What are Promotional Products?

The question of what promotional products are may not be as self-explanatory as it appears to be. Roughly, a promotional product is anything used to promote a specific item, a particular business, or an idea. These can range from something as simple as a printed piece of paper announcing an upcoming sale to more elaborate things, such as contests that give away cars. In general, however, the term promotional product refers to a range of products that are bought in bulk with a company logo, slogan, or other form of advertisement printed on them. These products are generally designed to promote a business, but can be used to promote things such as new items, a sales program, or even just raise awareness.

Looking at Types of Promotional Products
When deciding what promotional products you want to use for your promotion it is important to understand the types of promotional products that are currently being used by various types of promotions. For example fundraising efforts, or awareness campaigns, tend to use bracelets, necklaces and ribbons. As another example banks use pens, stationary, and lollipops as a general rule. The reason this kind of information is handy to know is that it will give you and idea of what kind of product you want to use for your promotional efforts. If there is already some kind of icon associated with your business or campaign you might want to stick with that or in an effort to stick out you might want to do something completely different.

Determining Your Goals
Another way to look at what you might want to use for a promotional campaign is what exactly you are trying to accomplish with the giving out of promotional products. The reasons Banks use pens and stationary is both are associated with business. Banks are business institutions, so it goes to remind you that your bank is a business institution. Also if you see their name constantly you are much more likely to remain loyal, or perhaps even start using them instead of a competitor. So keep in mind these things when deciding what to use as a promotional product.

Grouping Promotional Products
Because promotional products come in an almost bewildering variety of forms, it might seem difficult to decide which to go with. However if you were to group them into a few groups this can help you decide what you want to go with based on what you hope to accomplish with your promotional campaign.

The first group would be the every day use group. These products are designed to be used by the customer on a daily basis. These types of products tend to range from the already mentioned pens to key chains and even wallets. Their main purpose is to be used. The next group would be best described as decorative. These types of products tend to be designed to be used as decorations. This group includes the time honored bumper sticker, window decals, and other similar things.

While the previous two groupings are some of the most common there are still several other groups that can be considered. Clothing is a very common promotional product. This is where a company or organization imprints their logo on a piece of clothing and gives it away. T shirts and baseball caps are the most common but Jackets, handkerchief’s and other clothing items are represented as well.

Another common group of promotional products are toys and stuffed animals. These tend to market towards children, but can be effective with an adult market as well. After all anything that creates a positive memory in a customer is a good thing.

The final group of promotional products that should be discussed is the strange and weird products that seem to have no other purpose than to grab attention. These range from laser pointers to weird light and sound machines. The purpose of these fun little things is simply to get a persons attention and then get a conversation started about where it came from.

In the end, nailing down exactly what a promotional product is can be quite difficult. Yet in reality almost anything can be used to promote your business when used in the right way. The primary purpose is always to generate attention for a particular business or product. Remember to have fun with it.