Awards: Promotional Products
Items customized with your organization’s logo represent a pervasive yet often under-valued target marketing medium. Firms rely heavily on promotional products to convey their brand to a targeted audience. Organizations spend upwards of $18 billion per year on promotional products, according to the Promotional Products Association International (PPAI). And if you’re able to get someone to wear, use, or display a product with your organization’s name on it – why not? The challenge is in identifying promotional products with staying power and that appeal to the target audience, and that is no task for amateurs.
Successful promotional campaigns don’t happen by chance. To realize goals, promotional products must be carefully planned, taking into consideration the audience, budget, and, of course, the ultimate result to be gained. While it’s true that you can buy a product anywhere, an experienced promotional consultant can help you solve problems, plan programs and get results. To find a professional promotional consultant in your area, visit www.promoideas.org.
Besides extending a company’s brand to a highly targeted audience, promotional products perform a valuable service in today’s world of media clutter by helping to draw attention to a mailing or other communication. Dimensional mail and clever and useful promotional products given away at events have a lasting impact because others often see the recipient wearing, using, or displaying them.
Promotional products appear in every type of program imaginable, including consumer promotions and events, channel programs, sales incentives, employee awards, shareholder gifts, etc.
Pros:
- Potentially high-impact brand extension and reinforcement tool.
- Powerful attention-getter.
- Viral marketing: People who use or display your items spread the word to others.
- Unique ability to engage the consumer through all five senses.
Cons:
- Identifying the right product requires serious consideration or it will likely end up in the wastebasket.
- Developing an effective program is more than simply selecting the premium – delivery, presentation, and other logistics issues make this a serious discipline that demands expertise.
- Difficult to measure a pure financial ROI.
