnight delivery), it comes out to each customer being responsible for 8.6 pounds of CO2 per month of FTP usage.

That’s a pretty big difference—note the 64 pounds is for one overnighter and the 8.6 pounds is for one month. And as FileGenius pointed out, the $40 spent on overnighting a package will add up to much more than paying for an FTP service.

Another Example
An architectural firm needed to get plans to 24 corporate and branch office locations of its client. If mailing the plans, 24 packages would have had to go out in shipping tubes, overnight. Transporting the packages through truck and air would cost the firm $100 per package. However, the firm saved $2,400 just by uploading the plans to an FTP site where all 24 client locations could download the plans and view them offline.

This example doesn’t come with CO2 emission numbers, but we can assume from the previous example how much 24 packages would amount to if one package sent overnight amounted to 64 pounds of CO2 : 1,536 pounds of CO2! That’s crazy. The money and the carbon footprint savings would easily pay for the FTP service for months.

FTP seems like a win-win for companies and the environment.

(Example provided by FileTransferIsGreen.)

Another Case of Greenwashing?

Coca-Cola recently announced that its Times Square billboard is going green as well as 29 neighboring billboards. All 30 billboards will be powered by wind, which would be the equal to powering 38 hourseholds for a year. This sounds like a real turning point for the environment – with the bright lights of Times Square and multi-national Coca-Cola going green. But critics wonder, is this really a green initiative and commitment to the environment or is it another case of greenwashing? 

Greenwashing is when companies misrepresent their greenness in marketing – they either claim they’re green when they’re not, or they claim to be more green than they actually are. Basically, greenwashing is lying about being green. For instance, a company might claim to use 100% recycled paper when in reality the paper is only made of 75% recycled content.

Coca-Cola’s Environmental Stewardship

To me, it seems as though Coca-Cola is really trying to be more environmentally friendly in its operations. The company has already taken strides in reducing its water usage with its water conservation initiatives around the world and its recycling campaign in the U.S. The Times Square announcement falls perfectly in line with Coca-Cola’s new campaign: “Refresh. Recycle. Repeat.” This campaign supports its goal to recycle or reuse 100% of its aluminum cans and plastic bottles in the U.S. By promoting its green efforts early on, Coca-Cola is breaking new ground for multi-national consumer goods companies.

Showcasing Corporate Initiatives

Up until recently, corporate social initiatives were only announced internally in annual reports and externally by the PR departments when there was an image problem. Marketing managers have been too afraid to promote social initiatives publically due to the possible backlash if someone found out about an unsavory practice. Coca-Cola’s Times Square announcement showcases its leadership and also might be a precursor to more international companies evolving to current trends and customer demands.

Consumer Shift to be Green

This shift in emphasis can be attributed to mainstream America dealing with the same challenges as corporate America, but on a smaller scale.

In the past few years, consumer attitudes have shifted toward the environment. People are more concerned about their own carbon footprint and are buying up LED light bulbs, hybrid cars and organic cotton clothing. Consumers are worried about their actions on their health and the environment for this generation and generations to come. President Obama and other high profile figures have helped bring global warming and other environmental concerns into the mainstream.

According to a 2008 DoubleClick Performics survey, 60% of consumers say it is either “extremely important” or “very important” for companies to be environmentally conscious. Green consumers are frustrated by the time it takes to change over to a green social economy, but applaud anyone’s and any company’s efforts to go green.

Coca-Cola has taken a giant step in the green direction, and now we wait for other companies to join in. 

Book Review: OBD: Obsessive Branding Disorder by Lucas Conley

OBD is a book about branding by a non-brander. In fact, Lucas Conley is a business writer who controls his resentment of the excesses of branding he describes. Conley investigates and explains in detail the extent to which branding has seeped into modern culture, and how far companies will go to promote their products.

Forms of invasive branding
Those in the marketing and graphic design fields that have worked on brands won’t be surprised – branded golf holes, branded urinals, fake bloggers and even branded beach sand are uncovered as examples of branding going too far. Conley doesn’t say that we don’t need branding – he’s not one of those who think everything should be “no logo, no brand” – but in Conley’s view branding has become more of a Band-Aid or a solution to inferior products instead of companies actually fixing the broken product. He criticizes executives for becoming “so focused on the strength of the all-encompassing idea — the brand — that they ignore the physical properties that compose it.”

Conley gives numerous examples of forms of invasive branding that threaten people’s understanding of life and culture. He asks “What does it mean when our ‘sense of meaning’ and our ‘sense of identity’ are shaped by someone trying to sell us something?”

After talking with a branding fundamentalist, Conley notes “The more he describes branding, the more it appears to consist entirely of vague idealism and seemingly vain efforts to create something meaningful and permanent of what is often superfluous and transient. The simpler the product, the more Byzantine the branding seems.”

Watch out for Cincinnati
Conley doesn’t see the ad agencies as being the people behind all of this. In fact, he writes that branding has “superseded the advertising industry, either claiming advertising outright or dictating the message that advertisers are allowed to deliver. Increasingly, marketing has also become a division of branding.” He also has no qualms pointing fingers: apparently, Cincinnati, Ohio is a hotbed of professional invasive branders.

Watch out graphic designers!
Conley ties branding into graphic design pretty plainly for designers: people don’t understand design – they don’t “get” it. But clients “get” branding. They get the idea that a brand can make their product better, more appealing to consumers. So, to many companies, graphic design is to follow branding; that is – graphic designers should design for the brand, instead of the other way around.

The branding problem
Conley says the problem with branding is that “...branding, when it’s consistent, provides us with clarity and simplicity in a progressively hectic world. But branding has become unhinged from its initial principles, and its aims have become increasingly exaggerated and warped.”

I’d like to think that there are still some companies left that grow their brands organically – that is, without lies, exaggerations and such. Some companies do it the old-fashioned way – their brand builds with real word-of-mouth (not the 7% of mothers that are compensated for WOM marketing, as Conley states) and real customer service. Oh yeah, and a quality product.

But, unfortunately I see Conley’s take as being all too real for more and more companies. As Publisher’s Weekly states: “Conley's perspective on branding's encroachment into social areas is as alarming as it is stimulating.”

The Anticipated Partnership: Printers and the Environment

It can be tough trying to help the environment when you’re printing materials on one of its most valuable resources. Besides all the paper we use, the inks are also harmful to the ozone layer, what with all the VOCs released into the air while the ink is drying.

But designers have printing options. One is to go with an environmentally friendly printer. Online printing companies like PrintPlace.com have established sustainability systems that decrease waste and support environmental responsibility. Any printer can take steps toward being more environmentally responsible, oftentimes without upping the prices of its products significantly. I don’t know about you, but I’d pay a few cents extra to know that the paper product I’m designing is going to be printed without as much harm to the Earth as traditional printing methods.

Here are some ways that printers can be more environmentally friendly:

Use FSC certified or SFI certified paper. The Forestry Stewardship Council (FSC) certifies that the paper comes from responsibly managed forests and verified recycled sources. FSC certified forests are under strict environmental and social standards and the tree fiber from these forests are tracked all the way to the consumer, including mills, pulp providers, merchants and printers must all follow the strict guidelines. FSC certification ensures that printers are doing the right thing and it takes business away from other companies that may be supporting unsustainable and illegal logging practices.

The Sustainable Forest Initiative is one of the largest in the world and promotes the same behavior as the FSC, but also includes measures to protect wildlife habitat, endangered species and water quality. The SFI requires all harvested areas be reforested promptly.

Use vegetables-based inks. Vegetable-based inks reduce the amount of VOCs (volatile organic compounds) released into the air. VOCs react with nitrogen oxides to form ozone. This lower level ozone from VOCs contributes to smog formation. Ozone is needed in the upper atmosphere, but in the lower level atmosphere, ozone is a lung irritant, which can cause health problems for people, animals and plants.

Vegetable oils are a renewable resource, and the pigment often used in these oils can be toxic. Certain colors of ink contain heavy-metal pigments like barium and copper, which are associated with various health problems. Printers can use certain colors that don’t have these heavy-metal pigments.

Other Ways Printers Can Be More Environmentally Friendly:

• Use water-based aqueous coatings
• Recycle all paper waste
• Use 100% recyclable shipping cartons
• Pack shipping cartons with 100% recyclable material
• Recycle metal printing plates, inks and solvents
• Use three-phase lighting to reduce power costs up to 50%