Category Archives: Elastic with Attachments

Bulk Barbed Elastic Cord for POP Displays

Several trends in the merchandising industry are making bulk barbed cord and barbed elastic cord an absolute must for POP displays. Budget conscious, multi-configuration displays are particularly on trend right now at shops across the country because the economic atmosphere, though brighter than a few years ago, is still shaky. POP display trends reflect that sentiment:

  • Portability—Merchandisers for big chains and smaller local shops alike want their POP displays to go anywhere they know they can get the biggest bang for their bucks. They fit in smaller spaces, they hang from the ceiling and they’re easier to move to different areas of the store depending on current need. Hanging signage and POP displays fastened with strong, yet light barbed elastic cord meet this need.
  • Flexibility—Gone are lavish, wasteful, one-time only displays. Merchandisers need ways to adapt, reconfigure, reduce, reuse and recycle POP display elements multiple times while still keeping the displays fresh. Barbed cord for hanging displays can be reused time and time again in many POP display configurations.
  • Environmentally-Friendly—Speaking of recycling, merchandisers and their retail customers must respond to the growing demand for using eco-conscious materials in their end products; marketing materials and POP displays must also keep pace with this need.
  • Quick Turn-Around—Unlike the long-range merchandising planning cycles of the past, today’s retail POP cycle is faster and tighter. POP displays attached with barbed elastic cord are flexible enough for quick changes and multiple design iterations, they’re perfect for what’s next in POP display design.

Elastic Connections can fill big merchandising orders for barbed elastic cord and non-elastic barbed cord for POP displays and signage. We have standard colors in stock for bulk orders, but we can also create custom bulk orders in different colors and gauges to provide that extra level of customizability for the end client.

POP Ceiling Display Clips with Barbed Cord

Contact Elastic Connections today at 847-426-6830 to discuss barbed elastic cord for your POP display designs and orders.

Name Badges for Big Events Using Elastic Cord Lanyards

Name badges dangling around attendees’ necks with elastic cord are essential at any conference or convention. They facilitate better networking because they connect names with faces—if the print is big enough to read from a polite distance. Slapping the old “Hello, my name is…” sticker on your shirt doesn’t cut it anymore. But these ideas will raise the bar considerably:

  1. Big Badges with Big Type—One of the biggest complaints of conference attendees is having to squint to read name badges. Awkward! Today’s better name badges measure about 4×6 inches and feature the wearer’s name in 72-point “highway gothic” or “interstate black” font at the top, with the first name appearing above, not next to the last. This makes the name clearly visible from across the room. The wearer’s company, title and other information can appear in smaller font beneath that.
  2. Elastic cord—Convention organizers are leaning towards lanyards these days, but there are better choices. Name badges that go around the neck with barbed elastic or non-elastic twisted cord are more economical without sacrificing the high-end look. Attendees also don’t have to add yet another lanyard to the growing collection at the backs of their closets.
  3. Back of the Badge—Wasted space, or useful information? Use the back of the badge to post a schedule of events, a QR code for mobile devices, a meal coupon, a map of the conference center or local area, or anything helpful and meaningful to your attendees.
  4. Multi-use and Recyclable—One recent event had their name badges printed on wild-flower seeded paper that could be planted later. And eco-conscious event planners are leaning toward badge sleeves made from biodegradable plastic that can be reused if stored at the office, but safely become one with nature if tossed into a landfill.

Make this year’s conference name badge a big win with barbed elastic cord lanyards and thoughtful design! Contact Elastic Connections at 847-426-6830 and get the party started.

Elastic Cord Lanyard

Wow ‘Em with Trade Show Giveaways with Elastic Cord

Sweating over the trade show giveaways for your booth is a time honored tradition—but does it really need to be? With a little elastic and some research, you can generate excitement, gratitude and follow up contacts with smart swag: Inc. magazine recently polled young, up-and-coming, decision-making trade show attendees about their favorite trade show tchotchkes. The overwhelming response came down to this: Enough with the stress balls already! Make it useful! Usefulness generates positive associations with your brand and promotes follow-up responses. Here were some trade show give away favorites:

  1. Notebooks with elastic cord pen keepers—Pens are notorious for getting lost; you can never find one when you need one. Conversely, if you find the pen, then you have to dig around to find the paper. So trade show attendees loved customized notebooks with pockets and elastic cord pen keepers that kept the pens and the paper together and were ready when they needed them most.
  2. Bookmarks with tassels—People are so done with business cards. Bookmarks with attention-getting tassels, on the other hand, were quite popular. They give companies a chance to put their message on a useful item that attendees will see again and again and again.
  3. Care packages—Trade show goers often forget things in their rush to pack. So one of the most popular and useful swag items could be a branded, elastic-secured care bag with little things like lip balm, an individual packet of Ibuprofen, a peanut-free energy bar, juice box, mini flashlight, bandages, moist towelettes, etc.
  4. Convenient Snacks—Lunch can never come soon enough at trade shows where people are on their feet all day. Convenient, packable snacks that come with elastic cord to securely reseal them for later snacking are extremely popular and coveted!

Contact Elastic Connections at 847-426-6830 for the elastic cords that hold together your useful tradeshow swag and be the booth that generates the most excitement this year!

Glass Jar Merchandising with Elastic String Tags

Glass jars—they’re so classic, so simple, so timeless, and so great for merchandising. Many product merchandisers are turning to glass jars for everything from luxury toiletries to bake-in-the-jar cakes to even unconventional ideas like accessory packaging (scarves, gloves, jewelry and even socks) to moonshine! Here are a few reasons products packaged in glass jars with elastic string tags are a great option:

  1. They convey the feeling of “handcrafted” and “homemade” that consumers increasingly crave. Remember those long summer days canning preserves at grandma’s house? Consumers are turning away from anything that says “I’ve been mass-produced” to things that say, “I was crafted with care.” So even if your product is produce on a large scale, glass jars paired with elastic string merchandising tags let customers know that your product is made with love.
  2. Glass jars are earth friendly packaging at its best, and for a lot of reasons. They don’t exude all the chemicals that plastic does, with all of the potential health concerns they may have. This makes glass an excellent choice for food and beverage packaging. Glass jars are recyclable pretty much everywhere, so they don’t end up in landfills. What’s more, there are a lot of consumers who like to wash out and keep glass jars once your product has been consumed and re-purpose them for other things. Glass jar merchandising is a win-win no matter how you look at it.
  3. Glass jars are flexible packaging options. And by flexible, we mean that you can use them for just about anything. All kinds of gourmet food and drink items, all sorts of luxury bath items from sugar scrubs to oils, from powders to candles etc. They all go great in glass jars with elastic string tag labels.

Do glass jars speak to you as a potential product packaging option? If so, contact Elastic Connections today for elastic string tags for your labels at 847-426-6830.

5 Restaurant Menu Design Trends that Stretch with Elastic Cords

One key, but often overlooked marketing transaction in the restaurant-diner relationship is the moment you hand over the menu. The cheap laminated menu says “you-can-find-this-same-boring-food-everywhere,” so it’s essential to craft a menu that says “unique, hip, mouthwatering and local.” From hand-written catch-of-the-day inserts to binding embellished with elastic stretch loops or colored tassels tells diners that they’re in for a treat. So when designing your menu remember…

  1. Typography is all that and a slice of cake. Select two or three compatible, easy-to-read fonts. Basic type should be at least 12 points (avoiding all caps) so everyone can read it comfortably while still feeling and unique enough to highlight special items.
  2. Use natural materials in the menu to convey your restaurant’s commitment to natural ingredients. Depending on your restaurant’s specialty, this could mean anything from leather covers with inserts you can change based on the day, all bound together by 12 inch elastic cord with barbs or balls. Or it could mean rustic, hand-made-looking paper bound by elastic program tassel loops for a theatrical flair.
  3. Show… well-chosen fonts paired with mouthwatering food photography exudes deliciousness and triggers cravings centers in your customers’ brains that can induce them to buying dishes at a higher price point.
  4. …And Tell… Farm-to-Table Local is hot, so if your restaurant focuses on these foods, highlight that all over the menu. Tell about the farm where your eggplant comes from, or share a little nostalgia about a classic pie recipe (without divulging the secret, of course).
  5. Have a separate dessert menu. This helps diners get over their fear of ordering appetizers, for one thing. It also adds a special touch, particularly if the dessert menu is beautifully finished with a satin stretch bow.

If you are creating a new menu or revamping and old one, contact Elastic Connections today to discuss unique elastic cord options for your menu binding today.

Elastic Hangtags for Bottles

The retail market is competitive, and consumers are inadvertently drawn to products without understanding why. As a manufacturer of any type of bottled product, you know your product must “leap off the shelf” as you have only seconds to grab the attention of the consumer.

Packaging for bottled products – whether for wine, or perfume, or hot sauce – is easily enhanced with hang tags.

Hang tags are usually your customer’s first look at what your product has to offer. Without having to read the entire description on the label of your product, consumers read the most important information about what you have to sell on the hang tag. Those that attract attention, and are easily accessible to the customer will yield the best results.

Get consumers to pick up your product first with attractive, easy to read labeling. Provide information on your merchandise tags that give consumers what they want: information at their fingertips about the product they are considering:

  • What the product is made of
  • Where the product was made
  • How the product is used

Elastic for the hangtags come in a variety of colors and textures to match the style of your product and packaging. With hangtag elastic, your product labels can vary in size. Hangtag elastic is available in diameters ranging from 1mm (.040”) up to 2.4mm (.095”) to accommodate a variety of label material, size and weight. The durability of the hangtag elastics ensures that your product tags will stay in place until the customer chooses to remove them.

With attractive labeling, you can bring your product into the forefront. Inquire about our hangtag elastic sold in bulk either spooled or in pretied elastic pieces.