Turn your employee frowns into smiles of appreciation. Everyone likes to be
Turn a frown into a smile
thanked for a job well-done. And thanking them with a gift is a winning combination. One of the most popular corporate gifts is a personalized pocket knife or multi-tool. Knives and tools are:
Useful
Long-Lasting
A way of displaying your corporate logo
Need a reason for giving? In a corporate environment, here are the 2 best ways to establish an employee gift program:
Safety Award Program. You can distribute the gifts one at a time, after an employee has worked 5 years without an accident, for example. Or, you can celebrate when the whole workforce goes without an accident after so many months. Have a picnic or party, and distribute the personalized pocket knife to each employee personally.
Service Award Program. When certain milestones occur in a worker’s career, present them with the knife or tool award.
The main idea is appreciation award, and the main result is a big smile. Would you spend $20 on an employee to get that kind of effect?
about 100 years old. The invention of the dry cell and the miniature incandescent bulb around 1899 made it all possible. Shortly after that, advertising specialty companies began putting their customers’ logos on them, creating the first promotional flashlight. But what will the promotional flashlights be like 100 years from now?
First, let’s look at the major developments in flashlights from 1899 till now, 2014:
Imprinting a company logo, using engraving and screen printing in color, so that a company can use flashlights to promote itself to customers.
Shock resistant case. This helped to protect the bulb and the glass lens from breaking when the flashlight is dropped.
Push button in addition to on/off switch. This feature made it possible to conserve energy, and to send Morse Code.
Electronic circuitry. This made it possible to program different features, such as reduced brightness mode, SOS mode, strobe mode.
Miniaturization, making it possible to make keylights.
Focus-able lens, for convenience.
Imprinting a company logo, using laser engraving to make engraved flashlights and screen printing for printing in color. The company can use flashlights to promote itself to customers.
Designs on the barrel, like the USA flag, camouflage, and various corporate colors.
So, what do you think another 100 years will do to change promotional flashlights? Here are some wild guesses.
Design changes: Could a flashlight be developed that attaches to your hand or fingers, and directs light to where you point?
Energy changes: How about the elimination of batteries. Let’s have a flashlight that gets its unending energy from the magnetic field that is always present all around us. It is free, and it never wears out.
Imprint changes: Besides screen printing and laser engraving, and full color imprinting, how about holographic printing? Imagine your logo in a 3 dimentional holograph that hovers above the torch.
Bulb changes: There is a new LED which is brighter, and is already used in some flashlights. Expect even brighter “light producing elements” in the future.
Ergonomic changes: Instead of a switch, why not have a flashlight controlled by thought waves? If you want it to turn on, it will. If you want it brighter or dimmer, just think it. Don’t laugh. Brain waves are real, and they produce a small electric current that is measurable by electroencephalograms.
Far out? Let me know what you think. And give me some of your own predictions, too. Thanks.
Promotional mugs come in a wide variety of styles, material, and colors today. When I started in the advertising specialty business 22 years ago, the coffee mug selection was rather boring. Mugs were available in…
Ceramic
Porcelain
Glass
Persona Stainless Steel Vacuum Water Bottle, SL216SS
Then along came promotional mugs in heavy plastic, stainless steel, rubber non-skid bottoms, vacuum insulated, and fancy non-drip closeable lids. Some are available with a combination of material and colors to match your corporate logo. Some companies, like Starline, rate their insulating abilities so you can compare one vacuum bottle with others. The higher the price, the better insulating ability it has. Of course, price is also determined by the size and the type of material.
Promotional mugs, travel mugs, coffee mugs, water bottles, and vacuum mugs all share these common qualities, which make them so popular.
APPRECIATED by your customers, contacts, and employees.
Using a combination of material and colors
USEFUL. Mugs are so useful, that you might consider them a necessity.
PERPETUAL. Coffee and travel mugs last forever, unless of course you break one. But how hard is it to break stainless steel, ceramic, or heavy plastic?
A PERMANENT GOODWILL GESTURE. Every recipient remembers who gave them the water bottle or vacuum mug. How could they forget, since your logo is permanently imprinted right on it?
The Camo Culture is IN
Camo is Cool. The number of Camo-Lovers is constantly increasing. Even people who never go to the woods like the look and feel of owning a camo-imprinted item. This Muskoka Fall™ Vacuum Water Bottle, SV98SS, will fit right into your collection of camo personalized pocket knives, camo backpack, hat, and jacket, multi-tools, and Mag-Lites.
That’s what I love about promotional mugs, and I hope you do, too. The never-ending changes in design and materials keeps this area of promotional advertising alive.
Personalizing pocket knives is an art, because it’s not the same as using a color office printer and printing on a piece of white paper. Knives present a unique set of obstacles such as:
Color of the material
Type of material (wood, metal, bone, synthetic)
Irregular surface contour
Required durability of the imprint
These problems are not usually a direct concern of the customer unless his company logo has a lot of detail or requires a color imprint. Each logo imprinting request is handled one at a time. When our art department receives your logo, the artist looks at these questions:
Does the logo contain too much detail
Does the imprint contain text smaller than 6 point
Are the lines in the imprint thinner than 1 point
Is a color imprint required
These problems can be solved by our art department or yours. A complex logo can be simplified to eliminate the detail problem. Small text can either be eliminated or re-arranged somehow. Thin lines can be broadened. A black and white version can be made of your logo if needed.
Most pocket knives are laser engraved on the metal blade, metal handle, metal bolster, or the wooden handle. Laser engraving doesn’t offer color. However, laser engraving on stainless steel looks black or dark. Laser engraving on anodized aluminum handles looks white. And if doing this same method on a blackened metal blade or handle will look white.
Some knives can be pad printed on a handle in color, or screen printed on a metal surface.
Color added to laser engraving: Gold, white, silver, black, red, yellow, blue, or green.
Another imprinting option is Electro-etching, which looks dark on a stainless steel blade. This method of making personalized pocket knives is considered semi-permanent. It doesn’t go as deep into the metal as machine engraving and laser engraving. This leads to a final method of imprinting knives, which is machine engraving. This is like using the engraving machine that jewelers have to engrave your initials on a pendant. It is good for lettering only. It is permanent.
Most promotional items have their share of printing problems, but Pocketknives have a unique set of hurdles for the imprinter. That’s where Advantage-Advertising.com and Logo-Knives.com can use their experience to make your folding knife a cherished gift with your corporate logo.
Our 2015 promotional calendars have just been updated with their new pictures and pricing. Our regular customers may now see the new images on their computer screen. Save a bundle by planning ahead. Order today before the prices go up.
