Promotional Items Sales Increase for 3rd Straight Year

A new report from Promotional Products Association International shows that in 2012 promotional
product sales volume has increased 4.38% over 2011. That's a total of 18 billion in sales volume for 2012. This is now the third year in a row that promo product sales volume has increased, and online sales of promotional gifts has increased by 20%. The biggest selling products are apparel (28.9%), followed by bags (8.7%), writing instruments (8.6%) and finally mugs and glasses (7.1%).

Despite the economic downturn and an increased reliance on digital marketing, promotional products are still going strong. It's funny, as it's one of the oldest marketing tactics around and yet, if sales volume over the past few years is any indication, promo products continue to be an effective way to increase brand awareness and earn new customers. The increasing number of online sales only further indicates that promotional products have been able to adapt to a new digital marketing world.

While just about every other tactic has been declared "dead" at some point (everything from print advertising to SEO and e-mail) promotional products seem to be immune to these claims thanks to the versatility of the products. When you have literally thousands of gifts to choose from and they can be customized in a wide variety of ways, there's always a way to create an effective promotional product campaign (plus, giving away gifts for free also helps!).

The categories of best selling products also delivers some interesting insights as well. Apparel is by far the most popular, which comes as no surprise. Think about your own collection of t-shirts and hats- How many of them are promotional giveaways? Customized t-shirts and hats are unique in that they can be used as both giveaways to create brand awareness or as uniforms for employees or team members. Tote bags comes in second, just barely beating out writing instruments by a fraction. Tote bags, apparel and writing instruments are popular as they all are used frequently, and are often times seen by many different people. That kind of exposure makes promotional products so unique. Of course, as I like to say, these numbers are encouraging but the only way to know if promotional products will work for your business is to try them yourself. Visit Our promo product catalog and see what we can do for you!

The Gift That Keeps Giving

The real value in promotional products isn't just in that first gift giving opportunity. If anything, the value comes in those dozens of impressions your product receives later. The person who receives the gift will usually show it off, or use it in a very public way (like a t-shirt, or using a tote bag at the grocery store). Certainly this doesn't apply to all promotional gifts, as some are only used once, but these gifts can also benefit from word of mouth. If the gift is good enough, the recipient will talk about it, and most of the time they will remember your brand.

But does this influence what promotional products businesses buy? Let's take a look at some statistics and find out:

The top 5 most popular promotional gifts are:

• T-shirts: 31%
• Pens: 10%
• Tote Bags: 7%
• Mugs: 6%
• Keychains: 6%

(statistics from Advertising Speciality Institute Council)

So what do these gifts tell us about how businesses use promotional items? T-shirts, are by far the most popular product, and they're extremely beneficial as the recipient will hopefully wear it many times (and be seen wearing it). Pens and mugs are often shared, or are frequently used at work, again resulting in dozens of impressions. While keychains may not be as popular, the number of impressions is still high (every time you start your car, enter or leave your home etc.), which is how it makes the top five.

So we know what businesses are buying, but how many impressions do these products actually receive? Let's take a look at another chart from the Advertising Speciality Institute Council:

 

Interestingly, tote bags have a significantly higher impressions count than all other form advertising (the chart takes other media such as radio and TV in to account as well), and strangely tote bags only account for 7% of all promotional product sales. Now, this may be because not all business owners feel that tote bags are appropriate for their business, whereas t-shirts are more universal. Both number of impressions and relevance to your brand are factors to be considered while choosing your promotional product.

Some Stats and Some Advice on Promotional Product Marketing

I recently came across and article from NYtimes.com, all about the surprising power of promotional products. Promo products certainly are "suprising" and have a way of sneaking up on people. Often times when a person receives a branded gift, they don't have a need for that company. But eventually when they do, they've been exposed to that product several times and we'll definitely remember them when it comes time to buy. It's almost like subliminal advertising. They're just happy to get a free tote bag, and don't even think twice about how they're looking at your logo everytime they go food shopping. But more than that, the New York Times article offered up some impressive stats about promotional items...

• Business owners are spending about $20 billion a year on promotional products.
• In some cases, when a personalized gift is included as part of a direct mail campaigns the response rate nearly doubled.

So what does this mean for us? Well, knowing that $20 billion (that's billion with a "b") is being spent every year on promotional products alone is certainly some indication about the power of giveaways. But that second is really special. Promotional products are so persuasive because users are more likely to work with you if they feel like they owe you the business. And often times a free gift can do just that.

So it's good to know that custom products can be effective, now what about some advice on launching your campaign....

• Think Long Term: Customized food or plastic water bottles are really great for seasonal promotions or specific campaigns, but you really want to choose a product that will be used for a long time, thus increasing the number of potential impressions for that product.
• Don't Be Afraid to Go Old School: USB drives and stylus pens are very popular, but sometimes the tried and true products are the way to go. Gifts like mugs and calendars are often times used for a long time (how many promotional mugs do you have in your cabinet right now?) and can go a long way in persuading a potential customer.

Want to learn more about how promotional products can help you? Give us a call today: (888) 624-5888 or visit: http://promotionalitems.lorrainegregorycorp.com/http://promotionalitems.lorrainegregorycorp.com/ProductDetails/?productId=4973751&tab=Tile&referrerPage=ProductResults&refPgId=503290308&referrerModule=PRDREB