Give, And You Shall Receive with Promotional Products
Promotional products are there for one simple reason: advertising. Whether handing them to prospective clients to attract them to the company brand or given out to the employees to increase their loyalty towards the company they are working for.
Making people aware and respect the brand is still the main objective around here. People need to be constantly reminded of the brand’s presence, and that is why promotional products are most often common things like pens, mugs, caps, and so on. By establishing that the company is right there beside the person, promotional materials increase the confidence of the customer towards the company.
By simply providing these promotional products for customers or employees, the company will later realize, however subtle, that promotional products are certainly worth it. By giving something, the company receives more than a hat or a mug in return: the company’s acquire the people’s trust.
This does not, however, mean that a company can just make any promotional product and hand them out. If the company wants their presence seen and voice heard, it should realize that what the promotional products they hand out also reflects the outlook of the people towards that company. Sure, the company might display their logos and mottos on a mug or windbreaker, but what if the materials used are cheap and flimsy.
What if the products are easily broken? Doesn’t this reflect a certain person’s outlook towards the company who handed the products out? If the logo is haphazardly stitched or printed on the product that would immediately send a wrong message to the recipient of the promotional product. Justified that it is free, it still gives a bad impression. This means that it is as important making sure of the quality of the promotional products as it is giving them away.
Also, it doesn’t hurt to be inventive. There are hundreds of companies out there and almost all have promotional products. If company thinks outside the box, consumers will also believe the company is as innovative as they are in their promotional products. Mugs, calendars, umbrellas and notepads are the extreme ordinary already, and most likely people have more than enough of those things.
Why? Simple, they shouldn’t forget who sent them those things. And with that familiarity, the company might just receive more than it bargained for. By giving away promotional products, they may gain the loyalty of customers as well as colleagues. If things are put that way, that seems to be a pretty good deal.
Tags: Promotional Gifts, Promotional Items, Promotional Products
September 8th, 2008 at 12:12 pm
This “give and you shall receive” really remind me one of the Scorpions song title “what you gave you get back”.
Yeah, promotional gifts really great way to advertising. Its look like not hard sell, isn’t? The ways to approach the public is more friendly. Build the public trust first before go further. I think one factor that we should care is the promotional gifts will useful for customers or clients.
September 8th, 2008 at 1:35 pm
The topic is very apt to our daily life also. For the business people to run their business successfully, they need to give something. The promotional products have been cited as best example. They will encourage the employees to be more loyal to the company also and gives a sense of satisfaction so that they contribute more. Different approaches have to be made by the companies to get what they want.
September 8th, 2008 at 3:49 pm
I think promotional gifts are a great form of advertisement because the public in general loves to receive things for free, even if the products are small. The company gains a higher reputation and it’s name brand all over those same products.
September 8th, 2008 at 6:41 pm
You were born and raised in the sun shine state. You have always wanted to make a trip to Boston, MA. So, here it is October of 2008. You decide it is time to make a trip to Boston. It takes you two days to arrive. One foot follows the other. You are now walking the grounds of Boston. The temperature has dropped to under 50 degrees. You are in need of a warm and cozy fall type of coat. Panic starts to settle in. Where are the clothing stores? You think to yourself, “I am going to die.” But wait…….. Small business owner approaches you. He/she asks you to please fill out their survey. In return, you receive a leather jacket. Printed on the back of this jacket is the business name and phone number. You thank the owner for the jacket. You return to the hotel where you are staying. Family members wonder where you got the cool looking jacket. You turn around and show off both the business name and phone number.
Point here is, promotional gifts are a great form of advertisement. In this case- you receive a free leather jacket. Word spreads as to where you picked up this jacket.
September 9th, 2008 at 10:05 pm
yes, advertising. and also to create awareness. its not for profit only. but we need to spend on promotional items to be heard.
September 10th, 2008 at 1:21 pm
I would love to receive any promotional products. Some of us like to collect promotional products with particular company’s logo printed on it. But that is not the main reason for promotional products. In my opinion, promotional products is meant for advertising to give a strong effect to the company’s name. We might forget the company that we dealt before and you can guess what can make you recall those you forgot. The promotional product.
September 11th, 2008 at 3:17 pm
Great example there freddie, promotional products are the great ways to advertise a brand and people generally appreciates these free promotional products. I still love my beautiful coffee mug, which i got a year ago from an promotional campaign
September 16th, 2008 at 10:42 am
but we have to thing about more aggresif method in promoting our product, the best way that i’ve ever heard from people are using online marketing program. you’ll surprise when you’ve online and found many cheap services that will help you promoting you product. and don’t forget to use printed method too.
September 16th, 2008 at 11:17 am
SO, ya i would love to get any kind of promotional prod, it would be great . So a coffee , mug or a pen with the company logo will do good in such cases . i actually got a USB drive as a gift and i still love it, its in a shiny ceramic piece.
September 16th, 2008 at 12:48 pm
The sole purpose and business of a company is to sell its products and to make profits. Promotional gifts is just one avenue to acheive this ends. One must not be lost in the excitement of all these beautiful gifts to forget the ultimate big picture that is to make money.
September 17th, 2008 at 9:48 am
Well said there Freddie, thats the way promotional products work and how much of an impact they can have on advertising. The main goal of the company is to earn the trust of the consumers and then only will it suceed.
Another important thing is that the promotional products should indeed be of good quality as it reflects the company.
September 17th, 2008 at 10:34 am
Nice article.
promotional products works better in advertising a product if they are quality oriented.A company should only bargain with prices in purchasing these items not with quality. If customer know that given promotional item (mug, cap or bag..) has low quality. Then it will make negative impression of company. For a company trust of customers is lifeline.
September 17th, 2008 at 11:31 am
I agree with sky, a low quality promotional product will not serve the purpose of building trust with the customers.The customers tend to think that the free gifts they are getting with the product of company is being paid by them & if its of low quality then people will not be fond of buying things from the company.
September 22nd, 2008 at 6:40 pm
Yes, I really agree what u give u will get back. But here one things comes that is how much you give you get double of that.I believe in this. But you should give and take in the field where there is a scope.
If you gave your input in a low quality product your output will not be that great though! So companies need to be careful and invest in what they thing there is a scope of return..
September 23rd, 2008 at 12:43 pm
Hi all, I seem to agree a lot with most of you. Metaphorically speaking, what you give, you will get back. In most cases its true, but in some its not. Sometimes giving small items as promotional gifts can work wonders but sometimes vice-verse. Its like giving a male, sanitary napkins.
September 23rd, 2008 at 1:38 pm
Rightly said, it is not always true that what you give , will always get back. But getting a promotion product is a very joyous thing for me. I enjoy getting it. Infact i have a good collection of promotional product now.
September 23rd, 2008 at 1:48 pm
i agree with all of you, promotional products are important to advertise and then only we get benefits of the products…
one important note is that consumers want to buy the products then the brand logos are important to make sure….
September 23rd, 2008 at 2:30 pm
For business man who conduct their business with success, they need to give something. Promotional products have been mentioned for example. They are the people to be faithful and the company also provides a sense of satisfaction that they are for more. Various approaches are provided by the company to get what they want.
September 24th, 2008 at 4:26 am
I am agreeing with what Daniel said above , “Give and you shall receive”.
Just purely from the goodwill that you create by giving out promotional goods many sales will generated, but that’s not to mention the value of the advertising.
Promotional items reach customers in ways that traditional advertising cannot.
So it is a extremely smart investment for any company to make.
September 24th, 2008 at 8:26 am
it is very well know fact that promotional products works better in advertising a product if they are quality oriented. people will go for anything that is useful to them. so it is also important to choose between things that are useful and that are not at useful to them .
September 26th, 2008 at 7:35 am
Believe me with this, “what you give, you will get back” So, if you give promotional gift to your customer, you will get something for return. I guess you know what i mean right? Means, you will have chance to get loyal customer and bring more customer to your shop or store. Believe me, its worth to try. If you not start yet, do that now!
September 27th, 2008 at 10:48 am
I also agree with sky here, a low quality promotional product will not serve the purpose of building trust with the customers customers.The inclined to think that the free gifts they are getting with the product of company is being paid by them if & low quality of its people will not then be Background of things from buying the company.
September 30th, 2008 at 9:10 am
Giving promotional products is a great idea, as many posters already wrote.
And I agree with most of them and also stated it in my other posts - make sure that your gift is of good quality. Remember, it will be the “ambassador” of your company. So good quality gift will tell your customers - this is a good quality company, poor quality gift will simply tell them - stay away from their services/products.
They will judge by the gift you give them - it is something very important to keep in mind.
If you can’t make it proper (finances for examples won’t allow you) - don’t give anything, that’s better than giving something of low quality.
September 30th, 2008 at 2:24 pm
Kempos made a good point. Giving a gift to the customer, means you are aware of what you are doing, and you also respect your company and care about it. Not many companies have gifts but this depends on the size of the company in my opinion.
September 30th, 2008 at 4:34 pm
I think Hammy had a wonderful point. Giving promotional product or gifts alone doesn’t matter, but the given product should be a good quality one and should work. Once you decide to give a promotional products, then should concentrate on its quality.
October 1st, 2008 at 2:13 pm
Quality is important but not the main thing to be concerned with. It is very important for the fact of positive word of mouth. Word of mouth is a great way to get business as people are more likely to take the word of someone then know over the word of someone over the internet, and you would be surprised how much good will comes from getting some cheap little thing for free.
October 3rd, 2008 at 2:30 pm
Once you chose the way to use promotional products, you have to decide your budget of spending. There is no point to promote your brand with low quality products, and it they broke, etc, they might leave an undesired memory in people. Maybe it is better to choose a smaller but better quality product for your promotion, then a bugger but soon useless one.
November 6th, 2008 at 5:42 pm
Take and Give scheme really works on business world, but it’s work only when the products is good and the promotional gift are right.
Anyway, you’re right pikunka.
Use big fund to promote low quality product won’t give good effect for long term. It’s best to use that fund to increase the quality of the product.