Zip Buddy – the great new way to promote your brand!

Zip Buddy is a unique promotional product that the user can retro fit to practically any zip as long as it is at least 2mm in size.  It offers a great branding opportunity on a wide variety of everyday items such as bags, suitcases, laptop cases, coats, fleeces, pencil cases etc.  Zip Buddy gives you the opportunity to promote your brand, company, event, team or organisation in a truly innovative way.

The Zip Buddy attaches straight on to the end of the zip and can even replace the puller on broken zips.  It can also clip directly on to that annoying little stub left behind when the metal puller breaks off so you don’t need to go to the expense or bother of replacing the zip.  It looks fantastic on rucksacks, sports bags, jackets, schoolbags, briefcases, handbags, camera bags, tents and virtually anything with a zip.

The minimum order for a standard Zip Buddy is just 100 pieces and the lead-time is 7 to 15 days.  There is a great range of stock colours available off the shelf as well as a choice of round, square or rosette shapes (red only for this shape).  The branding area is up to 16 x 16mm both sides, with your logo or photograph simply embedded in the badge.  

For a minimum of 1,000 pieces, select your own colour badge base and the scarf/ribbon part of the Zip Buddy to be woven in your own design/colours (and you can even include text).  The lead-time for a bespoke Zip Buddy is 5 to 6 weeks. 

This product can be supplied in bulk loose, in small individual poly bags or for a small additional cost mounted in pairs on header cards for retail sale.  The stock backing cards are available in black, red, yellow, green, blue and light blue.

Zip Buddy is unique, affordable, durable and most importantly a truly practical and useful accessory.  The usefulness of a promotional item is by far the main reason it is likely to be kept.  Why not consider it for your next marketing campaign or event. Whatever you’ve got with a zip on it, show it off with your own personalised Zip Buddy!

A great way to encourage a workforce or stimulate your staff is to look at giving employees gifts as a way of a thank you for achieving goals that have been set or as an incentive to work even harder than they are already doing. Staff want to feel appreciated and a business gift of this type for an employee can go a long way. There are many options that can be considered as employee gift ideas and these can fall into many product categories with certain items providing a high perceived value to the recipient.

Quite a few companies look to provide desk top items that not only make a uniform appearance to the office but also neaten up some work spaces, adding a splash of colour and giving employees certain items that otherwise might have become a little old and worn or even products that haven’t been used before. Products such as mousemats and coaster combinations, or pen pots and desk tidies can all carry corporate branding as well as give the employee receiving the gift a lift.

Alternative product ideas to be consider as an employee gift idea would be something that again can be used during a working day, and something that assists the staff and makes it easier to work or gives them a professional edge when seeing clients. Folders or business bags would fit neatly into this category, in other words something that would be well received, more than likely be used and would be noticed and commented on by customers or suppliers.

Christmas is a good time to look at a gift for the employees but nowadays most products cross over into other periods on the calendar. Pen sets, whether they are the brand names (such as Parker) or non branded metal options are really nice gift ideas.

An area that is becoming very popular these days is corporate clothing. This can come under a couple of categories, the first being staff workwear. Whilst not exactly a gift, it does give the staff a boost when everyone is provided with a really well put together workplace uniform, however formal or informal. On the other side, there are some great clothing items, such as jackets, or casual clothing ideas that can act as a great employee gift.

The final area to consider would be awards for either the entire staff when the company hits certain goals, or for indviduals as an employee gift for those who have performed beyond the targets set. This can encourage staff to want to be that person next time, or galvanize a workforce into looking to hit a level they have been set.

Steel City Marketing is a leading UK promotional gifts distributor. Should you be looking for any business gift or employee gift ideas, please call a member of the sales team on 0114 2754150.

There is still a good degree of spend in the promotional gifts industry on higher value items, despite the current economic situation. Talking to clients, they are aware of how important retaining the client base is and in certain industries an expensive or luxury corporate gift is still high on the list of tools to use to do this. For a company looking at the spend levels and wondering if they can afford something beyond what they have traditionally spent, it is worth considering that for a great many people, perceived value allows quite a few products to fall into a more luxury high end bracket.

The perceived value or an item will be increased by the use or need of a product for the recipient, so this is something that should be focused on. A great example of this type of item would be good quality golf umbrellas. It is certainly an item that would be purchased were it not given and for the better quality items, branded well, these will almost certainly be used and be a cherished gift, high perceived value and will therefore fall into the luxury gift end of the spectrum.

Bags and Luggage are another great idea, with weekender bags, trolley bags, going right up to some brand names such as antler luggage, case logic business bags and even the cream of the crop, Mulberry products, which are certainly best to leave unbranded!  These are not necessarily products that are all heavily involved in the promotional gifts market, but call one of the Steel City Marketing team as we have good trade rates with several high end brands.

There are many other areas of business gifts and merchandise that should be considered when looking at something more luxurious. There is the ability to spend big on pens with Waterman, Cross and Lamy all having high price tags and higher retail prices in comparison. Watches are becoming a popular gift with some quality models (although not brand named). Golf luggage from some of the famous brands also have a good perceived value and a good choice of silver plated gifts and awards all make for a great choice of something with that little bit extra for the recipient.

Steel City Marketing have a highly experienced business gifts sales team and would be happy to discuss any ideas or products further, providing pricing, visuals and alternatives should you require.  Please call 0114 2754150 now.