SYNERGIES

Your Logo < not > Here

With today's brand-conscious consumers, sometimes you say more about your brand by not saying anything at all

When Vilia Johnson, national sales manager for A.T. Cross Business Gifts, noticed that the man sitting next to her on a recent business flight was making notes with a Cross pen, she saw it as an opportunity to conduct a customer satisfaction survey.

She asked why he chose Cross and he explained that it was a reward for being named salesperson of the year at his company in 1999.

The pen wasn't engraved or imprinted, and yet the man was still using it several years after he received it - and he knew exactly how he got it.

Wendy Tinker, CEO at Seattle-based UpSellUSA, has a similar story about a coffee cup that she used herself for years until it finally broke. It was the perfect size for her morning coffee and, despite the fact that it was not imprinted, she could tell you in an instant the company that gave her the cup as a business gift all those years ago.

Tinker's roots are in marketing, yet she counts herself among those who are rethinking what a promotional product is and what it should accomplish.

"A lot of people are waking up to the fact that people don't necessarily want to wear your billboard across their chest or have a coaster that has your big fat logo in the middle of it," she says. "My take on promotional products is you brand them loudly if you're anonymous, less loudly if you're a casual acquaintance, and maybe not at all if you're a personal acquaintance."

A subtle imprint is like a whisper

Imprinted mousepads, key fobs, luggage tags and other gewgaws will always be part of the promotional product inventory, but the line continues to blur between giveaways and business gifts.

Promotional product users usually fall into one of two camps, says Johnson: getting your own message out to as many people as possible (anonymous or not) versus showing specific businesses how much you value your relationship. "Using the high-end, recognized brands delivers a different message," she says.

A promotional products distributor recently asked Johnson to sit in on a conference call with the distributor's customer, a Los Angeles-based banker doing business in Korea. The banker wanted to use an inexpensive pen as a gift to customers, but eventually took the distributor's advice to use a Cross pen with only a slightly higher price point. After all, Johnson explains, many people in Asia keep just the cap of a Cross pen in their shirt pocket as a status symbol.

Today's brand-conscious world requires companies to put more thought - and, when appropriate, more money - behind their business gifts, Johnson says. "Because they see anything and everything at retail, they expect that same quality in a business gift." And they may prefer not to see your company's name all over that business gift.

"You should really think twice before putting your logo on upscale brands," says Mike Landry, national sales manager for Tumi Special Markets, suppliers of luggage, leather bags and accessories. "When using luxury or near-luxury items, putting your logo on it can actually diminish the gift in the recipient's eyes."

Landry convinced one client, a major footwear manufacturer, into not putting their logo on a high-end leather business attaché they were giving to representatives at key retail accounts. "They thought they had to brand it to promote themselves, but the decision maker called me later to thank me for talking him out of it."

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