What Are The Most Influential Promotional Products By State?

Last week, I shared some results from a survey conducted by the Advertising Specialty Institute (ASI). First, I was proud to report the results showed that promotional products work so well and are the favorite form of advertising by almost all respondents to the survey. Then, I went into a little more detail about which promotional products had the most influence in creating a positive impression of the advertiser providing them.

I also promised to share a little more information this week about which promotional products are the preferred ones among people who live where you live and do business. Well, here’s graphic that tells the story pretty well. Here in Michigan where our corporate office is located, drinkware seems to be the most powerful at influencing opinions about the advertiser. In other states, other items top the list.

Do Promotional Products Work?

Chances are, you won’t have to look very hard at work or at home to find promotional products that various businesses have given you. At work, maybe it’s a pen, or a USB drive, or a portable power unit for your phone or other electronic gear that you use frequently. If you’re reading this at home in the evening or on the weekend, there’s also a pretty good chance you’re wearing a promotional item like a T-shirt from an event or promotion, or a hat you received from some product or store happy to have your business.

Okay, now try to remember an ad or television commercial, billboard or ad on a website you noticed back on the same day you received that promotional item? Good luck with that one.

Success Is A Process. Just Ask ISO

Over the next couple of months, I’m going to be talking periodically about how the things we do here at Superior Business Solutions in order to maintain ISO standards have a direct impact on you and your business. Each post will feature one of the key content areas listed in the requirements for certification.

Today, I’d like to focus on what ISO standards call a “process approach” to conducting your business.

What Your Business Can Learn From Groundhog Day

Don’t Do Six More Weeks of Anything Without Reading This Watch the TV news today and you’ll see the usual remote report from Pennsylvania featuring “Punxsutawney Phil” and whether or not he saw his shadow.  Though there is always debate about whether six more weeks of...

How To Increase Sales Like The Pros

It seems sometimes many think there is a silver bullet to getting new sales. I get asked all the time about how to increase sales. And while here at Superior we focus on the process to save our clients time and money, our print supply chain technology and promotional product management systems will also increase sales.

But today, I’d like to talk about personal selling success. And I believe it’s as true these days as it was in those “good old” days: successful selling is less about the act of selling and more about building relationships, offering solutions to make your clients lives less complicated and doing the hard work people don’t see.

Often, as we see those around us having success in increasing sales, we fall for the “iceberg” illusion in the attached image. We see those people who get lots of sales as “natural born salespeople” who successfully increase sales through some secret sauce that is beyond our reach. Not True!

3 Ways To Use Technology To Save Time

Choose Technology By What It Does, Not How “Cool” It Sounds Our #MindfulTech series is committed to helping you use technology to make you more productive. Here are a few specific ways to DO that, on the job and off it. 1. Rule Your...

Top 5 Apps for Android to Save Time and Money

Saving Time, Money and Trouble? I App-rove. Today we continue our effort to help you make mindful choices about technology during 2016 to simplify your business and your life. Last week in our first #MindfulTech post, I focused on the most helpful apps to save time...

Top 5 Apps for iPhone to Help You Save Time and Money #MindfulTech

Are These Apps Time and Money Savers?   APP-solutely! In a post earlier this week, I introduced the concept of “Mindful Tech”. Today, I offer the first post in our 2016 #MindfulTech series – and it’s especially for you iPhone users. Don’t worry, next week...

Make Life Better and Easier in 2016 with #MindfulTech

In 2016, Learn to See Technology as a Tool, Not a Tyrant Hello, and a very happy 2016 to all of you. I’d like to use my posts during this first week of the new year to introduce a theme that I’ll be revisiting from time to time in 2016: #MindfulTech. That may sound...

Boost Your Marketing Creativity with Supply Chain Management

Efficiency Isn’t the Only Benefit to Supply Chain Management There’s no questioning the incredible efficiency that supply chain management adds to your organization. If you’re a regular reader, you know I regularly point out the benefits of a one-source approach...

How to Reduce Costs and Chaos in Your Print Supply Chain

The Answer, Much to the Experts’ Surprise, Is….Technology! It’s actually rather ironic. As I’ve mentioned here before, many self-appointed experts claim that print is diminishing in importance, and that we are headed toward a paperless society. And the reason most...

To Improve Your Business, Involve Your People

Part #2 in a Series: What Our ISO Certification Means to You You’ve heard it from many companies, in their marketing materials and in the speeches given by top executives at industry conferences: “Our people are the secret to our success.”  Or “our most important...

What A Difference Three Letters Make – When Those Letters are ISO

Part #1 in a Series: What Our ISO Certification Means to You As you may remember, a few months back Superior Business Solutions earned ISO 9001: 2008 certification. We were (and are) pretty proud of that. ISO Certification takes a great deal of dedication and effort...

Is Taking Time Off Bad For Business? #THRIVE15

Quite the Opposite – Your Dedication Could Be Holding Your Business Back Maybe you’ve seen the TV car commercial where a guy actually leaves his office job at 5 p.m., earning stunned stares and quiet admiration from jealous coworkers for his ‘bravery.” Chances...

3 Steps to Easy Holiday Corporate Gift Giving

Don’t Let It Be a Chore – Make It Easy and Fun It’s funny how something that should be simple and enjoyable can become so stressful. When the end of the year holidays come around, you want to recognize and thank people that have meant a lot to you and your...

How To Turn Your Leads Into Sales

Leads are important to your business, of course, but leads aren’t merely commodities to gather and store like a squirrel stashes acorns. Leads need to be carefully tended to, monitored and developed because only when they grow into conversions do they add any value to your bottom line.

Want to Increase Marketing Response Rates by 30% or More?

   Use Data to Open Doors With Personalized URLs We hear plenty these days about the value of “relationships” with our customers. And that certainly makes sense to me. We try to make every marketing effort unique for our customers, but it’s difficult to make any...

5 Tips for Dealing With Difficult Co-workers – #THRIVE15

  Working It Out At Work Perhaps you’ve noticed that people come in all different types and some of those types can be pretty hard to get along with. Whether it’s in the grocery store or during rush hour on the highway there are people who seem to just have a...