Promotional Products: The Marketing Evolution!

Promotional products are generally inexpensive useful and / or fun items with the company's name, logo, message or offer imprinted on them and are often given away free. This form of marketing is sometimes called 'speciality advertising'.

A wide range of promotional products are manufactured today, including calendars, mugs, t-shirts, pens, coasters, key rings etc. The list comprises literally 1000's of products and if you look around your office, or home you'll probably find one.

With the advent of the Internet and social media, promotional products are often overlooked as part of a business marketing campaign. However, it's been shown that an effective promotional product campaign can boost a company's good will standing with it's customers by as much as 52%!

Smart marketers realize that promotional products can be very effective in reaching a specific target audience, which is one of the key objectives of marketing, whether online or offline.

 

Polmac (UK) Ltd Promotional Playing Card Boxes

Promotional products are designed to be useful, or fun because the goal is to keep them and the branding they represent in front of the customer/ prospect for as long as possible.

Promotional products work on the principle that if you give someone a gift, they'll feel the need to give something back in return. This could be customer loyalty, repeat business, testimonials and recommendations to other businesses.

The best promotional products are those that allow the customer/ prospect to interact with the item. Puzzles and playing cards are a good example of promotional products that allow good interaction.

Promotional products are often given away free at trade shows to draw people in and increase excitement and effectiveness.

Polmac (UK) Ltd supplies, custom made, wood presentation boxes including promotional boxes for a wide range of marketing products. They're beautifully made, versatile and terrific value, which means they help boost product sales!

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Flock Fabric Linings: Tough, Durable & Visually Appealing!

Flock fabrics are made by adhering short, coloured nylon, rayon or polyester strands directly on to a flexible substrate such as paper, to provide a material that looks something like wallpaper when finished. 

Making The Flock Side Elements

The fine flock strands, which are usually between 0.25 mm - 0.5 mm in height, are electrically charged to keep them upright. This provides a tough, durable and visually appealing material with that classic ‘suede’ effect for which flock fabric is well known. 

Applying flock fabric linings is a craft skill which takes several years to perfect and is always undertaken by hand. The skill is similar to that of a tailor cutting fabrics for suits etc, although on a much smaller scale.

Adding The 'Flock Hinge' & Side Elements

 

Flock fabric linings are normally applied flat and glued to the inside surfaces of wooden boxes, using a glue gun. Glue guns work by inserting a clear glue rod into an appliance that looks a bit like a small electric drill. The glue is melted by an electrical heating element and is then discharged at the nozzle, using a trigger.

Individual pieces of flock fabric are first carefully cut with a sharp knife or scissors and stretched over the joint between the lids and the bases of the wood boxes. The flock fabric pieces are then stapled in position on both sides of the joint, providing  what is essentially a ‘flock hinge’. 

Adding The Final Flock Lined Base Element

Individual elements for the bases, lids and sides of the wooden boxes are then made up and comprise flock fabric stretched over and around stiff cardboard pieces that are carefully cut to size and glued in position, to provide a smooth, even finish.

The final inspection ensures the flock fabric linings are finished to the required high standards and the wood boxes function correctly. This may involve a degree of ‘fabric tucking’ which is usually undertaken with a sharp scalpel knife. 

The Finished Flock Lined Polmac Box

Polmac (UK) Ltd flock lined, wood presentation boxes are beautifully made, versatile and terrific value, which means they boost company branding and product sales.

http://www.polmacuk.com 

From Russia, The USA & Elsewhere With Love!

Caviar is fish roe or eggs, which is slightly salted. The salt helps to cure and preserve the caviar and is a  method that is still used today.

Female fish reproduce by laying eggs but not all fish roe is considered to be caviar. To a connisseur, however, real caviar comes only from the sturgeon.

 Large Sturgeon

The sturgeon is a saltwater fish but spawns in freshwater and is found in the Black Sea and Caspian Sea between Europe and Asia. It's also found in the Pacific Northwest and Southern Atlantic coasts of the USA.

The sturgeon can grow to over 3,000 pounds but usually the average weight is about 60 pounds. The flesh of the sturgeon is also highly prized.

Caviar from the beluga, osetra and sevruga sturgeon are the most highly prized. However, today 'caviar ' is also available from other fish varieties, such as salmon, lump fish and tuna.

Caviar

The word caviar comes from the Turkish word 'khavyar' which first appeared in print, in 1591 England. However, the sturgeon has been a part of the Middle Eastern and Eastern Europe diet for centuries.

Caviar was once reserved just for royalty but in early nineteenth century America, it was routinely served free of charge in saloons. The saltiness of caviar made people more thirsty and this increased beer sales, much as salted snacks in public houses do today.

Back then, America's waters were full of sturgeon and by the end of the nineteenth century the USA was the largest exporter of caviar in the world.

Polmac Caviar Box

However, during this period, a great deal of the caviar shipped to Europe was exported back to the USA and labelled as 'Russian caviar'. This was because higher prices could be charged for Russian caviar which was considered the best quality.

This kind of sharp practice continues today as can be seen from the recent European, horse meat scandal, where inferior and cheaper quality horse meat was substituted for beef..

Sturgeon stocks in the USA were decimated by over fishing, almost to the point of extinction and the sudden shortage in the early 1900's meant that prices rose sharply. The prices for premium quality caviar remain high today.

Polmac (UK) Ltd supplies custom made, wood presentation boxes for caviar and other premium quality food products. They're beautifully made, versatile and terrific value and are designed to boost company branding and sales!   

http://www.polmacuk.com

Hessian: The Fabric That Goes Marching On!

Hessian is a woven fabric, that's usually made from the fibres of the jute plant. However, sisal fibres may also be used, or combined with other vegetable fibres to make rope, nets, and other similar products. In the USA and Canada hessian is called 'burlap'.

The Jute Plant

Hessian has always been a coarse fabric but today it's being produced as a more refined material to make bags, rugs and other products and is known simply as jute. Because it's an eco-friendly material, it's becoming more popular.

It's not know exactly where the word 'burlap' came from but it's thought it could mean 'coarse piece of cloth', or something similar. The name 'hessian' however, comes from the uniforms of German soldiers who came from Hesse and were known as 'Hessians'.

Jute Fibres Drying In The Sun

Hessian has many uses including bags and sacks, known as 'gunny bags, that were used to ship goods such as tea and coffee.

Hessian is also used to wrap the exposed roots when transplanting trees and shrubs and to prevent soil erosion on steep slopes.

Hessian is rarely used today to make clothes but it was used in the past, in Christian communities, where individuals wore a "sackcloth" on Ash Wednesday, as a kind of 'penitence'.

Bunnahabhain Whisky Box With Hessian Fabric Lining

Hessian has been used by many artists in the past as a stretched surface for painting and in the 1968 Georgie Fame song 'The Ballad of Bonnie and Clyde', there is a line that reads '...while Bonnie loaded dollars into the burlap bag'.

Polmac (UK) Ltd uses hessian fabrics extensively to line their custom made, wood presentation boxes, promotional boxes and gift boxes, where a more traditional, rustic quality is desired.

The hessian fabric is applied flat on the base and sides of our wooden boxes, or on moulded inserts, to the shape of the product/ s to be accommodated.

The lids are also lined with hessian fabric, on a foam base, to provide additional protection for the wood boxes inside, against impact damage in transit.

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To Mitre Or Not To Mitre? That Is The Question!

A wood mitre joint is made by bevelling two vertical panels together at 45 degrees, to form a 90 degree corner, with no end grain showing. This makes the mitre joint visually appealing and is just one of the traditional jointing methods used by Polmac (UK) Ltd to make custom made, wood presentation boxes, promotional boxes and gift boxes.

Inserting A 'Tongue' Into Mitre Joint Groove

Mitre joints, without additional strengthening are only slightly stronger than butt joints, because the ends are cut at 45 degrees and this creates a wider surface area for adhesive to be applied. This conceals the end grain, thus giving the corner joint an uninterrupted 'clean' appearance.

The best results for mitre joints are achieved by cutting the angle of the joint with a drop saw rather than a hand saw, as this creates neat and very straight edges. However, for consistent accuracy Polmac (UK) Ltd uses a special mitring machine.

Assembling Sides Of Box

Mitre joints don't require much holding strength. However, for making wooden boxes, additional strengthening is required.

After the panels are mitred, two narrow grooves are cut at the centre and the entire length of each mitred surface. Then, a wood 'tongue' is glued and tapped into one groove, leaving a protrusion of about 3 -4 mm depending on the thickness of the panels.

Tapping The Mitre Joints Together

The second panel is then glued and tapped into position creating a much stronger 'tongue & groove' joint. This process is repeated for the two remaining wood panels, creating the sides of the wood box.

The entire assembly, comprising four mitred panels is then placed in a special metal cramp that ensures the joints are tight and the assembly perfectly square, during the glue drying process.

Cramping Sides Of Box

When the glue has dried, the excess tongues are carefully removed and the top and bottom ends of the 'box' are sanded off to present a perfectly even surface ready for the base and lid panels to be glued into position.

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Screen Printing: A Printing Technique That's As Smooth As Silk!

Polmac (UK) Ltd uses a number of printing techniques, including screen printing, to print logos and text onto it's custom made wood presentation boxes, promotional boxes and gift boxes, when a more personalized finish is required.

Screen Printing: Using a Squeegee

Screen printing is a traditional ink printing technique, also known as silkscreen, serigraphy and serigraph that was developed in China about 2000 years ago. The Chinese used human hair stretched across a wooden frame as the screen and stencils made from leaves that were stuck together.

The process however was soon adopted by the Japanese and they used woven silk rather than human hair for the screen and various lacquers to make the stencils. It was in Japan that the name silk screen printing was derived.

Today, the design, or image is applied to a fine mesh screen usually made from synthetic polyester, with the blank areas coated in an impermeable substance.

Once set up, a 'fill blade' or 'squeegee' is moved by hand across the screen 'stencil' to force the ink through the openings in the mesh to the substrate below. 

The stencil openings determine what the printed image below will look like. The pressure of the squeegee stroke forces the screen down and as it recovers, the ink is left on the substrate.

Screen printing has always been popular for printing posters, signs and general stationery. However, there are now many other uses such as printing cd covers, t-shirts, vinyl labels and of course printing onto wooden boxes.

In screen printing, only one colour can be printed at a time, so several screens are needed to produce an image or design that has multi colours.

Screen printing has developed rapidly over the years. The basic technique remains the same but with innovation and the introduction of computers, it is barely recognizable as the technique the Chinese invented all those years ago.

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