What can Promotional Products do for you?

A Little Insider Advice: A recent study reveals that of recipients of promotional products, 84% of people remember the advertiser on a product they receive. Here are some other interesting facts:

• 42% have a more favorable impression of an advertiser after receiving an advertising specialty.
• Nearly one quarter, or 24%, indicate that they are more likely to do business with an advertiser on items they receive.
• Most respondents (62%) have done business with the advertiser on a product after receiving it.
• Writing instruments are the most commonly-owned advertising specialty, with 54% of respondents owning them, followed by shirts, caps and bags.
• The majority (81%) of promotional products were kept because they were considered useful.
• More than three-quarters of respondents have had their items for about seven months.
• Among wearables, bags were reported to be used most frequently, with respondents indicating that they use their bags on average nine times per month.
• Bags deliver the most impressions, with 1,038 impressions per month on average.
• The average cost-per-impression of an advertising specialty item is $0.004, making it less expensive per impression than nearly any other media. (According to Nielsen Media data, the CPI for a national magazine ad is $0.033; a newspaper ad is $0.0129; a prime time TV ad is $O.019; a cable TV ad is $0.007; a syndicated TV ad is $O.006; and a spot radio ad is $0.005)

Click here to download details of another study conducted by the Promotional Products Association International.

Did you know? Most recipients of promotional products keep items based on their usefulness.

Quick Quiz:

  1) How many wooden nickels do you still own?
  2) Are there any pens on your desk with somebody else's name on them?

Audience Specific Advertising Tools. You probably have a good idea as to how helpful advertising can be to your company. Promotional products are portable advertisements whose impact lasts more than a fleeting instant. Promotional items bearing your name and message create a personal connection between you and your clients.

Unlike conventional advertising, which is distributed via mass communication, promotional products allow you to efficiently target your audience and maximize your return on advertising investment. By distributing useful and reliable items with your name on them, you are creating a message that is constantly reinforced to both the owner of the product and the people with whom they come into contact.

Consider these facts about promotional products:

• Including promotional items with sales correspondence can double callbacks from prospects
• Promotional products increase word-of-mouth referrals
• Promotional products increase both existing and prospective customer's awareness of your company and its services

Promotional products can range from inexpensive giveaways to high quality corporate gifts. No matter what type of product being used, the message contained on those products reaches exactly the audience you are targeting!

How it started. Promotional calendars, buttons commemorating political campaigns, and other such novelties have been prevalent in the United States since the 19th century. Jasper Freemont Meek was one of the first people to fully understand the potential in advertising with useful products. The down-trodden owner of a printing press, Jasper began printing advertisements for local stores on burlap bags and horse covers. As people relayed the advertisements simply through their use of the products, Jasper soon realized the effectiveness of these products as a marketing tool.

Through the years, everything from inexpensive glow in the dark key rings to high quality sporting goods equipment have been used by companies in an attempt to out-advertise one another.

Employing products that clients could appreciate and use in everyday life, companies spread their corporate identity amongst consumers with this highly effective advertising tool. Recently, a very strong economy, new marketing trends, and advanced sales strategies, have driven the promotional products industry from $9.5 billion total sales in 1996 to $11.9 billion in 1997 and $13.2 billion in 1998. As the faces of industry and technology change, so too does the variety of promotional products available. Today there are literally, hundreds of thousands of promotional products available. Products ranging from CD carrying cases and mouse pads, to shopping bags and even horse covers can all be customized to get your message to the proper audience.

Distributing your message effectively. As Jasper Freemont Meek realized back in the 1800s, if people find a promotional product useful they will use it often, extending the advertising potential of the product indefinitely. The true power of a promotional product is found in its usefulness and durability. Here are a few guidelines to help you distribute your message effectively:

• Provide your clients with items that fit their lifestyle and they will incorporate them into their everyday activities.
• Use durable, high-quality promotional items to promote dealings with established or highly valued clients.
• Capture clients' attention with inexpensive novelties and giveaways.
• Utilize internal promotional products such as incentive gifts and apparel to reinforce corporate identity both inside and outside of your organization.
• Incorporate products that go with a theme of your company. For example, an accounting firm might provide calculators with their name on them, or a hospital team might distribute first aid kits.

Your corporate logo can be the single-most effective marketing asset to your company, incorporate it on all promotional products.