After months of being apart, promotional and branded products are the best way to keep connected with customers, employees and clients, especially in an increasingly online new world.
Promotional merchandise and gifting is good for your brand. It’s no secret: promo products are a low-cost, high-impact way of achieving brand impressions, awareness and maintaining positive relationships with clients, customers and employees. In a study of over 300 corporate gift-buyers, over 80% reported that gifts have improved relationships with employees and/or clients. Other benefits gained were making the recipient feel valued, improved customer loyalty and improved employee retention. Promotional merchandising is also the most highly regarded and popular type of advertising with under 55’s, and, as we move to a hybrid online/in-person working environment, there is even more added value in offering a physical item to keep your client or employee connected to your brand.
Of course, to reap the full benefits of promotional merchandise, you have to choose the right products. Aim to strike the balance between subtle brand promotion and thoughtfulness. You can print your company logo in neon lettering on 100,000 products, but if the gift is perceived as generic, tacky, or useless, any brand awareness is at the cost of positive brand association and potential good will.
How do you make the right choice? Read below for the top things to consider when organising promotional merchandise.
Who Are Your Gifts For?
Who the recipient/s of your gift are will have the biggest impact on your gift choices. If you’re giving out products to large numbers of potential customers, you want to maximise cost per impression. However, when organising gifts for clients or employees, a thoughtful product choice or personal touch can go a long way.
For example, is everyone in your team a coffee drinker? Why not organise branded reusable coffee cups? These are functional and sustainable gifts that will be genuinely useful to your staff everyday, both at home and at the office. The same logic applies for reusable water bottles – why not give the gift of proper hydration?
For valued clients or business associates, gifts like quality stationery will be an appreciated addition to their office desk. It will also keep your company right in the front of their eyes whenever they’re at work.
Or, go for something that they can use away from work, like the Cheese Board Set or Eco Wine Holder:
What is the Purpose of Your Branded Products?
Just like understanding who your recipient will be, planning for what you want to achieve with your merchandise gift is vital to maximise positive results. Are you looking to strengthen connections with business associates? Promote a new product? Bolster employee morale? Just like gift-giving in our personal lives, understanding how we want to make the other person feel is vital to organising a really good present.
For Branded Products, Usefulness is Key
There’s no point in giving a gift that’s well…pointless. Usefulness is the number one reason for keeping a branded product. A client will keep a highly useful gift for much longer, keeping your logo on display for the maximum amount of time. What would make the biggest positive impact on your recipient?
Australians are big fans of USBs; this study found that over a quarter of surveyed Australians rated USBs as the most useful item to receive as branded merchandise.
However, Australian women are twice as likely to find a branded bag useful than men. Given that promo bags in Australia generate roughly 5800 impressions per bag, they’re great branded products for both the gift-giver and receiver.
These keyrings are small but very handy to have around:
Finally, whilst most promotional product is kept for 8 months on average, umbrellas are kept for over a year. This makes sense, it’s always helpful to have an umbrella lying around. Having a high-quality and reliable umbrella with your company logo on it will create only positive feelings with your customer – especially if you’ve saved them from getting drenched on a rainy walk home.
What is Your Budget?
Whatever grand gifting plans you have, ultimately they have to fit within your budget. Maybe you’re putting together a gift bag with multiple items, or you need to pick one really great item.
Promotional merchandising is one of the most cost effective methods of advertising – especially when you calculate the number of impressions over a products lifetime – so you can make a big impact with a comparatively small budget. That said, sometimes splashing out on more expensive products where it counts can make a big difference.
Need some more guidance finding the right Promotional Merchandise?
Still have some questions about what promotional merchandise is right for you? Don’t worry, we have plenty more options available. Browse the full promotional merchandise range, or submit an enquiry and our Promotional Merchandise & Branding experts will be in touch to help find a solution for you.
Book in a consultation call
Do you need help working out the best uniform range for you and your business? We can help! To ensure we direct you to the best person in our team to discuss your requirements – whether your uniform and promotional needs are now or in the future – let’s learn a bit more about you. We look forward to speaking soon!
