This year, Promotional Products Week runs between the 12th and 16th of September. This annual event is a celebration of the growing promotional products industry, to raise the profile of promotional products in the UK and encourage brands to use promotional gifts as a key ingredient in their marketing mix and understand the many ways they can improve brand awareness.
Whilst more traditional products such as mugs, notepads and pens remain hugely popular, the world of promotional products is developing, with more than two thirds of brands purchasing electronic goods to give as promotional gifts. For example, branded memory sticks and power banks are amongst the top ten most popular products that the British public like to take home.
So what makes a successful promotional product?
Findings from the British Promotional Merchandise Association suggest that there are a number of key factors involved in the success of a branded promotional product, based on what people value most when receiving a gift:
• Quality – 81% of people believe that a quality product is essential for any promotional product. By giving away quality gifts, brands are much more likely to make the consumer feel valued.
• Memorable – 71% of people said that a promotional gift should be memorable. By choosing a product that will not be easily forgotten, people are much more likely to remember the brand giving it away.
• Relevance – 69% of people value the relevance of a promotional product. The product given as a gift should always be relevant to the consumer, but also to the brand, so as not to alienate.
• Usefulness – 65% of people value the usefulness of promotional gifts. By providing a product that can be used again and again, brands are much more likely to impress consumers and develop a relationship with them.
• Long desk life – 31% of people said that a long desk life is an important factor for branded promotional products.
By focusing on these attributes and the target audience in question, brands stand much more chance of achieving success with their promotional product marketing efforts. It’s also important to consider the purpose of the item in question; is it to help develop existing customer relationships, or to form new ones and win new business?
Stand out promotional packaging
When it comes to making sure promotional products truly stand out from the crowd of other gifts, the right promotional packaging materials are essential. Innovative promotional packaging can play an important part in making a simple but useful gift truly memorable. This could be through printing eye-catching designs on the box, using a unique box shape or by using different textured packaging materials to emphasise the quality of the product.
A great gift combined with innovative promotional packaging can be a highly powerful marketing tool to raise brand awareness. If you are looking for promotional packaging solutions for your promotional product giveaways, you can contact The Packaging Experts by calling 01256 352415 or email info@thepackagingexperts.co.uk.
