Promotional Products - What are they? When is the right time to use them?

I have just read this great article on promotional products from the blog of Falkins Advertising Specialties and I have posted for you to read,

Donald Robichaud

The greatest value of Promotional Products comes from their ability to get an effective, targeted marketing message in front of the prospects and clients you have to reach, without the wastes high costs associated with other media.

The definition of “Promotional Products”, is any useful item showing off your company logo, name or advertising message, however the best promotional products don’t just brand, they generate actual, measurable results.

WHAT IS A SUCCESFUL PROMOTION?

• An audience-appropriate product. – The most compelling marketing message in the world is lost on the recipient if the promotional item is not appropriate to your target audience.

• An effective message. – Very often, a promotional product shows only a company name or logo without any strong benefit statement, advantage or call to action. It usually costs no more to add these things to the imprint, but it can have a dramatic effect on the entire campaign.

• Targeted, Qualified recipients. – Very few companies can afford to market to everyone, so each promotion should be geared towards your target audience.

• Timing is everything. – A perfect marketing message delivered either too soon or too late does not produce positive results. I.e.: Calendars!

When you imprint an audience-appropriate product with an effective marketing message and deliver it to motivated recipient at the proper time, you dramatically increase your likelihood of success. Falkins Advertising helps our clients to master the four factors of a successful promotion!

WHAT ARE THE MOST POPULAR PROMTIONAL PRODUCTS?

There are over 650,000 items available providing a wealth of choices to fit any target audience and message.

According to the PPAI (Promotional Products Association International) the top 10 promotional product categories in North America are;

1. Wearables 29.3%
2. Writing Instruments 10.6%
3. Desk/office. Business accessories 7.6%
4. Calendars 7%
5. Bags 5.9%
6. Glassware/ceramics 5.5%
7. Recognition awards, watches/clocks etc. 4%
8. Magnets/buttons/badges/stickers 3.5%
9. Automotive accessories 3.5%
10. Sporting goods/leisure products 3.3%

If you would like to enhance your image and achieve a stronger bottom line through the use of promotional products please contact Bruce at;

Falkins Advertising Specialties
"Promotional Products to Brand YOUR Business"
Tel: 250-317-4333
FAX: 250-448-5730
bruce@falkinsadvertising.com
www.falkinsadvertising.com

The importance of Branding

Branding is perhaps the most important facet of any business-beyond product, distribution, pricing, or location. A company's brand is its definition in the world, the name that identifies it to itself and the marketplace.

A model may be beautiful, but without a name, she's just "that girl in that picture." Where would Norma Jean be without Marilyn Monroe, or who would imagine Coca-Cola as just a soft-drink manufacturer?

A brand provides a concrete descriptor to customers and competitors alike, a name for a product or service to distinguish it from anything else. Bob may run a hobby shop, but trying to advertise as "The hobby shop a guy named Bob runs down the street a ways" is financial suicide. Each customer will have to describe the shop, who Bob is, and what the shop does every time someone asks about it. This makes the process of recommending a good hobby shop too much work for the average customer, and far too much work for a user looking for hobby shops on the Internet. A customer looking up Bob's hobby shop will have an easier time of it if he or she knows to refer to it as "Bob's House of Hobbies," and the customer can then refer others to Bob's hobby shop by name, increasing the potential advertising exponentially.

Developing a brand involves more than just picking a catchy name and placing an ad in the newspaper-a brand is more than a unique string of letters denoting a particular product; a successful brand is a mnemonic trigger that makes a consumer feel a certain way when the brand is thought of.

For those who drink cola-flavored soft drinks, which is more appealing on a hot day: a cold cola soda, or an ice-cold Coke? Coca-Cola has spent 100 years developing their particular brand of cola-flavored soda as a refreshing beverage and a seminal representation of a market segment. Coca-Cola has used a combination of direct marketing, give-away techniques, and multi-product cross-branding to achieve maximum brand recognition and visibility in not only its immediately competitive market, but in markets as diverse as Coca-Cola branded race cars and house wares.

Brand loyalty is an integral part of building a brand, as consumers usually have a choice of products in the same market segment, and so a successful company will come up with a way to keep consumers re-buying their product or coming back to their location rather than going to a competitor.

These brand loyalty-building efforts may come in the form of coupons, incentives such as many grocery chains' technique of "grocery discount cards" or "loss leaders," meant to draw consumers into the store, where they will hopefully buy products along with the discounted fare at a higher profit ratio.

In exchange for these discounts and grocery cards, many companies collect information about buying habits and average spending amounts, the better to tailor advertisements and better-focus future promotional efforts. Once a consumer is hooked, brand loyalty tends to result in higher sales volume, as well as loyal customers being less sensitive to price changes of their favorite brands (within reason, of course), as well as less sensitive to competitors' incentives. Studies have shown that it takes 5 times as much money to gain a customer as it does to retain one. That's 5 times as much money as could have been spent on other things.

A brand is who your company is, and what it is selling-it is as important as naming a baby, and should require the same amount of effort to develop it, but if done well, can mature into a successful and profitable adult.

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William King is the director of UK Wholesale Suppliers, Wholesale Suppliers and Pakistan Property Portal . He has 18 years of experience in the marketing and trading industries and has been helping retailers and startups with their product sourcing, promotion, marketing and supply chain requirements.