Promotional Products Do They Really Work?

I've been running my own promotion merchandise business for over twenty years and during that time the most frequently posed question is "Do promotional products really work?"
Well I can only confirm our pens write, our calculators add up, you can store your music on our flash drives and if you buy mugs from us they won't leak when you fill them with coffee or tea!
But I suspect that's not what the questioners are really asking!

So do promotional products work?
Every business will only succeed if it produces a healthy year on year profit. In order to that a business will need to expand, develop and retain customers and continually attract new clients. To state the obvious you're only going to attract new business if people are aware of your company and that means spreading the news.
Here in the UK and despite the economic recession, the promotional market is valued at around £712m. That's a significant industry and demonstrates that promotional gifts play an important role in the marketing activities of business.

The power of promotional products has been well documented in recent years with many companies seeing them as an integral element of the marketing mix, featuring in product launches, staff incentive programmes, corporate communications, exhibition promotions and other forms of marketing and brand awareness schemes.

Increasingly companies are seeing the development of their brand as a key factor in their Internet Marketing differentiation. The majority of companies now have a web site, sales brochures, business cards all of which carry their particular logo or brand design. Corporately branded merchandise is just part of that same process. Except that sometimes it can get into areas where the others can't.
The trick is to make your business gift unusual, useful or purposeful. It is not a per-requiste that you spend large amounts of money. For the best results ensure you're giving something that the recipient will find useful and wish to keep or use themselves, rather than discard it to the bottom of the desk drawer.
There are a host of web sites selling promotional products, and with so many online catlogues choosing and selecting the right products can be a daunting and sometimes confusing exercise. Take time to find out;
what the current trends are?

what are the most popular product ideas?
what are the top five promotional products?
are there any industry specific products that will help you stand out from the crowd?

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