What is a Promotional Product?
A promotional product is any item you can have imprinted with your companies' logo or message. Here are some examples of typical promotional products:
Pens
Apparel (Hats, Shirts etc.)
Desk Items
Awards
Why Use Promotional Products?
There are many ways and reasons to use Promotional Products. The list below describes some of the most common.
AS A SALES AID
Promotional Products are Highly Targeted - Less Waste!
Unlike traditional media (Radio, Television, Trade Journals etc.) there is very little waste with promotional product advertising. Promotional products are highly targeted give you more bang for your buck than other media.
For Example
If you go to a tradeshow, it costs you roughly $75 per contact made. People go to a tradeshow because the average cost of a personal sales visit is over $200. Studies show people remember 20% of what you tell them. The next day, they remember 10%. Two days later they only recall 5%, and after three days, they've virtually forgotten you. If you can tell us the three things you would like your prospects to remember about your company, we can come up with a promotional product that will reinforce your message and greatly enhance your prospects memory of your company. For a 5% increase in cost per person, we can at least double the retention. Now that's a bang for the buck!
TIMING
You can't control when your prospect is going to need what you have to sell. If you give them a brochure, it will get filed (probably in the circular file). If you give someone a properly chosen specialty item, it sits quietly (on the desk, in the car, at home) until the need for your product comes up. When the need comes up, your name comes up!
CREATING MEMORY
There are two ways to create memory, Association and Repetition. A properly chosen promotional product does both. If we can choose an item that will cause your customer to associate it with your message, and keep the item in front of them (make it useful), you'll have successfully imprinted your message in the mind of your prospect using both Association and Repetition.
AS AN EMPLOYEE MOTIVATION OR RETENTION TOOL
What creates employee loyalty and motivation? Studies show that employees are loyal to a company based on the degree that they identify themselves with that company. If you asked your employees to list 10 things about themselves, where would, "I work for……", fall in their list? The higher up on their list you can get them to say, " I work for……", the more they identify themselves with your company and the greater their level of loyalty and productivity. So the real issue is increasing employee identification with your company. Promotional products are a perfect medium for accomplishing this.
For Example
When Great Employee Joe wakes up in the morning, he should have his coffee in a company mug, pack his elegantly imprinted company briefcase, grab his company umbrella, and get in the car. He'll grab a CD out of his company CD holder and be off to work. Once at work, he'll be surrounded by company awards, with the company logo and his name associated together, and he'll be using a company mousepad with his picture on it. Get the picture?
Surrounding your employees with promotional products will help increase their identification with, loyalty to, and performance for your company.
How to Use Promotional Products to Their Fullest Potential?
Anytime you give someone something for free, you are creating goodwill. When you give a prospect or employee a promotional produc, at bare minimum, you're creating goodwill. If you choose the item and copy carefully, you can create goodwill and get them to remember your message. So how do you choose the item properly? Here are some elements that all successful promotional product giveaways have in common:
AN OBJECTIVE
What do you want to accomplish? What are you trying to get your customers/employees/ prospects to remember?
TARGET AUDIENCE
Who is your audience, customers, prospects, employees? Predominately male or female? Is there a certain age range? What kind of work do they do? What do the do for fun? The more we know about your audience, the better job we can do at selecting an item that will appeal to them and stick around.
THEME
Is this promotional product part of a larger campaign with a theme? Is there a theme you think would help get your message across?
GRAPHICS & COPY TO SUPPORT THEME
The next step is writing copy and creating graphics to reinforce your theme and message to your target audience. (We can do that for you).
PRODUCT TO REINFORCE THE MESSAGE
Now we need to select a product that will appeal to your target audience and create a memory of your message through either association or repetition.
PACKAGING
Packaging can be used to reinforce your message and help create memory of your product.
DISTRIBUTION
How will the items be distributed? Through the mail? At a tradeshow? On sales calls? At a company party? The distribution method influences the type of item chosen.
FEEDBACK
Measuring the results of a promotional product giveaway can be difficult, but should be attempted.