The Secret to Smart Marketing Revealed

Does Your Advertising Strategy Include Promotional Products?

Should Promotional Products Be a Part of Your Advertising Strategy?

If you normally turn to traditional media to advertise your brand, you might want to read the results of a new study (The Advertising Specialties Impressions Study) conducted by the Advertising Specialty Institute first. Over 600 business recipients of promotional products were interviewed. Expect to be surprised and enlightened.

ASI's investigation reveals that people really do remember the names of advertisers whose items they receive. Jackets, pants, scarves, and other apparel led the way in name recognition (94%) followed by bags (90%), caps (89%), shirts (87%), recognition/awards (85%), writing instruments (85%), glassware/ceramics (84%), calendars (69%), recognition/jewelry (69%), and desk/office/business accessories (67%). This finding alone should help you decide which category(ies) to spend the most advertising dollars.

The second revelation of the study was that an average of 42% of businesspeople look with more favor on an advertiser after receiving their promotional product. Interestingly, bags topped this list with 53% of the vote. Hmmm. Could the popularity of tradeshows and conferences have something to do with this? Or is it related to more retailers going green and replacing their plastic bags with the green variety?

Furthermore, promotional products encourage their recipients to do business with the company whose name appears on the item. On average, 62% of businesspeople are influenced in this way. The promotional products that stand out in this category are recognition-awards.

Why are promotional products so popular with the business community? For starters, people tend to hold on to them longer. Think pens. We're always losing them and we can't seem to find one at the least opportune time. That explains why your client will hardly refuse your branded pen and why writing instruments topped the list for this category.

But how do you determine if your particular item will get you a decent return on your investment? Ask yourself this question: How useful is it? The more useful it is, the more likely it is that your client will keep it. In fact, usefulness beat out attractiveness and other reasons given by 55% and 54% respectively.

We are halfway through the results and I hope by now your interest is piqued enough to continue reading my next post on this subject. Look for it in the next few days.

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