Have you seen that “weeeeeeeeeeee” piggy ziplining in the new GEICO commercial – I just love him!! Not only is that damn piggy freakin’ adorable but it totally reminds me it’s GEICO… and that’s total brand building at it’s best. I know, I know but what the old school “rules” of consistency and repetition to build a brand? Well look at the GEICO GECKO and the CAVEMAN…yep, all different brand images that GEICO has also utilized in their marketing campaigns. Consistency and repetition are the sure fire methods to building any brand but as you can see from GEICO, if done right you can break the “rules” and have numerous iconic ads running simultaneously.

I read this great article by  Renee Quinn of IPWatchdog and thought it would be great to share her take on GEICO’s multi-brand tactics. Take a quick read and enjoy that piggy commercial….. weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

As the holiday season approaches, promotional products are often used as giveaways to employees, business associates and customers with the intention of increasing your brand awareness and exposure.
The fundamental aim of promotional products is to reinforce your marketing message, like with all other marketing tools. Any brand needs different mediums to reach its target audience, promotional products are just another way of creating publicity for your brands. Promotional products constitute a significant part of the interactive marketing strategy as they allow you to connect with your target market on a different level.
Promotional products are customizable and for that reason they add an element of tangibility to your brand. They give substance to all your advertising efforts, and always make your brand stand out no matter whether it’s a branded stationery, shirts, baseball caps, mugs, jewelry, key chains, gift items and the like.

Since promotional products are one medium that engage all five senses i.e. the target audience can see, hear, touch, taste, and even smell them, they have a greater impact on their perception of a brand. These promotional products not only leave a long lasting impression on the audience, but have readily measurable effectiveness.
What’s more is that these promotional products come in pretty affordable rates, and offer great value and usability to customers, while strengthening your brand’s awareness and recall. Marketers can use promotional products as gift items to clients, employees and customers, sales items for Corporate Social Responsibility causes, as mass giveaways in tradeshows and other special marketing events, and as rewards for your vendors and distributors.
The process of effective branding includes using various marketing strategies for keeping the demographically diverse target audiences engaged with the brand. Promotional products allow you to create a place for your brand and company in the target market’s minds. So if your company is looking to build its brand equity then creating brand awareness is the first step towards the goal, which can be effectively achieved by transferring your brand logo to promotional items that you can give away to promote your business.

Promotional products can help you:
• Drive traffic and prospective customers to your brand’s stall in a tradeshow.
• They help develop a greater consumer response rate to your direct mail campaigns.
• With their help, you can increase your referrals, and consequentially, the business returns.
• Increase employee morale and as a result, their productivity level.
• They boost brand loyalty and help customers retain your brand in the top of the mind category of recall.
• Constantly remind customers of your brand’s existence.

Using promotional products can increase your brand’s awareness and its involvement with customers in a cost-effective manner. They help in brand reinforcement by improving the advertising returns, meanwhile also increasing the power and awareness of your brand. Furthermore, they work like an incentive for potential customers by compelling them to buy your brand in order to avail the free promotional products. For that reason, promotional products are always a part of a smart marketing strategy. Why not check out some of our products and we can find the right item to fit your budget and your brand@

How to get Twitter follower is a question we often get this asked and in our quest to find the the right answer – we came across this great graphical representation from Twiends that explains it all~ and since visuals always help we’d thought to share, enjoy!

In the constant struggle to keep up with the social media train and the ever-conquering quest for social media ROI, I came across a great read that I would highly recommend to any small business. It truly emphasizes that if your a business – big, small, entrepreneur, solopreneur – and you’re not utilizing the vast capabilities of social media – you are missing out on a huge  marketing shift that is happening NOW. 

This book is so full of little nuggets of information and wisdom, that I was so excited to finish in 2 days!  The book, The Thank You Economy, by  Gary Vaynerchuk total focus is on how we’ve entered into a new business era. The businesses and brands that harness the word-of-mouth power from social media, those that can shift their culture to be more customer-aware and fan-friendly, will pull away from the pack and profit in today’s markets.
Gary Vaynerchuk, renowned entrepreneur, keeps you flipping the pages fast with his irrestible candor and wit. He was interviewed by Brian Elliot of Behind the Brand not to long ago and I happend to find the YouTube video – take a look to get an insight into Gary and his passionate sense for the small business.