A new and exciting product

I'm a cynical bloke me. Anyone who has put up with this blog for long enough will tell you that.

Oh sure, there was a time when a pen with a coloured light inside it could get me all giddy with excitement. When I first joined the promotional merchandise industry, going to trade shows made me feel like a kid in a candy store. Well, on day one at least. By day three I'm very tired and working on the very clear premise that I have seen it all before.

You see, eventually, it's not the product that's important, but what you do with it that counts. A cleverly branded mouse mat can be the start of a very effective marketing campaign, but I've told you all of this before.

Because every once in a while, a new product comes along which gets me genuinely excited. Often my colleagues will laugh at my enthusiasm, and that's fine, because proving them wrong can be a very sweet victory.

Today, I want to tell you about a new product in which I am very excited, mainly because I can see so many places where it has practical applications.

If you work in a busy office, this will improve productivity. If you work in the leisure industry, this will increase customer spend. If you work in the travel industry, this will make your customers happy. Not all of them, I hasten to add - but enough of them to make this a worthwhile investment.

I'm talking about The Vapestick.


This simple stick essentially replaces cigarettes. It uses a small amount of liquid nicotine - which in and of itself is a simple stimulant, and about as harmful to your system as a cup of coffee. Using a micro processor, the 'vaper' can feel as if he or she is smoking a regular cigarette, except that there is no smoke - it's water vapour. There's no smell, no ash, no second hand smoke, in fact none of the negative things associated with smoking, which means it is totally legal to smoke indoors.

Think about it. If you have lots of staff regularly nipping out for ciggy breaks, then this means that they can stay at their desks and keep working. How about a busy casino? Smoking and gaming go hand in hand, but your players can't stay at the tables any more thanks to the smoking ban - well now they can.

Some airlines are now making them available for purchase too, and the beauty of ours is that it can be completely personalised with a full colour print.

Whilst there are full starter packs with a retail value of around £50, we now have a disposable model which we can supply for only £6.99, including branding. One of these is the equivalent of more than two packets of cigarettes - so think of the savings there.

I'm excited about this product and I want to share it with as many people as possible. I can tell you that I am not a smoker. I do enjoy the occasional social cigarette or cigar, but I can take it or leave it, and I find vaping fun.

Call me today and I'll tell you all about it.

Another Exciting Episode

Back by popular demand (my Mum likes it) is another installment from Merchandise Mania TV. Once again I've been roped in to getting in front of the camera, except this time I wasn't in a stripy purple shirt that induces migraines when set against a green screen.

Seriously, Doris in Wardrobe really is skating on thin ice.

Enjoy.

The Level Playing Field

Well, it finally happened. Yesterday I turned 40 years old. To some, I am officially middle aged, whereas to others, I am now a sad old man, mourning the good years that are now behind him and essentially just waiting to die.

Some of those birthday cards were just plain mean.

Well I’d love to suggest that with age comes wisdom, but frankly I just plan to keep on spewing out the same nonsense in the desperate hope that someone will read it, think to themselves “hmm, he has a point there”, and then order a generous amount of promotional merchandise from me.

There it is folks, if you’ve ever wondered why us bloggers do it, the reason it pure – revenue, and lots of it please. These blogs, tweets and all other manner of nonsense simply drive traffic. I could type out a recipe for chocolate cornflake cakes at this point and it would still be useful in the fight to boost my company’s profile.

Fortunately for you, I actually enjoy coming up with something interesting to say and every once in a while, I actually succeed. Sure it’s rare, but if you stick around for long enough you just might find some gold in here.

Today, I wanted to talk about the way buyers compare sellers, and how, in many cases, it seems a little flawed to me.

At the outset, people’s primary focus is price. That’s fair enough, we’re all trying to save money wherever we can. Trouble is that if you start there, then you’re often blinkered to everything else that matters.

The biggest issue, is that at the start of any race, every competitor is equal. Think about it, no one is interested in the runners’ position at the start of the race are they?

People need think more about the end result. What will the service be like? Will someone be taking them through every step of the process? Will they be left at any point wondering what’s going on? Ultimately, will they get the goods on time and will they be of an acceptable standard?

All really important questions, and yet when a lot of people go out to look for suppliers, they still look at that start line and based their decisions on what they see there.

The message here is that you need a better checklist. Yes, price will be on there, but if it’s in massive capital letters at the top of the page, you are going nowhere fast, because what you save today will go horribly wrong if you’re not careful.

A longer term view is crucial in the development of your business, so make sure you have one.