Recently in the news, we’ve seen that the consequences of our love for coffee on-the-go, are getting more serious. Stats say that from the billions of coffee cups we throw away, only 1% is recycled. This means that the rest contributes towards generating a 25-tonne mountain of waste! So, the question is, what can we do to reduce our impact on this? Some of our favourite coffee shops are demonstrating one change we can make, by introducing travel mugs.
A step in the right direction
Some shops have begun to trigger the movement. Starbucks, Costa, Pret, Paul, Greggs and Caffé Nero have capitalised on adapting customer experience in order to prompt the positive change for our environment. Between them, they are offering incentives such as; discount on drinks when you use your own mug, the chance to buy a branded mug that you can reuse time and time again and some have introduced loyalty point systems based on you taking your own cup (you can find out more about their offers here https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/deals/deals-hunter/2017/05/how-saving-the-planet-can-save-money-on-your-coffee/).
Change is good
Even though we want to make the world a better place, the thought of change from a business perspective or in general does overwhelm some people. However, this is not only a positive change for the environment but a business opportunity. Think about it… you can increase your brand exposure and awareness while helping to reduce plastic waste! Surely a win-win!
Importance of Brand Awareness
Regardless of the size of your business, brand awareness is essential to attract customers and retain loyal ones. Where brand awareness is successful, a consumer will identify your brand with a particular product or service within your target market/niche. This means your brand distinguishes you from your competitors, and that you stand out as the go-to.
Your logo and strapline play a huge part in brand awareness; these are the first things that will come into a consumer’s mind. How many times they have come across your brand and where e.g. advertisements, articles, social media, TV commercials, on a product they’ve seen someone else using etc, also contribute towards their awareness. The more they see or hear about your brand, the more aware they are, and the more likely they are to have you front-of-mind when they need a service or product that you can provide. So, the idea is that the more you expose your brand, the more recognisable you’ll become. (You can read more on brand awareness here https://www.baerpm.com/blog/importance-brand-awareness/).
This is where travel mugs come in.
How so? You ask…
With popular, well-known brands having already set the travel mug ‘trend’, it’s likely that more people and businesses will get on board and the demand for travel mugs will increase. OPPORTUNITY ALERT, think of the number of eyes that will stumble upon your logo if it’s YOUR branded mug that people take into these shops! This will add to brand awareness; and the higher the brand awareness, the higher the sales will be.
There’s also an add-on benefit of people seeing your logo on travel mugs. You’ll be associated with the positive changes being made to help improve the environment. This is encouraging for both potential customers as well as existing ones, because they can see you care about the environment, which builds their trust in your brand and also shows that you are ‘on the ball’ so to speak.
A few muggy ideas
You may not want to just sell your mugs, and get a little more target audience/niche specific. So, here’s a few ideas on how to get your mugs out there:
- Exhibition/Event Giveaways – An exhibition/event you’d say is a great opportunity to sell items, but why not take some branded mugs as giveaways! As they’re in demand, it’s likely that the recipient(s) will already be informed of their ‘fresh’ purpose, and therefore really appreciate the gesture. Not to mention, your mug will continue to be on show while they go about their day at the event, which is likely to prompt further conversation.
- Gifts – Give thanks to your loyal customers by sending them a branded mug. Even if they aren’t to use them for going into shops, it’s a constant reminder of your brand whether in the office or at home.
- Environmental Charities – It’s all about the environment, so why not show your customers that you care for it not just by selling them a reusable mug, but by donating some money to a charity for every purchase made.
- Meeting new prospects – Why not use your new travel mugs to target your prospects? Mail out a mug with a note saying, ‘you’ll bring along the biscuits to your meeting.’ You obviously need to do your homework beforehand, but you’re much more likely to get a positive answer and get a date in the diary. It worked on us with our cleaning company. This of course wasn’t the only reason we hired them, however it did set them apart from other companies we were looking at.
Links we like:
https://www.baerpm.com/blog/importance-brand-awareness/
Here are some travel mugs we have produced previously:
If you’re interested in having your own branded travel mugs, why not give us a call on 0115 951 2468 or email us at info@birchprint.co.uk for a quote.
In addition, here are some mug projects we wish we’d been involved in:
https://www.refinery29.com/2017/09/173817/disney-starbucks-travel-mug
http://www.expertreviews.co.uk/kitchen/1406710/best-reusable-coffee-cups
Thank you for reading, we hope you’ve found our blog post useful. Don’t forget, you can connect with us on Twitter (@birchprint) or email us at info@birchprint.co.uk.
