Episode Two from Merchandise Mania TV

Merchandise Mania TV is on the air. Well, I say "air", obviously it's on the web. This week, your presenter is the very cuddly Jurgens Brune - a man who can comfortably ingest 700 calories before the rest of us have even had coffee. Enjoy.

The 100th Blog

Well here we are - 100 posts old today. I wonder if Blogger will send me a prize as soon as I click on the Publish Post button. I suspect not. Let's face it, 100 is not the biggest number is some people's worlds, but I'm rather proud of it, so I shall take a moment to look up at the ceiling and smile.

Mmmm. That's better.

I had so many different topics on my mind this morning, which makes a refreshing change from the uninspired writer's block that had been plaguing me for the last couple of weeks. Clearly, this blog has become and opportunity for me to rant and moan about all that's wrong in the world of sales - not as a soapbox, but as a means to train and educate.

I've learned things along the way myself, and I'm still hopeful that I can take all of these musings and get some publisher to turn them into a book for me. Still hopeful.....still....

But I looked back at post number 1. In it, I said that I would bring what's new and exciting in the world of promotional merchandise. After all, the blog had a second purpose beyond my exorcising my demons - it was meant to drive traffic to the Merchandise Mania website and by using appropriate keywords like branded merchandise, corporate gifts and so on, all of those lovely search engines (yes, there is more than one out there) would send new customers my way.

So this week, I thought I would talk about product, and as we're coming into September, now really is the time to start looking at your diaries and calendars for 2011.

We have so many designs to choose from. Desk diaries, A5 and pocket, with a range of cover styles and different colours, we're bound to have the perfect diary to match your corporate image. What's more, our diaries can include up to 16 full colour 'tip in' pages, allowing you to advertise your products and inform your customers and staff.

Here's the thing. Have you ever noticed how there always seem to be one style of diary that's so much more popular than the others? Yup - this one-

There's a reason for that. It's the cheapest model and as such, the diary factories make substantially more of them than any of the others. What happens next is that a whole bunch of forward thinking companies buy the more interesting designs early and so by October and November, everyone else is left to buy what's left on the shelves.

It's not that they want this design - it's just that they have to buy diaries because their customers expect them, and they're too late to have any real choice.

The moral of the story? Oh come on, surely you've figured it out. Order your diaries now, whilst the choices are plentiful and the prices are decent.

Hope that helps. Here's to the next 100 blogs.

One more until we hit the magic century

You know, usually I write my blogs on Thursdays, but as I came into work yesterday I realised that there was nothing that I found truly irksome about which I could write. Oh sure, I could have told you all about some brand new product or a really cool pen, but for some reason I just didn’t feel like it. However, with only one more blog to go before I can boast my 100th post, I figured I would go off on a small tangent - all I needed was something to get me properly annoyed.

In the back of my mind, I knew it would only be a matter of time before something really bothered me and, as luck would have it, only 24 hours later, I find myself truly perturbed.

I am in the midst of putting together some designs for some pin badges, and the hope is that the company in question will give them out to something in excess of 10,000 people.

In an attempt to convey a sense of British pride, they asked that an image of the Union Jack be incorporated somewhere in the design. Now even though they loved the designs, certain people in management were concerned that the use of a Union Jack might have connotations of a connection with the British National Party. For those of you outside of the UK – The BNP is an extremely right wing organisation whose views are wildly unpopular with a good number of people living in the UK – myself included.

But my issue here is not with the BNP. I’d rather not show up on their radar thank you very much, and given what a public forum this is, the less I say the better. No. My issue is with the fact that my country’s flag is no longer consider a symbol of patriotism or of something in which we should be proud – it’s become a symbol of hatred.

Now don’t get me wrong – I’m not a strong supporter of all things British. I don’t proudly hang a flag in my window whenever there’s a major sporting event and I don’t really care less about the Royal Family. But what is happening to that flag is wrong.

I used to look at the relationships that Americans have with their flag and think that it was all just a little too much. Now I’m not so sure. I mean, what’s wrong with a little patriotism? What’s wrong with a little pride?

I’m not screaming from the rooftops about how proud I am to be British, but my country is not made up of racist hate mongers, and I’ll be damned if my flag is going to be thought of in that way.

Can I Have Some Business Please

Good morning. Let me start by saying that young Felix must have had a bad dream or something because he woke up crying at 4.30am and then simply didn't want to go back to sleep. The result is that I'm going to need prescription levels of caffeine to keep awake but if I did take the necessary amount of Red Bull, my chest would actually explode. The best thing I can do is type fast and think little.

This week, I want to return to the subject of social networking. Some time ago on this blog I pointed out what a waste of time Facebook appeared to be to me. More than a year on, my opinion has been ever so slightly modified.

You see, social networking truly is the opiate of the modern masses, and whilst there are still tens of thousands of people who choose to update their status with mindless drivel, there are countless more professional people who put these tools to good use.

Promoting special offers in tweets, changing Facebook status to talk about their latest projects and, of course, blogging, all do wonders at increasing one's ranking in the search engines. It's a darn site cheaper than paying for clicks and there are now even people who tout themselves as Social Media Consultants - a role that would have been laughed out of the office a mere two years ago.

Trouble is, all this blogging seems to invite a very long term view. I write this blog once a week, and I actually post excerpts from this, along with other posts, in a business networking site called eCademy. The immediate result is that people in the business world get a little more insight into how I think and what I might be able to do for them. That's great, and because I enjoy writing too, I keep doing it.

However, I've come to realise that all of these offers, opinions, video feeds, jokes and everything else have come at the expense of my making a very simple request of my readers, and it is this - can I have some business please?

Yep, it's that simple. A lot of sales people come up against this hurdle time and time again. They lay down all of the groundwork, building rapport, presenting excellent products and yet, when it comes to the crunch, they simply don't ask for the business.

Well it strikes me that my blog has gone much the same way. So here's the thing - if you like what I write and you feel that the services that I can offer are relevant to your company, please get in touch so that we can talk about your promotional merchandising needs.

Pretty straightforward, but as I get close to the 100 posts mark, I thought it needed saying.

Have a good week.