With the Christmas rush almost over for another year, attentions in marketing departments will be turning towards 2012 and the year that is about to arrive. For many that will mean another 12 months of restricted budgets as the economy continues in its long running attempt to get back on its feet, and a little austerity will lead to the need for some creative thinking when marketing strategies are devised for 2012.
When money is tight your marketing strategies will need to deliver and when there isn’t the money to throw at a project, you will need to focus more sharply on campaigns that will have the best chance of success.
Why Promotional Products?
If you are looking for the most effective way of fulfilling your marketing brief, then promotional products have a proven track record of effectively promoting companies.
Recent data released by the British Promotional Merchandise Association (BPMA) shows just how effective promotional products can be at raising brand awareness and making a lasting impression on their recipients.
84% of those questioned said that a branded promotional gift increases awareness of a company’s brand, showing that if your goal in 2012 is to raise awareness of your company, promotional items can have an extremely positive effect.
The results also showed that the average time that a successful promotional product was kept for is nearly 3 years, which will give your promotional products a life that may far exceed your current strategy.
Which Promotional Products?
The promotional items that will prove the most successful for your company will depend on many factors such as what is relevant to your company and what is relevant to your audience. But there are some promotional items that have proven to be more successful than others and these have been uncovered by the results of the survey.
If longevity is what you are looking for then there are some clear winners, with items such as mugs, USB drives and pens shown to be the products that are kept for the longest period of time.
The survey also showed that receiving promotional products can have a direct influence on the buying intention of your recipients, with 79% of people saying that they are more likely to do business with the company who they received the promotional products from.
While budgets are still squeezed and the focus being very much on the quality of your campaigns rather than the quantity, promotional products are proven to have a long lasting, powerful effect on your recipients. They have been shown to improve brand awareness as well as enhance the buying intentions of recipients, making promotional items a safe decision while the economy continues to struggle.
You can see all the results from the BPMA research on our website.
Posted by Alan Grainger
