Do communications professionals recognise the power of promotional merchandise?

Many do, but unfortunately, just as many if not more, still don’t, or every campaign would be a success.

The fact is there is still a tendency today to forget this seemingly unimportant item during the planning stages of a marketing or communication programme.  Books and educational institutions don’t seem to take this multi billion international market seriously as many continue to devote only a few pages to the topic.  And lastly agencies employed by companies look upon as beneath them it as just a cost and will either completely ignore it from their campaigns or push merchandise companies away with complex sales and marketing jargon in a bid to drive price lower and lower.

Due to the resulting disdain surrounding merchandise, many are forced to move quickly past, what is a fantastic opportunity to communicate directly and personally with their audience and in return gain personal endorsement for their product or idea.

Smart marketers all know that raw testimonials are one of the most powerful endorsements of a product, so when a customer or buyer uses promotional merchandise they are providing that company with effectively a free testimonial.

Many industries know the power of merchandise items, but even then they are not always integrated with marketing, PR, advertising or other campaigns so that they can contribute to the overall goal.

Often it becomes just a bolt on to the sales effort, used as an inducement to increase order size, which can work but the trade off is an altered perception that the item is now expensive (by the company providing it) and has little or no value by the recipient (company or individual) when exposed to it in this way.

In fact this freebie now becomes a bribe, which when over used, will be an expected part of the sales process and will therefore not motivate customers to buy without it.

The one valid argument for using giveaways in this way is to compress the sales cycle.

So if you know why you are using promotional items, the pros and cons of the two types of method of application a) as a freebie, disconnect from the sales, but not the process or b) directly part of the sale close then you probably recognise the power of promotional merchandise.