Are #Promotional Products The #Gifts That Keep on Giving in SA? @PromoProductExp

Hi Friends,

The global promotional products industry is doing well, despite an unstable international economic climate, and is said to be growing at a pace according to Econo Times, with other industry experts seeing this upward trend continuing until at least 2024.

“The reasons for this are varied, but most likely lie in the fact that marketing, specifically in a competitive economy, is a key business priority and branded promotional products are a simple, cost-effective way to keep brands top of mind,” says Nick Sarnadas, event director at Specialised Exhibitions Montgomery.

“Through promotional products, advertising and marketing messaging life cycles can be greatly extended to long after initial exposure, Sarnadas continues. “Statistics vary per country but, on average, around 80 percent of recipients will remember the advertiser after receiving a promotional gift item and approximately 45 percent of those keeping the product for at least 12 months.”

Does this positive market growth, however, extend to South Africa, where according to Statistics South Africa, we have just narrowly dodged a recession?

SA resellers weigh in

Rainer Schulz of Thistle Promotions believes that, without supporting research on the South African promo product market, it is difficult to make a definitive statement on how the sector has fared recently.

“Over the past year, we’ve seen contrasting variances in the South African promotional goods sector - some companies have drastically cut spending, forgoing marketing investment in lieu of channeling funds into staff retention, while others have started spending on promotional goods for the very first time in an attempt to grow brand awareness and market share by channeling funds into new areas,” he says.

This sentiment is corroborated by another local promotional products reseller, namely David Kraukamp of Promo One, who explains that it has been a fairly tough year for the market, much like most other sectors in South Africa currently.

“Unfortunately, many businesses are redirecting marketing spend, as it’s often the easiest place to cut the budget,” says Kraukamp. “However, there is clearly still value in corporate gifts and promo items, particularly as we head into the festive season, as companies, in general, do still want to provide some sort of item to their customers, even if it is at a lower price point.”

Promotional Products Association International (PPAI) released 2018 global industry research which shows interesting results, adds Sarnadas, especially when it comes to the five Rs of promotional products, namely, reach, reaction, recall, resonance, and repeated exposure:

• Reach – 89 percent of consumers have received a promotional product in the last six months.
• Reaction – 79 percent of these actually researched the brand and 83 percent said they would be more likely to do business with the brand after receipt of the item.
• Recall – 90 percent of respondents recall the branding, 80 percent recall the message and 70 percent recall the call to action.
• Resonance – 82 percent recorded a more favorable impression of the brand after receiving a promotional product.
• Repeated exposure – 81 percent say they keep their product for more than a year.

“These figures reinforce the fact that even in a difficult environment, with budgets are tighter than ever and increased pressure to prove value for marketing spend, branded merchandise can be a powerful tool,” he states.

Where does local demand lie?

Schulz shares that demand in South Africa has grown for practical products with a specific everyday use, such as notebooks, caps, and shopping bags (particularly important with growing awareness around eradicating the single-use plastic bag), stating that drinkware is currently very popular but the technology side, which saw a boom several years ago (with power banks being especially popular) is on the wane. Kraukamp agrees, adding that companies are taking more of an old-school approach again, looking for products that will stay within eye-line, like desktop items and wall clocks.

“Environmentally friendly gifts are on the upward trajectory, as businesses are becoming more aware of being socially and environmentally conscious, with a focus on the likes of reusable water bottles (glass or aluminum and even BPA free plastic),” Kraukamp adds.

“The benefits inherent to promotional products are obvious, and they remain an important part of holistic marketing campaigns,” Sarnadas says. “This is a fast-paced sector, with thousands of options available, and a fairly complex value chain for the local reseller.

“It is for these reasons that Specialised Exhibitions Montgomery has introduced The Promo Product Expo, with a view to supporting the start-to-finish reselling experience; from sourcing right through to customer delivery,” he explains.

This will include each touch point within the promotional product reseller’s supplier network, incorporating branding experts, designers, financial providers, industry-specific networking organizations, logistics providers, marketing pros, packaging and printing specialists, promotional goods and apparel manufacturers and suppliers, technology vendors and distributors, wholesalers, and more.

“The Promo Product Expo 2020 will offer resellers direct access to a variety of suppliers that serve this industry, providing an opportunity to see, feel and touch current product offerings - as well as new solutions that are coming down the line – while encouraging and enabling the opportunity for visitors to meet the humans that make the magic happen for businesses who believe in branding in South Africa.”

The Promo Product Expo will run on 21 and 22 July 2020 at Sandton Convention Centre in Johannesburg. For more information on the trade show, please visit www.thepromoproductexpo.co.za. Interested in exhibiting at the expo, or becoming a partner? Please contact Specialised Exhibitions Montgomery on info@thepromoproductexpo.co.za.

Cheers!!!

Contact me at thelifesway@gmail.com or editor@thelifesway.com to collaborate on your products, events, and services. #TheLifesWay #PhotoYatra!

From Stone to Smart Tablets and Back Again (oh, and the glitch in the road) @MadexExpo #Madex2018

Hi Friends,

By Nick Sarnadas, Portfolio Director, Specialised Exhibitions Montgomery
 

“I just want to be heard!” wails the marketing director (who shall remain anonymous due to his or her extreme thespian abilities).

Before you think this is one of those life-coaching columns, let me be direct: It’s not. It’s about retro marketing experiencing a revival. It’s about the importance of direct mail campaigns. In particular, the rise of mail (yes the real tangible stuff) and the slight traffic detour on the SA postal highway (did someone say PoPIA?).

As all good stories go, let’s start at the beginning: A long, long time ago time in Egypt, about 3,000 years ago, a landowner wrote an ad on papyrus offering a payment of gold in return for his runaway slave.

True story. You can view this ancient example of direct marketing in the British Museum.

Although the term “direct marketing” is only just over three decades old (having been coined by Lester Wunderman in 1987), beside the historic artifact referenced above, other ancient civilizations were already carving ads into stone tablets!

Skip ahead to present day and not only is chipping away at ads made easier, but the distribution of ads to the target market has evolved thanks to the rapid succession in invention following printing press: the computer, the internet and, of course, our beloved mobile devices.

Herewith ends the history lesson…or does it?

Not really. Nostalgia is making a comeback in the form of direct mail. The hard-copy papers received in letterboxes. For marketers and business owners, one of the biggest urban legends is that direct mail is dead and that it was killed by the internet.

The real scenario is that it’s not just alive and well, but that in fact, “direct mail could be considered superior to other marketing channels based on recent statistics and studies,” states a post on Forbes.com.

It also highlights stats from the Direct Marketing Association (DMA), which found that overall, “direct mail’s response rates are actually anywhere from 10 to 30 times higher than that of digital. [It notes that] consumers, overwhelmed by inboxes cluttered with unsolicited marketing e-mails, are more receptive to direct mail, which arrives on a much less-cluttered channel.

Recently, itportal.com published that “according to recent studies, more than 269 billion e-mails are sent daily. The chances of your marketing campaigns getting lost in the sea of spam are only set to increase as we rely more on technology. However, compared to that statistic, direct mail is said to be kept in the house for 17 days, with 87 percent of consumers trusting messages within direct mailing, and only 48 percent trusting what is said in e-mails.”

Ha, imagine the cool factor if everyone could receive a stone tablet! In fact, influencing the popularity and rise of direct mail is its perceived value. It’s emotive: to receive something tangible adds to a more authentic human experience.

Perhaps it is also a sense of security that direct mail extracts from people of all generations (yes, millennials included). Opening mass e-mails opens individuals up to cybercrime and data mining. There’s certainly no phishing threat however when receiving a postcard.

Marketers should therefore thoroughly embrace this retro resurgence – the possibilities are endless, ironically, thanks to digital driving the traditional. Some of the technological advances and developments in the industry mentioned by itportal.com include multi-channel integration (this refers to the combination of the primary forms of marketing: digital and direct mail), programmatic mail (which provides companies with the power to transform online activity into hyper-personalised mail), augmented reality (think of the success of Pokemon Go and the rise of QR codes – two worlds are colliding), dimensional mailers (as the term states – it’s stuff that does not fit in an envelope) and then….PoPIA – the South African Protection of Personal Information Act.

The reality is that direct mail success relies on clean customer data. Importantly though, the PoPIA legislation needs to be prioritized before you even begin to collect customer data or you could face hefty fines, a big ding in your reputation, your best direct mail campaign lying crumpled in a wastebasket, and a revival that was never revived.

Jano Fourie, SEESA consumer protection and PoPIA legal advisor, says that direct marketing is defined by the PoPI Act “as any means to approach a data subject, either in person or by mail or electronic communication, for the direct or indirect purpose of promoting or offering to supply any goods or services in the ordinary course of business, or alternatively requesting a data subject to make a donation of any kind.”

He further explains that a data subject (defined in terms of the Act as any person on whose behalf a company holds personal information), may only be contacted for direct marketing purpose on two very specific situations: The data subject must consent to receive such communication; and the data subject must be an existing client of the business, whose information has been retrieved in the marketing of similar goods and services as those offered to the data subject and the data subject must have been provided with an opportunity to reasonably object at any time to their information being collected.

Fourie stresses that it is important to note that consent in this instance should always be obtained in writing, unless reasonably impossible, as the business will have the responsibility to prove that consent has been given by a data subject to process his or her information in the instance.

Get it right (both creatively and legislatively) and you’ll have charmed your customers standing head and shoulders above your competitor crowd. You’ll have been heard!

Hooked on marketing trends? Well then, you’re going to love Madex 2018, the ultimate marketing, advertising, design, social media and all that good stuff expo. We’ve got an entire panel of dynamic, expert presenters speaking at the show, so visit https://www.madex.co.za/seminars.php, or download the Madex app on Google Play or iTunes, to see the full seminar programme and to plan your trip accordingly!

Madex 2018 takes place on 06 and 07 June this year at Sandton Convention Centre and is strategically co-located once again with Markex 2018, Africa’s premier promotional event, now in its 31st year.

Cheers!!!

Contact me at editor@thelifesway.com to collaborate on paid/sponsored campaigns. #TheLifesWay #PhotoYatra!

Oh goody! It’s a Goodie Bag! By Nick Sarnadas @MadexExpo 6-7 June 2018 #Madex2018

Hi Friends,

Corporate gifts, giveaways, promotional items…we all like to receive them (them being freebies of course).

As a marketer or team manager or corporate exec, have you however ever stopped to really think about how these gifts - especially the gimmicky toys or those items that serve no practical purpose and how they are publicised, may be hurting your brand?

It has become a case of ‘don’t judge a book [t-shirt, fidget spinner, sunglasses, you name it] by its cover’ for promotional item decision makers.

That is, the promotional item you are sold on may look fabulous in outward appearance and in theory sound so wonderfully quirky and amazing – but the reality and quality of the promise often run the risk of being underwhelming and just plain shoddy. Problem is, this is what you have gifted your customers or staff. It is a reflection not only of your brand but also how you value them.

On top of the risks of ‘what’ is gifted, is ‘how’ a promotional campaign is pushed forward. Done wrong, even the most valuable product could be detrimental to your brand.

“The promotional item and the channels used to reach customers have changed in the digital realm. And so, as in the above risk scenario, it is not only the quality of the product that is gifted that needs great evaluation but also by what method it is given,” says Nick Sarnadas, event director for the upcoming Markex 2018 tradeshow at Specialised Exhibitions Montgomery. “As a brand, have you considered all the consequences of your promotional campaign? Have you set boundaries? Are you at risk of it all getting too unmanageable and damaging your brand?”

He explains that social media channels have become popular platforms to swiftly spread the promotional freebie word. “A hashtag is far cheaper than running a media campaign,” he points out. “However, social media can morph into a life of its own and, if a proper strategy is not in place, the short-term excitement can turn into a detrimental disaster in the long term. Just imagine the hashtag, the shares, and comments, should you have run out of freebies, or your promotional item not live up to its hype, and no terms and conditions are in place?”

Sarnadas stresses, “That said, the promotional item still has a critical place within the marketing mix, but rules need to adhere for it to garner a positive reputation, a loyal customer, and a potential buyer.”

He says that the easiest means to judge your promotional campaign and item is to put yourself into your customers’ shoes. “As yourself, what value do I expect my client to obtain – and vice versa, what value should my brand get from this. That pinpointed value is the ultimate goal from which your strategy, good planning, item inventory and rollout follows. Never lose sight of this value and nurture and protect it, because this value holds both your reputation and the customer experience.

“Remember, everyone loves a freebie, and promotional items remain hot news – but, the ‘free’ needs to be treated precious.”

Don’t make a costly mistake, visit Markex 2018, Africa's premier promotional products expo, on 6 and 7 June 2018 at Sandton Convention Centre in Johannesburg, where the expo will be celebrating its 31st year of bringing together local resellers with the industry’s best and brightest manufacturers and distributors. Please visit www.markex.co.za for details on how to register for the event.

Cheers!!!

Contact me at editor@thelifesway.com to collaborate on paid/sponsored campaigns. #TheLifesWay #PhotoYatra! Check my influence and book me via https://webfluential.com/TheLifesWay

or via FOHR - https://www.fohr.co/www-thelifesway-com

Marketing is Facing the Literal Deadline by Nick Sarnadas @MadexExpo #Madex2017

Hi Guys,

There has been a cartoon doing the rounds for many years of two dinosaurs perched on a rock watching Noah’s ark floating away in the distance carrying a gamut of animals and a speech bubble stating an expletive, referring to the realisation that these massive creatures have indeed missed the deadline.

This example is still very apt in today’s environment, where every business aspect is embracing digitalisation, and those who are not, fear being left behind with their prolonged existence at risk.

By the same token, today’s marketeers must speak a different language and communicate this through digital channels in order to reach a new species of customer – the digital native. No longer can marketing make the “old” world their playing field, but they need to venture out and seek greener pastures beyond.

Academic institutions are realising this too, with numerous courses on online marketing and social media being offered. Companies are placing job adverts seeking the right people to drive their online and social media campaigns, and those with digital knowledge are the ones assured of a workplace.

Fact is, digitalisation impacts marketing strategies. It is a means to expand your business and to reach new customers. Digitalisation is changing entire business models and is offering value-added opportunities. You simply cannot miss the boat and risk being left behind.

Promoting and selling products and services over the Internet are critical. It is the New Economy, and the explosion of the Internet and its users attests to this. Businesses are no longer bringing products and services to the market, they are also no longer marketing to customers. The golden key today is collaboration in marketing. It’s about building partnerships and relationships. Working together with your customers.

Media today is being consumed via the Internet. You need to ensure that your business can be found on this platform, just think Google searches. You therefore need to work with your customer to help them find what they seek. This makes your social media strategy as well as your policy paramount to your business.

The consumer has become someone who wants answers now; no matter where or when. They want to play with the information available to them, gain value from it, and, they want it personalised – about them and their circumstances. Above all, they want this whole process to be fast and painless.

You are today talking to an immeasurable customer base located anywhere in the world. We understand that this is tricky. It is not just about having the app and the backbone, it is about entwining the people to this technology.

To assist you in making sense of digitalisation in marketing and to gain greater insight into this journey, we have created Madex, a show presenting the next step in marketing evolution. Please visit www.madex.co.za for more information and to register for your free attendance. We look forward to catching that boat with you.

Expo expert extraordinaire, Nick Sarnadas is the Madex 2017 event director at Specialised Exhibitions Montgomery. With enough coffee, Nick feels that all things are possible – they might be highly unlikely, but they are possible.

Madex 2017 was held on Wednesday, 07 June 2017 and Thursday, 08 June 2017 at the Sandton Convention Centre so if you have missed the same this year, keep your eyes on the website for the next year dates. Check out some of the photos on my instagram.com/araijain

 

Cheers!!!

 

Contact me at thelifesway@gmail.com to blog, share and influence about your products and services on all my Social Media channels #TheLifesWay #PhotoYatra !