There is only so much information that the brain can fully absorb. Since we are bombarded with so much information every day, a brand acts as a simple representation of a rich and complex message. Our brains are great pattern detectors and each time we experience a brand, our emotional connection to it grows. We are becoming more and more receptive to brands and more relevance is placed on them now than ever before. Once a person has become accustomed to a product or service from a certain brand, there is usually a feeling of fear and risk associated with trying a competing brands' product.

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Few will argue the case that branding isn't important. Mercedes' logo is universally recognizable and conjures up all kinds of emotions in every single one of us. It stands for something, and this brand value is everything to them. However, Mercedes have the luxury of maintaining what they've already built. Their brand took hundreds of millions of dollars and decades of testing and refinement to get it to where it is today.

“The importance of brand for global business success is becoming increasingly significant” David Roth, WPP.

If you know a trend is coming it's much easier to take advantage of it. You can ride the wave of what people are expecting and build your brand exponentially. It's no secret that the world is changing faster every year but how we approach these changes is the important thing. Here are 5 trends that we will (probably) see this year:

Recently, one of our customers purchased 50,000 glow sticks for a mall promotion. The promotion went great, but then a kid cracked open the glow stick and got the fluid in his eye. His parents filed a complaint.

Suddenly the cost of the project threatened to get much higher than the price of the products purchased.

Just released today. Costco is recalling nearly 250,000 expandable lunch coolers due to mislabeled toxic freezer gel packs. Apparently the freezer gel pack can leak out and lead to poisoning in children and pets.  One dog is dead and another ill after ingesting contents of gel pack.

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MTO sales partner, Will Talbott, was contacted last Tuesday by a friend/client who needed 24 shirts made up for the Carlsbad CA half Marathon on Sunday. They wanted shirts to remember and honor their late friend, Kathy Scharbarth, who was planning to enter the race, but was killed by an ex-boyfriend last November.

Last week in Düsseldorf, Germany, manufacturers, distributors and service providers gathered at PSI, Europe’s largest promotional products tradeshow. The show, which ran January 11-13, attracted 993 exhibitors, a record for the event, and attendees from all over Europe and the world.

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The mammoth task of rebranding a company is not one to undertake half-heartedly. It is not only immensely challenging, it also requires a keen understanding of where the brand came from, and more importantly, where it’s headed.

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