International brand names interested in developing watch lines presented their requirements to interested manufacturers.  All type of clocks and watches were exhibited, ranging from quartz clocks to LCD and digital watches, from sports to children and jewelry watches.

Our staff took careful notes of the new trends at the fair in order to send new ideas for gifts and premiums to our clients.   Over the coming weeks we will share these with you.

Our Singapore invention incubator will be closed tomorrow, 9th of September. For any urgent matters, please kindly contact our Hong Kong office.

See also the full list of 2010 & 2011 public holidays for China, Hong Kong and Singapore.

The rabbit is full of positive connotations all around the world.  In China, people born in the year of the rabbit are articulate, talented and ambitious. In Western countries, the rabbit is associated to the softness of our childhood, to the wildness of the hunt, to the joyfulness of a great feast, to the happiness of family Easter gatherings and to sensuality.

Along this theme, we already have grouped suppliers for such promotions.   A few ideas for Chinese New Year promotions below…

• Rabbit plush
• Rabbit keychains
• Rabbit pens
• Rabbit figurines
• Rabbit cases
• Rabbit toys
• Rabbit cosmetics
• Rabbit mirrors
• Rabbit jewelry
• Rabbit stubby holders
• Rabbit cards
• Rabbit Desktop promos

Feel free to contact our invention incubator or our sourcing office to help you find an original and customized promotional Chinese New Year rabbit gift to your clients.

Chinese New Year, the most important of the traditional Chinese holidays, is always a great theme to commercialize for your promotions and promotional gifts to your clients. This year, it will fall on February 3rd, and we’ll be ringing in the year of the rabbit.

Related Articles

• Culture – Giving Gifts to Chinese People
• Chinese New Year Calendar (astrology.suite101.com)

Chinese New Year, commonly called Lunar New Year, is China’s most important holiday. In 2011, the main celebrations for the year of the Rabbit it will start on February 3^rd, until February 6^th.

Please refer to our previous blog China, Hong Kong and Singapore Public Holidays 2011 to view holiday calendar of the full year.

It is important to note that we will probably face delays in shipment and production from China in the end of January / beginning of February in 2011. This will not be the case only for our factories but for all in China, as it is a national holiday. Our suppliers will be very busy during the few weeks leading to the holiday.    As in previous years, we advise you to take precautions and start ordering early.

Related Articles

• Celebrations & Chinese New Year, Valentine’s Day, Easter Sunday (socyberty.com)
• Bank Holidays – Bank Holiday Calendar in This New Year (socyberty.com)
• Different types of Festivals (slideshare.net)

China Public Holidays 2011

• 1 Jan -New Year’s Day
• 3,4&5 Feb -Chinese New Year **
• 8 Mar -International Women’s Day
• 12 Mar -Arbor Day
• 5 Apr -Qingming Festival (Tomb Sweeping Day)
• 1 May -Labour Day
• 4 May -National Youth Day
• 1 Jun -International Children’s Day
• 1 Jul -Communist Party Foundation
• 1 Aug -People’s Liberation Army Day
• 10 Sept -Teacher’s Day
• 1 Oct -People’s Republic of China Birthday

Singapore Public Holidays 2011:

• 1 Jan -New Year’s Day.
• 3 Feb – 4 Feb-Chinese New Year **
• 22 Apr -Good Friday.
• 1 May -Labour Day.
• 2 May -Vesak Day (Birth of the Buddha).
• 9 Aug -National Day.
• 30 Aug -Hari Raya Puasa (End of Ramadan).
• 26 Oct -Deepavali
• 6 Nov -Hari Raya Haji (Feast of the Sacrifice).
• 25 Dec -Christmas Day

Hong Kong Public Holidays 2011

• 1 Jan -The first day of January
• 3 Feb -Lunar New Year’s Day
• 4 Feb -The second day of the Lunar New Year
• 5 Feb -The third day of the Lunar New Year
• 5 Apr -Ching Ming Festival
• 22 Apr -Good Friday
• 23 Apr -The day following Good Friday
• 25 Apr -Easter Monday
• 2 May -The day following Labour Day
• 10 May -Buddha’s Birthday
• 6 Jun -Tuen Ng Festival
• 1 Jul -Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Establishment Day
• 13 Sept -The day following Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival
• 1 Oct -National Day
• 5 Oct -Chung Yeung Festival
• 26 Dec -The first weekday after Christmas Day
• 27 Dec -The second weekday after Christmas Day

See also holidays for 2010, list of National Days by Date and of course our listing of Special Days around the world.

The collection is made up of 6 plush artist bears from New York, Amsterdam, Barcelona, Rome, London and Paris released on the 11^th August, and another 3 bears from Tokyo, Hong Kong and Shanghai on the 15^th September. The promotion lasts until October 19^th 2010.

This complex promotional system is a win-win for all parties:

• Your clients will be tempted to buy additional objects of your brand, and your brand visibility becomes very high. Indeed, 7 eleven shops are located all over Hong Kong, and are open 24/7
• Your promotion encourages 7 eleven customers to buy more or to become loyal, therefore the shop will be more than happy to accept your offer
• Your customers enjoy a special offer they cannot find elsewhere

If you think of adopting a similar promotional system, we can help you find the right promotional gift with purchase and objects to purchase to go along with it, through our sourcing office and invention incubator.

This promotion accompanied by Paddington Bear boxes of chocolate, pens and other branded items that you can purchase together.

Below are some amazing statistics:

• In the US, around 18% of the population played poker last year
  
• 72% of the Poker Player Alliance members in the USA have some college education
• 75% of them are between 30 and 64 years old
• 47% earn more than $ 50 000 a year*

A poker chip case can be seen as a winning gift. Associate your brand with luxury, high rollers, fun, games & luck.    You can customize the sets by size, shape and colors (even the chip colours).   Captive audience since poker games usually last for hours.

Be careful if you feel that your brand should not be associated with gambling.   This decision really depends on the country of the recipients and the company which is gifting the set.

*According to the latest 2009 PPA survey

Related Articles

• On Poker: Online poker not likely to be regulated soon in U.S. (mysanantonio.com)
• Playing Poker in a Casino (wagerinsider.co.uk)

Whilst making the Sarobag samples ODM staff visited the factory to conduct an online quality control/DUPRO on another bag order.   We decided to check in on the sampling process.

Overall, we were disappointed at the quality of workmanship on samples.  The quality of the zipper used was very poor, and one of the sample bags did not zip up well. The finishing of the top part for connecting the over shoulder strap was not nice and we decided to have our designer review.  See other Articles on Sarobag Development.

Adapting an existing product is much easier than making a whole new design. The solution is to follow production of samples and orders on a daily/weekly basis as appropriate.  Send staff in to quality control and make factory visits. Follow strict standards and explain your requirements to managers and where possible also to the workers on assembly lines in Mandarin Chinese.

You can see the poorly closing zip on our Sarobag sample below.  If you want quality you have got to pay for it.  The best known zip brand is YKK but there are a few zip companies in China which have very high quality zips also.  Different zips can seriously affect cost of a bag, especially on bags like this where zip is extremely long.

Related Articles

• Multi-Use Sarongs – The Bobo Beach Wrap is Great for Swimwear and Gift-Giving (VIDEO) (trendhunter.com)

Based on the simple Sarobag design, for mass production a worker could make 40 pieces of Sarobag in just an hour.   Main tool is a simple sewing machine.

Below is a picture of our factory workers assembling a mass production run of bags. The sample room is generally out of bounds to cameras reflecting sensitive nature of all new product development.

Less than 10 days after choosing the fabric our factory sent back finished samples of Sarobags to us in Hong Kong.

Here is the standard calculation for checking air freight rate for your cargo.  This is standard for courier companies in Hong Kong and gives you a good guideline for other markets.  Pay the higher amount of :

• Actual Weight   OR
• Package length*Width*height/5000  See below example

Example – shipment of dimensions 30*30*30 will have chargeable weight of 30*30*30/5000 = 5.4 Kgs.

You might also like our blogs on:

• How many products fit in a container
• Finding HS codes for importing
• Puzzle for learning incoterms
• Spikes in air freight rates
• Calculating Import Duties
• Incoterms