The Most Popular Promotional Items in Y 2004

If you need some ideas for your next promotional marketing campaign or new product launch, the graphs below will give you and idea of what is popular and what types of events people are using promotional products to promote.

Source: promopeddler.com

How to Roll New Business Your Way with Promotional Merchandise

According to Wikipedia, the free internet encyclopedia: "A promotional item is merchandise given away free of charge to the public in an effort to promote a business or increase interest in, or sales of, a product. These items are also referred to by the slang terms schwag and tchotchke. (The latter is derived from a Yiddish word meaning "trinket".) Promotional items are also used in politics to promote candidates and causes. Examples of promotional items include logo-branded t-shirts, caps, key-chains, bumper stickers, pens, mints, etc. Collection of certain types of promotional items is a popular hobby."

Promotional items have the power to be understood universally.

According to the Promotional Products Association International, corporations spend close to $17.5 billion a year on this type of advertising - that's more than one-third of what's spent on TV.

A survey conducted for Promotional Products Association International (PPAI) by LJ Market Research reveals the power of promotional products by measuring how end users respond to organizations that use promotional products as part of their marketing mix. The survey, Promotional Products - Impact, Exposure and Influence: A Survey of Business Travelers at Dallas/Fort Worth Airport , was conducted by interviewing business travelers at DFW Airport. More than 71 percent of travelers indicated they had received at least one promotional product in the last 12 months. The study also showed that respondents' ability to recall the name of an advertiser on a promotional product they had received (76 percent) was much better than their ability to recall the name of an advertiser from a print publication they had read in the past week (53.5 percent).

Recipients of promotional products do remember the advertiser's name.

Business to business gifts are a good way to maintain a positive presence within your client base. They can build brand awareness within the professional community as well as amongst the general public. The next time you launch a new product or service, try introducing it with an imprinted business item. When gifting to clients within your industry, it is particularly important to choose a promotional item that relates to your field. For example, if your new service will save the public time and effort, introduce it with a customized clock or calendar.

By introducing a new product or service to clients with a clever business gift, you maintain a strong industry awareness of your company. It is also important to choose a quality method on the imprinted business items. Stick to laser engraved pens, debossed leather and vinyl items, and embroidered wearables.

Break away from the promotional item pack.

People tend to copy each other and assume that if most people do things a certain way, it’s the way to follow. Don’t follow, be a leader instead. People love pens, but the truth is, everyone of us has at least a dozen promotional pens right now with different company names and logos inscribed on them, and if yours is one of them, the next person most likely couldn't find it to call you if she searched all day and night. But if she had, say, a branded clock or a branded calculator on her desk, with your name and address on it, well, that she could definitely put her eyes and hands on - which means she would be able to call you. Bottom line, don't be afraid to do something different. Do a quick research, see what's trendy, look for novelties. If your budget permits, get something people will not throw away, like a USB flash pen, a promotional MP3 player, an imprinted watch, etc.

Try to deliver your promotional products in different, creative ways.

For instance, instead of mailing 1,000 mouse pads with your company logo on them, have 300 or so hand delivered. Hand delivering promo items will earn you enough business so that you can afford to hand deliver the next 300 and so on.

Let the professionals handle it.

Hire someone specialized to advise you and develop your promotions and promotional ideas for you. Let a design company create your promotion and print it for you. Yes, you'll spend a little more money upfront, but you'll have a promotion where all the pieces and parts work together to get your message and call to action across to your customers - which means your customers will be more likely to call you instead of the other guy.

Remember that there is more to an effective promotion than handing out one item.

There are pieces and parts to it. It takes a consumer an average of six to seven times of seeing and/or hearing your promotional message before they “get” it and take action of any kind - even saying "no thank you". No, it's not because your target audience is dumb, it is because they're constantly being bombarded with marketing promotions from all sorts of businesses. Know your target audience. If your promotion is for teens and young adults, for example, don't give them refrigerator magnets-they don't usually have refrigerators! At least not of their own yet. Give them a cool key chain or CD holder, give them something electronic, something trendy and colorful. If your target audience is leaders of corporate America, don't give them lottery scratchers or highlighter keychains, don't even give them a calculator, since they have accountants dealing with their numbers. Give them instead a nice writing set for their desks, give them some nice executive accessory that you know they will not be ashamed to display on their mahogany desks. And if you are really on a budget, a nice luggage tag, a passport holder with your company name, logo and address, or even a promotional golf ball will do. No matter how wonderful and unique a promotional item is, if it's given to the wrong target audience that has no use for it, they will have no use for you.

Written by: Andrei Smith

Andrei co-owns Bsleek - a company that specializes in web design, hosting, promotional items, printing, tradeshow displays, logos, CD presentations, SEO and more. Andrei has amassed an extensive technical knowledge and experience through his career as the CIO for a major travel management company and through his past careers in military research, data acquisition and airspace engineering. He also consults for Trinity Investigations, a New York based PI firm. --Bsleek - Quality promotional merchandise at affordable prices - Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Andrei_Smith

Picture: Getrecognized.com

PRIVATE LABEL TODAY

GROWTH & SUCCESS

Throughout Europe, private label is winning the loyalty of more and more consumers every day. According to a research study of seven countries conductedfor PLMA by MORI, the well-known public opinion consultancy, private label has achieved unprecedented acceptance with shoppers, who say that they are now more aware of private label and plan to increase their purchases of them.

The largest increases in the percentage of consumers who are more aware of private label were posted in the United Kingdom, Spain and France. Moreover, MORI reports that increased awareness is leading to more purchasing. The biggest gains in the percentage of consumers planning to increase their purchases of private label products were in the Netherlands and Germany.

Private label’s long-term future appears especially strong. Young consumers, those up to age 25, are by far the most ardent supporters of private label. Other key findings on consumer attitudes include:

• The quality of products are now virtually equal in importance to price as a factor in the selection of private label.
• Four out of 10 shoppers across Europe would like their supermarkets to carry a wider variety of private label products.
• About one quater of all shoppers' total market baskets are made up of private label products.
• More consumers say they are "less likely" to buy manufacturer brands than those who say they are "more likely" to buy them compared to a year earlier.

In actual sales, private label is increasing its market share in Europe's largest and most mature retail markets as well as in markets with historically low private label penetration, reports ACNielsen in PLMA's latest International Private Label Yearbook.

Sales of private label across Europe increased to record levels. For the first time, market share for private label has surpassed 40% in four countries - the United Kingdom, Germany, Belgium and Switzerland. Moreover, market share for retailer brands has reached an all-time high in two more of Europe's important retail markets, France and Spain, where private label now accounts for one of every three products sold.

Both the MORI research and the ACNeilson sales data document how popular private label is today in Europe and indicate that consumers are demostrating that future growth is going to be greater than anyone expected.

WHAT ARE PRIVATE LABEL PRODUCTS?

Private label products encompass all merchandise sold under a retailer's brand. That brand can be the retailer's own name or a name created exclusively by that retailer. In some cases, a retailer may belong to a wholesale group that owns the brands that are available to only the members of the group.

WHAT PRODUCTS ARE SOLD AS PRIVATE LABEL?

Major supermarkets, hypermarkets, drug stores and discounters today offer almost any product under the retailer's brand. Private label cover full lines of fresh, canned, frozen, and dry foods; snacks, ethnic specialties, pet foods, health and beauty, over-the-counter drugs, cosmetics, household and laundry products, DIY, lawn and garden, paints, hardware and auto aftercare.

WHAT ARE THE ADVANTAGES OF PRIVATE LABEL?

For the consumer, private label represents the choice and opportunity to regularly purchase quality food and non-food products at savings compared to manufacturer brands, without waiting for promotional pricing. Private label items consist of the same or better ingredients than the manufacturer brands, and because the retailer's name or symbol is on the package, the consumer is assured that the product meets the reatiler's quality standards and specifications.

WHO MAKES PRIVATE LABEL?

Manufacturers of private label products fall into three general classifications:

• Large manufacturers who produce both their own brands and private label products.
• Small and medium size manufacturers that specialise in particular product lines and concentrate on producing private label almost exclusively.
• Major retailers and wholesalers that operate their own manufacturing plants and provide private label products for their own stores.
  

Source: www.plmainternational.com