I can finally say that I have gone golfing!  Actually, I can finally say that I have gone to a golf course and hit a golf ball on the putting green and driving range.  WOW what a learning experience!  I now understand why there are so many golf enthusiasts – it is addicting to hit that little ball, trying to make it go far and in the right direction.

I’m excited to have the golf category and therefore I realized I needed to spend more time on the course…or at least that’s the story I’m giving my boss.  So with the assistance of two seasoned golfers, six inexperienced golfers from the Merchandising department hit the links:

When we weren’t swinging the clubs, we had a moment to try out some of 4imprint’s promotional golf products.  The long bulk tees were great because then I didn’t have divots after my inexperienced swings (but I hear that this is not the reason that the longer ones are more popular..something about larger golf club heads).  The Mirage tee pack and golf ball cleaner are perfect golf event giveaways.  And our golf “experts”, John and Dan tell me that the Divix divot repair tool, sunglass case with golf accessories and the golf scope would be great golf event prizes.  Of course, don’t forget the golf balls because it seems to me that you might “misplace” a few of these during a typical day of golfing.

Thanks to John and Dan for being such great and patient teachers!  I think I’m ready to golf nine holes now…watch out!

Mae

Elizabeth, who coordinates 4imprint’s e-mail marketing campaigns, forwarded our team an interesting article from Advertising Age a few weeks ago. The article, titled “Steal This Bag,” reviewed a recent study examining the contents of women’s purses, using the findings to offer insight into what promotional products work with women. Surveying women in the southern United States, these bag detectives found imprinted hand and body lotions, breath fresheners, loyalty cards, pens and key chains with surprising frequency.

As a woman who tends to hoard receipts, gum wrappers and empty containers of lip balm, the idea of someone going through my purse is embarrassing, if not horrifying. Suzanne, Steph, Sara and Mae were not quite as shy though, and graciously opened their bags to see whether these findings translate to women in Wisconsin. A quick survey of their purses showed all the items mentioned above, plus a few more interesting selections. A sampling of what the ladies have hiding: floss, tape measurer, hotel door card, stain-remover pen, hardcover book, digital camera, low-calorie sweetener and bacon dip recipe.

In the merchandising world we’re expected to monitor the latest styles and trends, and we need to be ready for anything at a moments notice. I’d say our bags reflect that; especially should we develop a spontaneous craving for bacon dip this afternoon.

Sam
Copywriter

I had to post a quick blog to make sure that you have checked out the latest AMAZING video on 4imprint TV-Marketing Specialist Eric Cernjar versus the Cell Mate (Item #7595).  Sorry Eric, but I think that the cell mate won this challenge!   

Well, that might be a bit of a stretch, but it appears that one of the favorite treats of people around the world might actually be good for us. Can you even imagine?!

Well, I was as skeptical as the next person, so I did a bit of digging. I came across quite a few websites, including WebMD and NurseWeek, both discussed the benefits of dark chocolate. The recent buzz is due to the fact that it has been discovered that dark chocolate contains flavonoids, which are actually similar to the ‘the good stuff’ found in Green Tea. Weird, huh?

What are flavonoids? Well, without getting all technical; it’s a type of antioxidant. I’m pretty sure that most of you have heard all about those little wonders. They have been linked to decreasing blood pressure, improving circulation and quite possibly aides in boosting the immune system, among other things.

Now, I’m not saying go out and down a package of Hershey’s Special Dark Miniatures, but a nibble here and there, might just do you some good.

So, if you’re looking for a treat to tempt the taste buds, here are a few of our dark chocolate selections that just might benefit your health too!

214 – Boxed Nestle Chocolates

9259 – Dark & Milk Chocolate Covered Almonds

6992-Chocolate Cookie

Enjoy!

Steph

I just finished dropping my oldest child off at college and as some of you other parents will appreciate, it has not been the best of times for me!  But there is one thing that I did notice through all of emotion…it was amazing the number of companies promoting to college kids.

When you think promotional products, the teen market probably would not be one of the first target groups that you think about, but maybe it should be. Just think…..if you can capture the attention of a teenager now, they could be a lifelong customer for you!   And this is a market that is targeted to grow to about 33.5 million teens in 2010.  There are many different types of businesses that could target this market – car dealerships, banks, schools and colleges, restaurants, retail stores, and many more.  Trust me the “poor” students love to receive anything for free….especially if it is something that is useful to them.

We actually have an area of our site specifically full of items targeted at this group. As a result of my trip I’ve added in a few extras such as the USB drives which are being stressed as a “must have” to college kids during orientation!

http://www.4imprint.com/EXEC/BOUTIQUE/~BSID99/promotional\_products\_store\_Dorm-Life-.htm

Mae

Just when you think you’re comfortable in the year you’re living in…you have to start looking ahead to the next. That is where we are at as a Merchandising Team. We have pretty much wrapped up plans for 2006 and are in the process of looking forward to 2007. Believe it or not, promotional products are very similar to retail lines. We have to plan pretty far in advance you get the products you want when you need them. We look at color forecasting information from all different sources go to shows around the world to see what’s coming in way of products and design.

What have we seen? Well…ceramic and stainless, back to the 70’s color influence of aqua blue, pea green and mustard gold, and really fun ideas in ceramics…colors, shapes, stock imprints…I could go on and on.

We’ll try to keep you up-to-date as much as possible, but don’t want to let too much out of the bag…everyone loves the element of surprise, right!? Keep checking our Newest Items page to see what’s new and fresh or just sign up for the RSS feed and the new items will come to you!

If you don’t know what a purple cow is you are probably already thinking that we must have completely lost the plot…but remember 4imprint is based in Wisconsin so we know a thing or two about cows…

Gelett Burgess actually wrote the original poem in 1896 and it appears he became increasingly annoyed by the continual link to the short poem rather that other more eloquent works. Seth Godin one of today’s more humorous business writers brought the concept back to us in 2003 with his book named, not surprisingly, Purple Cow. Seth talks about what it is that has made companies such as Starbucks and Jet blue confound the critics and built spectacular growth and deep relationships with their customers.

My personal purple cows would be H&M the Swedish retailer who bring us high fashion at knock down prices, Built NY, they’re the people that came up with the neoprene bottle holders, Swig restaurant in Milwaukee (read their blog to see the first year journey of a new restaurant), Tom Peters’ book Re-imagine and the Suck Uk team of designers (if you’re into product design you must check them out). What joins such a disparate group together is that one fact…they are in their own way remarkable and stand out from the crowd in just the same way a cow would do if it was purple.

If you haven’t read the book and are in some way involved in building a company, organization or just a book club I’d encourage to go and buy it now. It’s an easy read that you’ll find energizing and inspiring as Seth encourages you to put a ‘purple cow’ into everything you do.  Then in two months time….read it again!

Suzanne

Heather, our newsletter editor and I sat down last week to talk about color. Heather wanted my input as she drafted her upcoming newsletter. Those I work with at 4imprint, and our suppliers know that increasing the color options in our range has been one of my big goals over the last 6 months….and I do think we are getting there.

But why ? Colors are a dynamic part of our lives and businesses, we all have our favorite colors and those we hate, we love black as it makes us look slim and struggle to admit that yes we also did own a pair of bright prink Flashdance legwarmers in the 80’s (actually I didn’t, but the rest of the team here seem to have done – crazy bunch!)

When we’re starting our businesses we worry about our logo’s and what color it should be in, why? Because the colors symbolize and help convey the meaning of our organization and what it does. UPS made itself synonymous with the color brown to the point that if I read the tag line ‘What can Brown do for you? I know exactly whom it’s referring to. A Lesser known example would be H2O, the toiletries company that uses ’water’ as an ingredient in its product…it would make no sense for its branding to be bright orange but instead uses every shade of blue and aqua going  

Other brands have built up a fantastic name for themselves without being color specific. Think about Nike. Its name and ‘swoosh’ have been used in all sorts of colors…the fantastic part of this for Nike is they get to associate their name with whatever colors are ‘in’ at that time, for that sport or for that celebrity .

So what color is your organization or business logo ? Does it convey the message that you want it to represent ?  About.com’s information on color meaning for businesses is about the best I could find  although I have to say I also love Crayola’s website on colors, they have the top 50 most popular crayon colors ever…I have to say I had never realized they had produced so many!

If you haven’t already done so take a look at the 4imprint Color Collection. It’s proving really interesting to watch which colors are the most popular!

Take your pick from …. green, purple, pink, rainbow, brown or red, white & blue and let us know which is your favorite

Suzanne

We’ve been a pretty busy team recently not just working on all the new products for the spring but in recruiting and expanding our team. Mae, one of our import buyers has joined us as a Merchandiser to focus on managing our toys and novelties category as well as our clocks, watches are calculators. She also starts off the year covering for Sara. Sara won’t be with us for the next few months as she gave birth a few weeks back to a gorgeous baby boy. Take a look at our new expanded range of items for baby’s and new mom’s to see what’s been on Sara’s mind recently!

For those of you keen on stocking up on great bargains you’ll be pleased to hear we’re putting a renewed emphasis on our Closeout section. Barb is joining us from one of our sales teams to focus on improving our selection of clearance items available at fantastically reduced prices. Keep your eye out on our Closeout store over the next few months

Guess it’s time to get a new team photo taken!

Suzanne

Wow!! I am back from the PPAI Las Vegas show and my head is still spinning (and my feet are finally getting back to normal).  This was my first experience with the PPAI show since I have moved into my Merchandising position and let me tell you that I now have a new found respect for everyone that attends the show.   Not only do you have the glitz and glamour of Las Vegas (which I might add has changed in so many ways from when I used to live out there some years ago), you also have so many suppliers showing so many different items, plus add the new job responsibilities that I am undertaking and now you know why my head is spinning.  There is no way that anyone could see every booth, see every product and absorb everything that they saw (thank goodness for notes).

Even with all of the excitement of the show, I was able to absorb some trends that I saw:

*Ipod colors of pink, green and blue in so many different types of items – not just electronics

*Ipod look/styling for MANY electronics - in white and black colors too

*Military style caps with flat tops (Fidel was what one supplier named it..a better name is needed though!)

*Technology, technology, technology (I need a Technology for Dummies book now)

*My new favorite color is green (either apple or sage) as this was everywhere, but so were pink, turquoise blue and brown too! 

*Grommets as embellishment – everyone that was at the show will instantly be able to picture at least one bag with grommets that was everywhere!

*Crank radios, flashlights and solar powered electronics (unfortunately this is due to need from the disasters 2005 brought to the world).

*Fashion trend that we noticed from all of the well dressed ladies at the show and in Las Vegas in general are gaucho pants.  I don’t think that this trend will make it to the apparel in our industry, but just in case you are wondering what to go out and buy for spring clothes, ladies, you heard it here first!!

All in all, it was an excellent adventure, a great learning experience for me and we saw some very exciting new products!!  What more could you ask for out of a trip?  And after getting back from the show (Steph already told you about the fact that neither one of us want to travel on Friday the 13^th again, but all in all, we were much luckier than some of our other co-workers), I am so excited to jump into the wonderful world of Merchandising and get some of these great new products added to our website!!  So keep coming back to the NEW items section of our website to see what we did find.

Success and happiness in 2006 to all!!

Mae