Stainless Steel Water Bottles

One of the up and coming trends in the advertising specialties industry is the metal water bottle. Metal water containers have been around for a long time. The settlers of the American West of 150 years ago used metal canteens. However, the metal water bottle has come a long way.

The new bottles are sleek, modern, innovative caps, straps, and cases for attaching them to bicycles. They come in an array of colors or in rugged unfinished steel or aluminum. Aluminum and stainless steel are particularly effective in sport bottles, because they are chemically stable, and the water or liquid stays clean and untainted. They are BPA free which is a large concern right now. There are two consumer products manufacturers making beautiful metal sport bottles. One is Klean Kanteen making stainless steel sport bottles. The other is Sigg, a Swiss company which makes an extruded aluminum bottle with a patented liner. Neither Sigg nor Klean Kanteen are inexpensive, and bottles can range as high as $25 each with many of the models costing in the high teens.

My favorite products in the promotional products industry are the H2go steel water bottles made by ETS Express. They are attractive and come in several sizes and shapes and a lot of cool colors that can successfully match almost any brand, plus they are about one third the cost of the big name brands. American Promotions collection of H2Go stainless steel sport bottles is found here. Here is the color selection for the H2Go Bolt Stainless Steel Water Bottle.

Promotional Products Ideas From Estonia

Promo products are being used the world over, even in places where you would think that they are not as pervasive. More and more, people understand the power of branding.

http://timandrewsblog-asicentral.com/timblog/2008/09/03/product-ideas-from-estonia-pics/

100% Recycled Biodegradable Funnel

This recycled 1 pint motor oil funnel is an inexpensive promotion for under a buck that can be used in connection with community recycling programs. It is 100% recycled polypropylene and it also has been designed with an additive which enhances the biodegradability of the plastic. Pretty neat.

Logo Airplane Glider

As I was out on the blogosphere and perusing for the latest and greates this morning, I encountered a fun product that makes me wish that I was a kid again. It is this Aeromax Jr. Astronaut Suit with Embroidered Cap. It has such a fun authentic look. I can just see my 5-year-old (or me) jumping on the trampoline in this suit as I defy gravity and explore uncharted space.

I was not sure if we had very many promotional items suitable for children. We actually don't. However, when I think about it, almost everything kids where or play with is logoed and designed to advertise the purchase of more of the same. I'm not sure that is a good thing, but it is what it is.

In the aeronautical theme, I did find this Promotional Bungee Glider which would be a great toy at a trade show or in a backyard.

I spent the better part of the morning reading various blogs and participating in the "global conversation" as it is referred to by Technorati. I frequently post on others blogs, because I really like to respond when I read something interesting, and it naturally provides a backlink to American Promotions, and gives people a chance to find us.

It reminded me that there are so many things that I know so little about, and yet I have a broad curiosity and a renaissance variety of interests, but there is so much information out there that you can quickly get lost and waste gobs of time.

My favorite find this morning is this blog by newsman and writer Jeff Jarvis for The Guardian. I left a long comment on this post, "The moral imbalance of bailouts" and had some trouble with the submission process. When I emailed him, he kindly responded almost immediately. It encouraged me to read several additional posts from his blog, and it is easy to discern that Mr. Jarvis is an innovator who is not afraid of change and is a true journalist in the sense that he seeks the truth. I don't share all of his political views, but he is an insightful writer, and deserves a look.

Just wanted to share this beautiful and deeply moving blog post by my good friend Chris Jones about the passage of time, untimely loss of a loved one and the advice we give our sweet children. Read only if your interested.

http://cjgroup.blogspot.com/2008/09/sunrise-sunset.html

FYI: The boy whose death is mentioned in the post used to live in the home where Chris now lives in Lehi, Utah.

Looking Cool

There is something very cool and professional about a slick leather portfolio. My own taste is minimalistic when it comes to something like this. I really like these sleek, unpretentious numbers from Aspinal of London.

We also do a number of great leather portfolios. I really like this one.

Online vs. Offline Sales (and Really Nice Luggage)

I've been in selling corporate promotional items and premiums now for more than 12 years. We began the transition to primarily a web based business about 3 years ago, and it has really become the substantial share of our sales in the last 12 months. One thing that I have learned is that the dollar value of the products that you tend to sell online is lower, and that the average sale is smaller than in traditional corporate sales. Granted, the internet works for you 24 hours a day, and it does a lot of the selling for you as customers seek you out, and you are able to interact with your customer in a way that is not possible offline. Selling online has also exponentially broadened our customer base and allowed us to go national. There are pros and cons to online selling, but we are pleased by in large that we made the choice that we did, and we are hopeful for the future of the company.

One thing I do miss is the really special and unique requests we used to get from some of our corporate clients. I have sold everything from high end watches, to snorkeling gear to custom pewter and marble chess sets. We used to stock a complete rewards program for a large international nutritional supplement company, and it gave us the opportunity to sell all kinds of different items ranging from neck ties, to beach promotions and apparel and outerwear of every level of quality. We just don't receive such unique assignments anymore.

It was always really fun to get a special request, and to acquaint oneself with new manufacturers and new products. I remember receiving a request for Zero Halliburton aluminum briefcases. These are such a cool and classic product. Zero Halliburton was not set up to sell through the advertising specialties industry, and as it turned out, I believe that I simply directed our client directly to Zero, because there was not room or logic for a middle man.

I went on to the Zero Halliburton website today, and saw that there product line is as gorgeous as I remembered it.

Zero now makes computer cases that are made from polycarbonate and are very strong. We just reroofed our greenhouse in polycarbonate, and I know it is strong from selling polycarbonate drinkware for years. We still have a significant collection of polycarbonate drinkware within our line of logo water bottles, but we have focused our marketing efforts on safe, customer centric BPA water bottles.

I decided to check out the Zero website, because I came across some beautiful luggage by Logomark Bettoni, and I just thought to myself how cool it would be to actually have a customer request an order of something like it. I think it is unlikely to sell these items from our website, because the pricepoint is so high. The highest end luggage which acts as a business premium is by Cutter & Buck such as this piece.

Budget Logo Brief Bags

Leed's is trying to adust to the economic realities of a sliding economy with these brief bags under $10.00.

I think I may use the same collection to target some web sales with pay per click.

Adjusting to the Downturn

The economy has definitely taken a downward turn. The feeling is palpable in our industry and across the economy. But smart businesses will conserve, will be frugal and will cut costs while finding ways to grow. American Promotions is actually growing even this year when the economic headwinds against growth seem to be so strong. There are a lot of reasons we are growing - many of which we consider to be proprietary and secrect.

The main issue is that we are seeking to be adaptable, and to constantly adjust based on the best data we can get. Another reason is that we are not real large anyway, and so there is a lot of room to take market share from competitors even if the pie is not growing.

The official position of ASI is that the pie of promotional products sales is growing. According to ASI, the industry sales for the 2nd quarter of 2008 grew at 3.7% over the same quarter in 2007. I can't link to this because it is industry protected data. I find these numbers to be suspect, but I have no idea how ASI collects there data, so I don't have grounds to criticize them. From our experience, most prices across the industry have gone up 5% to 15% (in some cases much more). If ASI's data only represents the nominal value of all goods sold, then it is very likely that the industry is actually moving less product, but still eeking out sales gains. I also think there is a generalized trend of money flow from traditional advertising such as radio and television to nontraditional outlets such as promotions and web advertising.

In any case, a lot of distributors are struggling, and I imagine that some suppliers are too. I hope the government does not interfere with the market too much and that we can innovate our way out of this.

How About Bamboo Tree For Your Desk

This is a really clever idea. Here is a promotional Bamboo Single Chute Pot set in a biodegradable pot that can display your logo. For the right program, this would make a very unique statement.

Be careful though where you plant it. Bamboo can take over if it is not managed.

A Bamboo Cutting Board - With Your Logo

American Promotions carries a lot of bamboo cutting boards which are really nice unique items as business gifts and for promotional use. Your companies logo is usually printed on or better yet laser engraved into the surface. This Moso Bamboo Travel Cheese Set cutting board is my favorite.

Bamboo Promotions

I've seen a trend toward promotions made of bamboo. I've always liked bamboo. I like it as a flooring. I like fabrics made from bamboo, and I love the exotic beauty of a bamboo forest. It grows and regenerates so quickly, which makes it a wonder renewable resource for making things.

One of my favorite examples of the ethereal beauty of a bamboo forest is in the movie The House of Flying Daggers. This is not my favorite movie in this genre (my favorite is Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) and there are a couple of fundamentally flawed plot elements in Flying Daggers, but the battle scene which takes place in the bamboo forest is pure artistry.

Here are three fun promotional items which capture the beauty of bamboo:

Bamboo Keyhole Game
Bamboo Brainbuster Game
Bamboo Clip

A Great Pen Company

I just wanted to do a quick tip-of-the-hat to a great pen company - Senator Pen. They have done a fantastic job of offering a focused product line in the face of much more well funded and competition. They have great service and their website is innovative, straight-forward and intuitive. Promotional pens are the staple of the industry, and Senator has carved out a strong and well-deserved nitch.

Leather Padfolios and Journals

I've always liked the feel of genuine leather desk accessories, padfolios and journals. Presently, we have a decent collection of leather portfolios and padfolios, but I would like to augment our line with a larger color selection, because I think there is a color trend that is in full swing and moving through the industry. The success of the companies online that only offer leather journals is a testament to this.

Our leather padfolios are found here, but I expect our selection to grow over the next few months.

American Promotions is an authorized distributor of the Andrew Phillips Deluxe Leather Collection, and we are going to be adding a lot of their products to our website.

Circa/Rollabind System

I just discovered a really cool product that I think I would like to try. It is called the Circa Notebook System and it is available from Levenger. It looks really innovative. It is a perforation/punch system that punches "teeth" along the edges of any size of page, and then a notebook is disc bound, because the teeth grip each individual disc. This allows for fast and easy movement of paper in and out of the organizer or notebook and exchanging between notebooks with the same system. It looks to me like Levenger does corporate sales of the product and they have a really nice line. From what I could find online, the Levenger Circa system is a licensee of Rollabind, and Rollabind invented the technology. The Levenger system is also quite expensive for promotional use, but would make a really nice gift to the right executive.

I also just learned that Leed's has their own line of Rollabind products available through promotional products distributors. Here is the link for the Leed's Rollabind system, and the Rollabind website.

We are going to need to get some of these up on our website, and perhaps do a custom landing page for them, because it is an ingenius system, and I am glad that we can offer it.

Circa Disc Bound system - Also called Rollabind

Ocean Theme Promotions



My mind is on advertising specialties with an ocean theme, because of our trip to the coast for the Labor Day holiday. Several years ago, I sold a couple orders of completely waterproof containers for holding valuables such as keys, credit cards, cash and small jewelry. They are a very handy item for keeping things dry and on your person. I don't know that I'd risk body surfing while wearing something like this:



Here is a good quality version - the Flip-Top Floating Container from Bulletline.