Trade shows are the perfect place to meet potential customers, as well as being used as a social networking resource. Obviously, your number one priority at the event should be to have a stunning, eye-catching trade show display that will appeal to your target market and intrigue them to visit your display booth. However, what incentives are you giving these visitors that will make them feel that it was worth their time to stop by your exhibit? This is where trade show giveaways come in. 

Promotional giveaway items should be used to make you more memorable, and should communicate your marketing message effectively. So, what items will you plan on giving away? Susan Friedmann, The Tradeshow Coach, explains that the first step is to figure out what your objective is. Once you have a clear goal, it should be much easier to decide which giveaway items would help you achieve this goal.

You should have different sets of items to be given away.  A pen with your company’s name and logo on it can get you remembered each time the pen is used.  However, for the potentially more serious customer, perhaps a package of eye catching literature on your company would be more appropriate.  After a few minutes of speaking with your visitor, you should be able to figure out into which category they fall.

These items should not be given to just anyone, but only to those people who have given you the opportunity to talk to them about your products or services. If every single person walking by your display booth is given your promotional item, you and your company are not going to be remembered. The chances are very high that many of the people who will take your product without speaking to you are not interested in what you have to offer.

It is very important to have your logo, contact information, and your marketing message imprinted to the item. This way, the visitors will remember who the promotional items were from long after the show is over. Handing out discount coupons that require the potential customers to contact your company to redeem them is a very effective way to increase your future sales.

How will you be able to track the effectiveness of these promotional items? One way is by doing post-show follow up calls and finding out if they remembered you and if the item was useful to them. Another way to track the success of these giveaway items is by having a meeting with your booth staff to find out if these items attracted a specific target audience to your booth.

As I stated earlier, it is extremely important to have a trade show booth that will draw people in to your booth. Nevertheless, trade show giveaways will give potential customers an incentive to actually speak to you and find out more about your products or services. 

If you are considering using promotional items to promotion your corporation brand, please contact us for more information. We have all of the expertise you’ll need. 

Provided by DMG Promotions.com

It’s official: Every advertising channel has been impacted by the economy. The Promotional Products Association International (PPAI) revealed in its annual study that sales of promotional products were off 6.89 percent last year.Despite the decrease, overall sales of promotional products totaled more than $18 billion in 2008, per PPAI’s 2008 Estimate of Promotional Products Distributor Sales. PPAI is a trade organization for the promotional products industry with over 7,500 members worldwide.

The industry had to contend with the double whammy of the economy and strict PhRMA codes, which limit how pharmaceutical companies can use products. Namely, only items that can be used for educational purposes can be given out to medical professionals.

“2008 was a tough year for many of our members,” said Steve Slagle, PPAI president and CEO, in a statement. “However, it was particularly interesting that the more tangible and personally engaging forms of advertising fared much better overall compared to more passive media like television, radio and newspaper, which all reported a sharp decline.”

Wearables were the overwhelming top sellers (307 percent) followed by writing instruments (9 percent), calendars (7.9 percent) and bags (6.9 percent).

Least-popular items included clocks and watches (1.4 percent) and food products (1.3 percent).

The most common programs that used promotional products were brand awareness (12.6 percent), employee relations and events (11.9 percent), and trade shows (11.5 percent). They were used the least for marketing research programs; less than 2 percent of companies used promotional merchandise for these types of efforts.

The study of 16,000 PPAI and non-PPAI promotional consultant companies was conducted by Richard A. Nelson of the Manship School of Mass Communication at Louisiana State University and Rick Ebel, principal of Glenrich Business Studies.

June 1, 2009

-By Stacy Straczynski, Nielsen Business Media

www.Adweek.com

Working on the theory that peeking into a person’s t-shirt drawer is akin to glimpsing into his or her past, Bowling Green, Kentucky-based distributor BlueCotton (UPIC: bluecott) surveyed 1,000 of its online customers asking, “What favorite, sentimental old t-shirts do you still own?” The answers spilled out like laundry out of a hamper.

It turns out that most people feel attached to their t-shirts, despite their age or demographic group. “A Little League championship, a first concert, a family vacation, a cherished alma mater, your own business-everyone’s list is like a snapshot of their personality,” says Mike Coffey, BlueCotton’s CEO.

Approximately 79 percent of those who responded still have an old t-shirt, and 788 have a combined 2,124 shirts. The study also found that:

•  Four out of five people hold on to at least one sentimental old shirt, and some keep two or three.
• Vacation tees are the most kept of any category.
• Those ages 18 to 24 are most likely to hang on to an old t-shirt, and they are also more likely to keep a t-shirt from a concert or political election.
• Post-graduate degree holders are twice as likely as those with only a bachelor’s degree to have a tee from a sorority or fraternity.
• People are more likely to keep a shirt they acquired as a sports spectator than as a sports participant.
• Employer or work t-shirts are most often kept by those in the highest income brackets.
• Shirts from church events are most cherished by women, non-whites and residents of the South. 

If you are considering using promotional items to promotion your corporation brand, please contact us for more information. We have all of the expertise you’ll need. 

Provided by DMG Promotions.com

In an economic downturn, even the savviest business owner’s instincts may be to scale back on new product offerings. Yet as the recession cycles onward, many companies are choosing to introduce new products as a way to boost revenue.

In the retail sector, the idea is to stimulate demand at stores, restaurants and showrooms with new products and line extensions. The opportunity to reach out to customers with additional advertising and promotions comes as a bonus with these new launches.

In our industry, the goal is to stay in the game with new products tailored for the times. “We’re looking for voids in the industry,” says Bruce Pitler, sales manager for Myrtle Beach, South Carolina-based supplier Emile Henry (UPIC: emileh), “for things that fit into someone’s home and fit their needs.” This spring Pitler’s incentive rewards company introduced a pineapple cutter, which makes easy work of creating pineapple rings at home, in addition to multiple other kitchen and home accessories intended to make eating in feel less like a sacrifice.

For Gail Ahlers, owner of Pawtucket, Rhode Island-based supplier Ahlers Designs Inc. (UPIC: AhlersDI), customers expect her to continue offering new goods, and she’s not about to let them down. “That’s what keeps my company on the front edge-having new things that keep my customers excited,” she says. “People look to me for new and innovative ideas.”

Currently Ahlers is planning to launch a new incentive product for companies looking to recognize staff members through a point reward system. She says she isn’t worried about purchasing new, untested inventory during a downturn because technology has revolutionized the way she advertises new product. “There are a lot more ways to instantly communicate with people than there were in the past,” she says. “You used to have to wait until a tradeshow.” Instead, Ahlers plans to promote her new product-online, immediately and for free-on LinkedIn and Facebook.

In fact microblogging site Twitter is making it easier for businesspeople such as Ahlers to sell their wares via social media. This spring Twitter partnered with Google AdSense to offer up tweets as ads. It works by displaying up to five Twitter posts across the AdSense network, which lets users input specific criteria for ad placements. When internet users click on the ads, however, it takes them to the company’s Twitter profile, not the company’s homepage.

If you are considering using promotional items to promotion your corporation brand, please contact us for more information. We have all of the expertise you’ll need. 

Provided by DMG Promotions.com