Question

Topic: Advertising/PR

Ideas For Xmas Promotion To Engage Our Customers

Posted by Anonymous on 9/7/2011 at 10:00 PM ET 125 Points
Hi everyone,

I am the marketing manager for a small promotional product business. We make one product - an ultra-thin mouse mat that comes in a range of shapes and sizes and we can also custom die cut to any shape. We have a couple of spin off products like coasters, bookmarks and countermats. The reason we have such a limited product range is we manufacture the mouse mats on site so we are limited by our production machine. Our informal motto is we only provide one product range so we can excel in what we do.

I am trying to come up with ideas for a Christmas time promotion (e.g. special offers etc). Every year at this time we design a series of generic mouse mats with yearly calendars that would be suitable for a range of businesses - they are only permitted to add their logo and contact details, and we sell them at a substantially discounted price. The campaign always goes reasonably well, but it's really only suitable for a portion of our clients (some or maybe even most want/need to design their own artwork due to brand standards etc) so the clients it doesn't appeal to just disregard it.

We want to do something different this year. In the past we have done special offers for any of our clients who want to use a mouse mat as a Christmas card type giveaway to their clients, but the problem with that is they then become time sensitive. As soon as people come back to work in January no-one is interested in seeing anything related to Xmas! And obviously a mouse mat is more expensive than a paper christmas card.

One idea is to perhaps offer a special price for Xmas coasters - either generic where they just add their logo and contact details, or perhaps they can design their own. Coasters are much cheaper than mouse mats and i think a coaster is probably better suited to the Xmas season than a mouse mat.

I'm trying to think of any other ideas that will appeal to a broader range of our clients, or perhaps a few campaigns we could run simultaneously that would engage our clients and get them excited about using mouse mats/coasters/bookmarks/countermats at that time of year. Perhaps it doesn't even have to be Christmas related..

Any ideas you could provide would be very much appreciated.

Thank you I look forward to hearing your responses.

Melissa Smith.
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RESPONSES

  • Posted by Andy Fracica, MBA on 9/8/2011 at 8:45 AM Accepted
    Hi Melissa,

    It sounds like you have an interesting product. Before I became a consultant my background was working for manufacturer's in the HVAC (heating ventilating and air conditioning) field. One thing that came to mind immediately is tradeshows and the need for giveaway items.

    Have you considered marketing your products to companies that go to that various shows. A mouse pad is a long term item and marketers love to give away something that will make it to the coveted desk space. Right now on my desk, I have a 2008 mouse pad from my father-in-law's trophy shop business which he sold two years ago and on my computer hutch I have a York International mouse pad that I commissioned from 1998 or there abouts. These things have staying power and with the right messaging they can go a long way, so I would try to wrap your mind around how you might promote these things year round.

    You might want to market to the ad specialty companies or directly to Fortune 500 companies and even down to the mom and pop companies. I think you have a lot of potential for your product.

    I hope this helps,

    Andy Fracica
  • Posted by Gary Bloomer on 9/10/2011 at 10:20 AM Accepted
    Hi Melissa,

    Those yearly calendars that would be suitable for a range of businesses - that your customers are only permitted to add their logo and contact details, to? But this you're restricting and dictating what buyers can have when they might be needing or wanting more: that's a sales killer.

    I don't know what restrictions you have on the sizes of pads you can cut out but might you want to experiment with blotter-sized mouse pads onto which you can print other useful information that buyers might need on a daily basis (mottos, affirmations, sales scripts, lists of conversion formulas, lists of essential phone numbers, guitar chords, cartoons, fun things, copyright free or public domain texts and so on)?

    Who are your buyers and what do they need? Answer this question by asking buyers what they need, then offer those needed things with a simple promotion and sales ought to follow.

    Gary Bloomer
    Princeton, NJ, USA

  • Posted on 9/11/2011 at 9:08 PM Author
    @Andy - thank you for kind words - we think it is a great product too. We exhibit at a few different trade shows every year and we feel it is one of the best ways to spread the word. We also do about 4 or 5 magazine inserts every year - which the insert is the mouse mat itself with advertising on it, this is another highly effective way of marketing as the advertisement is the product. Your comment regarding the mom and pop business and the fortune 500 businesses made me realise that since the markets are so varied we should probably be doing separate campaigns to each target market to ensure best possible results. Thank you again your answer was very helpful.

    @Gary I think the generic idea stemmed from marketing to small businesses that want to advertise, but really dont know what to do. But you're right, it's only suitable for a small portion of our customer base so I think we've been spending too much on something that will yield only small results.

    The blotter sized mouse mat is a brilliant idea, we do offer 'Countermats' that can either be used on the desk or on front counters in stores etc, but we've never really pursued this for some reason. I will put some thought into it and see where I can take the idea. Thanks very much.

    Thank you to you both for taking the time to respond.
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