Calendars – Still a Top Promotional Product

When you think of calendars as an advertising vehicle, visions of the Norman Rockwell calendar you would pick up at your local pharmacy are probably what come to mind. And that design still remains a pretty popular one: Norman Rockwell Calendar.

Calendars have been around forever, but they still remain a very popular advertising medium for businesses. Why? It's simple: They provide continuous marketing every day of the year. What other product is guaranteed to make an impression daily on your customer? When a customer receives a calendar, they put it up on the wall, put it on their desk, or stick it in their car... and then it stays there for a year, constantly reminding them of who gave it to them.

No matter what your budget or preference, you can find a calendar to fit. From small press-n-stick calendars starting at $.40 each, on up to full-color fully customized works of art, there's a calendar perfect to create awareness of your business or brand.

Don't want to spend a lot of time designing a calendar? Choose from hundreds of pre-made calendars, ready to have your imprint added, such as these: Appointment Calendars. Or for a little more customization, how about options such as coupon add-ons, desk pads, or a fully customized calendar such as these: Custom Calendars. Then there's all sorts of other options such as planners, commercial calendars, stick up or magnetic calendars, and more: Planners.

When is the best time to buy calendars? Surprisingly, it's early the year before the calendar's year. Many suppliers print only a limited number of each style and can run low on inventory towards the fall. There are some suppliers and styles however that do have guaranteed inventories throughout the year. Another advantage to buying before July is discounted pricing, offered by most calendar suppliers.

Even though we're starting to wind down the year, there's still plenty of time available to get those 2011 calendars ordered. What better way to show your thanks to your customers or employees and keep that appreciation in front of them throughout the year?

The Power of Promotional Products

PPAI, the non-profit trade organization for the promotional products industry, has just released their latest research on the power of promotional products. For a quick view of the results, check out this link to a short presentation: Reach And Recall

The findings reinforce past studies -- consumers like receiving promotional items, they tend to remember the company that gave them out, and they tend to hold on to the item, creating multiple impressions of the product or brand.

The study also shows that promotional products advertising has a 15-50% higher recall rate than tv, print and online advertising -- a great bang for the buck.

Some quick facts:
• 83% of consumers surveyed like receiving promotional items
• 48% would like to receive them more often
• 69% generally will keep the item if it is useful
• 36% generally will give it to someone else if they don't have a use for it, expanding it's exposure
• 35% generally keep the product if they like the advertiser
• Decreases in advertising dollars are the least for promotional products as compared to other mediums
• A significantly more positive impact on brand image is projected by promotional products than other mediums

The PPAI website has a host of research and facts about the impact of promotional products. It's a great source when you are considering your advertising budgets and the impact you wish to create.

Cotton and Tshirt Pricing on the Rise

We've just been getting notices about increases in tshirt pricing from our suppliers. As of September 13, most brands will show an increase of around 5%. There are many factors causing this. Below is an explanation from Gildan, one of the top manufacturers of tshirts:

"There are a lot of factors that have caused the increase with the price of Cotton being a large part.

There is a sub-commodity market for yarn spinning (the step where they take ginned cotton fibre and twist it into the yarns that end up getting knit into the fabric that gets dyed, cut and sewn into shirts). The recession forced some yarn spinners to either close or change their machinery to make finer yarns so globally there is also a shortage of yarn that has impacted prices.

India also temporarily initiated a block on exports which further dried up available yarns.

The last (and possibly most significant reason) is that almost the entire manufacturing supply chain was caught off guard at how fast demand for cotton products has rebounded. Corporations are spending on promotions, people are traveling and going to concerts and fundraising efforts around the globe are booming. "

At The Creative J, we will price check among our various suppliers, looking for specials and options to help keep your pricing competitive whenever we quote on apparel. Apparel quoting is a constantly changing beast, something we custom quote each time in order to get the best pricing available.

Holiday Gifts Already?

Can you believe summer is over, school has started and ads for holiday gifts are starting to pop up? What happened to this year? Seems the older I get, the faster the year flies by.

Almost daily we are starting to get catalogs and emails from our suppliers about holiday gifts. Believe it or not, now's the time to start thinking about what your company is going to do this year for employee and customer gifts.

Some items, like chocolates and other food stuffs are discounted right now through the end of September. If you order now, these suppliers will even hold off on shipping until November or December, or whenever you like. A great way to get those orders taken care of now and avoid the stress of getting them done last minute in December! Click here to check out some really yummy ideas.

A common holiday handout is calendars, and it's time to order those while supplies last. Many calendars are printed at the beginning of the year and not replenished. We've found some styles are out of stock in the fall, so it's best to order soon. Most calendar companies will offer discounts for orders placed before July 1. To check out a variety of styles and sizes, click here.

A lot of businesses out there will tell us they like to just hand out gift cards or money for their holiday gifts. Studies have shown that giving a gift instead of money will last in the recipient's memory much longer. Recipients of money will tend to use it to pay off bills and not remember how they used it a year later. When they receive an actual gift, especially one branded with your company's logo, they remember each time they use it how and when they received it. Their appreciation for the giver is reinforced each time they use their gift.

So although we're still feeling the heat of summer, it's time to start looking ahead and thinking about those cool months to come, and how you plan to thank your customers and your employees.

Why Do Flash Drive Prices Change So Often?

Flash or USB drive prices for the most part change on a weekly basis. Why is that?

1. Flash memory is only made by a very few manufacturers such Samsung and Hynix, so they control the prices.

2. Memory chips are in everything: tv's, i-Pods, cars, stereos, refrigerators, you name it! So the demand is huge and the supply is limited.

3. 80% of the cost of the drive is determined by the cost of the memory chip, so when the price on the chips increase, so does the drive cost.

4. Large buyers like Apple often buy millions of chips at one time, causing an increased demand and lack of supply. So, prices go up.

But consider this, 16 months ago, a 4GB drive cost around $100. Today, the cost is around $20!

And when you consider the fact that it was just a few years ago that a regular 1GB hard drive cost hundreds of dollars, we really have come a long way in a very short time.

(Do any of you remember the days in the not so distant past when our computers didn't even HAVE hard drives? I remember starting out as a graphic designer with my Pagemaker program on one 3.5" floppy disk and my files on the other. I would have to swap them back and forth when I wanted to save my files! And if you can remember that, you can probably figure out how old I am!!!)