Strategic Use of Promotional Products

The use of promotional products is a common practice in marketing and advertising nowadays. Almost anything that can be printed on can be used as promotional products. T-shirts, desk calendars, planners, mugs, pens, umbrellas, and the likes are just a few of the more common promotional products that are given away. Most companies distribute promotional products during special occasions, such as Christmas or their anniversaries, but of course, with such a wide range of choices, and apparent positive results from this move, there are more strategic ways of maximizing the effects of promotional products.

Promotional items can be used as an additional customer incentive to get them to purchase your product. This especially works for consumer products. In buying consumer goods, customers have a low level of loyalty for different brands. There isn't that much difference between various brands, and most of the time, people prefer either the cheaper one, or the market leader.

To create a niche in between the two monopolizing brands, one good idea is to offer additional incentives that neither of the two has. Package your promotional product along with your main product. This way, the customers who see that they get something free when they buy your product will now include you in their decision-making process. And given the short span of decision-making time that most customers have when they buy consumer products, they will most likely go for the product that gives them the better value among others. Going for the cheaper means they're settling for a lower quality product. Going for the market leader, which is most likely more expensive then normal, is spending a ton for something that a cheaper alternative can actually do.

So your product, offering the additional benefit of the promotional product enclosed in the package, would certainly stand out during that brief but crucial selection process. In this way, every single piece of promotional product you give away is geared towards a sale, and is not useless.

Aside from consumer acquisition, promotional products also help in improving customer relations to increase the level of retention. With the use of these corporate gifts, you help them remember your brand more than any other. They remember your brand because of the added benefit of the promotional product, which raises the chances of their buying your product again. This works even better especially when you have different kinds of promotional products; customers would want to collect them all. We can see this evidently in fast food chains or cereal products, where they offer a series of collectible toys for the consumers. Aside from making the customers buy the product, they make them buy it again and again.

However, promotional products should not be underestimated, because its benefits certainly do not end there. In fact, it rarely ever ends at all. Some promotional products such as mugs, pitchers, and t-shirts have a long life span. Unlike pens or calendars that get thrown away eventually, the promotional products that can be used for a long time is worth a million dollar advertising campaign, given that its effects are long-term and extends long after the purchase. With your brand name printed right in the middle of these promotional products, every time the customers use it, they remember your brand more than any other.

Gaining such a top-of-mind position in the customers' minds is a very useful benefit, especially against multiple competitors. It's like having your own spy ad right in their own homes, under their very noses. Each time they wear the shirt and look at the mirror, each time they pick up the mug, each time they fill the pitcher with water, they will unconsciously be exposed to your brand name and increase the probability of being remembered. And when they have their friends over and see the useful pitcher, or when officemates see the useful mug, it's like free advertising to new potential customers.

Although some companies may not be too keen about using promotional products, its effects are very beneficial, indeed. Promotional products can either be a waste of money and effort, or they can actually bring more value than they're worth. The key is to know how best to use them.