What are promotional products?
Promotional products are items used to promote a product, service or company program including advertising specialties, premiums, incentives, business gifts, awards, prizes, commemoratives and other imprinted or decorated items.
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 consultants are business gifts, employee relations, orientation programs, corporate communications and at tradeshows to generate booth traffic.
They're also effective for dealer/distribution programs, co-op programs, company stores, generating new customers or new accounts, nonprofit fundraising, public awareness campaigns, and for promotion of brand awareness and brand loyalty. Other uses include employee incentive programs, new product or service introductions, and marketing research for survey and focus group participants.
What kinds of promotional products are available?
There are literally tens of thousands of different types and styles of promotional products. In many cases, it's even possible to obtain custom items that aren't found in any catalog. Examples of common items include: apparel, pens, calendars, coffee mugs, calculators, key chains, desk accessories and memory sticks.
What products are the most popular?
Advertisers spent more than $18.8 billion in 2006 on products purchased through professional promotional product consultants. For a breakdown of the top product categories and the market percentage they claim, click the link above.
Research Shows ...
According to a 2005 study conducted by Georgia Southern University, recipients of promotional products have a significantly more positive opinion of a business through: more positive overall image, more positive perception of the business, higher likelihood of recommending the business as well as a higher likelihood of patronizing the business.
A 2004 study of business travelers at DFW Airport revealed that 71 percent of business people reported having received a promotional product in the last 12 months. Of that group, 33.7 percent had the item on their person and 76.1 percent could recall the advertiser's name! 52 percent of that group did business with the advertiser after receiving the promotional product and 52.1 percent reported their impression of the advertiser was more favorable after receiving the item.
Recipients of promotional products remember the advertiser's name. A study by Schreiber & Associates (Peoria, IL) showed that 39 percent of the people receiving a promotional product could recall the name of the advertiser as long as six months after they received it.
Promotional products are ideal for creating awareness among a selected audience. Southern Methodist University conducted a study to measure attendee awareness of product demonstrations in three university communities. They found that selective distribution of promotional products outpulled school newspaper advertising by a ratio of two-to-one.
Promotional products, used as dimensionals in direct mail solicitations, can boost response rates by up to 75 percent, according to a study by Baylor University.
Customers reorder faster and more often when promotional products are used instead of coupons. In a study by Southern Methodist University, customers receiving promotional products reordered up to 18 percent sooner than those who received coupons and up to 13 percent sooner than those who received no promotion.
Promotional products effectively reinforce employee sales contests, too. A Baylor University study of month-long sales contests in retail establishments indicates that contests reinforced by periodic distribution of promotional products were cost-effective and outperformed non-stimulated contests by up to 50 percent.
