Social media, print ads, pay-per-click advertising, and TV/radio advertisements. These are some of the most common means of promoting your brand and build brand (or product) awareness. Another common medium for brand/product promotion is with the use of promotional products (or promotional merchandise), which are items that have the brand’s name and/or logo printed on it. What separates it from the other mediums is that it provides a more constant exposure of the brand as the brand name/logo is printed on useful everyday items that customers use (like a shirt, bag, accessory, water bottle, pen, notebook, or even thumb drives).
Better (and More Constant) Exposure
By providing customers with promotional merchandise, not only are you exposing your brand to your customer every time they use the item, but the customer basically does the legwork for you (i.e., walking around using a bag with your company’s logo, or sharing files using a thumb drive that has your brand printed on it).
However, there’s no question that this type of promotional strategy can be a bit costly, which is why it’s best to make sure that you’re doing it right by following these handy promotional product pointers:
#1 Focus on Your Target Market
There’s no point in giving out promotional products that won’t be used by your target audience. If you’re selling IT products and services, giving out pens and notebooks with your brand name on them wouldn’t be as effective as providing promotional products such as thumb drives, mousepads, and other IT-related items. By tailoring the items for your promotional merch with your market, brand exposure is optimized. So make sure that you choose a promotional merchandise company that has the items that are fit for your target market, or buy a laser engraving machine so your company can make the promotional products as you see fit.
#2 Choose Everyday Products
There are tons of items you can print or engrave your brand on, but it’s best to choose those that will be constantly used by your target market. For example, if you’re in the pharmaceutical businesses, providing pill containers and thermometers with your brand’s name would be the optimal choice since these are items that your target market (doctors, patients, and other health care providers) will be using at work and/or at home. There are also ‘safe’ choices that can fit almost any target market such as printed water bottles, bags, and umbrellas in case your brand has a wide target market (i.e., offering various products to various audiences).
#3 Do NOT Skimp On Quality
Sure, promotional merchandise can be the costlier marketing option, but that doesn’t mean that you should sacrifice the quality of your promotional merchandise just to cut costs. You have to remember that these products have your brand on them, which means that people will equate the quality of the product to your brand. If you give away pens that run out of ink very fast, or bags that can easily tear, or leaky beverage bottles, or a bottle opener that breaks after its first use, not only would you have wasted your money, but you may be doing more harm than good for your brand.
The Takeaway
Promotional products/merchandise can be quite effective, but only if you’ve carefully thought about which items to use and by not compromising their quality, so make sure that you follow these tips so you can effectively boost your brand/product awareness using this medium.