How important is your brand and more, importantly, how is your brand perceived in the minds of your target consumer? These two questions are very personal and carry with them a lot of weight for branding specialists and marketers. Today’s marketplace is crowded and businesses and organizations are consistently looking for creative tactics to achieve top-of-mind awareness with consumers.
Using promo products is an innovative method to increase brand awareness and market penetration IF the promo products created are NOT LAME. Using lame promo products will hurt your brand more than it will help your brand. Consumers today are more informed than in any other time in history and are not afraid to share experiences and opinions where they can. The scary part is that one lame promotional product can cause major brand damage that will take time and resources to correct.
In my time in this industry I have seen just about every kind of promo product and how they are being used by businesses both large and small. Creating a promotional product that reaches target audiences and helps increase their perceived value of the brand using the promo product is not difficult. It requires research, time, effort and clearly defined goals and objectives. Does this sound familiar? It should. This is the same process that goes into any other kind of marketing and branding campaign or program.
Here are five things that I know consumers think when it comes to promotional products:
Products are used for advertising
Products are cheap
Products carry little value
They have enough promo pens
They love getting free stuff
The research shows a drastically different style of consumer thinking when proper research, data collection, goal/objective setting and innovation is taken to create promotional products. Here are five incredible statistics that show the power behind using promotional products to increase brand awareness and give the consumer a memorable experience:
69% of recipients generally keep a promotional product if they have a use for it
If the product is trending, 89% of consumers can recall the name of the advertiser on the promotional product they received in the past 24 months
If received in a fun and creative manner, 83% like receiving promotional products with an advertising message on it.
36% of consumers will give the product to others once their use for it runs out- ensuring additional exposure for the advertiser.
56% of consumers think receiving a promotional product is an expression of gratitude (you win here)
Creating lame or out of date promo products will hurt your brand not help it. Be creative. Be innovative. Do the research needed and do not be afraid to think outside the box. Newsflash marketers and branding experts, Koozies are LAME, stop using them. You can do better than that!!!!