What, Why, Where, When and How of Choosing Promotional Products

The best things in life are free and we are not talking about sand, sea and sun, mind you. Instead, we are talking freebies known as promotional products. If you have a business, whether you are a new player or a dominant leader in the market, you should consider the power of promotional merchandise to boost it to new levels of competitiveness

The best things in life are free and we are not talking about sand, sea and sun, mind you.  Instead, we are talking freebies known as promotional products.  If you have a business, whether you are a new player or a dominant leader in the market, you should consider the power of promotional merchandise to boost it to new levels of competitiveness. 

What

Promotional items are free products provided to individuals and organizations to inspire specific actions, be it in terms of motivating prospective customers to purchase a product, thanking loyal clients for their patronage, or awarding employees for excellent performance, to name a few purposes.  You can choose from thousands of items like apparel, mugs, pens, clocks, refrigerator magnets and lanyards. 

Promotional products almost always contain your company logo, colors or message for maximum effect.  You can be as creative as you want in achieving the purpose for which the promotional merchandise was purchased. 

Why

In branding, promotional merchandise is an excellent way to create brand awareness and reinforce brand familiarity.  These aspects are very important in creating a distinctive brand that consumers will turn to when faced with numerous choices, thus, greater sales for your business.

In advertising, you can reach more people than with the traditional medium of television, newspapers, radio and Internet.  After all, not too many people will be exposed to all media.  When it comes to practical promotional products used on a daily basis, however, you can double product awareness simply because it can either be seen by more people or it is used by the consumers. 

As for the staff, promotional merchandise is a great way to attract, hire and retain the best staff possible.  In many ways, promotional items provide concrete solutions to the abstract need for self-validation in the professional setting.

Where

The promotional merchandise industry is a growing one boasting of thousands of manufacturers and distributors.  You can choose from any of these vendors although contacting a distributor is more advisable for many reasons.

Distributors work with many manufacturers and, hence, can offer more choices in promotional products.  Also, you can request a distributor to help in planning the promotional campaign from choosing the products to distributing them to the target market. 

When

You should contact the distributors at least 3 months prior to the start of the promotional campaign.  This should give you and your distributor sufficient lead time to agree on the artwork, dimensions and other product details, approve the pre-production sample, manufacture the total order and then ship it to your company. 

How

When choosing from many distributors, you should keep three criteria in mind.  First, the distributor must be responsive to your requests especially where delivery time is concerned.  Second, you must be provided with satisfactory professional customer service.  Third, the distributor must provide for and deliver on the assurance that the promotional products are of good quality.  You should also plan the process carefully.  Avoid rushing your orders in much the same way as you should choose the items in a deliberate manner. 

In the end, the power of promotional products rests on your careful planning from conceptualization of the promotional campaign to the distribution of the products themselves.  Soon enough, you will be rewarded with better product awareness, stronger customer loyalty and higher sales.