Promo Items Assist in Marketing and Advertising

Promotional items have been in use for decades now, but it is only in modern times that the corporate world has started to understand its under-valued effectiveness and potential. Promo items are normally referred to as merchandise and are most commonly used in marketing and advertising campaigns or drives. Promo items come with the name and logo of the company. Sometimes, these items can even be imprinted with a slogan or tagline and are given away during an advertising campaign or conferences or other such events. Distribution of promotional items is considered to be an integral part of the guerrilla marketing campaigns.

The Early Days of Promotion

The use of promo items has become an integral part of marketing strategies across industries the world over. So where did all this really begin? It was way back in the 1980’s when the essence of competition and competitiveness were realized leading to conceiving marketing strategies and promotional concepts. In fact, all this led to a startling rise in below-the-line growth in the 1980’s and promotional expenditure was almost twice as high as the advertising expenditure in the US. Promotional expenditure in 1984 in the US was $80 billion.

In the 1990, a new marketing tool was being used and this was in the form of competition. You win a competition and win a prize and the prize was a promo item. This was initiated to increase brand awareness and brand recall value. Soon enough, competitions became a top favorite method among marketers in the US and the second favorite method in the UK. In the first three years, 2646 competitions took place in the UK and almost 750,000 prizes or promo items were given away. Their price = £47.7 million.

Due to the competitions and the give-away items, an increasing visibility for brands was noticed in the marketplace. More and more companies began to give promo items as gifts through competitions. Some even clubbed promotional items with a company product for their retail customers. All this led to increase in both the customer base and customer loyalty.

One of the interesting activities noticed while companies gave away promo items was that this strategy helped in roping in generating new customers. A large section of the new customers were converts – customers who came from competition. This basically meant that the use of promo items helped in breaking down competition as well.

Types of Promo Items

There is a wide range of promo items available for companies to invest in. The important thing to consider when choosing an item is that they should be of use to your customer. You have two options: you can give away a cheaper product from your catalogue as a promo item or you can pick and choose from an exhaustive list of different products available in the market. The second most important thing to remember is the target audience or prospective customers. For example: if you are into selling travel and adventure sports products then your target audience will be mostly the youth. The average age would be from 18-40 years. Now if you are planning to give away promo items then the products should be of use to people in this age group.

Some of the hot promo items that are considered the most effective for a marketing campaign include:

• Apparel: Tees in different colors for both men and women with the company slogan or a creative slogan in bold and a small logo is the most popular. Custom printed tees and apparel like sweatshirts, polo tees, collared tees, round neck tees, jackets, and tank tops are a perfect give away.
• Ceramic Mugs: Ceramic mugs can be personalized as well. They are also considered as one of the hottest promo items. Your mugs should be microwavable!
• Calendars and Planners: This is one of the best corporate promo item. In fact, you can use calendars and planners as promo items to create brand loyalty by giving them away on New Year eve to all your customers. You can choose from sticky calendars to desk calendar, calendar cube, and wall calendars.
• Pens and writing instruments: Pens and writing instruments have been quite popular since the 1960’s and still are. The good thing is that they are inexpensive and are value for money gift items.

Final Word

Promo items have great value because when you gift then to new or old customers they reinforces their faith in your brand. Besides, who doesn’t love a little attention and being made to feel special?