Personalised packaging is a growing trend and has an important role to play alongside generic products, according to Coca-Cola Europe’s packaging innovator Gregory Bentley - following the success in Australia of Coke bottles being sold with individual names printed on the labels.

Speaking to the organisers of the North Print and Pack show, Mr Bentley explained that including personalisation on packaging is currently extremely popular among brands.

“Marketers need to be clever with this in order to maximise their return on investment on marketing campaigns,” he was quoted by Packaging News as saying.

The delivery of the campaign that involved individually personalising Coke bottles came at a considerable cost, Mr Bentley pointed out, which could prevent the strategy becoming the norm for marketers for the foreseeable future. 

To tie together their marketing efforts, brands could also produce more generic printed promotional items that just feature the brand name itself to ensure their marketing appeals to all.

Mr Bentley added that the execution of such campaigns is critical, commenting: “Consumers can easily be disappointed with the end-product if it does not meet their expectations.”

North Print and Pack 2013 special: Three minutes with Coca-Cola’s Gregory Bentley, Packaging News

Posted by Robin McCrink

Our range of stylus pens & gadgets with a stylus tips keeps on growing!

New to the range is a brilliant low-cost 2 in 1 pen & metal stylus that comes in 6 colours each with striking silver trims. Whilst the main corporate colours are covered (black, silver, blue) if you’re looking for another colourway – we can get these pens made in any pantone colour you wish from a minimum order of just 3000 units – great eh!

May 20, 2013
For more information, contact:
Cheryl Jackson-Leafield
4imprint Marketing Manager UK & Ireland
+44 (0)161 850 3480

Building a Brand Online: A Guide to Success is the latest Blue Paper available from 4imprint

(Manchester, UK) – Building a Brand Online: A Guide to Success is the new Blue Paper from promotional items retailer 4imprint and is available now as a free download.

The Blue Paper begins with an overview of the importance of having an online presence in today’s increasingly complex digital marketplace and looks at why – with 92 per cent of buyers looking for an online review before making a purchase – a solid online brand is a must.

“The web is a great leveller and allows savvy small businesses the chance to become successful despite the presence of competing multinationals in the same field; the common element however is often they’ll both work extremely hard on their online branding and reputation,” says Cheryl Jackson-Leafield, Marketing Manager of 4imprint UK and Ireland.

The paper outlines why clear and consistent online branding is key; and offers nine measures for consideration to assist with online brand building all of which can be adopted by companies of any size. The paper concludes with an overview of three very different web players and outlines their online offerings.

To read this paper, visit www.4imprint.co.uk/BluePaper/Online-Brand

ENDS

20.5.13

About Blue Papers

Blue Papers are in-depth, ‘how-to’ articles covering a variety of topics to help organisations to succeed. They are available to download free at 4imprint.co.uk/bluepapers

About 4imprint

4imprint Direct Limited is part of 4imprint Group plc that serves more than 100,000 businesses with its innovative promotional products and business gifts throughout the UK, Ireland, USA and Canada. Its promotional merchandise offering includes personalised gifts, promotional pens, paper & notebooks, printed mugs, keyrings, cotton bags, mousemats, printed drawstring bags, sports bottles, USB Flashdrives, diaries & calendars, printed T-Shirts and much more. 4imprint’s ‘no quibble’ guarantees include the promise that if the personalised goods are not despatched on time they’ll be free! For additional information, visit www.4imprint.co.uk

A solid and consistent online brand is paramount in today’s 24/7 digital world. This Blue Paper discusses why clear online branding is key and offers 9 measures for consideration to assist with online brand building.

Download PDF

Earlier in the week I highlighted our yummy Haribo Starmix pouches – so thought I’d continue down this sweet theme. Also new and exclusive to the range are Colour Pop Lollipops. Available from just 250 units these mixed coloured lollys are sure to impress – and what’s more they’re available on our 3 day express service too. Price includes a double sided label which offers plenty of space for a message and contact details to 1 side and a logo to the other.

Small businesses face the ongoing challenge of having fewer resources and less time to pour into their marketing efforts, so it is important that methods are integrated.

With the proliferation of smartphones in recent times, people all over the world can gain access to the internet and their email accounts wherever they are.

This has led to firms increasingly looking towards integrating some of their marketing efforts, with mobile and social media seemingly the most obvious choices.

Indeed, a March poll of small businesses in the US by Constant Contact noted that firms are beginning to incorporate social media and email marketing into their mobile efforts in high numbers.

There are other ways to incorporate strategies in a company, for instance you could reward people for signing up to email newsletters and other correspondence. In exchange for opting in to frequent messaging you could offer promotional gifts.

Small businesses work to blend mobile and social, eMarketer

Posted by Robin McCrink

Retention of customers is an extremely important consideration that firms need to make in order to continue expanding.

With subscriptions an ever-popular way to keep customers in order, companies need to ensure they do enough to convince consumers of the merits of staying with them.

Chief customer officer of Gainsight Dan Steinman said it is important that firms create and enforce a customer-focused philosophy for the whole company.

He stated that it cannot be something as simple as building a team, organisations need to start with a company philosophy so that everyone is singing from the same hymn sheet.

“You must be truly committed to your customers’ success. Think about ways to prove your commitment, or to reinforce customer-focused behaviour across the entire company,” the expert continued.

There are many ways to prove your commitment to customers, one of which could be to send through promotional gifts to improve brand loyalty.

The new bottom line: customer success, Direct Marketing News

Posted by Robin McCrink

A new study has suggested that making email more relevant to consumers is harder for ecommerce marketers than driving conversion rates.

The survey of more than 200 retailers and brand marketers by Bronto asked people to cite their biggest challenge in deriving more revenue from emails and 31 per cent said “making email targeted and relevant”.

With the proliferation of smartphones in the last few years, billions now have access to the internet wherever they are, meaning an increased number of marketers are trying to reach them via email.

This means that marketers need to be relevant and keep people interested. By engaging with customers, firms can get a good grasp of what consumers want in terms of promotional gifts.

Director of marketing communications for Bronto Kevin Skurski commented: “They’re all familiar with what relevancy means, but they’re still wrestling with how to execute it. Driving relevance is a little fuzzier to them.”

Relevancy becomes more relevant to emailers, Direct Marketing News

Posted by Robin McCrink

We’re delighted to add a couple of new exclusive items to our range – and even better they fall into everyone’s favourite category sweets & treats!

Check out our new sweet pouches! Available in just 3 days & priced from 100 units to include a large full colour label for your design & details. We think we’ve done a great job bringing these to the range – but we’ll have to leave the hardest decision of all to you – will you opt for the multi-coloured Jelly Beans or (if we do say so ourselves) the very scrumptious Haribo Starmix?!

The rise of social media within companies began in the marketing department and now it has been shown to be a vital tool.

It is being used in a number of different combinations by marketers including for customer service.

Indeed, a survey completed by Call Centre Helper noted that 75 per cent of marketers stated customer service as a primary use of their social channels.

The platform has long been used as a way of engaging with customers and can be a good way to find out their likes of and dislikes.

Another way to engage with consumers is by sending them personalised items such as promotional flashdrives.

Chief executive officer of Conversocial Joshua March said social media is the communication channel of the “next generation” and only a collective effort from marketing and customer service can deliver a positive social experience.

He commented: “The most successful companies of tomorrow will be the ones that understand how social media is making customer service a fundamental part of their brand.”

The blending of marketing and service, Direct Marketing News

Posted by Robin McCrink