Often, I and others on our team get a request by email, a website inquiry, or a phone call asking about our price on 100 pens or 100 coffee cups. We can definitely answer that question, but the answer will not be worth anything. It is almost the same as asking a car salesperson “How much does a car cost?” While I and our team are very aware that it is an important factor in buying branded uniforms, event collateral, branded gifts, and awards; this blog will focus on important areas our current and future customers should consider before asking a question about price of a custom branded item.
Here are my thoughts on what process the reader should go through before reaching out to a professional for help. Of course, at any step in the process, I and our team are happy to assist, and our consultations are generally at no additional cost, as our compensation is from sourcing, adding the brand and message, coordinating the production, and on time delivery of these useful tools to achieve your business goals. If there is one objective that custom branded items can be used for it is recognition. Perhaps you could run the steps below thinking of a group that your organization needs to recognize which could be team members, great customers or special vendors.
- What is the objective of the campaign?
One of our taglines when describing what we do is we help our customers “Thank, Invite, Excite, Recognize, and Reward” those important to their organization. Likely your campaign will have one or more of these objectives when thinking about using a custom branded items as great tool to achieve a result for your organization. - What is the budget for the campaign?
Total versus each of the parts - Is this a reoccurring campaign?
If it’s not a new campaign; what can we apply from last time we ran this or a similar campaign to improve and what do we need to repeat that worked. - Create a timeline
Visit Our Planning Blog for tips as to when we start planning, promoting, choosing vendors, ordering collateral, the actual event or campaign launch, and the after action review and follow up. - Brainstorm!
Think on your own, or with industry peers, based on your objective and budget what gifts or recognition items would be best received by the audience and aid to achieve your objective. Maybe adding keywords to Google, like recognition or business gifts, and seeing what comes up would be helpful. You can do the same on our website (www.swflmarketinggroup.com/online-catalog) using keywords, quantity, and price range to see what comes up, and then chat amongst the team to pick some favorites.
Afterwards, reach out to a professional team that is able to assist you in locating the best custom printed items to achieve your objectives with items that are appreciated by your audience and are within your budget. This team should be able to not just check and confirm pricing with all additional costs, but also inventory of the item you are thinking about and turn around time including shipping to ensure timely delivery. We do not knowingly accept an order if we cannot deliver it on time and if there is a problem in the quality of the item or a late delivery, we guarantee to make it right or you do not pay.
A great resource that our team counts on for staying up to date with what is new and what works is our trade association the Promotional Products Association International. They are hosting a virtual event to celebrate Promotional Products Work Week on September 29 from 11 am – 5 pm eastern time and this event is open to any reader and you can attend for 15 minutes or several hours and learn how to use promotional products and see what is new and what is working by product category and also product use or campaign objective. Please reach out to me directly if this is something you’re interested in!
Please do not hesitate to contact us to set up your in-person or remote meeting to plan out your next great idea! We are available to our customers by phone, at 239-437-4370, by email, or at our physical location! We look forward to hearing from you!
