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Promotional products can include near any number of items you can think of, and branded with a logo, used in marketing campaigns and communication programs. These items are then given away to promote a company or brand.

Corporate Image and even Events are highlighted and promoted, by imprinting the name, logo or slogan of the company on the promotional gifts. Usually an event, conference or a trade show can serve as a platform for this marketing strategy known as guerilla marketing.

The marketing industry dates back just over 200 years, with the first known promotional items being the commemorative buttons serving the presidential election of George Washington in 1789. From the early 1800′s there were a handful of items used for promotion, yet it was not until the 1900′s that an organized industry existed for the creation and distribution of promotional products.

A man named Jasper Meeks, said by many to be the father of this industry. Convincing a shoe store to print book bags with their name on it, and giving it to the local schools in Ohio, it was not long until Henry Beach, another local from Ohio, started the same idea.

By 1904, it had happened that the 12 manufacturing companies of promo products came together and established the first trade association of the industry. Known today as the Promotional Products Association International (PPAI), fifty years on from then only, the industry formally became known as Corporate Marketing.

These type of products would only see a real boom in its industry from the 1970 onward, when corporate entities began to realize the usefulness of promoting their products, brands and corporate entities by giving away the gifts, sporting their logo on it.

Now well after 2000, the industry has grown globally, shipping an endless list of items being anything from T-shirts, key holders, pens, bumper stickers and peak-caps to a host of relatively inexpensive promo products. The UK and Ireland still the center of the supply chain, even after the dawn of online trading.

Promotional products usually follow a strategic business initiative with brand awareness being the most common use of marketing gifts. Another strategy is to employ more expensive gifts, like designer handbags, perfumes or the latest stylish cell phone. Giving it to a celebrity guest for an award show or film festival, often in exchange for a picture of the celebrity with the marketed logo, hopefully raising publicity for the promoted logo or brand name.

Often used by non-commercial organizations also, like schools and charities, it can be an effective marketing product, promoting causes and growing support for awareness-raising campaigns, like in the case of cancer and the fight against woman and child abuse. Rubber wristbands and colored ribbons has become synonymous with such causes globally, serving to show just how sophisticated and developed the use of small inexpensive gifts as promotional products, has grown to become.

With recent studies completed in 2008, the publication has come to show the UK and Ireland promotion product industry, to be worth just over 850 million sterling pounds and growing. The fastest growing product at the end of 2009, being a hand sanitizer was coincidental with the swine flu scare at the time.

Wherever we go, we see freebie given by certain brands of goods and services. These giveaways help promote the company, brand and organization giving it. These freebies are specially made to be useful and handy to the receivers. They can carry it anywhere and be reminded of the brand name of the product. The brands of the company giving the product are visibly printed on the promotional products.

A promotional product is an item that bears the name and logo of companies. It is often given in promotion of a brand, seminar, company giveaways, etc. You see these items everywhere like promotional pen, mug, t-shirts, cap, bags, pillows, etc. It often represents the company giving it so it’s available in many sizes and colors.

When we buy items from brands giving freebies, we get more value of our money. It’s because promotional items are always useful to consumers. We do not only use the products we bought but we also use the giveaways. In short, we get double value of our money.

In order to always get promotional items, we need to choose particular brands. We should always buy from brands that gives freebies so we get our money’s worth. But, we should carefully select the company because some manufacture goods with poor quality. That’s why they always give promotional items in order to compensate for low quality goods. If we get the wrong brand, we have to switch to others producing high-quality goods.

If you do not know where to get promotional items, check the stores. Go to departments stores and see you favorite brand if they have promotional items. You can also check online stores that sell goods /services with freebies. Many distributors use this marketing strategy to attract online buyers to buy their products.

The early roots of using promotional product can be traced back to the 1950′s. It is not only given to pull customers towards a company to buy products. It is also given as the company’s token of thanksgiving to their faithful consumers.

To measure effectiveness of this marketing strategy, various studies were done. It was discovered that product buyers given freebies often return to buy products again. Customer loyalty is often attained by companies with their efforts in giving promotional items. This is because customer loves to receive rewards and gifts.

Aside from customer loyalty, the studies found out that promotional items increase name recall ability. Consumers can easily name the brand that gave them promotional items. It’s because they can often read the brand when they use the giveaways. This ability of consumers to recall product brands has contributed to increased company sales. Recalling a brand name often leads buyers to purchase from that brand.

Despite the simplicity of other promotional items, it is still effective in advertising brands. Promotional products are not only given to consumers but also to company employees. This encourages employees to work well in the company and help it become successful. People value the gifts they receive and they can do anything to show their gratitude.

Useful promotional products require very little or no effort to encourage customers to use. It is for this reason that when considering what promotional product to purchase it is often a good idea to consider the utility of the product before making your choice. Though novelty also plays a role, it is likely to wear off relatively quickly which is why novelty is likely the most important characteristic of an item to consider when purchasing promotional products. If a customer finds an item useful they will use it until it breaks, which gives you a higher return of investment.

The favorite promotional product by far is the ubiquitous gel or ink pen. Before performing daily tasks such as writing down the week’s grocery list, jotting some quick voice mail notes, or filling out forms, the first thing most people do is to reach for a pen. And the most common pen that tends to make its way into homes for such purposes is the promotional gel or ink pen. Picked up from the bank while making a deposit or from office of their local business, these pens are not only the most useful but one of the easiest products for consumers to adopt into their everyday lives without much effort on the business’s part. The low cost these items combined with their utility makes pens one of the best promotional products.

Another very useful promotional product is the promotional calculator. When balancing their checkbook, calculating the price of a purchase, or counting calories, customers easily reach for promotional calculators. The brand of the company will be passively and frequently noticed and the customer will likely be influenced to consider the brand the next time they decide to make a purchase of your product.

Plastic drink bottles are another good choice for a promotional product. Useful during any season, these are an especially good choice for the summer season to allow consumers to relieve their heat-induced thirst. Consumers are likely to take these to their places of work, home and even to the gym, giving your brand maximum exposure per dollar.

Keeping track of one’s keys during a long and busy day can sometimes be a challenge. That is why keychains are another excellent choice for a promotional product; customers may use your branded keychain for years in order to stay organized.

Perhaps one of the most long-lasting and useful products of all is the promotional bag. Sports bags, backpacks, and professional or business bags are all very popular promotional items due their high utility and durability. These will be carried to customers’ work places, to conferences, the gym, sporting events, schools and in public to provide elevation of your brand’s visibility.

These following promotional items including pens, calculators, plastic drink bottles, key chains and bags are some of the most useful products to the consumer, providing the highest visibility of your brand name and some of the longest-lasting delivery of advertisement per dollar. If you are looking for products that will stand up to the test of time and use, these are the promotional products to choose.

There is a plethora of promotional products that people use to promote their businesses. Some are more common than others due to their utility, cost or popularity. As early as the 1850’s, almanacs and calendars were used as some of the first promotional products, and since then, the use of promotional products has flourished. Some categories of promotional products are more popular than others, and wearable items, writing instruments, calendars, bags, and drinkware are some of the most consistently popular categories of promotional items (Promotional Products Association International (PPAI), 2008). Together these categories make up approximately 62% of yearly promotional product sales in 2008 according to the PPAI.

Almost everyone has either received or seen a promotional hat or shirt from the most significant category of items of all, wearables, which makes up approximately 31% of yearly sales in 2008 of promotional products (PPAI, 2008).  Some common promotional wearables include: cotton caps, polo shirts, uniforms, jackets, neckware, t-shirts, winter apparel, trousers and high visibility workwear.

The second most popular category of promotional items is writing instruments making up approximately 10% of yearly sales in 2008(PPAI, 2008). This includes: metal pens, plastic pens, pencils, highlighters, and markers, etc. These items are affordable, durable, and sleek, and as such it’s no wonder that these items are number two on the list.

Third in ranking is the calendar category at approximately 8% of yearly sales in 2008 (PPAI, 2008). By keeping track of not only legal holidays, but also important times to reorder products and other industry information, such as important company phone numbers, these calendars serve many uses. At number three, these items come in handy all year round, and are prominently displayed in the office or at home.

Coming in fourth is the bags category at approximately 7% of yearly promotional product sales for 2008 (PPAI,2008). This includes: sports bags, backpacks, business and conference bags, leisure bags, cooler bags, gift bags, paper bags, shopping bags, etc. Durable and versatile, these are likely to be taken everywhere with your customer. They don’t run out of ink or become obsolete within a year like pens or calendars, respectively. These are a good choice for long-term advertising though they are slightly more expensive than some of the other items.

Last, at fifth place, is drinkware at around 6% of sales (PPAI, 2008). This includes: glass, china, ceramic, crystal, plastic and stainless steel drinkware. Like bags, these items are very useful and have a long lifetime of usability. They tend to be taken to the customer’s home and workplace, and maybe even the gym, giving them unprecedented advertising exposure and a good return of investment to you and your business.

Any of these popular promotional items is a good choice for most customers. Since they make up 62% cumulatively of the yearly sales for promotional products you can’t go wrong in choosing one of these products. Buying promotional products for your business follows a tradition of businesspeople that continues to flourish and grow to this day.  We have everything for your promotional product needs at http://www.justpromotionalproducts.com.au/.

Most people are familiar with classic promotional products such as pens, bags, and calendars. However, these products are not the only promotional products available for use. There are even some very strange products, likely products you’ve never heard of, that are likely to give your customers a laugh, help them conserve resources or help them relax in addition to serving their original intended purpose of being useful to the customer and advertising your business.

One such unusual product is crystal maracas.  These would be a good novelty item for a Mexican restaurant to have as part of a giveaway. Their noise would bring additional attention to them and customers would enjoy a chance to goof around and have fun with your promotional item.

Credit card and bookmark magnifiers are a seldom heard of item that is useful in two ways: magnifying small text and keeping customers’ places in books that they’re reading. Though they aren’t a common item they certainly hold their own in the promotional product world and are a good choice if you want to give something less traditional that catches attention.

Hand-held massagers are certainly less common but would be very much appreciated by the hard-working customer that needs to relax after a hard day or during a lunch break. Guaranteed to relax tight muscles and advertise your business at the same time, promotional hand-held massagers are another sound, uncommon choice for a promotional product.

Something that is sure to garner many laughs from coworkers or housemates is the promotional anti-stress hand grenade. A soft and squishy hand grenade is the perfect item for your customer to take their stress out on and to avoid unleashing their stress on their peers. The face that this stress ball is in the form of a grenade is what really sets this product apart from the usually happy and cheery stress balls, making this a very amusing and unusual promotional product.

Sewing kits are an extremely useful and uncommon promotional item. If your customer rips their shirt or pants in the office or on the run, all they have to do is whip out your promotional, compact sewing kit to save them a trip home to change or a publicly embarrassing moment. These are very helpful promotional items which your customer will appreciate in a pinch.

Another unusual item is the promotional shower timer. An eco-friendly choice, this shower timer has the ability to let you know when you have spent 4 minutes in the shower so that you’ll know when you’ve used a certain amount of water, saving energy and water. This is a good choice for especially eco-friendly establishments to further their mission to be ‘green’.

Whether you choose the crystal maracas, credit card magnifiers, hand-held massagers, anti-stress hand grenade, sewing kit or eco-friendly shower timers, your customers will be intrigued by the novelty of your promotional product and you will receive even more return of your investment from your promotional product. Not only will your product be useful, but it may bring laughs or help your customers deal with stress.

Individual consumers may find everyday items the most useful. These include pens, rulers, calculators, t-shirts, and backpacks. Although novelty is a consideration, utility is probably the everyday consumer’s most important consideration. But for the business owner or other important client, the impressiveness or expense of an item is more of a consideration. Business owners may find leisure-themed items the most useful. These items include professional bags, golf ball markers, plastic golf pencils, and higher end pens. These quality items will indicate the customer’s status and they will feel comfortable displaying them in their office and at leisure.

First, however, you must ask yourself what items are appropriate for the kind of business you run. If you gave out crystal maracas as a book publisher, customers would be left wondering what the link between your promotional product and your business was, and you wouldn’t reap as much direct positive association as you would if you had given out promotional reading lights. Some ideas for common businesses are as follows:

And the list goes on. Hopefully this provides an initial idea of what promotional items would be appropriate for your audience based on your business. Of course, promotional items like pens are always a good idea because of their ubiquity and utility regardless of the field of business.

Another important consideration to make is your budget.  If you want to reach a lot of people on a certain budget you might want to select a cheaper item in order to be able to afford more of the item. Promotional pens are always a good value. If you want to advertise to a smaller audience people and leave more of an impression, such as in the case of business owners, you might want to go with a slightly more expensive promotional item. Golf drink bottle pouches are a good promotional item in that case. You could also choose to mix and match by buying a few of the more exclusive items and a larger portion of everyday promotional items for the ‘average joe’. The possibilities are endless.

If you are unsure of what to buy, try taking a look, first, at what your competitors are giving out. Then make a list of possibilities and see how many items you are interested in you could buy with your advertising budget. Consider your business and your target consumer. Then, make choices from there and things might be a little easier afterwards.

Though there are many considerations to make including your target audience, your budget, and what items are appropriate, choosing a promotional product is a smart move to make and will benefit your business for years to come. Regardless of the item you choose the goals are the same: to increase visibility, to increase brand loyalty, to reap advertising value, and to appear stable, caring and trustworthy as a company.

Promotional products are used by businesses to increase awareness of brand names, to provide incentives for customers to make purchases, and to influence how customers view a business or brand. By providing promotional products for customers businesses significantly increase the visibility of their brand which in turn increases the frequency by which a customer thinks about a brand. The more a customer thinks about a brand the more likely they are to make a purchase in the future or to consider making such future purchases, and to develop brand loyalty.

When competitors hand out promotional products it becomes a necessity to compete with the dispersal of free merchandise or potentially risk losing business and relative brand awareness. In addition, a company that provides customers with free products appears to be profitable and stable due to the fact that it requires an extra effort and investment to provide promotional products. This demonstrates to the customer that not only does the company already provide quality products but it is profitable and a trustable brand. This, and the resulting brand loyalty, is the ultimate goal of advertising with promotional products.

Providing a customer with a free pen which they see every day when they use it is much cheaper than buying advertising time on television or space on highway billboards, and the customer will likely see the pen more often than a billboard and take more notice of the brand emblazoned on it. The pen is more useful to the customer than a television commercial so more positive feelings are likely to be associated with it, which is a significant advantage over television and billboard advertising.  In associating the positive quality of usefulness with the promotional product, the customer may also associate positive feeling with the brand associated with it, your brand, by association.

Providing customers with promotional products tells the customer that a company pays attention to a customer and his or her interests and needs. It shows the customer that the company or business is very much interested in pleasing the customer and providing them with their product, a feeling customers are likely to respond positively to.

All in all, there are significant advantages to advertising by providing the customer with a promotional product such as pen, plastic drink bottle or calculator. Promotional products send the message to the customer that your business is profitable, stable, and that you care about their feelings. Advertising via promotional products has the additional benefit of being much cheaper than television or billboard advertising and having a much longer duration than thirty seconds of television air time or a brief glimpse of a billboard on the highway. The positive feelings customers come to associate with your promotional product due to its usefulness and frequency of remembrance of the brand name of your product far outreaches the benefits of other avenues of advertising. Promotional products are clearly a more efficient, affordable and effective means of advertising for your business.

To get the most from your promotional merchandise identify your target market and choose items that will be welcome. A successful marketing tool, items can be imprinted, embroidered, or embossed with your logo to get your brand seen and recognised. Maximum exposure increases public confidence leading to higher sales and a larger share of the market.

Article 1 Promotional Products & your Business Logo

There are many aspects to running a business and one of the most important is to get your business noticed. Advertising, promotional products, and marketing campaigns are central to every business if you are to make people aware of you and your products, remember you, and get those all important sales.

Promotional merchandise can do wonders for sales, but first you need to identify your target market and choose items they will appreciate and welcome. Known to be successful as a marketing tool, items can be imprinted, embroidered, or embossed with your logo to get the brand seen and recognised.

Putting your name on something as normal as a pen or mousepad might not sound like a particularly effective way to promote your products, however it is often the simplest ideas that work the best. Promotional items are popular with the general public and if they are given them for free then you really can’t go wrong. Some of the most popular items popular as giveaways are useful products, such as t-shirts, mugs, bags, and keyrings. They can really help promote your business, use them to raise awareness of a new product, draw attention to sale items, show you are a sponsor for a particular cause, or as giveaways at a special event.

Choosing effective promotional products is particularly important in your campaign, otherwise you are just throwing money away. If your target audience is schoolchildren then coffee mugs aren’t really going to be relative, consider colourful stationery items or money boxes to get their attention, whereas if you want to attract males in their 20’s or 30’s you could look at car products, handyman items, or sports bottles. Selecting the right promotional gifts for your intended audience will make the difference between whether it is a success or not.

Marketing departments want a strategy where they get maximum exposure, in a competitive market where there are so many other companies selling the same or similar items it’s necessary to get your name and logo out there where it is instantly recognizable. The more exposure you get the greater the publics trust in your products and, even if you are more expensive than competitors, the public will be inclined to spend more buying your goods as they know and recognize your brand name. Trust in your products will give you a larger share of the market and push those sales up.

A marketing strategy might incorporate a number of methods to advertise, including advertising on TV and radio, placing ads in newspapers and magazines and renting billboard space. However these all cost a considerable amount of money and mostly they are seen for those few seconds/minutes and then forgotten about. 

Imprinting your brand name or logo onto promotional merchandise is well-known for being one of the most effective marketing techniques around, and companies the world over use them. Ensure you invest in items that are going to be used, otherwise they will simply be placed in a drawer and never looked at again.

Everybody uses promotional pens, and you can’t go wrong with this kind of practical item, buy highlighters, plastic or metal pens, or board markers in a range of shapes and colours in bulk and give them out to your clients, customers and staff to be seen by thousands. Keyrings are also ideal for promotions and trade shows and an item needed by everyone, with their house and car keys attached your logo will be seen every day. Keyrings can be purchased in plastic or metal and double as a bottle opener, with a flashlight attached, or even engraved. Give coffee mugs, diaries or folders out to your clients to distribute amongst their offices, used on a regular basis they’re guaranteed to get your brand seen without costing you a fortune. Promotional polo shirts are another popular option for companies to get their logo advertised for next to nothing.

Sending the right message out to your target audience is crucial for a successful business. Promotional products can help you achieve this. Look online and you’ll find a broad selection of items to choose from.