FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 4, 2010
For more information contact:
Brenda Haines or Heidi Strand, Communications
(920) 230-2583

Online Retailer 4imprint Announces White Paper and Podcast:
Emergency Planning for Small Businesses
Blue Paper® explores how to plan for and recover from disasters for small businesses

(OSHKOSH, Wis.)— Promotional products retailer, 4imprint focuses on the importance of emergency planning in its newly released Blue Paper® and podcast, Emergency Planning for Small Business.

Unexpected events such as natural disasters, theft, or data loss can be crippling to any small business. In fact, an estimated 30 percent of small businesses in the United States alone have experienced a disaster in the past three years and at least one in four of those businesses never reopened.

“We certainly all hope that no business is struck by disaster, but unfortunately, it happens” says Kevin Lyons-Tarr, president of 4imprint. “The best way to deal with any emergency is to be as prepared as possible. This Blue Paper tries to do that by providing an overview of disaster planning.”

In addition to sharing what benefits some businesses and experts find in having an emergency plan in place, this Blue Paper shares advice from sources such as the U.S. Department of State and The American Red Cross to address what small businesses should do before and after an emergency, how to do it and what to communicate to whom in the event that something goes awry.

Blue Paper (4imprint’s version of a white paper) and podcast available for download at http://info.4imprint.com/bluepapers/.

About 4imprint Blue Papers
4imprint Blue Papers are in-depth, how-to articles, distributed to 4imprint customers to help their organizations succeed. Accessible at http://info.4imprint.com/bluepapers/ in both print and podcast forms, Blue Papers are also available on iTunes®. Blue Papers cover popular, cutting-edge business, marketing, human resources and management topics such as podcasting, online social media, search engine optimization (SEO) and experiential marketing.

About 4imprint
4imprint is part of 4imprint Group, Plc, a publicly traded company on the London Stock Exchange, and serves more than 100,000 businesses with its innovative promotional items throughout the United States, Canada the United Kingdom and Ireland. Its product offerings include corporate gifts, custom shirts, promotional pens, travel mugs, tote bags, water bottles, Post-it Notes, custom calendars and much more. For more information, log on to www.4imprint.com.

I do a decent amount of travel and have become a frequent customer of hotels.com over recent years.

Just before flying home for the Holidays, hotels.com called me out of the blue to tell me that the hotel I chose had decided to shut for the week and had notified them they were moving me (and upgrading me) to a nearby by hotel within the same chain.

This wasn’t great news, but I appreciated the upgrade and it didn’t really affect my plans.

I thought nothing more of it until I returned home and found a letter from hotels.com in the mailbox. As I opened it, I did wonder if it was related to the small travel snafu but was completely floored to receive a $100 travel voucher for the inconvenience!

For a Web retailer (where so much of the relationship is by email), I thought it was a really nice touch to go to the trouble to send something tangible – old-fashioned, in a very 2010 sort of way.
-Suzanne

Just wanted to share the great work put together by Affinity Health System – they’re based in Wisconsin – for their holiday gifts.

They wanted to give something health-related but modern, so they settled on our Vacuum Stainless Steel Bottle (Item #100399).

To highlight their message they enclosed a ‘Happy Holidays’ card as well as a note encouraging recipients to use this gift instead of plastic bottled water.

This idea would work other times of year as well. You could show your customers some love around Valentine’s Day or make surprise recipients with a gift like this on Earth Day in April.
-Suzanne

Target audience of ‘foodies’? Fresh herbs make a great promotional product!

As soon as you open this clever little journal, you’ll see why it’s called the Half-n-Half Color Duo Notebook.

The cover is clear polypropylene, imprinted with a bright color (black, green, blue or red) on only the bottom half. Inside the notebook pages are cut in half. (The notebook’s overall size is 7-9/16″ x 4-5/16″ x 11/16″, so even half sheets are large enough for taking notes.)

The Half-n-Half Color Duo Notebook from 4imprint comes in four color duos.

Colored sheets on the top half mirror the color printed on the cover. Paper on the bottom half is white.

The Half-n-Half Color Duo Notebook from 4imprint.

This would be a great notebook to use at conferences, seminars or classes. Attendees could jot down presentation points on the top pad. On the bottom, they can add ideas for how to apply those concepts in their own organizations. On-the-go families may think of other uses – like jotting notes and responses. Workers who need to trade information at the start and end of a shift may also find a notebook like this useful.

And, that makes it a useful giveaway for many different markets.
-Suzanne

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 25, 2010
For more information contact:
Brenda Haines or Heidi Strand, Communications
(920) 230-2583

4imprint White Papers Explore the Donor, Non-profit Relationship
The latest Blue Papers®, a two-part series, address
the basics of donor prospecting, relationships and fund development

(OSHKOSH, Wis.)— Does your organization have the donor relationships needed to withstand the test of time? Promotional products retailer, 4imprint ‘s most recent podcasts and Blue Papers (its own version of a white paper), Fundraising Basic, Part I and Fundraising Basics Part II discuss how non-profit organizations can identify and court prospective donors to support their missions, and outline considerations and tactics for developing a winning fundraising strategy.

Fundraising Basics Part I provides insight on the importance and how-tos of research strategies, donor demographics, lifecycle segmentation, education and engagement when it comes to prospecting—and the targeted and integrative use of multiple communications channels.

Building on part one, Fundraising Basics Part II tackles the basics of situational analysis, goal setting, budget and timeline development, and the tactics necessary to create a successful individual fundraising strategy for any non-profit organization

Kevin Lyons Tarr, president of 4imprint said, “Our thought was to explore the relationship between donors and non-profit organizations by focusing on fundraising fundamentals. These basics, presented in our Blue Paper, will hopefully not only benefit our non-profit customers, but also the communities in which they reside.”

Blue Papers (4imprint’s version of a white paper) and podcasts available for download at http://info.4imprint.com/bluepapers/.

About 4imprint Blue Papers
4imprint Blue Papers are in-depth, how-to articles, distributed to 4imprint customers to help their organizations succeed. Accessible at http://info.4imprint.com/bluepapers/ in both print and podcast forms, Blue Papers are also available on iTunes®. Blue Papers cover popular, cutting-edge business, marketing, human resources and management topics such as podcasting, online social media, search engine optimization (SEO) and experiential marketing.

About 4imprint
4imprint is part of 4imprint Group, Plc, a publicly traded company on the London Stock Exchange, and serves more than 100,000 businesses with its innovative promotional merchandise throughout the United States, Canada, United Kingdom and Ireland. For more information, log on to www.4imprint.com.

Have you ever noticed that most hand sanitizer bottle designs seem to be very straightforward?

That’s one reason these hand sanitizers will really stand out.

The Goofy Head Hand Sanitizer is something families will love. The faces take on three different looks: Beach Lady, Goofy Guy and Snorkel Guy.

Or, check out our new Body Shape Hand Sanitizer.

It’s available in a range of uniforms, including sports team, chef, doctor, military, scrubs and tie.

What are you seeing?  Have you seen hand sanitizers in other shapes or styles?  If so, point me in that direction.  I’d love to see them.

-Suzanne

If you resolved to get healthy or wealthy in 2010, you’re not alone.  Two of the top New Year’s resolutions this year (and quite possibly every year) involve getting fit and saving money.  If you’re looking for a way to do both stylishly, you might want to check out this modern twist on the lunch box.

Lunch Box from www.Target.com

Lunch boxes like this are popping up all over the place, from Target to Pottery Barn Kids.  They remind me of the Japanese Bento Box, which features a series of stackable containers with a band wrapped ‘round to hold them together.  Each separate container holds a different part of the meal.

Bento Boxes from www.CubeEgg.com

Lunch boxes like this make great gifts for staff appreciation weeks (like Nurses’ Week or Teacher Appreciation Week).  They also work well for kicking off a new employee wellness initiative or fitness team.

4imprint Salad to Go Imprinted Lunch Box

Our versions are high-quality Soup to Go, Salad to Go and Lunch to Go containers.

However you use them, these containers make keeping your New Year’s resolutions just a little more fun.
-Suzanne

Are extracurricular activities important in a student’s overall education?

Most studies indicate that yes, it is important for students of all ages to participate in some sort of extracurricular activity.

According to an article by Robert Needleman, MD, children as young as age 6 can benefit from extracurricular activities.  The most commonly mentioned benefit is higher self-esteem for participants, which leads to better academic performance and community involvement.  The right activities, such as journalism or photography, can also provide experience or guidance in future careers.

At the college/university level, activities outside of class are also important to student development.  Activities encourage interaction with other students, developing leadership skills, and positively impacts student academic performance.  Most colleges and universities promote extracurricular activities as way to develop well-rounded individuals, to allow for more confidence and in future job successes.

Of course, as important as these activities are, it is difficult to always find enough funding to take that school field trip, participate in sporting events, or purchase new equipment and uniforms.  Fundraising has become a necessity for most schools, but there are many options beyond selling pizza and candy, so parents, relatives, and neighbors are willing to buy if it is unique or something they can use.  Try one of the many fundraiser websites for ideas, including EasyFundraisingIdeas.com or RRewards.com.

4imprint’s latest Education Newsletter gives practical fundraising ideas for your school, to aid in continued or new extracurricular offerings.

Every business day we give $500 in promotional products to a charitable organization through our one by one® program.  These organizations are out there everyday making the world a better place, and I’m excited to see how they use the products they select.

Victoria from Unity House in Troy, NY sent us some snaps of how they used one of our reusable shopping totes to distribute food to those in need, reminding the recipients that they should reuse the bag should they need to visit the food pantry.

Ideally, organizations like Unity House wouldn’t need to exist, but given that things aren’t always ‘ideal’ I’m sure glad they do!

(p.s. – If you know a charitable organization that could use promotional products to deliver services, raise awareness, raise money or thank volunteers, be sure to tell them to check out one by one®!).

Above: Unity House puts resuable grocery totes to the best possible use.