The expression, “home is where the heart is” has taken on a whole new meaning this past year. A majority of the country has been spending most of their time at home—working, relaxing, binge-watching programs—and eating. The kitchen doubles as an office, and is also where the family gathers to eat, drink, and be merry. Therefore, kitchen products and gadgets are in high demand these days.
According to Melanie Dobosh of Beacon Promotions, the kitchen category has boomed in general over that past year due to the pandemic effect. “With people spending more time at home they are rediscovering the kitchen,” she comments. “In the past year we’ve seen virtual baking events, virtual cooking classes, virtual family mealtimes, and just people spending more time in the kitchen with the family. We’ve sourced a variety of new kitchen items over the past year including our Chun bamboo collection and our marble look spatulas. These two product lines were influenced by industry, retail, and social trends.”
Dobosh continues that the company’s Chun Bamboo items follow the green trend that is growing in all parts of society. “From sneakers to cars and kitchen items, companies and consumers alike are becoming more eco conscious,” she notes. “Using sustainable materials such as Bamboo, our Chun collection offers customers the opportunity to brand a sustainable kitchen item that will live in their kitchen drawers for years to come. Not to mention wood and wood-look items have been trending as a color style in our industry for a few years now, and it just keeps gaining momentum.
“Our marble look silicone spatulas followed a home décor trend,” she adds. “Marble has been trending in the home. Kitchen counter tops, bathroom vanities, fire mantles, front entrance floors, cutting boards, place mats, cutlery, and more are adding marble into their color/texture pallets.” Dobosh also points out that many of these items are high ticket items that give marble-look items a higher perceived value and adding the marble silicone tips to its spatulas allowed the company to revamp an everyday item and make it exciting again.
Keith Lofton at Pro Towels states that tea towels are driving sales and a growing top trend for the company this year and most of 2020. “This trend has grown tremendously with everyone spending so much more time in the kitchen and at home than ever before,” he says. “And with a tea towel, it’s one of the most cost-effective items for the kitchen but also holds one of the largest imprint space so it’s a great bang for your buck in a popular advertising space. Plus, they are lightweight and easy to drop ship to your recipient's doorstep.”
Aprons Etc.’s Pam Pennington adds that while aprons have always been uniform items, but with more people spending time at home and planning on smaller scale home-based entertainment, aprons are on the rise in the home kitchen. “Aprons are a well received promotional product that will actually be used long term to keep the client’s brand top of mind!” she comments.
The Magnet Group’s Dan Jellinek weighs in on the importance of the kitchen-related promotional products. “The kitchen is literally a haven for promotional products and now with the growing trend toward outdoor kitchens as we get warmer, even more great items,” he enthuses. “For example, in my kitchen I have double wall tumblers, double wall coffee mugs, wine glasses, acrylic wine glasses for the outdoor kitchen, and water bottles.” He adds not to forget that the fridge is the “info center” of the home and magnets and power clips to hold up notes, pictures, and schedules are the best way to inform.
Suppliers agree that demand for kitchen items has skyrocketed this past year. “Bringing a brand into their home kitchen drawers means you get to make an impression at every mealtime or join in on family memories as they bake cookies in their kitchen with their kids,” Dobosh at Beacon Promotions explains. She also agrees with Lofton of Pro Towels that drop shipping kitchen items to client’s homes has grown in popularity as the pandemic has kept people from going to events. “These items make great mailers that the recipient is sure to appreciate,” she says.
As for what is new and exciting in the kitchen, last year Pro Towels added a new sublimated tea towel with only a one-piece minimum, so it allows for easy personalization to the towel, Lofton says, which provides an opportunity to be targeted and personalized for that added touch!
Aprons Etc. is offering several aprons that have coordinating beanies, oven mitts, and potholders, with Pennington reporting denim aprons have been the most popular seller.
Over at Bay State, Josette Bosse Bay notes the K60 PB&J Spreader is less than one dollar and spreads peanut butter, jellies, and jams smoothly, easily, and quickly. It is molded in rugged dishwasher-safe polypropylene. It comes in white with a number of imprint colors.
In addition to Beacon’s Chun Collection, Dobosh says other new kitchen items include a couple of wheat straw kitchen items—the Natureware Cutlery Set and Eco Sipper Straw. “A few of our best sellers cross over multiple kitchen subcategories. Those include our Multi-Purpose Scraper, Kitchen Scissors, Silicone Spatula, Clawpop Clip Bottle Opener, and our Digital Kitchen BBQ Thermometer.
The key to selling kitchen products is adding value, Lofton at Pro Towels recommends. “A great way to sell these tea towels is as a set of two,” he details. “Value is added because it has a higher perceived value, more retail feel to it plus they get two so the people that receive these can use these as more of a decorative item in their homes. That said, the design has to be fun, catchy, and useful too, so we offer a lot of free great stock designs for ideas.”
For aprons, Pennington says to also reach out to kitchen related companies such as appliance or food manufacturers. “They are also great as gifts from realtors, home contractors, basically any business that deals with the home and homeowner!” she adds.
The Magnet Group’s Jellinek suggests a personal touch. “Take your client through their kitchen and they will see very quickly, ‘Yes, I use that every day or we had a great weekend with friends outside using our acrylics.’ Pay these thoughts forward into other categories: cutting boards, kitchen utensils, wine accessories, and for a great time in the outdoor kitchen think of barbecue tools/accessories.”
Dobosh at Beacon Promotions expands on Jellinek’s thoughts. “Get creative and pair kitchen utensils and baking items with an activity they can do at home—like cooking or baking! Handing out spatulas? Create a custom recipe card for easy bake chocolate chip cookies. Mailing out a reminder for someone to meet their monthly targets? Send them a bamboo spoon with a custom recipe card that says, ‘Let’s Get Cooking’ and encourage them to fire up their sales for the remainder of the month along with their grill.
“A perfect example of how you can pair branding with food and an activity is done by our sister company Batch & Bodega,” she concludes. “They have their Rise and Shine Batch that includes Gourmet Pancake mix, tea, and a few fixings, but the key here is the branded Beacon Spatula. When the food is gone and the experience of making and eating the pancakes is over, they still have the branded spatula to remember the experience your brand provided.”
Case Study
Josette Bosse, Bay State
Handyman / Carpenter Services
The local handyman chose the K60 PB&J spreader as a fun/useful product to leave with customers when he completed job. He also tied a business card to the end of the spatula.
The spatula included his company name and website along with the tagline: “SPREAD the word, I love referrals!”