Before you know it, the holidays will be here. That means you should start planning now for your big holiday giveaway. Whenever you take the time out to giveaway special promotional gifts to your customers, you are showing how much you care about them as a business owner. One of the best promotional gifts to give away this holiday season is printed portfolios/padfolios. Imprinted portfolios/padfolios are great gifts for business owners and banks. You can unify your team by having them use custom portfolios/padfolios.

Customized portfolios/padfolios make great holiday gifts because people enjoy receiving them, as well as having something that is useful and functional. Imprint your company logo on these portfolios/padfolios and watch your business rise to the top. Your customers will enjoy everything about their new promotional gifts. They will always remember you and your business because they know that you took the time to think of them.

Promotional portfolios/padfolios are a helpful and useful way to live. They can help people jot down their ideas, make lists of things to do, or simple just doodle during a boring meeting. They key to these printed portfolios/padfolios is that they will create a very uniform look for your business.

The Coffee Ritual- and indispensable part of many people?s morning routine. From Starbucks, the purveyor of all things coffee to Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf to Nescafe and Tim Horton?s to Espresso Vivace and Caribou Coffee and other numerous coffee brands finds its way into the hearts and printed travel mugs of a huge amount of people everyday in almost every country. For most people, their day starts with a cup of coffee and it?s hard to imagine starting the day any other way. Manufacturers claim that drinking coffee isn?t all that bad since coffee has now been proven to be rich in anti oxidants. Now there?s a whole new reason to drink more coffee.

With extensive research done on the property of coffee beans, research has also been done to heighten and enhance the experience of drinking coffee. You know like how champagne glasses enhance the experience of drinking the liquid? Well, coffee travel mugs have goe through a similar revolution in keeping the coffee in its strong taste and at the right temperature.

More and more people realize that a lot of waste goes into using plastic and Styrofoam cups for their daily coffee intake. These cups end up being tossed out the window which ultimately leads to the streets and then into the lakes and rivers through the city drains. Office workers toss their cups out the window while motorists throw their cups out the window of their cars and trucks with little regard of how their actions affect Mother Nature. If you care about nature as much as how much antioxidant levels are in your coffee, then maybe you should invest in printed travel mugs. Its safer, long lasting, doesn?t emanate harmful chemicals and elements into your drink, doesn?t break easily, easy to clean and you can get them in a variety of colors and prints, designs, shapes and styles.

Think about it, by saving a cup and opting to drink your morning coffee with a printed travel mug has direct cost benefits. You generate less garbage, so that means savings through less disposal fees. By getting fewer disposals, you directly help save the environment.

Printed travel mugs are a more appealing investment now that you have considered its benefits. Imagine drinking your coffee in paper cups? For some reason, I don?t find that very appealing. I like my coffee in strong and sturdy mugs and travel mugs also avoid my hands from getting burned by the hot liquid inside. I like the fact that these mugs are nice to hold. And with the screw on caps, I do not need to worry about spilling my drink. You can have anything printed on a travel mug from slogans, to happy sayings to brighten your morning, to corporate logos to colorful designs. Just keep in mind that when you invest in a printed travel mug, which isn?t so expensive, you are investing in a lot of good causes for your own body as well as for the environment.

When purchasing anything, you would surely want to put a little thought into it right? Things like what are the features that you want, tips for buying and so on is really useful knowledge even if you are just spending $10 dollars on an item. Money, big or small is still money and you obviously want something worth it. Here are some interesting ideas and tips on how you can buy that perfect imprinted travel mug.

Now most of us need just one travel mug to fulfill our needs of keeping our beverages- we just need one for personal use. Travel mug prices can vary vastly depending on the features that they have. It can be as low as $3 to as expensive as $10. The thing is, what makes the price so different when from the outside, they look the same. Yes of course there?s the brand name that makes one of the difference but what else?

The primary purpose of a travel mug is to carry your beverage whether from coffee, tea, smoothie or health drink with you while you are traveling. Determine this purpose first- do you need it? If yes, then let?s continue. First, be aware that there are different types of mugs available so the second thing you should want after identifying if you really need a mug is the materials. Imprinted travel mugs are offered in both stainless steel and plastic with plastic being the least expensive, but it breaks easily when dropped. Apart from that, certain plastic materials also contaminate the contents by releasing harmful elements and toxic.

Stainless steel, though a little bit more expensive is a healthier and better option, plus, in the long run, it is more value for your money. Not only that, stainless steel imprinted travel mugs also keeps your coffee and tea and other beverages hot for about an hour. There are also mugs that have double wall insulation that helps keep your hot beverages hot longer and your cold beverages cold for longer.

Stainless steel also doesn?t get stained easily. Unlike plastic, over time, it wears off much faster and it also gets stained faster from the beverage. Stainless steel is much easier to clean up and doesn?t get stained. For a more value reason, consider this- plastic mugs have plastic lining which, over time, absorbs the liquid contained. This will change or alter the taste of the beverage over time and the only resolution is to buy another mug. Stainless steel mugs last longer and do not absorb the liquid.

A lot of today?s travel mugs come with various features such as cup holders and non slip bottom as well as mug covers and lids. These features are pretty useful and functional as you would probably need while traveling in a car, in the subway trains and even while walking as it avoids spillage and offers your more stability.

Some imprinted travel mugs come with snap-on lids while some come with screw-on lids. A better option would be screw-on lids as they stay on no matter what. Snap-on lids come off when the travel mug is dropped. Finally, think about the size of your mug. If you drink in small amounts, then an 8oz. travel mug is a good choice but for larger amounts of beverages, consider a size 16 to 20 oz. travel mug.

It’s September 1^st and what does that mean? It means that the holidays will be here before you know it. They’re just around the corner. And, that means it’s time to start thinking about holiday giveaways. If you start thinking about them now and placing your orders, you won’t have to worry about the crunch come November.

One of the best holiday giveaways are custom printed travel mugs. Printed travel mugs make excellent promotional products during the holiday season because they offer warmth (from the hot coffee or tea inside them) during the cold time of year. People just love to have customized travel mugs during this season. They can take them wherever they go. As they rush about town, going to and from work, they can carry their imprinted travel mugs, drinking the hot coffee or tea inside them and warming themselves up.

Travel mugs can go wherever you go. That’s the great thing about them. You can make your coffee or tea in the morning, fill up your custom travel mug, and off you go. With their non-spill lids, driving with travel mugs is a cinch.

Imprinted travel mugs make great promotional products. You can have your logo or company design printed on the side of the travel mugs and that’s open advertisement. Everywhere those travel mugs go, your company or event will be advertised and promoted. Everyone who uses your travel mugs will remember you. Everyone who just sees your travel mugs will remember you. You’ll be thought of as a thoughtful and considerate business owner for thinking of your customers and getting them something they really want and can use.

And, that’s the key to giving away a great promotional product?to give away something that your customers want and something they can use. After all, if they can’t or don’t want to use what you give them, then you are wasting your advertising dollars because your business or event will not be promoted. Picking just the right promotional giveaway is a necessity for the success of your company or event.

So, when the tinsel hits the Christmas trees its time to start giving away those customized travel mugs. They come with free shipping and a 110% guarantee. Now, that’s something worth looking toward the holidays for.

Discountmugs.com is now offering promotional calculators as promotional products. These colorful and unique custom calculators come in a variety of styles such as handheld calculators, pocket calculators, and carabiner calculators. No matter what your promotional needs are, these printed calculators will do the trick.

Give these imprinted calculators away to business people. They can use them every day to calculate their business expenses and budgets. While this occurs, your company or event will be promoted successfully and effectively.

These calculators come with small buttons to large, over sized buttons to make it easier to see. The colorful exteriors make calculating fun.

Promotional calculators can be given away at trade shows, corporate events, and fund raisers. If you give them our calculators with your logo imprinted on them, they are sure to remember you and your business or event each time they use the calculator.

Imprinted calculators make wonderful promotional gifts for any occasion. They are something that people can use every day and they will last for a long time.

The personalized calculators come with free shipping and a 110% guarantee. At their every day low discount prices, these are promotional products that your business can’t afford to go without.

Both bridesmaids and groomsmen deserve a token of appreciation for being part of your wedding, standing next to you as your read your vows and tied the matrimonial knot, supporting you, helping you with showers and helping with the wedding planning. Bridesmaids have a long list of gifts that are normally given to them by the grateful bride but when it comes to groomsmen gifts, suddenly, you are at lost of possible gift ideas. Ever thought about personalized coolers.

A good gift shows your buddies that you appreciated their presence at your wedding and are thankful for their presence. Sure after the wedding, you are drained out and just looking forward for the honeymoon but spare some time into thinking what would be suitable, practical and utterly useful for your friends. A good way is to think of what gift you would want if you were the groomsmen. If you have guys that love the outdoors, or love parties and well, love drinking and barbeques, get them a personalized cooler.

Personalized coolers are a memorable and functional customization gift that is great to be given as groomsmen gifts. They are an adaptable gift that can definitely compliment their hobbies and interests from hiking, to camping, to outdoor parties and this personalized cooler can even become the quintessential gift for that friend of yours who just loves impressing the ladies with his outdoor gourmet dishes, cooking hot dishes under the starlight or on top of the urban rooftop.

Personalized coolers can be purchased in a variety of colors that appeal to all your groomsmen who have different tastes and preferences. All you have to do is identify the distinct personality of liking of any of your groomsmen. Sure all of you have the same interests and liking- that’s why you?re best buddies, but every individual as a distinctive liking that sets that degree or uniqueness.

Personalize the coolers with initials of your groomsmen names or even logos of your favorite sports teams. Custom embroidering and threading is normally done to place the logos or initials on the cover of the coolers. This type of gift is not only a gesture of appreciation and thanks to your groomsmen, you have also given them a functional and practical gift that you’re sure will be used over and over again.

Many companies are faced with the predicament of coming up with creative and innovative ideas to keep their name consistently in the minds of their target market. This constant challenge is not made easy especially when there are numerous companies out there with each product having its own quality and advantage that seems better than other products. Apart from advertising, companies have jumped into the promotional items scene in providing promotional items that are functional, innovative, useful and come the 21^st century- eco friendly.

Certain advertising campaigns, logos, imprint, slogans and many more have people taking for years to come such as Campbell?s ?Mmm..mmm..good?. In the promotional item scene, there have been numerous different everyday items that were taken and imprinted, customized and designed and given as freebies to a company?s customer base such as mugs, pens, card holders, tote bags and promotional coolers.

Custom coolers are entering the market of promotional items especially since the recession hit as companies realized that more and more people are packing their lunch from in the attempt to save money on eating out in restaurants. Promotional coolers can serve a variety of purposes apart from being an important and useful item for carrying food and it can also become a gift for other people.

Promotional coolers work for companies that deal with outdoor sports and sporting equipment. Party planning companies can also have an advantage by using coolers as corporate gifts. These kind of promotional items are dynamic and creative as well as useful for your customer base since you can strengthen the company-customer relationship.

Promotional coolers are effective tools in promoting your company. For instance, if you have a sporting goods store, why not give coolers instead of sports bottles as your promotional item? Sports bottles are often related to sporting goods stores but by giving coolers, you actually give a surprise to your customers. Coolers can also work for a company that provides catering services. If you provide daily catering services, why not serve up your customer?s everyday lunch in promotional coolers? Let them keep it when you deliver their food. They will not only be surprised by appreciate the company even more and recommend your services to their friends as well.

What about companies that sell medications and pharmaceutical items? If you supply to doctors, why not let them have a handy cooler as this can prove to be a very convenient item for doctors who travel all the time. They can keep their medication cool, dry and safe anywhere they go. From restaurants to even insurance agents, promotional coolers are a great corporate gift for these people and services. Insurance agents are always on the go and they meet a lot of people everyday. If you happen to take insurance from this particular agent, then give the insurance agent a promotional cooler that can help him carry lunch on the go when meeting clients. Every type of business can benefit from a promotional cooler. Coolers come with straps and wheels for handy carrying and transporting and there are plenty of designs and color and sizes to choose from.

Most of us use lunch bags of different versions such as insulated lunch bags; carry on lunch bags, organic lunch bags and imprinted lunch bags. In our everyday lives we carry our lunch to school or to work, 365 days a year. It has become such a part and parcel of life that we seldom take not of the origins of the lunch bag. Rarely do we stop to ponder how mundane objects and items such as can openers and tote bags, zippers, door knobs and shoelaces came about. Where lunch bags are concerned, many of you would be surprised to know that lunch bags have their very own share of pioneers looking for more inventive ways to make our human lives much better.

Geuder, Paeschke and Frey could be considered the pioneers of the first licensed lunch box way back in 1935. This lunch box had a character printed on it. The character lunch box featured the ever famous Mickey Mouse. The box was a lithographed oval tin that came with a pull-out tray. Although it had no vacuum bottle, it did come with a very convenient handle.

In 1954, the world was introduced to the aluminum variant of lunch bags that was invented by Leo May, a miner from Sudbury, Ontario. In those days, miners used to carry their lunch in tobacco boxes as they were more durable and the idea hit him when he accidentally crushed hit tin lunch box. The next invention of imprinted lunch bags came in 1950 from Aladdin Industries who created the first children?s lunch box, inspired from the hit television show of Hopalong Cassidy. Known as the ?Hoppy?, this Hopalong Cassidy lunch bag became a popular item and sold to about 600 000 units in its first year alone with a price of $2.39 per unit.

Due to the success of hoppy and the fact that television was experiencing a tremendous growth in the 1950s, more and more manufacturers and marketers realized the potential of sales generated using television shows. From ADCO Liberty to American Thermos, Kruger Manufacturing Company, Landers, Frary and Clark (Universal), Okay Industries and many more, jumped into the bandwagon of imprinted lunch bags and other items through the 1980s.

In 1959, vinyl imprinted lunch bags were introduced. The use of plastics in lunch bags was first introduced in 1960 as the handle but in no time, the use of plastic was used to produce the whole bags as it was more light weight, in the form of molded plastic boxes. During this time, the lunch box went through minor changes as manufacturers were looking for more and more ways to make it convenient and practical.

It started with the vacuum bottle which then evolved in the span of a decade into the 1970s from steel vacuum bottles with glass liners to cork or rubber stoppers, to plastic Bakelite cups and all plastic bottles, and bottles that were insulated with foam rather than vacuum. Aladdin Industries, in the 1970s produced the glass liner bottles which were then rapidly replaced by the plastic versions. As time went by, printed lunch bags evolved into what we have now- lunch bags that are easy, lightweight, functional, practical and environmentally friendly.

With the economy on the lull, promotional products are quickly becoming popular among business owners. That?s because promotional products are cheap and effective.? In fact, studies have shown are highly effective. Here are some statistics:

* A Baylor University study found that salespeople who gave promotional business products to their customers received 22% more referrals than those who did not.

* According to researchers at Southern Methodist University, customers who received promotional products reordered up to 18% sooner than those who received coupons, and spent 27% more.

* Adding a promotional marketing product to a mail promotion increased the response rate by 50%, according to a direct mail study by the Silver Marketing Group.

* In comparing customers who received either a letter of thanks or a merchandise specialty gift valued at $40 retail, researchers at Wayne State University found that 6 months later, sales among those who received the gift were 400 percent higher than for those who got only the letter.

As you can see, promotional products really work.  They work better than television, radio, and print ads and are much cheaper as well. For the cost of one television commercial, you can buy hundreds of promotional products and reach more people. And, the more people you reach with your promotional products, the better business is for you.

Besides the fact that promotional products are cheap, they are also things that people use. Gone are the days of buttons and badges. Todays promotional products are actually things that people want things like tote bags, coffee mugs, wine glasses, and shot glasses. And, if people want these items, they will use them. The more they use them, the more advertising you get. The more advertising you get, the more business you get. It?s that simple.

Promotional products are an old form of advertising that has taken a leap into todays society. Everybody is using them and customers appreciate them. Thats why they are so effective. Giving people what they want always works. With promotional products, you can only win.

Lunch bags are very handy essentials for people who are always on the move. You can take homemade meals such as sandwiches, rice and salads to school and to work using a lunch bag. While most people still stick to the handy old brown paper bag, more and more are beginning to use custom made lunch bags made from plastic and cloth such as printed lunch bags. Lunch bags have come a long way, from tobacco tins to the standard brown paper. But with custom made designs, there are a lot of other colors and designs to choose from, and you also have an option of printing your business name and corporate logo on it.

Printed lunch bags work for companies and schools. You can even do personalization by printing your child?s lunch bag with his or her name. Having printed lunch bags for kids are a great way to avoid the lunch bag from getting lost and from siblings accidentally take the wrong lunch bag so school. Everyone will readily know whose lunch is whose.

Lunch bags come in hard and soft casing. Hard lunch boxes are usually those made out of plastic whereas the soft ones are made out of cloth. While you can find a variety of lunch bag shapes, the popular choice remains the square or rectangular shaped bags. For a more convenient storage, lunch bags come with flaps as well as a zip closer and a strap on handle.

There are also bags that can be tied with a string or pulled close with a strap. The popularity and convenience of Velcro has enabled it to be included to the lunch bags for easier and more secure storage. Lunch bags are great for keeping food fresh until lunchtime so that you do not get soggy sandwiches or wilted fruit. You can eat your meals fresh and the straps and zip lock ensure that the meals do not get mashed up or fall out when walking or running. After you are done with your meals, you can conveniently fold the bags up and slip it into a backpack or even into a pocket.

Another type of printed lunch bags is those that are insulated and come with gel packs to keep the food fresh and prevent moisture. If you have cold food and would like it to remain cold for a certain period of time, you can freeze these gel packs and slip it into you lunch bags. For the more eco-conscious ones, more and more lunch bags are now being made in environmentally friendly materials such as canvas, hemp and cotton. These bags can be used over and over gain, thus reducing the need for paper and plastic consumption. Their durability and convenience will help you save a lot of money as well.

Since lunch bags are used quite often by school children and employees of a company, it has joined in the bandwagon or promotional items. More and more marketing campaigns are banking in on the popularity of printed lunch bags which bring their message and corporate logo across many levels of audience.