November: A Time to Remember, Give Thanks, and Show Appreciation

November is a time to reflect on the people who make a difference in our lives and our community. As we pause to honour the courage and sacrifices of those who served and continue to serve our country, Remembrance Day reminds us of the importance of gratitude, service, and looking out for one another.

At Instant Imprints Barrie, we're grateful to be part of such a supportive community. One of the highlights of our year was serving as the official apparel supplier for the Barrie Dragon Boat Festival. Through our participation, we were proud to donate $969.57 to the Barrie Public Library, supporting an organization that plays such an important role in our community. We're thankful to everyone who helped make this possible!

This month's newsletter covers a couple of interesting topics. We'll explore how a simple thank-you can make a meaningful difference, backed by new research on the impact of showing appreciation.

We'll also share an interesting perspective from Mark Schaeffer on how artificial intelligence is changing the way consumers discover products, research brands, and make purchasing decisions. It's a fascinating look at how businesses may need to rethink their marketing approach as AI becomes a bigger part of the customer journey.

And for our November product spotlight, we're featuring something practical for dog lovers: a dog-walking treat pouch with a built-in waste bag dispenser.

As the year-end approaches, consider how you can recognize your employees, thank your customers, and strengthen the relationships that help your business grow. Sometimes, the smallest gestures leave the biggest impression.

A little thank you can go a long way, new study finds

By Katie DuBoff

Meghan Kane, assistant professor of management at the Fox School of Business, co-authored a new study that finds gratitude creates a ripple effect in the workplace and builds stronger coworker relationships.

For leaders wanting to build stronger teams, a new study suggests they should start with two simple words: “Thank you.”

New research finds that when employees see leaders express genuine gratitude, they become more likely to notice acts of kindness, express gratitude themselves and build stronger relationships with coworkers, creating a ripple effect through an organization.

“When leaders express gratitude to employees, it changes the way employees view their world which cascades to everyone they work with,” said Meghan Kane, assistant professor of management at the Fox School of Business. “Essentially, gratitude from someone you may never even interact with three levels above you is actually strengthening your relationships with your coworkers.”

The study, “Grateful leaders and attentive followers: How grateful attention transmits the cascade of gratitude expressions to strengthen coworker relationships,” was published in the Journal of Applied Psychology. Kane coauthored the study with Lauren Locklear, an assistant professor of management at Texas Tech University, and Mark Ehrhart, a professor in the industrial/organizational psychology program at the University of Central Florida.

The findings suggest that gratitude spreads not simply because employees emulate their leaders or feel the same emotion. Instead, they say that receiving gratitude changes how people look at their environment and what they pay attention to in the workplace, a term the team calls “grateful attention.”

Kane says that once the grateful attention lens is activated, people are more likely to notice the helpful, positive and meaningful things happening around them.

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Gifts for the Dog Lovers on Your List

With the holiday season approaching, now is a great time to find gifts that stand out from the crowd!

Our featured product this month is the Dog Walking Treat Pouch with Waste Bag Dispenser. This handy accessory keeps dog-walking essentials close at hand, combining a treat compartment with a built-in waste bag dispenser.

Add your company logo to create a thoughtful, practical gift for dog-loving customers, employees, and business partners.

The idea is simple: choose a promotional product that people will genuinely appreciate and use. When an item fits someone's lifestyle, it can help keep your brand top of mind long after the initial giveaway.

As we head into the holiday season, it's a great time to explore alternatives to traditional corporate gifts and discover products that reflect your customers' interests.

At Instant Imprints Barrie, we help businesses find creative ways to put their brand in the hands of the right people.

Check out the video below!

The Collapse of Consideration

By Mark Schaefer

For years I have been fighting mildew.

I know that's a weird way to start a blog post, but stick with me. It's gonna get spicy.

Anyway. My boat. The white vinyl has these little black dots of mildew that have plagued me for years. I've tried everything to get rid of it ... probably bought 6-7 different solutions that never worked over the last 10 years.

On a whim, I took a photo of the mildew and submitted it to AI. It returned a suggestion I had never heard of before. It wasn't cheap -- $34 for the cleaner. But I took that advice without questioning it, and the darn thing worked like magic.

Since I never stop thinking about marketing, the mildew incident triggered a little alarm in my brain. I've never spent $34 on a cleaning product in my life. Seems like a lot. I had outsourced "consideration," a key marketing idea where I am supposed to do research and consider alternatives when I don't have a brand preference.

As marketers, we're always fighting for that consideration, the messy part of the sales funnel where a person weighs options, compares, hesitates, and gets nudged by ads and the sweet memory of our brand name. Consideration is our home office, the phase of the customer journey where we obsess.

I had jumped the gun, and so do a lot of other people ...

10 blue links become one answer

I was invited to speak at AdWeek this year and had just researched this very topic -- the collapse of consideration -- for my speech.

For 25 years, the internet has made consideration easy. You typed a question, Google handed you 10 blue links, and you did the work -- clicking, comparing, forming a view.

New research shows this is fading away.

1. One answer for the win

Google's AI Overviews (knowledge boxes) now appear on roughly half of all searches, and click-through to the actual websites falls by about 60% when they show up. Like my mildew adventure, the answer arrives before I ever leave the page.

If your brand is named in that answer, you earn more than double the clicks of the brands that aren't. One AI answer appears, and everyone else is invisible.

The consideration set didn't just shrink. It got body slammed.

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