Can You Brand a Turkey?

This series of blogs is all about the importance of branding, so I thought I'd write a tongue-in-cheek piece in honor of Thanksgiving. The funny thing is, as I thought about turkeys and branding, a series of brand names kept popping in my head.

Just for kicks, I did an internet search and found a series of interesting discussions on the kind (brand) of turkey that is the "best" one to buy. One of the answers said, "I always buy (brandname) turkey. I just trust the brand." There was no other reason mentioned for this customer's loyalty other than the fact that this brand evokes a feeling of trust. The customer didn't mention taste, safety, price or any of the other elements that can go into building a brand. The implication is that the customer trusted the brand enough to believe that this particular turkey would be juicy, taste good, and be a safe product. Why this brand over any of the other brands? Intrigued, I continued to search.

Over and over again, this particular brand of turkey is showing up on blogs and answers to questions. Is the turkey really that much better? Or has this particular company just done an excellent job at branding through a great marketing plan? I suspect it's a little of both.

Do your customers just "trust" your brand? Does that trust translate into brand loyalty? What are you doing right now to build and market your brand?

Located in Charlotte, NC, Logo’d Gear is the region’s premier provider of promotional products, branded apparel, tradeshow items, business gifts, and other related products. In addition to complete embroidery and screen printing capabilities, Logo’d Gear also offers online company stores and fulfillment services. Visit our website now at http://www.logodgear.com to see our extensive online catalog or call (704) 334-9333 to immediately speak with one of our branding specialists!

Branding 101: What is a Brand?

Did you know that despite our current economic situation entrepreneurial activity in the U.S. in 2009 rose to its highest rate in the last 14 years? In a recent study, the Kauffman Foundation found that entrepreneurial activity increased dramatically, with a tremendous number of new businesses starting, especially in the West and in the South.* With this much growth, how does a small business or budding entrepreneur brand his or her own ideas?

How do you make your company stand out from the rest? This starts a series of blogs on branding that I hope you find helpful. Comments are always welcome!

First, what is your brand? It is much more than just a logo. It is the recognition of your name, your company, or your products. It’s the feeling that your customers get when they see your company. Branding your company tells the world what values you want your company to represent. For example, part of Logo’d Gear’s brand is “Stay in Front of Your Customers”. It’s a value we believe in strongly, and we believe our customers do too. Why should you promote your brand? Next week, we’ll talk about the whys and then the hows!

*Source: http://www.kauffman.org/newsroom/despite-recession-us-entrepreneurial-activity-rate-rises-in-2009.aspx

Located in Charlotte, NC, Logo’d Gear is the region’s premier provider of promotional products, branded apparel, tradeshow items, business gifts, and other related products. In addition to complete embroidery and screen printing capabilities, Logo’d Gear also offers online company stores and fulfillment services. Visit our website now at http://www.logodgear.com to see our extensive online catalog or call (704) 334-9333 to immediately speak with one of our branding specialists!

What is the difference between Silk Screening, Screen Printing and Embroidery?

Over the years, we’ve gotten this question many times from customers who are ordering branded apparel for the first time. What’s the best choice to get your logo displayed most effectively?

The terms “Screen printing” and “silk screening” can be used interchangeably. They describe the process of decorating an item by printing a design in ink, one color at a time, through a tight silk mesh. It’s one of the most commonly used methods used for promotional T-shirts. Screen printing allows you to use multiple colors and designs.

Screen printing pricing is typically based on the number of colors in your design. However, the size of the design doesn’t affect the cost, so it’s an economical choice for larger designs found on t-shirts. Graphics with fine detail and small letters come out looking like a photograph!

Embroidery is the process of decorating an item by sewing a design onto it in color thread. Embroidery has more upscale apparel available than screen printing. For example, it is the most popular choice for corporate apparel like golf shirts, denim and oxford shirts. You can embroider on items like caps, towels and polar fleece. You can still use multiple colors but the design size is usually much smaller than can be done on a t-shirt.


The design must be digitized to run on an embroidery machine, so you will have to have your logo or design available as vector art (typically done in Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, or CorelDraw). We’d be happy to look at your computerized image and let you know if we can embroider it! Embroidery pricing is based on the stitch count, which is determined by the size and complexity of your design.

How to Start a Corporate Health and Wellness Program

What is the easiest way to increase your lifespan, improve your quality of life AND to decrease your company healthcare costs by thousands of dollars?

Did you know that currently 62% of companies with 200+ employees provide wellness programs? There is a great reason for this – comprehensive wellness programs WORK. They result in healthier and happier employees who are able to perform better at all levels.

So how can you implement a health and wellness program in your company? Here’s a great list of ideas: http://www.corporate-wellness-companies.com/corporate-wellness-program-ideas.html How do you kick off your new program?

Start with a branded health/fitness journal for those who sign-up to participate. This is a great way to encourage your employees and a terrific way for individuals to keep up with progress. Our journals even give great tips on eating and staying in shape!

Or, how about kicking off your wellness program with a stainless steel water bottle and pedometer? Have Friday Funday contests to see who can put the most miles on their pedometer each week!

If you already have a health and wellness program in your company, think about re-energizing it with incentive gifts for participation, meeting goals and exceeding goals. Try incentive gives that promote healthy activity such as logod golf balls, jump ropes, workout (yoga) mats, Ogio gym bags, Frisbees, and dryfit sports apparel. Here’s to happy and healthy living!

Earth Day 2010 – What’s Hot? (And what’s not?)

Happy Earth Day 2010!

Earth Day is a perfect time to renew your company’s commitment to any green efforts or to launch a new campaign for your clients. Here's a list of what's hot - and what's not! - as we celebrate Earth Day today:

What’s Hot?	What’s Not?
Digital Presentations that can be uploaded to your website or logo’d USB drives to leave with your customers	Using lots of paper to print off multiple copies of presentations
Soft, durable bamboo apparel made from renewable resources. Hypo-allergenic and anti-bacterial, natural fibers keep you cool in the heat and warm in the cold.	Polo shirts made from nylon or other non-biodegradablematerials that trap heat next to the body and don’t breathe.
BPA-free drinkware including travel mugs and water bottles or re-usable stainless steel bottles.	Styrofoam cups or plastic bottles. (Did you know plastic soda bottles can take up to 450 YEARS to decompose?
Recycling office electronics and used ink cartridges.	Throwing unwanted or used equipment or cartridges in the dumpster out back.
Pens made from bio-degradable corn plastic.	Hard plastic non-biodegradable ink pens.

Should You Go BPA Free?

We run special sales on items each week. This week our special pricing is for BPA Free coffee mugs and water bottles. Sounds pretty cool, right? But what is BPA? And why is BPA Free is the way to go?

What is BPA?
Very simply put, BPA is an organic compound used as a building block in plastics and plastic additives. Unfortunately, concerns about its safety have been around since the 1930s. In fact, in 2009, the FDA released a report raising concerns about its safety for infants and young children. Studies are showing potential links between BPA exposure and cancer, obesity, neurological issues, thyroid function and diabetes.

Here’s a quick list of Reasons to Go BPA-Free!

1. Scientific studies are conclusively showing that it is healthier for you and your children
to reduce your long-term exposure to BPA.
2. Non-plastic drinkware (like a stainless steel coffee mug) is tougher and less likely to break.
3. It is more expensive to recycle plastics containing BPA with a smaller aftermarket for the
recycled resins that are produced.

So choose to go BPA Free in your office and at home. When it’s time to purchase coffee mugs and water bottles for your company and your clients, call us and make sure you specify BPA Free. The added benefit to your bottom line? They’re on sale now through Earth Day on April 22nd!

Effective Transitioning Between Old and New Management

It’s happened to all of us at one time or another – we get a new manager. For some, it’s more than just a new manager, it’s a whole new management team. This recently happened to a new client of ours. How they handled the transition is an interesting case study.

This particular client has about 500 employees located in various offices around the United States. They have been in business for a number of years and had developed a very “old-school” management philosophy. When the owners decided to sell the business, new management came in with new ideas, new philosophies and a new energy.

They had many challenges. How would they allay the natural fears that come with any change in management style? How would they create a close-knit team feeling and loyalty among their employees and boost morale at the same time? How would they make sure that the new management philosophy became part of the attitude and customer service efforts of their employees?

First, the management team sat down and devised a new three-part mission statement that more accurately reflected their forward-thinking positive business philosophy. This three-part mission statement translated easily into 3 short memorable messages.

Next, they selected several promotional products to use as gifts for their employees. Each promotional product is imprinted with one of the new branding messages. These products were specifically selected for their usability and thus, visibility on each employee’s desk.

Next, to foster the feeling of belonging to one team (rather than several disjointed groups) they designed imprinted t-shirts and other logod apparel for their employees.

And last, the management team created an incentive program. By reaching certain milestones or simply for doing a great job, employees earn incentive points that allow them to select whatever branded promotional items they want – from leather portfolios to backpacks to laptop cases to pens to coffee mugs to…well, you get the idea. It lets their employees create their own incentive gifts.

Transitioning from old to new is never easy, but with programs like the one described above, a new management team can help make change easier in a cost-effective way.

Headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina Logo'd Gear is a premier provider of promotional products. We help our clients Stay in Front of Your Customers! Visit us on the web at http://www.logodgear.com/ or follow us on twitter: www.twitter.com/logodgear or linked in: http://www.linkedin.com/in/logodgear 9TDXJZJ7EY82