Promotional products and their importance

People hear about promotional products each and every day of their lives. These products can be found when a new store has been opened, during a cultural event, to promote a super market, to celebrate a victory and during many other occasions. Even though many people do not realize their presence, promotional products have always existed in the society.

What are promotional products?

Promotional products are items or gifts that may be handed out to customers or clients in order to create awareness in the public about a company or business. These items may be of different types like pens, key tags, caps, calendars, t-shirts, matchbooks, etc. They are mainly used as a tool for promoting the name of a company to the consumers by imprinting professional logos of these companies on the promotional products.

The promotional products are extremely useful in providing long term publicity for the company. When a person uses these promotional products on a daily basis, he glances at the company’s logo over and over again. Then one day or the other, the person might require a service which the company can perform. This can be mutually beneficial for the company and also the consumer. Hence, these promotional products are a major tool for a company for advertising their services to the public.

Apart from attracting new customers or providing publicity to the company, the promotional products are also used for rewarding existing customers for their association with the company or providing incentives to employees.

Promotional products help to create an impression of the company on the minds of the target audiences. Over the years, the number and range of promotional products has grown rapidly. Companies are looking for newer and ground-breaking items that can be used as promotional products to promote their company and the services it offers.

Benefits of promotional products to the companies

Promotional products are those items which a consumer normally keeps with him for most of the time. If items of regular use like pens, mugs, and clocks are selected for marketing campaigns, they will stay within the consumer’s perception for a longer duration of time and are hence bound to make a firm impression.

Promotional products can also be given away as free gifts. Free gifts given along with the goods sold have been known for decades to possess the ability to increase company sales significantly. It is often noticed that the sales of a company go up in the period when free gifts are being offered to customers.

A planned release of promotional products can help boost the company’s sales to a never-expected high.
Choice of the right design for the promotional products can cause the company’s name to be imprinted on the minds of the consumers firmly.
The distributor with whom the companies tie up for spreading out their promotional products can become permanent distribution partners in the future.
Tie-up with a good distributor also sees that the cost of distributing promotional products stays well within limits and does not cause any additional losses for the company.
When a company gets into a habit of giving out promotional products, it will be in a position to know which items are in high demand in the market and also the fashion trends at that time. Hence, it can orient a greater part of its capital resources towards production of these products.

Benefits of promotional products to the customers

The question that now arises is what benefits a consumer can obtain by purchasing promotional products.

For many years, promotional products have been seen as a device used for advertising by various companies. When people come across a promotional product, they simply view it as just another promotional product and nothing else. But consumers can also gain hugely by proper selection and use of these promotional products.

a) Promotional products are released as a part of a larger sales campaign or marketing promotion. They make the consumers aware of any discounts or offers that the company is giving out at that moment.
b) Promotional products introduce many new companies to the consumers. This brings to fore the services that each of these companies provides. If a consumer is in need of a specific service at a particular instant, he will know which company to turn to.
c) Promotional products are always beneficial to the consumers. They may be available at cheaper prices or as free gifts, but they always have a certain functional value attached to them.
d) Most of the companies understand the value of promotional products. Hence, the items distributed or sold as promotional products will certainly be a good quality. All companies understand the fact that distribution of low-quality and damaged promotional products can only tarnish the company’s image.
e) Being of high quality, the promotional products can endure for longer periods of time with minimum wear and tear.
f) Promotional products are designed from creative ideas and innovation. Hence, using these promotional products on a regular basis can make you come across an idea that might be useful in your business or daily life.
g) Most of these products are dispersed according to a proper distribution plan. Hence, you will be able to find an item as and when its requirement seems to be going up.

Buying promotional products online

With the increase in use of internet these days, the purchase of items to be used as promotional products has also become feasible.

Firstly, there is a wide range of products to choose from over the internet, which gives the company more choices. Going through the websites of different manufacturers on the internet gives the company a chance to compare the prices and quality of products sold by each manufacturer. Selection and purchase of items of the company’s requirement can be made online, which are then dispatched to the company’s storage facility.

Most of these manufacturers also have online customer service executives to take the calls from the companies and solve their problems or clarify any doubts that they may have.