Promotional Products In Our Everyday Lives
Promotional products can be seen practically anywhere you look - even though you might not realize it! From the t-shirts you see someone wearing on the street imprinted with a company's name and logo to the pen you use at the doctor's office engraved with a business's brand, they are a part of our everyday lives.
The reason you see so many branded items everywhere is because they are actually useful to their recipients and function in some way that benefits that person's daily activities, be it a travel mug we use to drink our coffee or a backpack we use to carry our books. In fact, in a study conducted by the PPAI, 70% of respondents said that the reason they kept their giveaway items was because they "found the item useful." You may want to keep this fact in mind when deciding what to give to your intended end users and think about what will be useful to them in their everyday lives. Additionally, you can tailor your purchasing decisions to what is relevant in their everyday lives at different times throughout the year. For example, you may want to consider giving sunglasses or sunscreen as promotional giveaways during the summer months and alternately ice scrapers or scarves in winter.
That fact that recipients find these items useful leads us to another reason that you see so many - advertising with promotional products works. It allows companies the potential to put their brand in front of hundreds, thousands, even millions of people by giving a product to one individual. Just imagine the example of the t-shirt imprinted with a company's name and logo. That company is not only advertising their brand to the recipient of that t-shirt but to each and every person with whom that person comes in contact when they are wearing the shirt. Compare that kind of brand exposure to less 'useful' forms of advertising like a flyer that may be seen by some, but likely thrown away, or a commercial on television that is probably bypassed by flipping to another channel or fast forwarding on DVR. Think about the next time you wear a printed tee customized with a company's name and logo - you may be inadvertently helping to advertise a brand!