Promotional branded items are popular for businesses and events, but are they worth the money they cost? Ensuring a return on investment is a difficult game for promotional items, after all they are created to increase brand awareness and how do you measure that effectively? How do you know if someone is taking a promo item because they think it might be worth keeping your details or because they really want a free USB stick? Such questions have led to some companies opting to not use promotional items at all at events.
But this forgets the fact that promotional items have become popular because they can be used effectively. Indeed, a simple way for working out whether a promotional item will benefit your business is simply asking yourself the following questions:
Is the item relevant to your business?
Is the item relevant for your customer?
If the answer to the first question is yes then you’ll have an excellent promotional item that really represents your company, unfortunately your customers are unlikely to utilize it as it’s irrelevant to them and the association with the brand can’t assist your business.
e.g. A branded silly hat. Unless it’s for a specific event then it’s unlikely that this silly hat will get any wear and offer your brand any further promotion.
If the answer to the first question is no then you’ll end up with a product that people want but that has a tenuous link to your business.
e.g. a USB stick for a plumbing company. Though the item may get used, the situation where it’s being used doesn’t connect naturally to the business and so doesn’t naturally promote your brand.
Only when both these questions are answered with a definite yes do you end up with a promotional product that is useful to potential customers and also increases brand awareness in a relevant and natural way.
Examples of Excellent Promotional Items
A garage offers free ice scrapers that also come with their logo and telephone number. The item itself is relevant to car owners as it’s a tool that many will need on a seasonable basis. It’s also directly related to their services as it is car related, so the product itself is a good fit. Additional benefits of this promotional item is that, if the car owner experiences any difficulties then that phone number is already inside the car wherever they are. All they have to do is remember that Garage they’ve been seeing on their ice scraper for x amount of weeks/ months and take the number.
Travel mugs for a café, allowing their customers to easily take away coffee without producing excess waste. Encourage repeated use by offering a cheaper service for those who bring the travel mug back and you have a reusable branded item that is relevant to the business and also feels like a good deal to the customer.
An event company offers free lanyards with their business card attached. This is both a different way of presenting a business card and is also a product that is linked with their target. Better for using at event itself
What Does this Mean for You?
So, what product will give you a yes to both these important questions? Because that’s the item that is most likely to improve your brand awareness and get you a potential sale further down the line.
If you need more help with branding for your businesses next exhibition then pop over to the guys at Marler Haley who have loads of tips and loads of products to make sure you have the right items to encourage your customers to remember you when they get home form the event.