Promotional Ideas by Gallant » eco-friendly

Promotional Products go Green!

Gallant — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 18:38:32 +0000

Grow Cups

Give your clients something they don’t see everyday with Grow Cups! Our custom Grow Cups feature a fun smiley face design complete with matching garden clogs. The grow cup is recyclable and comes with a nutrient rich soil wafer for a user-friendly planting kit. Choose from four seed varieties for a blooming, interactive promotional gift. These promotional plants are great for office gifts, trade-shows, earth friendly promotions and much more.

Come check out the entire set of Grow Cups at www.GallantGifts.com

Talking promo pens by Goofy Group.

Gallant — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 18:21:22 +0000

Goofy pens from Gallant

Have you been looking for that perfect promotional item to hand out at your next corporate outing? Here at Gallant Gifts we carry these custom goofy group pens which are sure to get your company’s branding the recognition it deserves. These promotional goofy group pens are constructed from tough and Eco-friendly materials (corn plastic) making these printed goofy group pens all the more long lasting. These fun custom imprinted pens say things like “Thank you” or “Have a nice day” and that will put smiles on the faces of all your valued clients.

So why hesitate when you could be branding your corporate logo right now with these goofy group pens.

Come check out the wide variety of promotional products at www.GallantGifts.com

Promotional Items – NEW Marketing Ideas…

Dan — Tue, 19 May 2009 13:06:03 +0000

New Promotional Items – Marketing Ideas….

LIP SERVICE
Elevate your next promotion to lip-smacking status with All Natural Lip Balms. Made from a beeswax and coconut oil base, these lip balms moisturize and help prevent chapped lips using pure ingredients. Choose from three flavors—fruit punch, mint or orange vanilla—or opt for a stick of flavorless balm.

Call 1-800-GALLANT (330-1343) if you have an upcoming promotional project.

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DAZZLING USB DRIVE
Bedecked in silver crystals set in Ceralun™, the polished stainless steel Swarovski/Phillips Lockout USB Memory Key is opulence in data storage. This memory key features slide-out hooking mechanisms, a high-speed USB 2.0 interface and can store 1 GB of data (about 250 songs or 1,000 photos).

Call 1-800-GALLANT (330-1343) if you have an upcoming promotional project.

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All Over Printed T-Shirts

FASHION FORWARD
Whether your clients crave foil, stones or studs, there’s no wrong way to embellish a Fashion Tee. These all-over print tees are made from 100-percent cotton jersey and are printed using a water-based process that leaves the shirts soft to the touch.

Call 1-800-GALLANT (330-1343) if you have an upcoming promotional project.

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GROW GREEN
Dig into your next environmental campaign with the EcoTrowel, a handy garden tool featuring a translucent handle packed with flower seeds and a heavy-duty, stainless steel blade. It’s packaged in a gift box for easy presentation at company picnics or outdoor events.

Call 1-800-GALLANT (330-1343) or visit www.GallantGifts.com
if you have an upcoming promotional project.

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Holiday Cards – Go Green – Seeded

Gallant — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 13:17:00 +0000

GOOD TO GROW PROMOS

The entire cover of the Seeded Journal is handmade from natural, biodegradable paper, and when planted, will sprout basil or daisies. Packed with 40 unlined sheets, it includes a bookmark with details on how to plant the journal cover.

Call 800-GALLANT (330-1343)
for a custom quote

Eco Friendly Promotions – Become an Expert

Gallant — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 19:01:00 +0000

Becoming Your Client’s Eco Promotions Expert

Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock, you’ve noticed the green trend sweeping the promotional products industry. Every industry show is inundated with green options, and many distributors have created end-user green catalogs. It’s no longer just a fad.
Ms. Chandler, a nationally renowned green and LOHAS marketing, communications and trends expert, says the green lifestyle appeals to a group of consumers wielding a $230-billion market share. Chandler, helps companies better understand environmental and health trends so organizations of all sizes and types can position their green brands.

Below are Chandler’s five critical insights into providing value-added, eco-friendly solutions to your clients that will set you apart from your competition.

1. The Low-Down on LOHAS
In lay terms, Chandler is referring to the group we think of as eco-friendly consumers who generally aren’t making purchase decisions based on convenience or cost. These are the people who shop farther from their homes to purchase organic foods and pay more to buy recycled or fair-trade products. It’s important to remember that LOHAS consumers’ preferences extend beyond environmental concerns to social justice, fair trade, inclusion and other key social issues.
These consumers are quickly becoming a major force in today’s market. They may be prospects that were previously unreachable but have come within reach due to the eco-friendly products and services your clients now provide. Your clients will appreciate the time you take to educate them. Many may not be aware of LOHAS or the terminology surrounding this group. Consider compiling a resource and presentation tool that contains common vocabulary — everything from LOHAS to Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified. Also, if you do not have a green catalog, put together a small sampling of products to share with them at your first appointment. By educating clients, you are demonstrating that you bring value to the table.

2. Know Your Audience
As you know, understanding what makes your target end users tick is one of the most crucial elements of a successful marketing campaign. When promoting an eco-friendly initiative, you first need to identify and reach the audience. You’ll need to know the behaviors and preferences of audience members to ensure communications are well-received. One challenge many distributors currently face is finding detailed information about LOHAS audiences or those audiences you can influence with a green message.

While existing research and white papers are available, finding that information can be challenging. That’s where the experts come in. In addition to consulting, Chandler and The Marketing Insider offer detailed information about LOHAS consumers that can help you better understand this demographic and its purchasing preferences. For instance, it’s helpful to know that 60 percent of LOHAS consumers are women, and the group, in general, heavily influences family purchasing decisions. They are also avid readers and radio listeners, Chandler reports.
Imagine the reception you would get walking into your client’s office armed with specific demographic information for the audience he or she wants to reach; you could quickly rise from a promotional products provider to a marketing expert who is able to recommend the best media vehicles, messages and eco-friendly promos. Make use of free educational resources, and consider attending more educational events. Gaining audience knowledge will place you a step ahead of your competition and make your client’s eco-friendly promotions more effective.

3. Protect Your Client from Greenwashing
As a marketing consultant, you should ensure your client is making the best decisions about eco-friendly promos and communications — and not greenwashing. Viewed negatively by the LOHAS crowd and others, greenwashing is any practice to make something appear environmentally friendly when it is not. “You can equate this to false advertising,” Chandler explains. When people buy products or services based on false or misleading attributes, they tend to question their faith and loyalty to the company, she says.
LOHAS consumers are especially sensitive to authenticity concerns. “Green individuals are a little less trusting and will investigate companies to see if they are greenwashing,” Chandler cautions. When they discover companies are greenwashing, these comsumers don’t hesitate to pass the word through their communities, the media and more, which can destroy a company’s credibility.

To protect your clients from being blacklisted as greenwashers, first make sure the products or services they’re advertising are truly green and that they can prove it, if asked. “For a company to be effective in this green space, transparency is key,” Chandler advises. Bottom line: they should practice what they preach and be true to being a green brand. Second, educate your client in being authentically green. You might share with them a case study that illustrates how greenwashing (even inadvertently) can affect business. Finally, dig into business practices surrounding the new product or service, including how it’s shipped and packaged. If a truly green product is packaged in Styrofoam, the company still might get pegged as greenwashers.
Many companies do not understand what it means to be green and are unaware of the potential to turn off consumers. “They think something such as recycling allows them to say they are a green company, where it’s really just a first step in an overall process toward becoming more environmentally friendly,” Chandler says. “Green is not a marketing, PR or advertising tactic; it’s a lifestyle for many consumers. They expect companies to understand that and support their lifestyle with products and services they can believe in.”

4. Do Your Due Diligence
A critical part of being a green expert is doing your due diligence to ensure you’re selling truly eco-friendly products. Many times, greenwashing happens outside the knowledge of companies trying to communicate their eco-friendly initiatives, Chandler points out. “While industry suppliers are advertising eco-friendly products left and right, on occasion, those products are not as eco-friendly as they seem,” she says. For instance, a product made of a sustainable material [such as bamboo or organic cotton] may be less than green if the manufacturing process creates more waste and toxins than the non-eco-friendly alternative method. Or, there’s always the possibility of a supplier misrepresenting its product as green, even if they really believe it is so. You could lose clients if they hear from one of their end users that the product you sold them really is not eco-friendly.
Due diligence means asking for certification or other forms of documentation from your supplier stating that the product meets green standards. Always probe a little deeper to ensure that products are what they claim to be, and share the proof or certification with your clients. They will appreciate your expertise and feel more confident purchasing eco-friendly items from you if they know you do your homework and protect their interests.

5. Call in the Cavalry

Let’s face it: Even after reading this article, researching and creating presentation tools, you aren’t going to have every answer about the LOHAS market, green marketing and eco-friendly certifications. If you encounter a client who is interested in a large eco-friendly campaign or who could be accused of greenwashing, consider bringing in an expert for support. “If a promotional products distributor needs to tactfully make their clients aware of what it means to be green, there is research and expertise to support the position,” Chandler says. “Sometimes, it is easier to bring in an outside expert.”

Because LOHAS consumers are more involved with the brands they purchase, Chandler suggests involving an expert for those whose primary focus is green products and services. “It is critical for both the distributor and the client to collaborate or consult with an outside expert who is familiar with this marketplace, if they are not an expert,” she says. “It’s a tough marketplace to navigate, and it’s less forgiving than a traditional marketplace. Plus, the ways you communicate, the vehicles you use to communicate and the market are much different.”
The more you know about eco-friendly promotional products, LOHAS consumers and best green business practices, the more value you can offer your clients. If you take these five tips to heart, you can position yourself as an expert and set yourself apart from the competition in green promotions.

A Greenwashing Case Study
A company — we’ll call it ABC Co. — was excited to launch its brand-new, eco-friendly product. The marketing team sent releases to media outlets and consumers of ABC’s products. A blogger covered the launch and gave it rave reviews. The company decided to send him a small thank-you gift to help foster a relationship.
The blogger received the package a few days later. Much to his surprise, the package was shipped through a common shipping company via a city more than 100 miles away, despite ABC being only blocks away. He marveled that ABC, with its new eco-friendly product, didn’t think to hand-deliver the package to save fuel and carbon emissions from the shipping. When he opened the package, he saw it was packed with Styrofoam peanuts.
The blogger was displeased that ABC promoted a green product with very un-green means. He roasted the company in his next blog, pointing out ABC’s environmentally unfriendly business practices and effectively alienating many LOHAS consumers who were interested in the new product. Branded as a greenwasher, the company lost potential revenue from the new product when intensely loyal LOHAS consumers refused to purchase from a non-eco-friendly company.

The LOHAS Demographic
Empower your clients with details on LOHAS consumers.

They are: • 60 percent female • Highly educated • Average income-earners • Highly influenced by brand image • Not price-sensitive • Very influential over the buying decisions of family and friends

Eco Friendly Promotional Products

Gallant — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 17:13:00 +0000

The Promotional Life of the Eco-Friendly Movement (Go Green, Go!)
By Debrah Rosen 08/13/2008

It’s a veritable vegetable patch out there with all the green offerings available. From trade shows to catalogs, you can’t escape this growing trend. But just how has it changed in the last year since it debuted on the promotional products scene?
It’s Getting Serious

For starters, it’s gotten much more serious — or at least, end users are taking their green initiatives much more seriously. It’s not enough for a product to be made of partly recycled materials. Consumers want to know that the products they buy — and the companies behind them — are environmentally friendly from start to finish.

“The demand for authentic, responsible products has grown,” says Michele Petruccelli, director of product development at Leed’s in New Kensington, Pa. “The green trend is going much further than just products that are made from recycled materials. And forget about items that are reusable but have no recycled contents — those are completely passé.”

Instead, Petruccelli says, customers have become much more savvy and are doing their own research. “They don’t just believe any supplier that says that they are green; customers are asking probing questions and taking a close look at what materials are being used,” she adds.
Kurt Rothacker, marketing project manager has noticed a similar trend. “As people become more environmentally conscious, they have also become educated regarding products, materials and processes utilized in the industry,” he says. “It is the informed salesperson who makes the most impact with these products by understanding them and being able to communicate their knowledge to the buyer.”

New Markets
Heightened awareness to the green movement has also led to increased markets for these goods. At Santa Fe, N.M.-based Symphony Handmade Seed Papers Inc., president Laura Sjoblom has noticed a change in her customer makeup. At past trade shows, about 80 percent of her prospects were female. In fact, “I was swarmed by women in the booth at all times,” she recalls. “Now we get requests to develop direct mail pieces and create custom shapes, and it is all over the board — male and female.”

After 12 years in the industry, Sjoblom reports that her business has more than doubled in the 2007-2008 season. Last year, Symphony created a seed-paper box mailer for the movie “An Inconvenient Truth,” former vice president Al Gore’s film about global warming. “The package that the gift comes in is equally as important as the gift, so I believe that we will be paying more attention to green packaging,” she says.

New Product Categories
As with any fledgling product category, demand leads to innovation. Jennifer Grigorian, director of advertising and marketing for Sweda Co. in City of Industry, Calif., expects eco-friendly offerings to expand into every product category — including more solar electronics and water-powered goods — despite its beginnings primarily in recycled bags and paper products. “Now that we are all adapting the green theme into our lives at a much more aggressive pace, we are learning that green is more than just those product categories,” Grigorian says. “It is no longer just a trend; it is a new way of thinking and conserving for our future and the future of our planet.”

Finding new ways to live green, suppliers will be looking to advance their manufacturing capabilities. “To satisfy this demand for more and varied products, new materials and manufacturing will surely be developed,” Rothacker predicts. Among the likely developments are stronger and more durable bioplastics, more varied natural textiles and new recycling techniques.

Expanded Choices
Many industry top-dogs are setting an example by expanding their green options. “In 2009 look for Leed’s to introduce products that support an environmentally responsible lifestyle,” Petruccelli says. The company, which started smaller in 2007 with “cut and sew” pieces, including bags made from recycled materials, has since expanded green offerings, adding stationery, drinkware, writing instruments and growables, such as plants. In July 2007, Gemline in Lawrence, Mass., introduced its Eco-Choice line featuring nine products. Now, the line includes 39 products, says Wendy Farrell, the company’s marketing manager. Tustin, Calif.-based Logomark started its green line off with a bang when it introduced the Eco Lifestyle catalog in May featuring more than 100 Earth-friendly items. And Prime Resources even developed the Eco-Responsible numbering system to serve as a comprehensive guide so distributors know what makes each of the company’s products environmentally friendly.
Suppliers are also sourcing new options to expand their green lines. Pam Myers, director of marketing at Digispec in Las Vegas, says the company looked into offering a recycled version of the company’s popular MousePaper mouse pad, which began with careful research and print testing. “Once that was complete, we had to look at the difference in cost and decide if it was an acceptable alternative for our customers,” Myers says. “It was, and the green MousePaper was added to our product line.”

Growing Demand
From here, there’s nowhere to go but up. Demand and product offerings are continually on the rise, and the future holds even more potential. “A few years ago, requests for recycled materials surfaced randomly from the west coast. After launching our Eco Lifestyle catalog this year, which merchandises products into recycled, recyclable, sustainable, reusable and energy-saving categories, we are seeing an increase in the number of opportunities we have to partner with our distributors to source green products for their end users both in event/spot orders as well as program business,” reports Anne Dapremont, Logomark’s vice president of sales.
Perhaps one unintended positive consequence of the green movement is how it can save people money in the long term. Logomark fulfilled an order of mugs for a tech company with 300 employees. The company conducted a cost analysis and determined that they were spending too much on disposable cups. By providing each employee with a “work mug,” they were able to recoup their investment in two months by not buying disposable cups.
For more ideas on encouraging the eco-friendly trend, check out these hot case studies to the right.

Case in Point:
A great success story recently was with our new 4-in-1 Shopper’s Bundle Bag set. A local charity was having a clothing drive. They purchased the 4-in-1 Shopper’s Bundle in a partnership with several restaurants, yogurt shops, beauty salons and other local businesses. The bundles were on sale at these locations prior to the drive. Every tote full of clothing you donated would earn you a discount or coupon from one of the participating stores. For every full bundle pack (four bags) of clothing you dropped off, they gave you another 4-in-1 Shopper’s Bundle for free. It was a very exciting event for the charity and the participating stores, as well as the hundreds of people who attended the event. Sweda Co.; City of Industry, Calif.

A semiconductor company wanted to eliminate bottled water on its campus. They installed high-quality filters as part of a cost savings and green campaign, and wanted to give their employees a reusable mug to encourage them to use new filtered water stations. They chose the Pratico 15-Ounce Mug because it is microwavable and dishwasher safe. The company preferred this piece because it is not an auto tumbler and would be less likely to leave their campus. The end users wanted a slip of paper inserted in each box detailing their green initiative. The drive has saved the company thousands of dollars each month on bottled water and garbage fees. Also, the visibility of the mug in green with their logo has spurred other eco-conscious practices around campus. Logomark; Tustin, Calif.

Promotional Ideas by Gallant » eco-friendly

Promotional Products go Green!

Talking promo pens by Goofy Group.

Promotional Items – NEW Marketing Ideas…

Holiday Cards – Go Green – Seeded

Eco Friendly Promotions – Become an Expert

Eco Friendly Promotional Products

The Promotional Life of the Eco-Friendly Movement (Go Green, Go!) By Debrah Rosen 08/13/2008

The Promotional Life of the Eco-Friendly Movement (Go Green, Go!)
By Debrah Rosen 08/13/2008