The promo item confidence challenge
We all have those moments when we question what we know, what we are “sure” of. Sometimes it happens when we walk out of a store and start heading to where we parked… or at least we thought we parked our car. We keep going that way, pretty sure we are right. Then, we see it, our car is there just like we thought and all our doubts seem silly. Our professional lives can feel that way sometimes too.
You’ve just handed your client a gift. It has your logo on it, and it is really nice… a mug, nice pen, portable power bank chargers, and then you wonder… is she going to keep it? Will she even use it if she does? We all know the research. ASI does a pretty comprehensive study showing that promotional products tend to be pretty sticky and also well appreciated. But, there’s that moment when we wonder.
I feel this way sometimes. But then I look around our house (I wasn’t always connected with promotional advertising) and I see the proof… all over. Cheap pens we’ve used up and no longer have. Quality pens, well they’re still around. Mugs, yup. Flash Drives from before I was in logo flash drives? Yup, from ten years back. A tape measure from Abt (if you’re not familiar with them, Abt is the correct name) electronics. As I look at these items, they may be very different, yet they have a few things in common.
Quality. The mugs, pens, car kit (tire gauge, flashlight and pen) are all well made. One of the logo mugs are especially nice and one of the first to be used out of the dishwasher.
They relate. Most are tied to a purpose for giving them. For instance, the tape measure made a lot of sense. We were doing a kitchen remodel and a convenient tape measure was going to be used many times. It’s been in our kitchen for years now. Abt knew their audience and made the gift relevant to the context.
You know Google. Everyone knows Google. Google uses promotional items all the time. Take a look at these. Some are directly related to a particular event, others are general (but quality) promo items.
The USB flash drive shaped like a car was part of an automotive marketing event I attended at Google. Same with the auto kit. Nearly ten years later and these are still being used. Now, I also received some pens with Google’s logo, but they ran out of ink. There are pens with replacement ink programs, so they can stick around even longer.
From large multi-nationals to local retail companies, promotional items do have an impact. When I have those moments where I wonder all I need to do is take a drink of my coffee and I see the proof right there on the cup.