1. Attitude. In a sea of thousands of people all trying to get noticed, you have NO choice but to be unforgettable and remarkable. So you better begin with the attitude of approachability. That you’re going to stick yourself out there.

2. Detach from outcomes. Sure, you have goals. Maybe to sell. Maybe to get in front of the right buyers. However, also try to focus less on the outcome and more on the big picture. Free yourself from agendas. Develop a no-entitlement attitude. And focus on having fun, delivering value and creating a memorable (er, unforgettable) presence.

3. Go beyond free. Every booth, vendor, exhibitor and company is going to give something away for free. So, before you attend the show, brainstorm a list of the Top 50 Most Common (and Annoying) Free Giveaways. Don’t do any of them. Instead, pick something cool, remarkable and consistent with your brand that people will actually KEEP. Otherwise, you may as well just tell the attendees, “Here, YOU throw this away!”

4. But don’t go overboard on free. You don’t have to give away something for free to EVERYBODY. If they don’t want it, don’t force it. REMEMBER: approachability is a two-way street. Consider offering a free item that’s so good, people actually come up to YOU and say, “Ooh! Can I have one of those?”

5. Smile. The whole damn time.

6. Wave. To every single person.

7. Use disarming approaches. Six words: “Hi, I don’t know anybody here!”

8. Practice strategic serendipity. Say yes a LOT more. Spend time with people in areas and around things you wouldn’t normally approach. Break your patterns.

9. Don’t pick and choose. Talk to everybody. Even your non-buyers and customers. Even the food service people. Even the janitors. Even the information booth guy. Even the conference planners. Especially the conference planners. Because you never know. And consistency is far better than rare moments of greatness.

10. Dress it up. If you can find some sort of costume that’s consistent with your brand, do it. I wear a giant nametag to my conferences. Nobody misses me. Does your appearance stand out or blend in?

11. Achieve The HVA. Which stands for 1) “Huh?” 2) Value and 3) “Aha!” Attract people to yourself (or booth) with curiosity. Spark their interest. Then deliver your value statement. Then get them to say, “Ah! I get it! That’s cool…”

12. Speaking of curiosity. Do something that encourages strangers to approach you and say, “So, what’s the story behind that?”

13. Strike the match. Do something that make people say, “Dude, did you see that guy who…” Generate inner-conference buzz.

14. Make music, not noise. Everyone else at your conference is going to be making NOISE. With their annoying, boring promo materials and free toys that nobody wants or cares about. You need to make MUSIC by getting people to smile, laugh, say hello, start talking, have fun and deliver remarkable value.

15. Interact; don’t interrupt. Everyone else at your conference is going to be INTERRUPTING the other attendees. Take this! See this! Have a free cookie! They say. Instead, consider INTERACTING, not interrupting people. Making friends. Strike up conversations. Talk about business later. Lead with your person; follow with your profession. Open your conversations with topics OTHER than business, sales, the weather, traffic and the like.

16. Just chill. Stressed and hurried are not approachable adjectives. Separate yourself from other attendees by not appearing overly needy and desperate for business. After all, it’s hard to sell with your tongue hanging out! Just chill. Relax.

17. Attract attention. Notice it says “attract,” and not “draw.” Major difference. Your job is to be remarkable and cool and fun and valuable. If so, people that see you will follow these six steps:

a. Smile and point at you.
b. Nod in agreement.
c. Think or say, “Nice!” or “That’s cool!”
d. Grab their friend’s shirt and say, “Jimmy, you’ve got to check out this guy over here…”
e. Approach you.
f. Tell everyone about you.

18. Find the cameras. Photographers, press folks and bloggers LOVE to capture images and videos of cool, fun, remarkable stuff. They also like to share those images in their publications and on the web. So, ask yourself the following three questions:

a. Are you worth videotaping?
b. Are you worth taking a picture of?
c. Are you worth blogging about the next morning?

19. Be a rock star. Do things to enhance your celebrity status. Bring a friend to follow YOU around with a camera all day. Give a speech. Hold a pre or post event party.

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Companies come and go. So do brands and promotional memorabilia. Interestingly, though sometimes a logo becomes so cherished it can actually last longer than the actual company who produced it. When this happens, it is an indication of serious feelings of customer goodwill, employee satisfaction, and positive associations in general.

People become nostalgic. They collect memorabilia of deceased companies. Such items are like keepsakes. Companies that disappear have employees that value the insignia of their place of employment. They have happy customers who enjoyed their interactions with a trusted name. And, there are executives and officials who have pride toward a successful creation.

Surviving memorabilia ranges from tiny trinkets given out the general public, to achievement awards bestowed upon hard working staff such as pins, trophies, lapels, and other items. There are a wealth of other memorable items like golf balls, coffee mugs, and pens that outlive a business. In the beginning, they were created to build loyalty to the brand and more or less for business and marketing purposes. Yet, often times, these items assume characteristics of warm memories later on.

Even uniforms and corporate apparel can embody the same feelings of fondness and the good ole’ days. When people put in years of service with a particular job, they have powerful memories of the brand for countless reasons. They want to save the products and at the same time hold onto the events that coincided with their experience there. Think about a worker who has served 30 years in a position at a certain corporation. Perhaps this same worker met his spouse there; perhaps he had built a community of friends and colleagues.

Moreover, experts in marketing field as well as psychologists say that when people cherish those momentos from their old work environments, what they are doing is actually participating in a form of healing or therapy. The products have the potential to stir such positive feelings that they can act as a balancing and restorative tool. It’s amazing that reflecting on such a simple piece of memorabilia can have such an effect, but even more, it’s cheaper than an actual therapy session. Some claim that such products also offer an element of stability and tangibility in a disposable, changeable world. In other words, people need something to hold onto.

We live in a very different work world than we did just fifty years ago. The environment is more dynamic, fast paced, and radical than ever before. Whereas in the past, traditionally people committed themselves to careers and remained in them throughout their lives; today we change careers and shift gears from one avenue to another sometimes several times in our lives. Companies endure similar patterns. They are created, merged, disintegrated, split, retired, and revamped.

Change is hard on people: employees, customers, those in charge, and those affiliated with a business. Even if the circumstances are positive, the adjustment can be a challenge. Comfort and familiarity are usually preferred even if the new outcome promises a better deal for all of those involved. Hence, another reason for holding onto those promotional items of yesterday.

What is also remarkable is that employees have a pattern of changing their opinions on their work place after the fact. Researchers have studied this. After the dissolution of a business, workers romanticize their former place of employment. It’s a natural feeling for one to have. Idealizing the past helps individuals to make the transition involved with moving on and putting the past into perspective. Psychologists also say that any loss, regardless of how small, includes the grieving process to heal. Having positive associations of a work environment facilitates that process.

• There are special implications related to the investment of memorabilia. Even though promotional products may have been originally made for commercial purposes, they transform into unique and magical items after the disappearance of a business. Keepsakes expand beyond their intended purpose.

• Such products help to creating a bond among those involved. There is an element of camaraderie that exists when memorabilia unites people. Items spark conversation and remind the players of the game of their earlier times.

• Know that the survival of a brand is a sign of huge success. Why are people saving products of a company that is no longer in existence? There is something about the organization that is not dead, and that the public is not done with. Consider the products readily being purchased on e-bay, in flea markets, and in yard sales that are all associated with a company of the past.

We’ve all heard the cliché “you don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone.” People apply this principle to brands and companies as well. Memorabilia that survives its parent business is a demonstration of a company unique and valued.

Branding is one of the most visible concepts in today’s marketing world. Everything is about branding – literally. Your company’s brand is more than its name or its logo. It’s an amalgam of everything that’s visible about your company. Your brand reputation used to be an organic thing, something that grew out of your interactions with your customers and the public. These days, brand image is far more likely to be manufactured than it is to grow naturally.

There are two main aspects of branding that can be boosted by promotional gifts: brand image and brand recognition. A successful promotional product will serve both of those aspects equally well. When you’re choosing promotional gifts and products for any purpose
– events, trade shows, marketing giveaways, thank you gifts and even employee incentives
– it’s important to consider both of those aspects. When you choose marketing or trade show promotional products that are in tune with your company’s image, you are amplifying your sales potential. By contrast, a marketing giveaway that doesn’t fit the image that you want your company to project, you could damage your sales.

So how does one go about choosing the right promotional products, the ones that will serve as advertising, or entice the customers that you want to buy your products? The single most important thing is to KNOW the image that you want your company to present. Once you’ve decided who your company is, it’s far easier to design your marketing and promotion to fit your image.

A second thing to keep in mind is that style and quality are as important as items when you’re using promotional products as branding tools. In other words, the design and style of the items that you choose will actually carry at least as much weight as what the item actually is. A staid High Street law firm and a trendy teen accessory shop can both give away promotional pens, for instance, and have them well-received, but the style that works best for each of them will be far different.

The bank, wanting to project an image of tradition and solidity, might choose sleek ball pens imprinted with the bank logo and name. It suits their brand well, and will further their image as a solid financial institution. In contrast, the teen shop wants to promote its image as a quirky, fun place where you can find the latest and hippest gear. Their choice of promotional pens might be a twisty-bendy version in eye-popping colors for maximum visibility.

The same principle applies to many other promotional gift items that you could use for branding purposes. Among the most popular giveaway gifts that are easy to adapt for branding are:

- Printed mugs that carry your logo available in a wide range of styles and colors

- Promotional umbrellas that can be very proper or a barrel of fun depending on color and style.

- Carrier bags, cases and folders that can run the gamut from ultra-sophisticated to kitschy and cute.

If you’re having trouble deciding on appropriate promotional products or gifts to suit your company’s image, you’ll find help at one of the many suppliers of promotional items online. Poke around online catalogs, and take advantage of the consultants that are available to help you choose and place your order.

Branding is ‘the’ buzzword of the 21st Century. It is the consumer’s bible by which we live by to distinguish what is ‘right’ about certain products and services and what is ‘wrong’. Branding is there to create a connection with our inner selves, and just as we as humans are infinitely varied and different, so too are the brands that we are exposed to. Yet what if you turned your back on brands, or at least say you have. If a brand is a corporate identity, are you not in effect turning your back on identifying yourself to the general public? With the debut opening of the first Muji store in the New York Time Building at the end of the year I think it’s a fitting time to introduce the American public to the consumer antithesis, the ‘no brand’ brand.

A lady, sitting next to Raymond Loewy (many call him the father of Industrial Design) at dinner, struck up a conversation.
‘Why’, she asked ‘did you put two Xs in Exxon?’
‘Why ask?’ he asked
‘Because’, she said, ‘I couldn’t help noticing?’
‘Well’, he responded, ‘that’s the answer.’

If there was ever a quote best expressing the brand that is Muji, this would be it. Yes I called Muji a brand so before you double take and make sure your reading the same article let me tell you a bit about Muji.

Muji is essentially a lifestyle shop, specializing in providing simple, affordable goods while considering production and environmental impact, selling everything from wall mounted CD players to a re-used yarn elephant cuddly toy. The company is huge in Japan, with over 285 shops and 3400 employees and a range of offspring within its primary business including Cafe Muji, Meal Muji, Muji Campsite, Muji Opticians and Muji+Infill, an “off-the-peg architect designed open plan, energy efficient house”. Muji is all about minimalism, avoidance of waste in packaging and production and a strict no-logo policy. Even the name Muji is derived from the much longer ‘Mujirushi Ryōhin’, which translates as ‘No brand, quality goods’.

The great quote with Raymond Loewy is a perfect example of why Muji’s success is growing exponentially and why I can’t stop being drawn into one of the 3 shops in London every time I’m there. This corporate entity from a different land, exotic, mysterious with its indecipherable Japanese product descriptions, sucks you in like a fly to light. Normally the only readable text in the shop is the name outside although for the Japanese, the store must be like an Ikea. A lifestyle that you buy into with affordable solutions for modern living. In the West the identity of the company changes dramatically, it truly lives up to it’s name as a ‘no brand’ brand so, inadvertently yet entirely understandable, Muji has made a brand out of no brand. Why? Simple, human nature. As a human being, we remember things by association.

We remember that the last time I saw someone wearing a hooded top was that violent youth in the bar the other night, or the last pair of Doc Martins I saw were worn loose, by a guy with a shaved head and a swastika tattoo. We brand things by associations in our lives which are often played up by the companies and retailers themselves through promotion and advertising. You can argue the ‘no brand’ brand allows an openness in interpretation and association so you may brand Muji as an environmentally aware retailer, the next guy sees it as a Japanese company with a philosophy synonymous with ancient Oriental teachings or for someone else as the guys that sell those cool T-shirts that come in 10cm cube packaging.

The real question is whether a ‘no brand’ brand is more beneficial than a ‘brand’ brand? This is of course entirely contextual. For a company, a brand is beneficial in making money and provides them with a consumer base who care about what it means to buy certain items whether it’s clothing or electronics. Yet, people grow up and move on, as do their tastes and ideals. I know a lot of people who refuse to wear obviously, physically branded clothing because as much as the clothes may be top quality workmanship, the brand association doesn’t fit into who they are as a person or they don’t feel clothes need to say anything about them as a person. This is the audience of the ‘no brand’ brand or at least it tries to be. Brands evolve over time, often exploiting certain aspects of their character to form a niche market. A good example is American Apparel. Over time their vertical integration system of manufacture, distribution and promotion has become synonymous with being sweat shop free and environmentally conscious.

In our visually saturated environment, simplifying can often physically ‘de-brand’ something. Anonymous design, as promoted by the Super Normal Exhibition, is a very powerful factor in creating something that is embraced and used, rather than idolized or displayed. Yet there needs to be a degree of availability and accessibility to the idea that means people don’t aspire to this type of design and feel they need to belong a certain type of ‘design conscious’ class. A good example of this paradox is Japanese design studio, plus minus zero, helmed by superstar Japanese designer Nauto Fukasawa. The products available exude simplicity and elegance, but due mainly to it’s availability, the design still only caters for the ‘design conscious’ or those who appreciate the ideals and design theory offered by Fukasawa. Hopefully retailers like Muji, who combine simplicity and accessibility will pave the way for a new conscious consumer, who know what they want, and know where to go to get it.

One morning I was standing in a Muji shop on Carnaby Street in London’s Soho District, inspecting the huge variety in stationary on offer. I picked up every single tool and was in awe at how simple, yet beautiful they were, when from behind me in stormed a young Japanese girl, in her mid 20’s, grabbing a big handful of a very specific ball point pens as she moved past me, walked straight to the counter, payed and walked straight out. It was at that point I realized the success of Muji in providing people what they need, rather than what they think they need.

Needless to say I bought at least 3 of those pens.

It has become a growing trend for high-end famous designers to partner with mass-market retailers. We’ve seen it with Karl Lagerfeld and H & M, last season’s partnership with Viktor & Rolf and H&M, and most recently Proenza Schouler and Target. These partnerships have been very lucrative for both sides. One could even argue that the mass-market retailers might be getting more out of the deal.

Of course, there are always two sides to each story. From one view point, those who believe in exclusivity are probably all set to throw away their ready-to-wear and haute couture by those said designers. From another view point, those who live on a shoe string budget and have always wanted to indulge are leaping for joy. And then there are those who probably don’t care and don’t know who the designers are or the brands they may represent.

Being exclusive somehow says to consumers that you are a brand that is coveted by many however, only available to few. Therefore, the brand has more equity and is viewed in high esteem. Many have frowned upon designers who have decided to roll up their sleeves and provide low-end retailers with a taste of high quality fashion. Thus, the loss of respect from their peers and loyal customers may drive the brand’s image down.

On the other hand, inclusiveness can open so many other avenues. Designers have the opportunity to parade their names in front of a broader audience and gain mass appeal. Also, within their lines they can create lower priced versions (i.e. Marc by Marc Jacobs). This works well especially when the designer has already partnered with a low-end retailer. In this case, the designer has established a relationship with a consumer that probably didn’t know where to buy their line, let alone able to afford it. Of course, the biggest payoff is the money. These deals are worth millions of dollars, permitting the designers to do what most designers ultimately want to do besides create beautiful clothing: increase their bottom line.

I guess the question should not be if such partnerships jeopardize their brands. The question, perhaps, should be does it jeopardize their bottom line. At the end of day, we are mere spectators with opinions and it is up to the designers to decide which question is appropriate to ask based on their ultimate goal: the money or the craft.

Diversifying is no longer a financial term. It can be applied to many avenues. However, it seems so relevant in the fashion world today. Brands are beginning to extend their reach. They are no longer focusing on designing one or two kinds of items. The mission of many brands is to become a lifestyle brand.

Gwen Stefani, a noted celebrity and musician, started her brand called L.A.M.B. At first, the line was clothing only-the usual sweaters, tops, dresses, skirts, and pants. Then she jumped into footwear. This past season L.A.M.B launched a line of handbags. Just recently it was reported that the brand inked a deal with Coty Inc. to put out a signature fragrance as well. The trend appears to be first to understand and master an area of fashion and then expand the offerings in your portfolio.

Many denim companies have gotten the memo as well. Seven for All Mankind at LA Fashion Week showed capes, handbags, and footwear. Union, a high quality denim brand will produce wool, leather, and velvet jackets for this coming Fall season. They also plan to put out wool pants, cashmere sweaters, and tops. Union and Seven will continue to design denim however; their focus has shifted to become more of a lifestyle brand.

Expansion is nothing new to Hugo Boss who already has deals with Movado for watches, P & G for fragrance and cosmetics, and Safilo SpA for eyewear. In the Spring ’08 Boss will bring about a new venture. The brand will partner with Swarovski for jewelry and cufflinks. The partnership will carry 3 collections: Boss Black, Boss Orange, and Boss Selection. Boss Black will offer chic items while Boss Orange will fair on the unique side. Boss Selection will present lavish cufflinks.

Becoming a lifestyle brand is often a high feat. The brand must first be established. There must already be a cherished item that consumers love. For instance, Juicy Couture first began with terry cloth and velour pieces. These were highly sought after items. From there came denim, tee shirts, handbags, accessories, fragrance, outerwear, and even a flagship store.

Really, brand expansion takes a lot of strategy, timing, and popularity. But once the brand begins on the journey, the opportunities are infinite.