Get ready for business-to-business promotional “junk” that surfaces around holiday times.

Then again, if you think of that junk in a “green” context, your promotional “gift” may wind up on an actual desk rather than in the trash.

With China’s increasing environmental awareness (remember the Green Games?), being green can help the bottom line, and curry favor with customers if initiatives are communicated properly.

A lot of hype over the green movement can be attributed to less-scrupulous marketers and firms contributing more CO2 by talking, rather than actually cutting emissions. However, a pragmatic balance of green initiatives, coupled with some shameless self-promotion could be a smart approach for smaller firms with fewer resources looking to at least do something for the movement.

Here are a few green gift ideas to consider, courtesy of Ecopreneurist.com:

• The basic mug is cheap and can be printed with a message and a logo. ProformaGreen suggests this, and can probably be edited slightly for a China context:

  “ ‘Americans throw away an estimated 25 billion Styrofoam cups every year. The same Styrofoam cups will be sitting in a landfill 500 years from now. Please re-use this mug each day to lessen your impact on the planet.’”

  Yes that will all fit on a mug. And trust me, a case of mugs showing up at your client’s office goes a lot farther than a fruit basket.

• Flash drives are available in the earth-friendly, China-friendly material - bamboo. Everyone’s got a few already, but no one throws these away, so a company logo on a USB stick could give lasting impressions.
• Recycled water bottles are being repurposed into all sorts of holiday gift-givable reincarnations. 100 percent recycled laptop sleeves, duffle bags, and USB drives are just a small sample of possible promotional ideas made from recycled water bottles. How about a printed message saying, “How many bottles of Nongfu Springs water did YOU drink then recycle last year?”

Sure, giving “stuff” away to people who don’t ask for it isn’t the best use of the world’s resources, but at least these recommended goods have some inherent value, and do less damage in the long-run. BusinessWeek notes that “Being far more efficient and effective with resources remains one of the main pillars of going green…A second pillar of green business—using the environmental lens to create new ways to design, manufacture, and provide goods and services that use drastically less resources—still generates lasting value.”

Seriously, is your firm still giving away cheap foam stress balls?

    Channel: What's Spicy     |