In the era of the internet and online marketing, it seems foolhardy to invest in business promotional items such as mugs and caps. However, the only way you will come to this conclusion is if you don’t take in all the facts. It’s undeniable that using the internet is a very cheap and effective means of marketing particularly if you leverage on the new technologies such as popular social media sites.
However, the truth is that using traditional merchandise such as cups, caps and branded pens still has a place in helping you get the word out about a product or business. A recent survey showed that 52% of people had a positive impression about a company once they had received a promotional product from them. It also showed that up to 50% of people can use such products on a daily basis, particularly if it’s a product that can allow them to do this such as a mug or cup.
This essentially means that if you are looking for a way to maximize the effectiveness of your business, you simply can’t afford to neglect the importance of merchandise. There are many obvious and not so obvious mechanisms that are in play when determining this including:
Brand recognition
Using high quality merchandise is the best way to have your business or product recognized by the market. This is one quality of customer merchandise that many people take for granted, but which is actually very important. The key to ensuring that your promotional product will increase your brand recognition is by making sure that the nature of the business will be visible on it, and also ensuring that it’s a product that can be used on a day to day basis.
This is why mugs are the preferred promotional product for many; the fact that they are used very regularly means that they can act as your own mini billboards. When you distribute enough of them around, you can be sure that many people will get an idea of how your company works. Ultimately, this has the effect of making sure that your business is at the top of everyone’s mind.
It’s an alternative business card
Your promotional product can be used as an alternative business card, only that people will be more likely to pay more attention to it. This is especially so if it’s practical and well designed. A good example of this is if you are an IT expert. Rather than handing out business cards (which the client is likely to have many), you could opt to order a number of branded USB flash drives. You can then hand them out to each customer you work with. The good thing about this is that it’s not only practical, but also very effective as well. You will find that the customer will be more likely to pay attention to the information printed on the surface of the drive compared to what you might print on a business card.
It is one of the best ways to get mass outreach
When you run a business, you might want to keep your budget tight. Doing this is often not as easy as you might imagine particularly when it comes to marketing. Using effective online or traditional marketing can sometimes cost a lot of money, and the results might not be visible for quite some time.
When used properly, promotional gifts can change this slightly. There are many companies that offer these products at very low prices, so you don’t need to spend as much as you would on other forms of marketing. You can also reduce the unit cost of each product by ordering in bulk. Once this is done, you can then distribute all the promotional products to a large number of people, thus achieving mass marketing.
The time frames involved
Suppose you hand out a number of mugs with your company logo on them. How long, on average, do you expect an individual to keep using the mug? Most of the time, this will turn out to be quite a long time, usually a few years. You can compare this to when you create a banner advert online, which will be visible to the individual for a maximum of a few minutes after they open a website. As you can see, using such merchandise puts your business in the faces of your potential customers for longer, particularly if you use items that can be used on a day to day basis.
In summary, the use of merchandise to market a product or service is something that you should definitely think about. On the surface, it might seem like an outdated way to do things, but in reality it’s very effective particularly if you make the right decisions regarding what approach to use.
