Promotional Products

What are promotional products?

  • Ad specialties
  • Business gifts
  • Product, group or organisational identification
  • Applications
  • Premiums
  • Recognition awards

Promotional products are tangible items. They are usually imprinted with a company's name, logo or message. These useful, practical and decorative articles of merchandise are utilised in marketing and communication programs to help promote a product, service, business or event. When promotional products are distributed free, they are referred to as advertising specialties. When the items are given in exchange for a purchase, deposit or financial contribution, they are referred to as premiums. Other kinds of promotional products are business gifts, awards and commemoratives.

Ad specialties have these key elements

  • An advertising or promotional message
  • Imprint is placed on a useful product
  • Given with no obligation

Take a look around your office. Promotional products are all around you. There's a good chance you have a wall or desk calendar, perhaps a coffee mug, a letter opener, a mouse pad, a plaque or award that heralds your accomplishments or a binder with product literature given to you by a vendor.

What about in your pocket or purse? Do you have an imprinted pen, key tag, pocket calendar? What about your car? Is there a bumper sticker on your car, dealer decal or license plate frame?

All of these items are examples of ad specialties. Items given to you without obligation.

Business gifts

Nearly the entire corporate world gives business gifts. They are typically given by businesses to clients and employees, and occasionally are even given to influential suppliers.

The reasons cited by companies for giving gifts are:

  • To thank customers (83%)
  • To develop business (56%)
  • To recognise employee performance or longevity (25%)
  • Customers expect them (10%)
  • Other (3%)

Of those giving business gifts, 68 percent find the practice very effective in achieving their desired objectives.

Product, group or organisational identification

This category includes products used to symbolise organisation membership, such as embroidered patches, plaques, jackets and caps; imprinted souvenirs, such as purchasable key tags, lanyards, caps and glassware from tourist attractions; and promotional balloons and wristbands that serve as attention-getters at promotional events. These product examples are all promotional in nature, but don't fit neatly into the other categories.

Premiums

A promotional product is considered a premium when it is offered as an incentive to produce a specific action. An example of this is a free action toy figure at McDonalds with the purchase of a Big Mac.

While generally advertising specialties are imprinted and premiums are not, the only real distinction between an ad specialty item and a premium item is whether it is given with an obligation.

Recognition awards

Plaques, service pins, trophies, award jewellery and other gifts that signify performance or honours can be categorised as recognition awards. With recognition awards, the recognition is more important than the item itself. Yet it is the item that remains to symbolise and stimulate recall. Such awards, therefore, become vehicles for re-experiencing recognition events.

How is promotional products marketing used?

Since promotional products can be used alone, or integrated with other media, there are virtually limitless ways to use them. Popular programs cited most often by industry distributors are business gifts; employee relations; orientation programs; corporate communications; and, at trade shows to generate booth traffic.

They're also effective for dealer/distribution programs; co-op programs; company stores; generating new customers or new accounts; non-profit fundraising; public awareness campaigns; and for promotion of brand awareness and brand loyalty. Other uses include employee incentive programs; new product or service introduction; and marketing research for survey and focus group participants.

What are some of the pros and cons of using imprinted promotional products?

Pros: Promotional products marketing fits into any advertising budget, complements other media, can be directed to selected audiences and remains to repeat the advertising message each time the product is used, without extra cost per exposure. People like to receive them. And since the items are useful and appealing they are effective as incentives and motivators. Because there are so many products available, there is a lot of flexibility in planning a successful promotion.

Cons: On many products the imprint area is limited. Production time could range from days to as much as eight weeks depending on the product and the complexity of the imprint. And, unlike broadcast or other media where there is automatic distribution, with promotional products advertising, you must plan a distribution method.

Promotional marketing

Many businesses are competing with each other with one goal in mind: They want to win you over. Without a consumer, there is no business, therefore they are out to get you. But in a good way. Everyone likes free stuff. You know it, they know it, and this is where they get you by offering you great promotional items. As each business seeks to out do the other by offering an even better promotional item to win over the consumer, the promotional industry is growing to meet these demands. The promotional items industry continues to grow as more and more businesses seek out top quality promotional items to win over a new market of customers or to simply say thank you to existing customers. A growth spurt in the market of producing promotional items has increased by consumer demand. Businesses offering promotional items to their loyal customers or to potential customers have proved to be a powerful and effective tool in boosting sales and business recognition. Consumers are more likely to remember a business name or logo from a promotional item than from an advertisement in the newspaper or magazine.

Businesses who distribute promotional items during seminars, trade shows, employee events, marketing research and other special events are more likely to develop or improve consumer relations, increase consumer loyalty and increase repeat business in existing consumers. Distributing promotional items to employees, suppliers and other individuals who are involved in contributing to or maintaining the success of the business, is a nice way to say thank you and can also boost morale and motivate employee work performance. Employees who feel their work has been recognised and appreciated are more likely to improve on their work performance.

Promotional items can be produced in just about any form, in any quantity, and can be adjusted to fit any budget. They can be produced to promote a business, issued as rewards or recognition, offered as an anniversary gifts, or to generate new customer accounts.

Three steps can help you choose promotional items

When you're deciding on what sort of giveaways to offer as part of your promotional marketing, the following three steps can help you choose promotional items that will actually promote your business.

1. Develop a promotional marketing plan
The basic concept of promotional marketing is exactly what it says - promoting your company in the eyes of your customers. To do that, you need to know not only who your current customers are, but who your ideal customer is. Once you've figured out to whom you want to sell, you can aim your promotional marketing squarely at your target customers.

2. Choose promotional marketing gifts with an eye toward your desired customers
Calendars were an excellent choice of promotional marketing item for local companies soliciting local business, and still are. They fulfil a need that most people have, whether it's in the office or in the home, but their usefulness has ebbed with the advent of day planners and personal assistants. When choosing an item as a promotional marketing tool, consider your ideal customer. What items will they make use of frequently? In what situations do you want them to think of you?

3. Gear your choice of promotional marketing items toward your company image and overall plan
By tying in your choice of promotional marketing gifts to your product or service, you not only put your name in front of your potential customers, you associate it with the service that you provide. A gym or health club, for instance, might give away duffel bags imprinted with their logo to members who renew their membership for a year. That's promotional marketing in action - an item that is useful to your customers, will be used frequently and ties in to your business. Add in the value of having your name displayed by customers who fit the ideal you're aiming for, and you've got a winning promotional marketing item.

The promotional marketing items that you choose say a lot about your company. By taking the time to choose giveaways that are useful, appropriate and part of an overall marketing strategy, you can be sure that they say the right things.

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