“Intertainment” Gurus Rhett and Link are settling into their new headquarters, AKA The Kave, and Gallant was more than happy to help make there new place as magical as possible with a couple of custom designed floor mats.

See more from Rhett and Link at RhettandLink.com

Artwork for these mats was created by: Kendrick Kidd

Get your own Custom Mats at GallantGifts.com!

An enterprising early-American offers inspiration and a review of basic economic principles.

In 1806, Fred Tudor departed Boston and arrived in the Caribbean port of Martinique with a shipload of ice harvested from his dad’s pond in the dead of winter. Despite naysayers, Tudor made the ice last by insulating it with sawdust and hay.

The first day of Tudor’s arrival was a smashing success with people paying high prices for the ice. But the next day brought about a problem. All the ice had been unloaded but, in an act of misguided kindness, the boys at the dock had washed off the insulation. This created a puddle of water and lots of screaming people offering to pay any price for the ice they now missed. Thus, Tudor’s ice idea was a failure.

Tudor returned to Boston, poorer but wiser. Yet he had learned two key parts of marketing—the importance of adequate storage and the profitability of high demand in the face of scarce supplies. He set about raising new capital and bought the rights to harvest ice from several local ponds. Travel got risky as the War of 1812 broke out and he put his plans on hold. After the war, however, Tudor sent a ship to Havana—not with ice but with thick cedar planking and sawdust—and built an icehouse to keep the ice fresh. Then he had ice delivered to test whether the icehouse worked. It did.

Next, Tudor asked for a 10-year exclusive contract to be the sole ice supplier in Cuba and Martinique. No one thought it was a big deal since folks were not used to having ice in those locales. Then he started giving the ice away, especially to bartenders, along with exotic frosty drink recipes. The free ice created a demand, so Tudor began charging higher and higher prices. (Remember, he held exclusive rights.)

This ingenious marketing concept was later adopted by King Gillette and is commonly called the razor or razorblade theory. It works because the company practically gives the razor away and once customers need new blades they find only your blades fit that razor.
Tudor returned to New England, bought up the ice rights of hundreds of ponds and commissioned the manufacture of huge ice saws to cut ice blocks from the ponds. He compounded the strategy throughout the South; it’s been said he invented the mint julep just to sell more ice. For 80 years, Tudor and his heirs were the “Ice Kings” of America, all from a product nature supplies for free. And he became a multimillionaire in the process.

If your clients want to play upon all the senses, orchestrate a zenned-out promotion using branded spa products.

The spa industry is an alluring one, growing an average of 20 percent annually, according to the International SPA Association. Last June, there were more than 18,000 spas in the United States, more than 32 million active spa-goers and more than 300,000 total employees. So what makes it a prime market for promotional products? Its sheer scope.

Anything from candles and towels to salt scrubs and relaxation CDs work in perfect harmony with day spas, fitness club spas, medical spas and hotel/resort spas. “I don’t think there are any industries that are out of reach of promotional products anymore, especially the spa category in this economy,” says Shawn Kanak, CAS, vice president of sales for Baltimore, Maryland-based supplier Towel Specialties (UPIC: TOWLSPEC). “People want to get away from stress and relax, and this is the perfect gift market to expose them to.”

This means forgoing the one-question-fits-all approach and uncovering the spa’s true goals that can include building its brand, attracting more customers, thanking top customers, initiating a referral program and so on.

There are products out there to fit any campaign, Siegel says. “Many spa products appeal to health, fitness and relaxation, which mean they have valuable day-to-day applications and are not cast aside,” he says.

“One of the biggest trends is piggybacking the health and fitness craze that is ever-growing,” says Kanak. “Corporate gifts now include spa treatments and getaways. Spa-type facilities are even being added to major corporation headquarters along with fitness centers as an employee benefit.”

Whether people are strolling to their neighborhood spas or jetting to far-flung destination spas on corporate incentive trips, one fact remains the same: Spa products work wonders to enhance the perceived value of the spa experience.

“If a spa customer had a positive experience, he or she will want a quality memento as a reminder. This can be received at the spa or a short time later in the mail,” Siegel says.
The key is using promotional products to make sure those happy and refreshed people return to your client’s spa—and not to one that’s closer to home, offers better specials or has cushier massage chairs. “There are a lot of spas out there competing for market share.

“Say cheese,” says the person behind the camera. And you say cheese. Your facial muscles are frozen. You have a dumb, goofy look. And under your breath you’re muttering, “C’mon, take the picture, take the picture, c’monnnn!”

Click! You blink. The picture has been taken. And then the photographer runs to you, all excited to show the nice digital photo. You take a look, roll your eyes and cringe because you detest the photo. It looks artificial and posed. It’s not you. It looks like all those cheesy pictures you’ve seen before. It’s not unique.

How can it be unique? You weren’t yourself! And that’s the whole problem with uniqueness. You’ve tried too hard. In your business you’ve tried your darndest to get your own uniqueness. And you’ve failed miserably—because you froze. And the uniqueness you sought to find looked like a cheesy picture.

WHAT MAKES A BUSINESS UNIQUE?
When asked about your uniqueness, do you mumble something about “service or quality,” which mean nothing to most people?

The funny thing is, Sarah had the same problem. You see, Sarah teaches a yoga class. And a yoga class is a yoga class, right? Sarah twisted her brain like a pretzel, but she just couldn’t come up with a form of uniqueness.

So she did what all the experts recommended. She asked her clients. And some of them shrugged. Others gave her mixed answers. But this left Sarah more confused than ever.

Then she did what most businesses do. She gave up and figured her business would remain a commodity. The heck with uniqueness, she thought, because trying to find what was unique was too hard.

You see, Sarah was asking the wrong question. She was trying to look inward. The question isn’t, “What’s unique about my business?” Rather the question is, “What do I want to do in my business that’s different from everyone else?”

I asked Sarah what she’d want to achieve for her students most of all. Her response was lightning quick, and I backed up two steps at the speed and ferocity of the answer, “Injury,” she said. “You can really hurt yourself in a yoga class if you’re doing the wrong thing. I want every student to have injury-free yoga.”

Can you see it? Sarah couldn’t see it. Her uniqueness was “Injury-Free Yoga,” plain and simple.

So ask yourself, “What do I want to do in my business that’s different from everyone else?” What’s your dream for your customers?

Ask Tom Monaghan, founder of Domino’s Pizza.

Today you take quick pizza delivery for granted. But if you zapped your way back to the swinging, hey-groovy ’70s, you’d grow old just waiting for a pizza. You’d call a pizza place and ask, “Can you deliver?” And about 79 hours later, you’d be still tapping your fingers waiting for the pizza guy to arrive.

Tom Monaghan did what Sarah did. He couldn’t find anything unique about his business, so he invented his uniqueness. He figured out how to get a pizza to his customers in 30 minutes or less. And then he came up with Domino’s’ now historic slogan: “Domino’s Pizza. In 30 Minutes Or It’s Free!” Yup, the pizza man invented his uniqueness.

You can’t find uniqueness—it must be invented and here’s how you do it. You look at your business as if you were a monarch surveying his kingdom. And then you make a big, warm wish for your royal subjects by asking yourself, “If I could, what would I do differently? Then do it. And once you’ve gotten the swing of things, announce your uniqueness to the world.

Ah, but hang on there a second—once you’ve decided what you want to do better than anyone else, survey the neighborhood. Does any other competitor do the same? And do your competitors stress their uniqueness?

If the answer to these questions is no, then go right ahead and proclaim this uniqueness to your customers. However, it doesn’t matter if your competitor does the same thing. If you’re the first to announce it, you own it.

If you don’t believe me, ask Cindy Russell. Cindy Russell runs 9 Seconds.com, a search engine optimization firm in Tampa, Florida. So what’s so different about a search engine optimization company? Cindy invented her uniqueness.

Cindy’s proposition is simple. If you’re a real estate agent in Milwaukee, she won’t work with another real estate agent in Milwaukee. She’ll work with a real estate agent in New York. But she won’t have two real estate agents scrapping it out for top search engine rankings in one geographical area.

This makes Cindy different. Her customers know their privileged information stays privileged with Cindy. They realize the advantage of working with someone who has the integrity to pass up instant income for client secrecy. And they’re willing to pay more to get Cindy’s enhanced service. Cindy’s onto a good thing with her self-created uniqueness.

But, having a point of uniqueness isn’t enough. Once you get your uniqueness going, you must blah, blah, blah it to the rest of the world. Keeping it hidden on page six in paragraph 73 isn’t going to help you one little bit.

Most businesses know their uniqueness. They’ll even tell you their point of difference in a conversation. Yet, you won’t find it on the front page of their website. It’s swept under the carpet in their brochures and newsletters. When they stand up to speak, they forget to make it an important part of the spiel.

At the bottom of our newsletter, you’ll find “A real newsletter—not a disguised ad.” That’s what we decided to achieve. It’s our own invention.

Get your uniqueness where it can be seen on a consistent basis. Not hidden under a bushel.

IN CONCLUSION
You, too, can create your own uniqueness. If you have been frozen so far, un-freeze that cheesy slogan. Be who you want to be. You’re different. You know it. Now let the world know about your point of difference, too. Invent it!

Swine Flu is influenza caused by a virus in pigs (other wise known as swine). Some pigs have strains of the influenza that are able to infect humans. It is normally very rare in humans; however the virus that has been the focus of many news stories recently is believed to have gone through some sort of mutation and it seems to be spreading to people more rapidly.

As you can see, swine flu is a present concern. It is important that people take the percussions necessary to prevent themselves from becoming infected. Ask any doctor who knows anything about swine flu and they will tell you Good Hygiene is your first defense.

According to the International Scientific Forum on Home Hygiene (IFH), the hands are probably the single most important transmission route for many types of infections because they come into direct contact with entry locations on your body for pathogens (mouth, nose, eyes). Therefore, keeping your hands clean are is the most important defense to disease.

Hand Sanitizers are becoming the paramount tool for defense against infection. Most instant hand sanitizer is 65% alcohol and kills 99.99% of the most common germs that spread illness. And because it’s instant it eliminates the need for soap and water so you can take it anywhere you like. In fact, the CDC (The Centers for Disease Control) have recommended the use of alcohol-based hand sanitizers Like Purell when soap and water are not available and hands are not visibly dirty.

Show your client & customers that you care about their safety with custom hand sanitizers from Gallant. The PDF presentation below has great sanitizer specials.

http://www.gallantgifts.com/promotional-presentations/promotional-hand-sanitizers.pdf