Building a Consumer-Based Strategy with Unique Promotional Products

Many firms buy promotional products for clients, prospects, event attendees or the general public for the value that will be derived from it. Though, surprisingly enough the end recipient is often left out of the equation during the selection process. There are several critical dimensions that come into play when selecting promotional products for your audience. Promotional products tend to be a way of corporate life. In fact, research shows that promotional products have the lowest cost per impression of .005 cents compared to .019 cents for TV ads.

Keep in mind that not all promotional merchandise or products are created equal. Some will win, others will be lackluster while a fair share of the products will lose. In order to experience success with your merchandise and avoid the latter, read on for advice on building a winning consumer-based strategy with unique promotional products.

I. Define Your Target Audience

This is the most critical aspect of choosing your products. Get it wrong and everything else won’t matter. What kind of an audience are you seeking? Are they young, old? Lifestyle-driven? University educated? Action sports enthusiasts? Working class? The first step to a successful campaign is developing a profile or persona of your target audience. This way you can always ask yourself whether the product in question would appeal to a person who fits that description. You’ll need both the psycho-graphic as well as the demographic data of your targeted audience. These includes things like age, gender and geographical distribution.

II. Understand Which Items Are Trending

Most products have a specific audience for which they derive the greatest adoption. This will mean looking to brand ambassadors and opinion leaders in the community so that you can understand the needs, trends, and desires of your target audience. Trending items may give you an insight into the motivations of the group even if the items are not similar to the promotional products that you originally had in mind. Ideally, you want to identify pieces that are on trend that also align with the ethos of your brand to incorporate into your line up since they already have traction with the said market or audiences.

III. Focus On Your Target Audience

Once you define the audience you are trying to connect with and current merchandising trends, having a feedback and feed-forward conversation will be highly beneficial. One way to start the conversation is to host a small focus group discussion that can help you hone and narrow down on the products to use. Narrow your ideas down to a list of about 5 products that would best resonate with the group based on the feedback. This might mean leaving out a few of the products that may be trending in the popular market. Just because a product has popular appeal doesn’t mean it resonates with every segment of the market.

Another approach to deciding on the best products to help you achieve your goals is to turn to a promotional products agency for their expertise. Their insight into which items work and which products flop within specific audience segments and industry types will go a long way in developing an overall winning strategy for your brand.

IV. Choose Items That Bring Value

At the core of it, your promotional products will be successful to the extent that the product provides a direct and tangible utility to the audience. The promotional items' stickability depends on how well they meet an ongoing, recurrent need that your target audience has. The value could be quality, association, safety, value add or savings, etc. When driving the adoption of your promotional products it’s important that you highlight and trumpet the specific value that the user will derive from those items. The higher the perceived brand value the stronger the adoption by the target audiences.

Related: The Definitive Guide to Premium Brand Merchandising

V. The Impression You Want To Make

Branded merchandise is primarily used to drive brand visibility, brand value and connections with the audience. That’s why you’ll need to be very specific about the kind of brand perception you want to generate. It’s vital that whatever promotional items you settle on, they ought to be differential yet still relatable. Some products may be popular and even trending among the key demographics, but the kind of impression that they give is not relatable to the kind of brand perception you want ingrained among the people.

VI. Frequency of Product Use

The best branded products are those that have recurrent use. The recurrence of use increases the repeated exposure to the brand, which in turn fuels greater buy-in. A single use product limits the visibility and utility of the product and ends up limiting its promotional value. Ideally, the promotional product should be something that is used more than twice a week, preferably on a daily basis. For the product to achieve frequency and multiple use, it must be high quality, useful and meet their wants/needs/trends. Aim for promotional products that will be used no less than ten times.

VII. Maximize Your Return on Investments

An important thing you need to have in mind is the budget constraints. Central to your promotional decisions is balancing the cost-quality dynamic. You want to invest in items that are the best and most durable quality, to receive the highest number of impressions for your spend. It’s up to you to decide what your cost per impressions should be. As long as the Return on Investment (ROI) is still high you can opt for a wider variety of promotional products. Simple, quality products that have general use like power-banks, t-shirts, hoodies, hats, phone cases and water bottles tend to be the best promotional products.

VIII. Do Not Limit Your Theme

This is a tricky balancing act. On one hand you want to communicate a clear message and distribution plan, while on the other hand you also need to resonate across different segments in your customer base. This is especially critical if you are dealing with a diverse target audience across regions, age groups, and seasons. Do not limit your choice of unique products to those that resonate with one group alone. The most effective approach is to opt for the type of promotional products that have the widest acceptance possible and together tell a cohesive story about your brand.

IX. Implement An Effective Promotional Strategy

From the get-go your branded promotional products should be the kind that communicates empathy, reliability, connection and brand consciousness. They should also fit in with the existing distribution channels. That’s why your promotional products ought to be fun, creative and lifestyle-based. As much as possible, avoid jumping on the latest hyped-up fads, like fidget spinners, because they tend to lose their appeal after a short amount of time. If possible, you can co-promote alongside a national brand or a more popular and trending brand within the target market. Strategic affiliations are such a core part of utilizing promotional products.

X. Don't Be Invasive

Most brands choose promotional products that are loud. However, the most effective promotional products are those that are alluring, subtle and creatively done. They ought to be fairly non-invasive for them to have a lasting impact. Most importantly, the promotional products must have a certain sense of style and exclusivity that captivates your audience.

Final Thoughts

Your promotional products and distribution strategy should be structured in a way that engages consumers, loyal clients and potential buyers in ways that other channels can’t. The repeated exposure can powerfully reinforce your product’s visibility to the targeted end-users. That’s why your promotional products need need a sense of foresight, planning, creativity, and market insights regarding the recipients of the products. When done right, quality branded promotional products could be the most effective publicity that delivers disproportionately high ROI in terms of brand value and sales.