How Well Promotional Products Work

Commonly known as the number-one vehicle for carrying an advertising message, promotional products actually offer more of a response mechanism than other standard media. Not all companies track their results, but some do.

Using imprinted products such as gloves, caps, keytags, etc., as a way of promoting its "Call Before You Dig" seminars on maintaining safe working practices in cable line areas, AT&T generated a 95-percent success rate in scheduling seminars, which, within a year, translated into a 100-percent decrease in underground cable cuts.

As a way of improving response to its customer-satisfaction surveys, a manufacturer/servicer of electronic document-processing solutions included a piece of foreign currency and a customised description with them. It generated a 43-percent response.

A Nabisco co-op promotion offering imprinted NFL merchandise with proofs-of-purchase garnered increased market share of 1.5 points and a $200 million increase in sales volume for the advertised brands.

The Kirby Company used promotional materials to assist its dealer system in illustrating the benefits of a new home-care system. Those who used the materials achieved a 50-percent higher closing rate than those who didn't.

For the grand opening of a new branch, a well known bank used a wide selection of promotional products as gifts to walk-ins and as incentives for opening new accounts or making deposits to existing accounts. Deposit amounts exceeded the bank's original goal by a staggering 225 percent, and new accounts beat the goal by an equally impressive 209 percent.

Utilising an incentive of two school-locker magnets, each featuring images of four top rock music artists, Warner Bros. Music, in a co-op with HMV, a chain of record stores, achieved sales of 50,000 CDs or tapes of those artists in a one-month period.

Marketing Tips for Promotional Merchandise Market:

• A standard, model promotion in the huge and still growing events and conferences industry will always incorporate some kind of promotional merchandise of giveaways.
• High quality, wooden or brushed metal corporate items also known as business items can be given to your top speakers or conference attendees for your event to be successful.
• Sales promotion can be done using simple free giveaways or visual promotional items.
• If you are new and still growing, product giveaways are a cheap option for the marketing of new products or services you offer.
• Corporate or business gifts are a category of promotional items that companies use to inject new feel and image.
• Promo giveaways or freebies are always eye-catching and create an enormous interest from the public.
• No matter how cheap your giveaways are, the effect is that your company is memorised and associated easily with the promotion.
• Personalized corporate gifts can include a company logo, name, address or an image and can be supplied in various colours.
• When talking about merchandise items, we often think of promotional items that nowadays are a new promotions revolution and great tools in the events industry.
• As per various customer research and supermarket statistics, coffee is still one of the best selling products; therefore many companies use coffee mugs as a promotional item.