I’m asked all the time how to select an awesome promotional product. Sometimes “find me something amazing” is the only direction a client gives us. But what goes into finding the perfect promotional item? It’s specific to the company and the audience. What is perfect for your company, may not work for another company.
What Factors Affect a Good Promotional Item?
When selecting the perfect promotional marketing item for a client, we always want to know the following things:
- What are you trying to accomplish with this item? Name recognition? More sales? Advertising? These all affect the item you should choose.
- Who are you trying to reach? Eighteen-year-olds will likely not want the same things their grandparents do.
- What’s your brand personality? You shouldn’t have a silly giveaway (like a flying monkey) if you operate a one-hundred-year-old investment firm. Your swag should match your company’s personality.
- What event are you going to? Again, the event affects the swag. Swag at the Oscars is different than that of a home show.
- What’s your budget? The budget is the last thing we ask because although it’s important, there are a lot of options available at many different price points. The other factors are a lot more important in selecting the ideal swag.
Now that we know what to think about in selecting the ideal promotional item, let’s explore some things you need to keep in mind.
How to Select the Perfect Promotional Item for Your Organization
The following comparison item questions will help you think about what the perfect promotional piece for your organization, audience, and event might be. 
To eat or not to eat?
Many companies enjoy giving away food. From wrapped candy bars to branded K-cups, food is always a popular giveaway but it works best when your goal is to simply make a favorable impression or use it as an act of goodwill.
You should not use it if you are a brand new company trying to get your name out there because once it’s eaten, you’re branding is gone.
Tasty suggestions: mints in a branded tin or a pretzel fishbowl.
Practical versus fun
I often tell clients that your giveaway should be useful or fun. You’ve scored something amazing if it’s both. If you give away junk, it will end up where junk goes (in the circular file) and that’s not good for your brand. If you give your audience something useful or fun, they’re more likely to keep it and enjoy it.
Again, fun is a good thing but keep your brand in mind when selecting an item. You don’t want to select something that doesn’t fit your brand personality unless you are trying to rebrand yourself and that swag is part of it.
Practical solutions: branded calendar
Fun Idea: Flying quacking duck
In it to win it
Are you looking for swag that will get you through several trade shows or a seasonal marketing campaign? For instance, banks often offer fun, seasonal items for opening an account. They’re looking for something to use for a few months or even a few weeks. On the other hand, some companies spend every week at a new trade show so they want something that will work for a year or longer.
Which you decide to do depends on your audience in. For instance, if your audience could run into you at different events within weeks of each other, you may want to vary your giveaways.
Any salesperson will tell you that it takes multiple touch points to reach customers. Don’t waste them on your customers telling you “no, thank you” because they already have what you’re giving away.
ThinkQuik Examples of Cool Promotional Products
We’re different than the average online swag shop. When most people think about promotional marketing and items, they turn to an online store and search by budget/per piece price until something catches their eye. It often surprises me that people are willing to throw down several hundred dollars or more from a company whose product is a half-world away and comes over on a slow boat.
They don’t think about transit time and the possibility that their item won’t arrive by when they need it. Hey, delays happen. But what does that mean for you if your product doesn’t make it to the next trade show?
That makes the cost savings of the swag seem less valuable.
But ThinkQuik’s customers are a lot more discerning and savvy. They know that a missed deadline is a lot more costly than the swag itself.
They opt for the peace of mind that comes with a full-service promotional products company. We get as involved as you’d like from coordinating schedules to proofs to helping you select the perfect item. ThinkQuik customers get the best swag on-time, on budget, and exactly as they ordered every time. And best of all, they know they don’t have to worry about the details. At TQ, we’re an extension of your marketing team, handling things so you don’t have to.
Here are a few of the projects we’ve been involved with recently.
Make Your Employees Feel Special
When you’re a global company with multiple office locations, some overseas, it can be difficult to make employees you never see feel special and appreciated. Try an appreciation package like this company did for their Chicago-based team. Employees love branded items that they can use and show off to friends and family. They make people feel a part of the larger team.
Swag Can Bring in Revenue
We talk a lot about how branded items are great for recognition but that doesn’t mean that you can’t make money on them. Check out the items we did for Alligator Attraction. They sold these t-shirts, postcards, and bumper stickers.
Would your fans pay for swag? They might. Get to know your audience or test a few items. You might be pleasantly surprised.
All Your Tradeshow Needs
There’s a lot of peace of mind that comes from working with the same vendor for all of your trade show needs. This client placed us in charge of their koozie swag, team shirts, and branded backdrop. We just love how it turned out. Don’t you?
We hope this article spurred some ideas for you but if you’re still considering your options, don’t worry. The team at ThinkQuik has plenty. Just give us a call and talk to us about what you want to accomplish.
We’ll take it from there. It couldn’t be easier.
We call ourselves ThinkQuik but that’s only because ThinkQuikEasyAwesomeandRight seemed too long.
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