One of the ways to make your message stick is through the use of the ad specialty item, also known as the promotional product. In order to be most effective at promoting your business, your ad specialty item or promotional product needs to be:
- Useful – if it isn’t useful, what happens to your item? It goes in the trash.
- Durable - so it won’t wear out the first time it gets used and end up where? In the trash.
- Visible - if you are going to spend good money on a useful, durable item, you want folks to see your message.
I used to work at a company that got all the employees shirts embroidered with the company name and logo. The shirts were black. So was the embroidery. What was the point?
There are thousands of ad specialty advertising items with everything from matchbooks, mugs, mouse pads, jump drives, key chains, sunscreen, and note pads. You add your logo and as much message as will fit or is reasonable. Spend a little or spend a lot.
I have dozens of t-shirts from Carter Blood Care and ball caps from 20 companies, but I don’t really wear them much, except to work in my yard. They last a long time, but nobody sees them but me.
I have a branded umbrella from a truck line that I put in my wife’s car years ago, in a pocket in the door. It is an extra, just in case. If it is raining when she starts, she has another umbrella she takes because she would rather use it. But if she gets caught in a surprise shower or we have a full car, it gets used. Maybe three times a year. The brand is printed on the outside of the top of the umbrella, so if somebody is watching us run in from the rain, maybe they see the logo before we fold up the umbrella, but I couldn’t tell you they are candidates for shipping freight.
I have a calendar personal planner that I use all year long. And I do use it, sometimes more than once a day, and for a whole year. Maybe even 13 months. Desk calendars are similar, but nobody sees mine but me. It is not a bad program, but they do have a shelf life. Don’t order a five-year supply of gimme’ calendars all for the same year – and be sure to give them out close to the end/first of the year. They don’t make for an ongoing marketing program throughout the year, but they do have their place.
Pens are good. They can be cheap or really nice. They are useful, and sometimes take on a life of their own going from person to person until they get stored in a drawer and forgotten for months or years or trashed when they run out of ink or quit retracting right.
I grew up in east Tennessee. My dad ran a truck line. The company logo was red, white and blue. For nearly thirty years my dad gave out orange and white pens with his company name and slogan but not his logo. What they did have was the Tennessee football schedule printed on them. He combined the short shelf-life of a calendar with a fairly durable pen. There was a seriously limited geographic audience since folks in Georgia and Kentucky weren’t interested in UT football. And he ignored his logo. I told my dad he was doing it all wrong, but his customers in Tennessee asked for the new pens every year, starting in the spring. He started giving them out way ahead of football season and folks kept up with them till the season was over. He asked what was wrong was that? Go Vols.
The next article in this series will be about using a 21st century ad specialty item to make your message stick.
