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?
Read More: artsoft solutions
Showing posts with label link building. Show all posts
Showing posts with label link building. Show all posts
Tuesday, December 6, 2011
5 Marketing Facts That May Shock You
Online Services is the most important aspect of any business. You must give it the attention it deserves if you are to thrive in the long run. However, much as marketing is crucial, some people do not know basic facts about marketing. Here are just five.
1. Failure can occur.
One should expect failure and when it happens should be accepted. A product could fail to take effect in the market. Your strategy may fail to resonate with the consumers. Product or technology may be obsolete. However, instead of fighting to win a battle that is clearly skewed against you should accept the inevitable and move on.
2. Hyped products are no always successful.
Publicity does not necessarily equate to success. There countless products that were highly hyped but never took off.
One is reminded of the hype that went into new companies that promised to make supermarkets obsolete. One was told that you could get all you needed from you house. Despite the press taunting these companies that made their owners paper millionaires and billionaires, they never survived in the long run. Walmart is still standing and going strong.
3. You need huge resources to survive.
Without enough money, your ideas won't take off the ground. You need a lot of resource to market your ideas. It requires money to put all structures in place before you even get the first sale. It requires big bucks to sustain the structure before you make a profit. Some businesses are like the Chinese bamboo. It is planted watered for 4 years without any signs of growth. In the fifth year in grows 90 feet in six weeks.
4. Honesty pays.
Your market will be positive if you admit a flaw in your products. This means being brutally honest with your marketing strategy and goals. Apparently this increases your credibility.
This is one aspect of marketing that is difficult to implement. To accept that you are selling flawed products is counter intuitive. Telling the market so sounds suicidal. However, some companies have done it with great success.
Listerine did it when they and acknowledged that their mouthwash tastes terrible. Avis admitted that they were number two. Volkswagen acknowledged that their car was ugly.
5. The market is unpredictable.
You can't predict the future. The future is always volatile. This means that though you must plan, your plans must be flexible enough to accommodate changes that come along the way.
It is difficult to have long ranges plans that can be implemented without change. The reasons are numerous but the main ones are: you can't know the competitors plans; you can't predict technological changes; you can't predict political changes; you can't stop or control the pace of powerful unexplained trends.
1. Failure can occur.
One should expect failure and when it happens should be accepted. A product could fail to take effect in the market. Your strategy may fail to resonate with the consumers. Product or technology may be obsolete. However, instead of fighting to win a battle that is clearly skewed against you should accept the inevitable and move on.
2. Hyped products are no always successful.
Publicity does not necessarily equate to success. There countless products that were highly hyped but never took off.
One is reminded of the hype that went into new companies that promised to make supermarkets obsolete. One was told that you could get all you needed from you house. Despite the press taunting these companies that made their owners paper millionaires and billionaires, they never survived in the long run. Walmart is still standing and going strong.
3. You need huge resources to survive.
Without enough money, your ideas won't take off the ground. You need a lot of resource to market your ideas. It requires money to put all structures in place before you even get the first sale. It requires big bucks to sustain the structure before you make a profit. Some businesses are like the Chinese bamboo. It is planted watered for 4 years without any signs of growth. In the fifth year in grows 90 feet in six weeks.
4. Honesty pays.
Your market will be positive if you admit a flaw in your products. This means being brutally honest with your marketing strategy and goals. Apparently this increases your credibility.
This is one aspect of marketing that is difficult to implement. To accept that you are selling flawed products is counter intuitive. Telling the market so sounds suicidal. However, some companies have done it with great success.
Listerine did it when they and acknowledged that their mouthwash tastes terrible. Avis admitted that they were number two. Volkswagen acknowledged that their car was ugly.
5. The market is unpredictable.
You can't predict the future. The future is always volatile. This means that though you must plan, your plans must be flexible enough to accommodate changes that come along the way.
It is difficult to have long ranges plans that can be implemented without change. The reasons are numerous but the main ones are: you can't know the competitors plans; you can't predict technological changes; you can't predict political changes; you can't stop or control the pace of powerful unexplained trends.
Read More: artsoft
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