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Marketing talk often comes down to a question of positioning.
Studies show that frequency is the method that builds on the cornerstone of branding. The more direct a path from the brand to the frequency, the stronger the campaign.
The problem with frequency is how to ride that line between ubiquity and annoyance. While it is true that people buy the things they see most often and gain a familiarity with, they also hate to be sold.
The solution, then, is to hide in plain sight. Custom coffee mugs feature prominently in this position. They maintain usability and carry a message.
Picking these handy marketing machines in bulk lowers the cost of a campaign while also increasing reach. How?
Read on to find 9 ways to leverage these colorful coterie cups for your business.
Custom Coffee Mugs…
Custom logo and branded merchandise and extras do a lot to spread awareness, create appreciation, and give back to the consumer.
Coffee mugs aren’t the only option when it comes to branding but they are among the most effective. Especially in bulk pricing, they do a lot of work for a low cost.
Watch as we finish this trailing thought with explanations and ideas.
1. Last Beyond a Week
Coffee mugs with a logo have one cost for a lot of views. This differs from paper or visual advertisements, which have a cost for each airing.
These views are both unobtrusive and, because they have utility, get sought rather than rejected.
Advertising has an impact described in half-lives. Each iteration lasts for only so long and then drops off. An effective advertisement becomes less effective over time while also costing you per iteration.
The messaging and the object relate to each other intrinsically. Visual media such as newspapers, magazines, and television are all places people turn for new information.
A utilitarian object like a coffee cup is a thing consumers go to for familiarity and comfort. They want their mug to be the same today as it will be in the future. Finding exactly what they expect in an object builds interest instead of fading away.
2. Build a Brand
The pinnacle of branding is becoming a household word. An association between your product and the very essence of the product.
You want consumers to reach for a Kleenex, not a facial tissue. For a Band-Aide, not an adhesive strip.
Unless your business model is making coffee cups you can settle for the next best thing, ie the vanishing of mug w/log to ‘my mug’.
When a consumer starts thinking of their daily use mug s the ‘insert your name here’ mug, you have created a lasting impression.
Look at the proliferation of T&C Surf Design and Vans shirts that popped up in the late 90s. These small local stores put logos on shirts and the shirts became more popular than the initial shops.
Vans the skateboard company went on to last with a shoe line. While T&C didn’t last into the new millennium, their vintage shirts are still popular collector’s items.
They even got a video game in 1987 based on little more than the popularity and ubiquity of their logo.
For services and products which don’t see a day to day use, this brand positioning is essential.
If you manufacture or install vinyl siding, you can hardly put your logo on the siding. Nobody wants a NASCAR style branded house. Well, very few people, anyway.
Logo-emblazoned freebies become an important tool for branding. They keep these once in a while and external services strong in the consumer’s mind.
3. Get Used
The latest coffee drinking stats show that people continue to love coffee. On average, 64% of adults consume a cup a day with most drinking two or more.
That consumption has to come out of some kind of container and a familiar container beats an unfamiliar one. This is especially true in the reusable and Green-conscious world.
Discounts abound in coffee houses for using reusable mugs. This is true from small pop up shops to giant ubiquitous corporations. They save in disposable cup costs, the consumer saves money, the planet saves in waste.
Not only does a cup get used thousands of times (300 or so times a year for an average of 5 years) they get seen all day. Even after the cup stops holding coffee, it hangs around displaying marketing information all day long.
When used, the average mug travels in a radius. In a rural location, this is limited to 12 square miles. In an urban and suburban environment, commuters can travel 20 or more miles. This creates up to 400 square miles of engagement for a single mug.
4. Don’t Stay at the Office
The great thing about coffee is that it is a substance that people don’t just hit in the work week or at the office. Coffee is a vacation and leisure beverage as much as a work one.
Check out our line of custom campfire mugs and consider how much reach off-peak advertising has.
Attention and intention have an economy in the consumer mind. Applying low-impact and low-attention branding keeps you on the periphery of their minds.
In leisure time this seed can grow more effectively, as has been shown. Applying your mark to objects used in non-work times increases your impact overall.
An additional bonus here is that coffee mugs cover an overlap between work and leisure worlds. This means you have a reach that goes outside of a single setting.
This reach can be enough to pop up in vacation and travel. You might not need your brand to go outside of a single area but as people shift into and out of your target they come primed with a familiarity.
You also gain the benefit of multiple associations with your business. A business benefits more from being associated with leisure time or work time. With a little finesse in finding the style of bulk coffee mugs you offer, you can capitalize on either or both.
5. Make Excellent Gifts
Coffee mugs bring a compact versatility to the table. Since they get used by many people every day, they also make a solid gift.
Outside of their individual use, collections of mugs are not unheard of. Many a cupboard has a surplus of these objects in case one becomes misplaced and a new one needs to spring into action.
Speaking of collections, an interesting side-effect of usable familiarity is sentimental familiarity.
People have little quirks and place extra attachment on some objects over another. A whole cross-section of impulses and subtle triggers can move a random object into a favored category.
Most people have some kind of favorite shirt, coin, or coffee mug. Any object that they subconsciously attach a feeling of good-will and fortune on.
Gifts end up in this category more often than not. The psychology behind this is partially about emotional engagement with the gift giver. The other part relates to the awareness people get when they are in the presence of something they feel a guardianship towards.
A gift is something someone cared to give. Inversely, the less specialized the gift, the more likely that special attachment will form.
This happens because people apply their own meaning. Since the meaning is personal and has no extrinsic value to others, the dedication remains personal.
A custom coffee mug given as a gift will either end up in a cupboard or become a treasured object. Consider your combination of color and art to improve the chances of the latter.
6. Provide Swag-portunities
Reactions and attachments to receiving a personal gift provide a connection. Receiving swag creates a different kind of connection.
This falls under the category of ‘added value’. When people get something unexpected along with something they requested, they feel empowered.
There is a fine line between receiving something extra and expecting something extra.
Trade shows are rife with potential consumers that expect to be plied with bits and bobs for in exchange for their attention. To hook these people and give them a sense of added value, it is important that the swag be useful.
Studies compare different types of added value to determine which has the most draw. Discounts rate highly among consumers, especially from manufacturers, less so from retailers.
However, the perception of ‘getting more’ creates the most value to people.
Getting more is about receiving not just more than expected but having that more prove useful. Objects like keychains and coffee mugs rate highly. They are useful and exist at a price point that people often neglect to consider buying for themselves.
Swag items spread further than most branding. The items get traded and moved as gifts and sometimes left in remote locations in hotels. This provides reach and interest in new markets at a low cost.
Creating regional variants of logos is a good way to track infiltration. This allows branding to become discount marketing research.
7. Have Surprising Surface Area
When designing logos for some objects, the space constraints, and visibility limit options. Not so with logo mugs. The full area of the unit can be utilized.
You want to keep in mind that certain elements will look better on a mug than not, but otherwise, there’s no limit to readability.
Given that the target viewer is directly interacting with the cup, even small details and fine print can be visible.
In the instance of a mug with a handle, a distinct towards the consumer and away from is created. This allows you to think about multiple logos or messaging choices on a single unit.
the surface of a coffee cup also remains visible throughout most of its daily cycle. Opening a cupboard gives a quick glance at the art. Washing and putting away the mug does likewise.
T-shirts, depending on the area, get covered with jackets and coats. They get folded and placed in drawers where branding might not be visible.
8. Hold Many Things
A mug doesn’t need to just hold coffee.
The line of instant and single-serve mug cakes popping up in grocery stores attest to this.
Mugs get used tas small flower and herb planters. The size works well for a windowsill.
Many an office space features an extra mug used as a pen and pencil holder. They can also be filled with impulse treat candies. Paperclips and thumbtacks also find their way into these little office assistants.
These additional uses provide more opportunity for branding and more ubiquity to messaging. Again, the idea that branding is seen but not acknowledged continues to create the engagement.
This engagement leads to purchases as described by the frequency model.
Investing in bulk mugs creates a multitude of opportunities for engagement in various settings. This engagement drifts from concentrated views as people look for something within the mug or use it.
Then fade to the background as the mug is displayed but not directly used.
9. Don’t Go Bad
This relates back to the lifecycle of messaging. Logo mugs don’t get used a few times and disposed of like a magazine or newspaper.
They don’t fade from the air like a television or internet advertisement.
Mugs can last over a decade of daily use before fading.
They also don’t spoil. You could purchase a warehouse of units and have them ready for years to come. This lets you concentrate on exploring new marketing opportunities.
Yet, you know you have a steady supply on standby when needed.
Consider the value of older styles of memorabilia and merchandise to collectors. Vintage Coca Cola gear increases in value because of its rarity but also the personal attachments people have for the brand.
That Coca Cola was smart to invest in glass and steel and durable materials means that these objects have lasted to continue to influence.
Get it Out There
The possibilities for marketing doesn’t stop with custom coffee mugs. These same principles can be applied to more disposable beverages with our line of hot and cool holders. Marketing through useful objects gives tangible results to you and your customers.
