Well it is the season for goodwill to all men and peace etc etc etc.

Bah Humbug!!

This is the time of year when I am able to take stock of what has happened in 2008 and what I intend to do in 2009!

Sure I have all the usual family affairs, parties and performing father impressions to do but I also like to take some time out for me and think very carefully on what the New Year is going to bring.

I’m already in advanced stages of finalizing our 2009 trade show itinerary (our year actually runs April to March for budgeting and planning purposes) and knee high in the glad handing that the Christmas season brings to businesses each year.

Just as I grew tired of all the moaning and whining about gas prices hitting $4 and over which tended to dominate the start of 2008, now I’m also getting annoyed with all the doom and gloom merchants bemoaning the state of the economy.

It’s hard and it’s slow – that is a fact and for some it is going to hurt like heck.

I know this; head down and work hard, stick to what I know works and put in the extra effort with contacts and clients; now is the time to be increasing the effectiveness of my marketing because my competitors are all pulling themselves in and leaving potential customers and actual clients hanging out to dry – this is market share for me and I aim to take it.

While your competition are still getting over the Christmas pudding and stuffing, reaching for the Peptobysmol to cure that sluggish feeling, I’m going to be hitting the ground running and I aim not to stop until this time next year.

Recession is a brilliant opportunity for those who are prepared to seize it and I expect to be taking on more business and bigger clients than I normally get simply because I’m doing what my bigger competitors are not – working hard and the only thing out of my mouth will be, “We’re doing great – new business hasn’t stopped coming in – what’s all the fuss about!?!”.

I was told once, “Profit for sanity, turnover for vanity!” and over the years I have stuck to it, but without turnover which means revenues/sales/orders/new business and so on, there is never going to be any profit – sales is my lifeblood and before I cut a dollar’s worth of sales effort I’ll cut off my arm!

Happy New Year to you – don’t drink and drive and enjoy the holidays – we’ll see you in 2009!

I’ve used prize draws in the past and use them today and I have no doubts that I’ll be using them in the future.

The question isn’t whether prize draws work or not but how to make sure they work for you – the question is really like “How long is a piece of string?”

A good prize draw will attract visitors to your trade show display and you will be able to very simply and easily capture a lot of information about the attendee; after all if they expect to be notified of winning a prize they have to tell me how to be contacted now don’t they!

I make sure that the prize or prizes are something worthwhile; a bottle of champagne or fancy wine; a voucher for a weekend break or dinner at a swanky restaurant are all things I have used, and even on one occasion, we had a car up for grabs but that was for something very special and we shared the cost and the draw offering amongst several exhibitors.

The key thing is – the prizes have got to be worth it!

I also make sure that attendees who wish to enter have got to do something more than pop a business card in a box; sure they have to do that but I make them complete a prize draw questionnaire which requires they get correct answers to questions related to my company or especially, the product range I am promoting.

Then they have to attach their business card to the question card and in it goes to the draw.

the results have been pretty good in my experience and I almost always end up selling something to whoever wins in the draw; it is hard to say no to someone who has just given you a really decent gift.

Just as with any other contacts you collect at a trade show, you must follow up on teh contacts you have collected; it is worthwhile notifying the losers by telephone just as much as the winners and again, I have made numerous good referral contacts and better, new customers from such a tactic.

Yes, prize draws work!

We frequently get wrapped up in what we can use as a promotional giveaway and sometimes we loose sight of the woods for all of those trees.

It really pays to dump all of the methodology and best practices in the trash from time to time and look at the whole issue with fresh eyes from scratch.

I just got back from a trade show in Toronto and a there had been a glitch in the ordering I was low on my usual freebies to hand out but as luck would have it, a day before I’m due to drive up to the show my kid’s are yakking on about their cookie sales for the Girl Guides.

Now I am a cookie fan but usually the house is stuffed to the gills with unsold cookies this time of year and especially as my wife and her sisters seem to go into cookie making overdrive.  On this occasion I thought what the hey – I’ll have all of them so I loaded up with several dozen boxes of cookies and a stash of large liter sized ziploc bags crammed full of cookie goodness.

I’ve used food before; we all have without thinking about it whenever we set some finger food or canapes out next to the coffee and refreshments.  I did all of this without really thinking and I was surprised at the result; I was just getting inundated with people munching cookies and guzzling my coffee!

It seems there was a mass cookie addiction going on in Toronto and the craving was getting satisfied at my trade show display

Next time, I’m going to go armed with cookies that are branded and have already arranged for cookies to be boxed with my company logo and contact information on them and if they keep getting moved at the rate I saw last week, my wife and her sisters are going to find themselves gainfully employed as cookie makers on a full-time and permanent basis!

I keep mentioning “perceived value” but what does this really mean?

In a nutshell, when you give a promotional gift to a recipient and they think it is worth more than you paid for it; everyone is coming out on top as a winner!

My gran always told me that a present should be something that you want but wouldn’t generally go out and buy for yourself.

With this in mind, if you give a gift that costs you $3 but the recipient thinks it’s worth $10, then you have created a higher perceived value in the mind of the recipient.  You are leveraging this perceived value to create attention and to hold it in the mind of the recipient who, in this instance, is going to be an attendee at a trade show display.

Everyone can attend a trade show and come away with bags full of useful but cheap tacky nonsense that is likely to be filling waste paper baskets by the end of the day.  Your task is to select promotional gifts which will demonstrate a high perceived value in the minds of the recipients but which you are able to bring in within a budget that may be very restricted.

The idea that “It’s the thought that counts” when it comes to promotional gift giving is of no relevance; promotional freebies are a fact of tradeshow life and you don’t want to look cheap BUT that does not mean you cannot in fact be cheap!

The thought counts in this instance only to the extent that you need to exercise your imagination in shortlisting promotional gifts for your trade show presence which create a high perceived value over and above their true actual cost.  The basics still apply; do not lose sight of what the promotional gift is being used for; to attract and retain a prospective or existing customers attention and keep it for as long as is possible.

Buying a brand name promotional gift is a double edged sword as you can get more bang for your buck from buying generic giveaways or achieve higher perceived value by using a trusted brand.

Ultimately, the decision will come down to your budget; branded items are more expensive but are more likely to make a bigger impact on your attendees at your trade show display.  This is counter balanced to a large extent as generic giveaways can deliver the same quality at a fraction of the price but perceived value in the eyes of the recipient is the ultimate determinant as to whether your promotional item will do the job you intend – to keep you and your company in the mind of the attendee for as long as is possible and in a positive fashion.

Using a branded gift will associate your name and reputation with that of the brand – if you are looking to promote an image for quality, reliability and durability then a branded item will help you to do this – this is known as “piggybacking”.

Attendees who receive a branded item are more likely to use it and especially if this is clothing; a t-shirt with your company logo on it is more likely to be worn if it also has brand name manufacturers logo on it as well, for example Levi’s or Ralph Lauren.

Generic items are able to deliver the same quality as a branded version, but unless you are stepping up the gears and shooting for a higher level gift than your budget allows for with branded items, you are not going to create the perceived value you are looking for and the gift is less likely to be used.

My advice is to go for branded promotional gifts when you are able to afford it but otherwise go for generic versions when you are looking for the features you wish your promotional gift to have for your budget.

I’ve written extensively about how you should use giveaways and promotional items as a reward for prospect behavior at your trade show display; don’t hand out gifts for nothing as this does not give you anything in return and how you need to break the idea in an attendee’s mindset that they are simply entitled to take your gift without at least engaging in a business discussion and qualification exercise first.

I’m going to introduce you to a further development of this concept and that is the Tier Gift Practice.

The idea here is that instead of one set of promotional gifts you are going to have a range of giveaways which have very definite differences in perceived attendee value.

An example is where you have candy or coffee available; you don’t mind anyone taking advantage of these and so they are your first line of giveaways.

Next you have a baseball cap with your company logo on it, and these are only given out to someone who discusses business with you and may be a prospect to follow up with down the road but then again, they are a definite maybe when it comes to prioritizing them.

Finally, you have a state of the art USB stick which are an indispensable gadget but for this your attendee/prospect is someone who you are discussing business with in a positive fashion and if not completing the order forms there and then you are arranging for a sales call to take place shortly thereafter.

Candy snatchers are not getting a USB stick or a baseball cap; those who qualify for a baseball cap are not getting a USB stick and those who are getting a USB stick you expect to be doing business with.

No matter what the gift, remember the principles of attention retention – it still needs to perform a task after it has left the arena and thaht is to help you and your company stick in the mind of the attendee so the candy should be good, the coffee fresh, the caps of a good quality and the USB stick had better be one that is going to work and be reliable when the user needs it to – or you’ll certainly be remembered but for all the wrong reasons!