subject: Promotional Products- How Promotional Products Work [print this page] In order to understand how to make promotional products the most effective for your business, it is necessary to give some thought to how Marketing products work. Then you can figure out how to make them work for you. Marketing products are anything you give away to promote your business. These can be business cards, or more useful items such as ink pens. Virtually anything can be made into promotional products by adding a company log and contact information if there is room. The idea is not only to keep or gain the recipient's business, but to use the same products to draw other business, sort of like a domino effect.
The domino effect part of the equation is one that is often forgotten or missed by those who choose the Marketing products that will be used. For example, ink pens, though very common, are great promotional products because they are frequently used. When signing the check at a restaurant or signing a contract, that pen is being seen by everyone around. Of course it may or may not be noticed, but it has a much better chance of being noticed than something that is not in sight. Mints and gum are sometimes used as promotional products, but they are shoved to the bottom of a pocket or bag, and once consumed the essential wrapper is trashed.
Other practical Marketing products that will stay in sight for a while include kitchen utensils, note pads, and even small toys. Kitchen utensils such as bag clips, jar openers, and bottle openers may be used at home and not seen that often, but in an office setting they will be seen much more. Toys may not seem like much, but small balls and trinkets fit well in a mother's purse and work great at keeping kids occupied when out and about. The exception to the practical use useful products rule is extremely creative and unique items. Important products such as these break the normal rules due to their stand out nature.
An example of these types of promotional products could be the chiropractor who uses a Gumby style skeleton with his logo on it. It can be bent and twisted and then straightened out to show the work he can do. Useful products such as this are not practical, but those who get them will show them all over town to everyone they can think of because they are so neat. They will make an impression and be remembered, and that is the whole point of promotional products.
