No one wakes up in the morning with a burning desire to hand out coffee mugs to everyone that they meet and no one wakes up looking to be handed a mug. Yet people give away an average of $917,209,069 of drinkware according to the PPAI 2016 Sales Volume Study Summary. While no one is looking to hand out those mugs and no one is looking to be handed that mug, no one is ever spending that kind of money for a product that has no value. This means that sometimes the mug is the perfect product for you to hand out. The important point is to make sure that the mug or any other product for that matter will work for you in your business situation. Drinkware accounted for only 9.45% of the total spend in 2016 on promotional products so clearly no product is a one size fits all answer. Here is an example of a situation where a mug was the perfect solution – getting a phone call with a prospect
One of the most important things that a business person should do before ordering promotional products is to sit down with a professional, one who has been working with promotional products for many years and has an understanding of marketing as well. They should ask you a few questions such as: Who is going to be receiving the item? Why are they receiving it? What is the brand message that you want to convey? Where are these products going to be given out? Are there logistics involved in people getting the product home or back to their offices?
In order to make the most of your promotional products dollars spend some time with a professional. It should not take more than half an hour. This time invested will save you hours of time searching online trying to decide what to buy. It will also save you dollars, dollars wasted on the wrong product that does not effectively convey your message. It will also save you the money spent on time lost from your primary job function. Then there is the opportunity cost of what you did not accomplish because you were searching online. In addition, working with a promotional products professional will help you avoid giving out products that you are unhappy with the quality. They will know if the inks are compliant, if the product is USA made, if the bottled water is high quality spring water or purified municipal water that while saving you money might leave a bad taste in the mouth of your customers and prospects. Most of all that professional should be bringing you ideas and solutions to your marketing challenges.
If you are looking for help creating your next promotional products solution rather than handing out meaningless SWAG, call us, spend the few minutes and you will have a solution that will save you time and money and get you results.d dollars that year.