Live from The Incentive Show: New Products and Services Abound
Exhibitors were pushing their wares Tuesday at The Incentive Show.
William Sonoma is increasing the number of sets that it offers as incentives through its corporate program based on heightened demand.
Just introduced is the “Wake-Up Call Coffee Set” that includes Illy Espresso Beans, Café Sugars of Irish Cream, Vanilla and Amaretto and two white mugs for $52. Another incentive product was created by grouping individually sold items, like the “Citrus Spread Gift Set” that incorporates three citrus spreads — meyer lemon, blood orange and key lime — into one gift set. The “Olivier Oils Mediterranean Gift Set,” combines two 6.75 ounce bottles of Olivier olive oils, two stoneware bowls, handpainted in the likeness of colorful tomatoes and a recipe booklet.
“The more merchandise that you can package together, the higher the perceived value,” Aaron Magness in corporate sales, said. “If people get a bundle of things, they see that as being more exciting that just getting one thing.”
Also on the corporate incentive side, Tupperware has introduced a business gift-giving line. The line includes 11 boxed gift sets and has four items available for logo imprinting. The collection appears in a catalog and includes “Holiday Treats,” four decorated canisters with a holiday ornament print for $19.95; “Frequent Traveler,” a seven-compartment black organizer for the business traveler for $24.95; “Executive Organizer” with stackable compact organizers in black and “Raise a Toast” an ice bucket and matching serving tray for $39.95.
“Tupperware saw this as a huge business,” said Alexandra Uhll, manager, Business Gift Giving.”
At the Kodak booth, account manager Brad Miller was showing off the new “Printer Dock 6000″ to be available in May at a retail cost of $199.95. A digital camera can be docked to print 4″ x 6” color photos.
And, of course, there are always a few exhibitors enticing potential customers with aromas of chocolate chip cookies (Mrs. Fields Cookies) or sizzling steaks at the Omaha Steaks’ booth.
Omaha Steaks has enhanced its gift certificate and Steak Bucks incentive programs by adding a Web site as a redemption tool. Web pages can be customized with a personal message, a logo and detailed description of the products. In a recent Maxim incentive program, president Brian Wynne crafted a message positioned at the top of the Web page along with the company logo. Three types of Omaha Steak’s products were detailed for the gift recipient to choose from. More than 50% of the gift certificates were redeemed online. “I think that says a lot about the Web’s popularity,” said Cindy Mielke, incentive sales manager, Omaha Steaks. “We didn’t expect it to be that high.”
Elsewhere on the floor, Lillian Vernon was offering a new line of golf products. Smurfit-Stone, looking for new tie-ins for movie studios, has created animation cells, transparent cells of images taken from popular movies and trapped in a trading card frame. Cells can be hooked together in a display strip and then built upon to create a kiosk. The New York Times was promoting its co-sponsored subscription program where clients can deliver subscriptions to their customer base. And, American Airlines has a new incentive flight certificate called Wander Down Under in a partnership with Quantas.
