When making any product, to make sure it’s efficient in fulfilling what it’s meant for, you need to ask yourself: What’s the purpose of the product? Based on the purpose, certain criteria are set to ensure the success of the product. As you can guess by the name, promotional products are simply marketing products that look to promote your company. However, knowing what a good product is and creating one is a far stretch. For promotional items to give away, you need to consider
- Who is this being given to?
- What’s the age group that the product is for?
- Where are they going to receive the product?
- Why would they use the product (and by extension make it successful)
The first two point are correlated and we will address them more when talking about Mugs vs. Water Bottles below. The reception location is vital in choosing what product you will use. The further away from home your target audience is going to receive the product, the easier to transport you want the product to be. Think about someone getting the product delivered at home vs. getting the product from a trade show or convention vs. a student getting the product at a fair in their university (where the assumption is that they would live in/near the campus). The last point is made up of two categories; function/coolness of the product and quality. For promotional items to work best, people need to use them. Simply test the product yourself, is it good quality? Do you want to use it? If you don’t have the resources to create a good quality product, it might be better not to have one at all, since you don’t want people to correlate the low quality product with your company. With all the wordy stuff out of the way, let’s get into examples! Keep in mind that as Kendall Press is primarily a B2B company; our examples are going to reflect products that would do well in a Business setting. Also note that all listed products would easily fit in a small bag or purse so that people are more inclined to grab them from your booth or office!
Stress Balls
A very simple product that everyone loves. Even more loved by people working in offices or cubicles! Stress Balls are extremely cheap to order in large numbers, will be used often and hopefully keep your company’s name fresh in your target’s mind.
Pens
Need I expand much on this? People always use pens and people always lose pens which means, people always need pens. If you want to really be memorable from a pen though, you may want to to go above and beyond. Design a pen that stands out and properly reflects your company.
Mugs (or Water Bottles)
Roses are red, violets are blue, we drink coffee (sometimes tea), and so do you. You want to make sure people don’t go a day without seeing your company logo? Print it on a nice mug.
Let’s take a minute and talk about why we chose Mugs and why you might want to choose water bottles over mugs. Both of them are relatively small objects that can fit in a small bag and/or are easy to carry a short distance. If you are dealing with a younger (university age) audience, there are more likely to use a portable water bottle. If you are dealing with an older, working in offices audience, they are more likely to appreciate a personal mug to use at work.
Shirts
Similar to tote bags in the fact that they are extremely customizable and very easy to transport. Make sure it’s a loose fitting, good quality shirt and people will wear the to the gym, at home etc. and hopefully promoting your brand! Note, as the picture suggest, you don’t have to limit yourself to just shirts, hoodies, sweaters, jackets all are acceptable as long as you make sure you keep a balance between where they will be handed out and how hard they are to distribute!
Tote Bags
You can fold them and put them inside your bag or you can use them to put all the goodies being passed around so there is no convenience barrier stopping from someone grabbing one. You can also use them at grocery stores. They’re very light, highly functional, highly customizable and very easy to put a large logo on. It’s really hard to go wrong with Tote Bags, especially in the increasingly, environmentally conscious world we live in.
USB Flash Drives
Another product that is extremely functional for all age groups. Harder to customize, but put your logo on it and people will remember you – and your USB – were there when they needed it the most!
Hopefully, this guide will help give you ideas on the top promotional items to give away that will increase your presence. If you are still lost, need more assistance or just want to leave a comment or question, feel free to leave one below! In addition, Kendall Press provides consulting, designing and printing services to Boston, Cambridge, Belmont, Somerville and the Greater Boston 128 area. We’d love to create your next printed promotional product with you and of course you are welcome to call us or click the button below to send us an e-mail to ask us a question or schedule your free consultation!
