Making an Impression with Promotional Products

Making an Impression with Promotional Products

With so many media venues available in this information-laden age, it can be tough to decide how best to spend a marketing budget on promotions. Are promotional pens more effective than social media messages? Are gift baskets and promotional bags a greater draw than discounts and frequent shopper cards? It helps to see things through an advertiser's eyes.

Advertisers look at promotions in terms of cost per impression. CPI, also known in the business as CPM--cost per thousand--is the best measure of a marketing dollar's true value. In 2010, the Advertising Specialty Institute looked at CPIs for various forms of advertising. This study paralleled a similar survey in 2008, providing a longitudinal look at advertising efficacy. Both surveys agreed on a few common points.

Promotional products' CPI came out consistently lower than most other advertising forms. Only internet advertising could match the low CPI of promotional merchandise.

The price of promotional merchandise stayed virtually unchanged for both surveys. The effective cost of promotional items therefore showed a slight decline--a marked difference from the cost of advertising on television, radio, or print.

Branded merchandise makes repeated impressions per month without incurring additional costs. For example, promotional pens showed an average of 437 impressions per month for the 4.6 months that clients kept and used the pens. With more than two thousand impressions on potential clients throughout the instrument's life, branded pens offer an exceptionally low CPI.

Other strong performers were textile-based branded merchandise like shirts, caps, and promotional bags. In fact, bags had the highest number of impressions on average in the 2010 survey at 1,078 per month. This information suggests that the initially higher cost of promotional clothing and bags can be offset with a higher number of impressions.

Customers use promotional merchandise; when they have no use for it themselves, six out of ten will pass the item along to someone who can use it. Compare this to the number of newspaper circulars and mass-mailed brochures that wind up in the trash.

Neither the 2010 nor the 2008 survey addressed up-front costs of promotional merchandise directly, but prices are low enough to allow smaller businesses to give branded products to current customers as gifts, or to future customers as incentives. In increasingly competitive markets, it's important to position a company's name prominently in clients' minds; the low CPI of promotional goods makes them a good choice for the small business as well as larger chains.

Another aspect of CPI that the studies approached tangentially was the longevity of branded items. A print or television advertising campaign has a limited shelf life; at some point, potential customers tune out even the most eye-catching or entertaining ad. With the exception of wall calendars, promotional items do not have an expiration date.

The advent of DVR technology has raised television advertising's CPI, since customers can now fast-forward past the advertising blocks. Everyone needs pens, notepads, and tote bags and essential items with imprinted logos will keep their value over time.

Businesses see a proven return on their investment in promotional products. Keep CPI low and customer appreciation high with promotional merchandise.

of MARCO Promotional Products

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