Brand is a word you'll hear in marketing and business circles these days. A lot. Where marketers used to talk about publicizing your business, now they talk about building brand visibility. Building brand recognition has replaced ?advertising your business? in the marketing lexicon, but it still comes down to the same thing ? making your business stand out in the minds of your customers and potential customers.

One of the most potent ways to stand out among the crowd is to create an image for your company, and make sure that everything about your business is associated with it. That's what brand building is all about. Building brand recognition is a big part of brand building, and one way to build brand recognition is to make your logo stick in the minds of your market. The concept behind promotional items, especially printed mugs, key rings, pens, travel mugs and the like, is to put your business name and logo where your potential customers will see it often and associate it with your product.

However, you don't have to give away promotional products in order for them to serve the purpose of creating brand and logo recognition. You'll also help cement your logo in the minds of your customers by using it liberally in and around your place of business. Depending on your business, promotional mugs can be an ideal brand recognition builder for you. Some suggestions for using promotional printed mugs to build brand recognition in different businesses might be:

-One of the niceties often found in little boutique and specialty shops is a coffee bar. Even when it's just a pot of coffee on the sideboard for the customers and staff, you can help build brand recognition by choosing distinctive mugs imprinted with your logo and using those to serve coffee to your customers.

-Beauty salons and barber shops are the type of places where your customers might spend hours at a time. A fresh cup of coffee can be a welcome extra that you offer those who are waiting between treatments or sitting by for the next appointment. Put your shop logo on promotional mugs and put out a dozen for your customers to use. Make them the type of mug that people want to take home, and your customers will appreciate truly appreciate it when you tell them, ?You like it? Take it home.? It means a lot more when the promotional gifts you give to customers are those that they see have value to your business.

-Promotional mugs are a natural for a coffee shop or restaurant business. Choose a distinctive, unusual style that customers would recognize as YOUR coffee mugs even without the logo, and serve all your coffee in them. The few that ?disappear? will give your business even more recognition when they're used at home or at the office.

There are hundreds of styles of promotional mugs available. Finding a color and style combination that's just right for use in your business establishment is easy. Just shop around at one of the many online promotional gift suppliers and other items to find your ideal mug.