If you have not given any serious thought to promotional gifts for your company, it may be somewhat challenging to start. What should be the most important aspects to take into consideration before placing an order? What kind of items do people want, anyway? Advertising gifts are offered by a lot of companies and their product selection is so varied you can get dizzy. Understandably, the resources you allocate from your budget to brand promotion must be well-planned and bring profit to your company. How can you be certain that the branded products you purchase bring extra value? Even if you come up with a novel idea that could help you get noticed on the market, you will quickly discover that such products are already offered by quite a few other companies. Innovation does not save you from competition, since great ideas stand out from the crowd – they are quickly picked up and upgraded. In this article, we offer some tips that we hope will help you make the decision.
Focus on lifestyle
Let us look at the bigger picture and compare promotional products to traditional commercials you see on television. The best video ads sell a lifestyle. In fact, the characteristics of the specific product are not even that important. For example, how does a soda drink achieve widespread popularity? Everyone has their own personal favorite carbonated drink, and convenience stores are filled with all kinds of different bubbly beverages. However, a handful of brands have achieved worldwide recognition and become leaders on the market, for example Coca-Cola – they must be doing something right in their advertising. Indeed! Their commercials are centered on a lifestyle, as they sell a worldview, rather than a product. In their ads, you always see a group of friends spending quality time together, lovely weather, a carefree vibe and so on. The client is brought into the soda-world, so to speak, in a much broader way than just the sense of taste felt by drinking the soda itself.
Personal happiness works great as a marketing strategy. On top of that, it is a good idea to keep the societal dimension in mind. People are paying more and more attention to an environmentally friendly lifestyle, which means that ecological responsibility has become most important to your clients as well. Using products that are safe to nature is often a key philosophy. If your promotional products are made from recycled materials, there is a better chance of them being used. Your clients will know that a sustainable product is not only compatible with their own ecological worldview, but beneficial for the entire planet, which is being threatened daily by excessive consumerism. An eye-catching gift with a mission statement could be something made 100% from natural materials, for example a wooden cutting board with an engraved logo. That being said, products that are partly made from recycled materials are quite an important step forward, too. Take a look around your local convenience store: surely you will notice containers that emphasize partial recycling, for example water bottles that are 70% recycled. Such combinations of materials are sustainable but also sturdy, like PLA corn, that is rapidly becoming one of the most used fermented plastics in the world. Why not hand out branded coffee tumblers that are made from PLA corn and natural bamboo or cork fibers?
Tips for choosing a design
Finding the right design for your branded product can be a rather fast and intuitive process, especially if you are active in a very specific type of trade. For example, if your company works in the fishing industry, it is not so surprising if you choose a cool fish-themed look for your advertising gifts; a fish-shaped keychain and such. In certain business sectors, there may arise more questions regarding the overall concept of the product. Nobody wants something that looks bland and boring – such an item will most likely end up in the corner of a closet. Do not be discouraged, though. It is totally possible to achieve standout results at a pocket-friendly price. Check kaubad.ee to know more.
For finding the best color combinations, it is useful to take a thorough look around, so you can see what kind of strategies have already proven themselves to work. Certainly, you have noticed popular fast-food restaurants that use a lot of yellow and red in their branding. These colors are automatically associated with food: they make you feel hunger and rush you towards the restaurant shown in the ad – such unconscious targeting works like a charm! Lots of captivating patterns can also be found in nature. You might have heard that the combination of yellow and black is a common method of scaring away predators in the animal kingdom. For example, some poisonous frogs in the Amazon rainforest have black skin with yellow spots. These colors are also used by more common insects with a nasty sting – bees and wasps. We have a reflexive reaction to this color pattern – to put it simply, our attention sharpens. It would be best to notice these dangerous critters from far away, wouldn’t it? It follows that a combination of black and yellow works like a charm in advertising campaigns, as it helps bring packaging to the forefront on a fully stocked shelf in a store. All kinds of high-contrast and bright color combinations are not to be avoided, especially in summertime, when vibrant colors are trending the most.
If your brand is already using a specific set of colors that must be visible on your promotional products, finding the best match becomes easier. It is useful to note that you have no need to invent something brand new from scratch. Chances are that someone else has already designed something similar – nearly 100%. You will find tons of inspiration by looking at samples and making simple Google searches. It is always possible to work out the details later, according to your preferences.
The shape tells a story
Visually speaking, the overall shape of the promotional item is a key factor to take into consideration. Right off the bat, “streamlined” is a keyword to factor in (think about smooth-surfaced products in a wider sense, too). Products that have sleek attributes work on your customer’s senses even if the item does not necessarily have to be streamlined for it to function properly. It is no wonder that people once envisioned a future world where everything is shaped like a space shuttle. We associate smooth forms with efficiency, perhaps at a deeper level in our consciousness. In many contexts, rough edges bring impracticality to mind. In the first half of the previous century, the newest technological advancements still took up the entire room and resembled building blocks. Perhaps the roots of such an association lie there. Up to this day, if a technical device is distinctly angular, one cannot help but to perceive it as something primitive, slow and inefficient.
This line of thinking does not apply in every situation, however. On the tool market, it is often the other way around. A sturdy look can be preferable since it brings to mind heavy machinery and durability. Indeed – if you exert force on a tool, the most important thing is not breaking it. Imagine yourself going to a store to purchase a tripod for your new camera. Would you rather choose a delicate and light model that could be toppled over by a gust of wind, or would you prefer a bulkier and more stable model for your expensive equipment? Judging by the looks, you would most likely buy the model that appears stronger.
Regarding logistics, you should firstly think about the distance your customers will be covering with the promotional tool. On camping trips, it is practical to bring along compact and lightweight multi-tools. People usually hike in warm weather anyway, and they need to carry lots of other stuff too, including tents and extra clothes. It is most cumbersome to drag heavy gear for long distances.
Items that make people proud will find lots of use
Here is a quick experiment you can try at home. Think about those great products that you use daily and place these items on a table in front of you. They could be your favorite bottle, mug, bag, sporting accessory, why not even a clothing item. Do some of them have corporate logos printed on them? The products you set aside probably have some characteristics in common. They have been used extensively without breaking. You adore their colors and shape. It could be that you have gotten so used to them that you can hardly leave the house without placing them in your bag. The same formula applies to your clients – they have their own unique set of irreplaceable gear. If your company hands out an advertising gift that achieves such a high status in the eyes of the client, he or she will introduce this great item to countless people for years to come. The sturdiness of your product and the wisdom of your company will constantly be highlighted. If you have not given promotional items any thought up to now, it may even be dour if your client starts talking about their employer, but has no branded products to show for it, not even a pen. How much such a company really cares about their employees may even come into question. It is best to act now, since …
Promotional products are constantly in demand!
In 2019, the leading organization of corporate gift companies in the United States, Promotional Products Association International (PPAI), conducted a consumer survey. According to the results, branded items are very important indeed. 8 in 10 customers love getting them, and 7 wish they got them more frequently. As you can clearly see, your clients are restlessly waiting!
The results also show that you need not be afraid to offer wearables. We all have our own fashion preferences, but even if you are not the kind of person to wear a hat, for example, this does not mean that your clients are not interested in headgear. Clothes and accessories are the most popular advertising gifts of all – a whopping 29% of customers prefer something they can wear. A high-quality branded sweatshirt will be more memorable than a simple keychain. Be sure to check out our wide textile collection!
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