Promotional Cups

So I have blogged about several different sites and mugs recently.  I  had a few of the sites I blogged about send me some free samples so I can get one of my favorite things,  and have something to write about at the same time! This week I got this  great promotional stainless steel desk mug from one of my favorite sites! They have the biggest selection of promotional mugs here, and promotional ceramic coffee mugs here. Their selection is so dang big, I can’t link to everything I like that they have,  so it’s good they are going to keep sending me “a mug a month” this year.  I like these guys (and girls) becasue they noticed that i blogged about them and sent me some free stuff to keep blogging, woo hooo!! This is great because one can run out of stuff to say as I am sure you know if you have ever tried to blog.

What are mugs made out of, usually?  In my last blog post, I said that I preferred the feel of a ceramic mug over the travel mug.  Travel mugs are almost always, at least the good ones (in my not-so-humble opinion), made out of stainless steel; another similarity they have to a thermos.    Some of them are made of plastics, or are a hybrid of plastic on the outside and plastic on the inside.  For promotional purposes, plastics are great because they can come in almost any color and have almost any color applied to them for customization.  Plastics and metals are very break resistant, too, so this is why they’re preferred for the travel mug.

Latte mugs, bistro mugs, and the old standard desk mugs tend to be made of a ceramic material like porcelain or earthenware.  A mug made from these materials hold heat really well and keep liquids warm longer than ordinary glass.  Ceramics can hold up pretty well and not completely shatter when dropped, but they’re still fragile enough that you don’t want to test how impact resistant they really are.

Glass mugs aren’t uncommon but they can lose heat more quickly and can break more easily than most other materials.  Usually a glass mug is picked because they’re cheaper.

It’s as if there is more diversity among coffee mugs than there is in the human population, as you will quickly notice if you pay a quick visit to any site that sells them.  The differences can be cosmetic and only “skin deep” imprinting difference, or can be as dramatic as different shapes and material.  Unfortunately, not all of this diversity is a good thing.  Everyone wants to get a unique looking mug out there since there’s hundreds of thousands already out there and “unique” can mean a lot of things.

Disco is Still Alive!

Fake wood!  It isn’t just for station wagons from the 70s anymore, and if you thought wood paneling ever went like I did, apparently we’re completely wrong.  Yes, woodgrain coffee mugs.  Why does anyone want one?  I don’t think anyone does, but it seemed like a good idea to whoever designed it.  Even if you could choose the color of the “wood” look on the mug (which you generally can’t) and get it to match the wood on your desk, I can’t imagine you still really wanting one.  Wood really looks good in some situations, but fake wood finishing on anything except furniture needs to go away forever!

Mmmm, Sweaty Feet

Cups and mugs with special shapes are another bad idea.  Lots of the custom shapes I see are, strangely, heads of famous people or heads of characters.  Nothing warms me up in the morning like a hot cup of joe poured directly out of the skull of George Washington.  Patriotism at its finest!  As an added bonus, even when they’re not intended to be a caricature they inevitable look cartoony or ugly… or both.

Here’s another great example of a cute idea for some other product, but a bad shape for something someone will be drinking out of: ski boot shaped mugs.  I want nothing more than to imagine the sweat build up of a nice pair of warm and tight ski boots mixing with my morning beverage of choice.  Add a splice of lemon to really give it a kick while you’re at it!

How the heck are these supposed to be washed, either?  They have lots of little nooks and crannies and heaven forbid it sits in your sink long enough for your remaining drink to stain or harden.  Plus, I don’t really have enough cupboard space the way it is, and I’m not sure how the heck I’d find a space for one of these creative mugs that isn’t on the top shelf and guaranteeing I’ll never use it more than once.

Bistro mugs won’t fit in your cup holder in the car (and you’d be a little crazy to have an open container like that in your car anyway) but there’s no shortage of cups designed specifically for the car.  Say hello to travel mugs! 

Travel mugs tend to all have the same basic thing going on; a long thinner base to fit in cup holder betters and then a wider upper half.  They also are the mugs that come with lids, making it the only really smart pick for going on a trip. You can find a really cheap one made out of just plastic, but the best ones are built a lot like a thermos with a layer of air between the inside of the cup and the outside of the cup to keep the heat in the liquid.

These are really popular in general, and that popularity has carried over into the promotional items industry.  I can see the benefits, of course.  They’re imminently useful because you can literally take them anywhere, and some even come as part of a thermos set.  There’s still something special about the way a ceramic bistro mug fits in my hand that makes me prefer them on a personal level, though.

Coffee mugs don’t all come in the same shape and sizes, and my favorite type is a big old bistro mug.  This isn’t the more common 12 ouncer that’s kind of short with hard edges, but can be up to 22 ounces of pure warm coffee bliss.  No refills!  The bistro mug is also, to me, one of the most comfortable mugs to hold in your hand.  It starts narrower at the bottom and wider at the top, which just seems more natural than the straight sides you get with a typical desk mug.

As a promotional item it’s pretty great because you’ve got plenty of room for whatever you want to put on it.  The bigger bistro mugs work as a kind of novelty item or something that could have multiple uses.  The only real downside is that the bigger ones don’t have lids and if they have a handle it won’t fit in your cup holder in the car, but that’s a problem all of the regular coffee cups and mugs have.

I’ve sold and purchased any number of promotional items over the years, but a coffee mug has always been one of those things I’ve had a kind of curiosity about every time I’ve encountered them. Not the mugs as much as how a company is planning to use them, really. Sometimes despite my best efforts a client will insist on purchasing one promotional product based only on the price.

This blog is here mostly to try to discuss why a promotional mug should be your choice over the million or so other promotional products. I know for a fact that cups and mugs are great ideas for all kinds of events or businesses. They’re useful to just about everyone, have plenty of room for logo or artwork, and can be a pretty inexpensive option. Instead of a general pitch for how great they are, I’m more interested in what any of you have used them for. Why did you pick out a mug, what kind of mug, where did you get it from?