If you haven’t taken a couple of minutes to watch our Good At video series, now’s your chance.
Your mood will thank you for it.
If you’re at Mesh today, please stop by and play a game of RIGHTSLEEVE Road Hockey.
RIGHTSLEEVE is a promotional products agency helping companies establish emotional connections to their brands through tangible, logoed merchandise. Please say hi on Twitter or Facebook.
Our annual client party and product showcase is always a high point of the year for RIGHTSLEEVE.
We get to hang out with our clients, enjoy good company, and have fun with SWAG.
Here are shots of the exclusive SWAG 2.0 2013 Merchandise Collection featured at the event.
To see more pictures from the event, check out full the full gallery on Facebook.
Made in Canada
There are many factors that play into purchasing decisions.
Here are some off the top of my head: availability, style, colour, recommendations, mood, sizing, quality, price, past experience, where it’s made, what it’s made with, and working conditions.
I’m sure you could easily tack on another dozen if you brainstormed for a minute or two.
Think about going through that list right now and ordering the factors from most important to least important to your purchase.
Now, imagine you did the exact same ordering exercise two years ago.
And, that you’ll do it again two years from now.
Chances are the list would be ordered differently each time. You’d be in different financial circumstances, surrounded by a different environment, have varying external demands on your time and your money.
Really, who hasn’t grabbed something out of a closet or drawer and muttered to themselves “What was I thinking?”
Like much of the world, we’ve been following the coverage of the garment factory collapse in Bangladesh. We’ve watched the rescue efforts,the coverage, and the subsequent response from the public. A lot of purchasing decisions went into creating those circumstances and people are questioning those decisions right now – from corporate as well as individual levels.
Some people are calling for boycotts some are saying that boycotts aren’t the answer.
Still other people are saying that the solution lies in purchasing North American made clothing. (And, while we’re proponents of buying North American made clothing such as American Apparel or Redwood Classics the truth of the matter is that we don’t have the production capacity in North America to handle the volume required if people switched en mass.)
All of this leaves purchasers with their heads spinning. Understandably so.
So, what do you do?
You strike a balance.
A balance between price and labour conditions.
A balance between quality and availability.
A balance between the factors, and this is key, that are important to you.
So, think about it.
Take some time to figure out what’s important to you today and start there.
If you want to have a conversation about it, let us know on Facebook. We’d love to chat.
Ask a half-dozen companies how they do their swag planning and you’ll get a dozen different answers. In part, it’s because swag ordering is done within different departments for different reasons at different times of the year. Oh, and often those different departments don’t talk with each other about what they’re ordering.
I like to refer to the resultant approach as the “slap a logo on it” method. Whereby you find a product and, well, slap your logo on it.
There’s a better way. (more…)
Winter might be holding on with clenched teeth, but in our minds, we’re sipping mai tai’s on the beach.
If you’re not already thinking about your upcoming promotional products needs, we’re here to help get you moving.
We’ve gathered a list of items that you should be thinking about for the upcoming season. (more…)
Don’t worry, it happens to everyone at one point or another.
You don’t need to be ashamed.
Your swag just got a little boring. Really, it happens.
Fortunately, we know ways to fix it.
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I’d like to say more about this new video series from RIGHTSLEEVE, but really, the video already says it all.
Please watch it on rightsleeve.com or subscribe on our YouTube channel.
RIGHTSLEEVE is a promotional products agency helping companies establish emotional connections to their brands through tangible, logoed merchandise. Please say hi on Twitter or Facebook.
We are always on the look-out for what is trending in the retail space to ensure the products we recommend will delight and wow the end recipient. With that in mind, we’ve identified three products that we think are going to be big for spring & summer 2013.
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I’m not sure why, but chiropractic services always seems to be one of those modern professions that is likened to snake-oil salesmen of the past.
People either seem to love it or hate it.
Now, I for one am a believer in chiropractic, but I usually ask my providers if they also get adjustments.
I suppose I want to know that they believe in their profession.
The same goes for most things, I suppose:
Does my doctor eat her vegetables?
Does my phone provider use their own service?
So, does RIGHTSLEEVE believe in the power of swag for our own marketing?
You bet we do.
And, I’m going to dissect our recent holiday campaign to show you how we approached it.
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photo credit: bschwehn
With access to information at all-time highs, consumers across the spectrum of buying are entering transactions more informed than ever before.
While such rampant access to data is empowering, buyers need to be cautious that this widespread access doesn’t accidentally lead to misinformation.
We’ve identified three areas where purchasers should exercise caution when jumping into transactions after having done research online.
I worked at RIGHTSLEEVE for all of 30 seconds when I first heard Mark Graham talk about “Apples to Apples” quoting in promotional products.
Apples to apples comparison shopping often breaks down to pricing and quality, so that’s what I’ll address.
There are a lot of different variables that affect the pricing of a t-shirt, and they usually align with the quality. Weight, cut, fabric type, fabric quality, and labor standards are a few of the things that you need to consider when comparing quotes.
Think of it this way: the average consumer wouldn’t walk into American Apparel and ask them to price match a shirt from the dollar store.
But, in the promotional products industry that happens on a daily basis.
So, instead of going straight for the price match, make sure all of the other specs align, then decide if you’re comparing apples to apples or apples to oranges.
Picture it: A promo website. Early 21st century. You see a product that looks like a fit for your needs. You upload your logo via a fancy virtual proofing tool and it looks amazing. You place an order on-line then whoops, you get an email saying that the artwork you sent won’t work on the product that you chose.
Say what?
On-line tools are so robust nowadays that we expect there to be a computer program to automate practically everything. Virtual proofing software is an example of a tool that’s great in theory, but often falls short of expectations. I get why they’re out there, to streamline a process and provide efficiency. Unfortunately, they’re not sophisticated enough to handle the many products that our industry provides.
Printing on a shirt is different than printing on a mug is different than embroidering a sweatshirt is different than embossing a journal.
It’s a process that can’t always be simplified. That’s why we prefer to work directly with clients to determine the logistics of an order at the beginning of a transaction rather than at the end.
Seeing something work on-line, doesn’t always mean it will work on the production line.
trendwatching… Trendland… Cool Hunting… The Coolhunter… NotCot…
There’s a whole slew of websites devoted to keeping on top of trends nowadays.
And, while there is a mass of information about what’s hot in retail spaces there aren’t quite so many folks producing content on the latest B2B product marketing trends, so it can be hard for folks not immersed in the day-to-day industry of it to stay on top of things.
Engaging an industry professional in a consult can help your product marketing stay current, but can also be a double-check to ensure the products that you’re using to deliver your message are on-target.
Never turn down the additional exposure, experience, and extra brain power that comes with engaging a consult from someone within the industry.
Your marketing will be the better for it.
In the end, we’re firm believers in the power of knowledge, but we’re also firm believers in trusting the insight of experts. So, search and research to your heart’s content, but remember that Google doesn’t know everything. Yet.
RIGHTSLEEVE is a promotional products agency helping companies establish emotional connections to their brands through tangible, logoed merchandise. Please say hi on Twitter or Facebook.
