This might be obvious- Your Brand is everything. Your brand is face or first impression that consumers experience and growing your brands name is critical to the success of your company. Reaching consumers on and offline can be tricky and even frustrating at times. A powerful way to stay relevant and add value to the lives of your consumers is to create branded merchandise that promotes your brand and company.
When you think of historic brands like Nike, Pepsi, Coca-Cola, IBM and more, all have used custom branded merchandise, aka, promotional products, to increase brand awareness and give consumers a product that directly correlates to their products or services. It is not only the large companies that are using branded merchandise at a rapid pace, it is small businesses as well. The secret is that creating branded merchandise is highly cost effective and does not break the marketing budget, all while acquiring hundreds of brand impressions from one product.
Here are three powerful ways that branded merchandise promotes your company:
Highlights new products and services: To increase the awareness of your new products or services, it’s vital that you promote them through various platforms. Promote your new products or services at trade events in your local community. Distributing branded flyers, clothing, and lanyards of your new offers at sporting events in your local area is another effective way to create awareness about your new products or services.
Promote a solid reputation for your business: A good reputation can be a powerful tool for instilling your brand in the minds of your customers and potential clients. People have the tendency to remember good things that happen to them, or that someone has done. And gifts are no exception. There are various ways to touch lives within your community where you run your business. You can donate writing pads and pens to local schools. Offer gift baskets to newborn babies at various maternity hospitals within your local area. Sponsoring organizations with humanitarian initiatives can also be a good way to build reputation for your business.
Encourage your employees to become brand advocates: Your employees can collectively play a major role in spreading the word about your brand. Empower them by giving them some branded promotional items that they can give out to people in their various communities. Events like Expos and conferences can be ideal places for creating brand awareness. If you take part in various events, encourage your employees to give out to participants some of your branded items particularly pens, clothing, and lanyards. People will appreciate it.
In the over 100 years that promotional products have helped brands increase awareness and sales, companies large and small have come to learn one thing about these products- they help to build trust among consumers. When promotional products are created to add value and be useful for the consumer, the trust and brand reputation strengthens in the mind of the consumer. Be creative. Be innovative. Be remembered.