Part 1:  Collateral, Promotional Items, and Trade Show Materials

With record high temperatures sweeping the nation in April, it’s clear that Spring has arrived. It’s time to put away the coats and boots, roll up the sleeves and do a little spring cleaning. After you’ve cleared the cobwebs in the basement or attic and cleaned out the closets and pantry, you should also do a little Spring cleaning at work. A good place to start is tidying up your marketing. Depending on how long it’s been since you did this last, it may take only a day or as much as a week… or for some poor souls who’ve put this off a long time, it may even take a month. However, whatever the investment of time, it is well worth the effort.

Just like when you clean the windows of your home, wiping away the winter grime so you can let the sun pour in, Spring cleaning your marketing will allow you to see your business more clearly. This will then allow you to focus on what is needed and what will generate the biggest return for the investment.  Here are six areas that could use a little spring cleaning: collateral materials; premiums; trade show booths; websites; PR and advertising. This week, we’ll look at the first three.

Collateral Materials

Collateral materials include any and all printed materials that a company uses for promotions and sales. This includes such things as brochures, flyers, sales sheets, price lists, circulars, catalogs, direct mailers, newsletters, etc. When was the last time that you went through your marketing room, cabinets or closets to determine just exactly what items you have left, how much and how dated the message is on each? Here are some tasks to guide this part of your spring cleaning.

1. Make an inventory of every collateral item you have for the company. That includes business cards. Ensure that the inventory lists not only the name of the piece and the quantity that remains, but also when the collateral piece was printed so you know how dated the messaging is.
2. Identify and discard any materials that cannot be used because of damage caused by exposure to sun, moisture or dust. Some materials that are glued, such as folders, may no longer have any adhesive properties as glue corrodes with time.
3. Review the messaging on each collateral piece. Determine if the information is still accurate. Ensure that catalogs that showcase products are still current. Check that materials that highlight particular staff are all still employed by the firm. Review phone numbers, addresses, domains and other information in footers to ensure that materials that might predate the company’s relocation aren’t still in circulation and might be used by mistake.
4. Determine if you are running low on a given item. Consider the time it takes to have more materials printed. Make sure you have enough on hand to hold you over, especially if a particular item such as a brochure needs rewriting or redesigning.

Premiums and Promotional Items

Premiums and promotional items are those branded items given by a company as giveaway at a trade show, such as a stress ball, or when redeeming a proof of purchase, such as a toy in a cereal box. Premiums can range from small items — such as golf balls with the company’s logo that are used at a golf tournament that a company sponsors or flash drives imprinted with the company website that are handed to potential customers containing samples of your company’s work — to really large items — such as a golf umbrella with the company’s icon — like Target’s bulls-eye — or large desk calendars.

This is an area of marketing that often desperately needs a little spring cleaning. It is easy to lose track of what items you have left. Items brought back after an event don’t always get put back where they belong. Premiums can become stale after a trend passes. Here are a few steps to clean up and clean out this area of marketing.

1. Create a digital library with a photo of each of the premiums and promotional items the company has available. Inventory the quantity. This helps to differentiate say, for example, the nylon tote bag with the short handles and company’s name emblazoned across the side distributed to employees at last year’s company picnic from the canvas tote bag with the long handles and embroidered logo that your firm hands out at trade shows.
2. Identify and discard any materials that can no longer be used because of damage caused while transporting to or from a show, or due to exposure to sun or rain.
3. Review each premium or promotional item. Some items are no longer useful because the campaign is done. Consider donating remaining items. For example, if your company no longer will use the t-shirts created for a tennis tournament sponsorship, consider donating the leftover shirts to Goodwill or an organization that helps the poor. Also consider that if there are too few of a particular item remaining to use at a future event (such as three logo’d baseball caps left over from client party your company hosted at the Playoffs), it may be best to discard the remaining items, rather than have them clutter your marketing closet and collect dust. In those situations, it may generate some goodwill with staff to place the remaining items in the Company Cafeteria or Kitchen with a sign that says “Free Giveaways” and let them take them home for friends and family.
4. Review all premiums and promotional items that are still useful to ensure that any branding or information is still accurate. For example, if the company updated its logo last year, any items with the old branding should be replaced. If the company has a new domain it is using, promotional items with the old website address should be discarded or donated.
5. If you are running low on a promotional item, consider if you still want more of that particular item. It may be time to consider what new promotional items are hot today. While logo’d mouse pads may have been all the rage a decade ago, they are becoming less and less useful with the advent of tablets and laptops. Perhaps your company would be better served giving away a logo’s portable wireless mouse with Bluetooth technology?
6. Ensure that all premiums and promotional items are organized (grouping all of the same item together), properly boxed and labeled on shelves. There is nothing worse that having to throw away promotional items because they were damaged from mishandling within your own marketing storage area. Or ordering more of a particular item because you think you’ve run out only to find a case of the item six months later shoved in a corner after it came back from a trade show. The time you spend organizing now will save you tons by avoiding waste later.

Trade Show Booths

Trade show booths and materials are those banners, displays and furnishings used when exhibiting at a trade show. Most businesses usually have at least a few items to use at a trade show that is either Business-to-Business or Business-to-Consumer. In transporting those back and forth, those materials often take a beating. Sometimes they are damaged during set up or in the rush to leave. Occasionally, they are lost in transport. It is important to do Spring cleaning of your trade show materials at least once a year to ensure that everything is in good, working order.

1. Open and set up every trade show booth and banner at your office. Ensure that all clips and Velcro pieces are in good shape. If not, replace them now while you have time. Order extras just in case. There is nothing worse that arriving at a show and being unable to set up a booth because it is broken or missing a key component. Also, materials that are dinged, dented or faded tarnish a company’s image. If your booth or banners look like they’ve been in a war zone, it’s time to invest in some new trade show displays.
2. Consider if you need to update your booths and banners. Design styles and colors change over time. Marketing materials should look current and fresh.
3. Another point to consider is whether it’s time to update a booth to make it lighter or easier to transport, set up and tear down. The old-fashioned, heavy booths with expandable and collapsible frames and carpeted panels are a thing of the past. These days, retractable banners, hanging signs, modular displays and light kits provide marketing canvases that are edgy, light weight and easier-than-ever to set up and tear down. The cost to buy and print display materials are also more reasonable than ever. Over time, the money saved in the cost of shipping lighter materials will more than pay for the cost of new trade show banners.

With these marching orders, it’s time to get start cleaning up and cleaning out your marketing. The time invested now will help position your company all year long. Next week, we’ll look at Spring cleaning your PR, website(s) and advertising. Don’t miss it!

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

“Clean out a corner of your mind and creativity will instantly fill it.” Dee Hock

© 2012, Keren Peters-Atkinson. All rights reserved.