Choosing the Right Promotional Product (Step 5 and 6)

Here is our list of questions that we must answer when choosing the perfect promotional item:

1) What do we want to happen?
2) How will we measure success or failure?
3) What is our target demographic?
4) How will we deliver the item?
5) How much can we spend?
6) How quickly do we need the product delivered?

Details…Details...Details

Real estate agents know (I used to be one of them) that it does them absolutely no good to show someone a house that they cannot afford to buy. Similarly, it does me no good to show you products that are either too expensive or too cheap for your budget. One of the strengths that promotional products have over all other types of advertising is perceived value. They are actually worth something to your prospect. Sometimes they are worth more than you actually spent on them! How much use or pleasure will your prospect get from a newspaper or television ad or any other type of ad for that matter? Absolutely none! With advertising specialties you are giving them something tangible, and in most cases, enduring. A stainless travel mug or an flash drive or a sleeve of golf balls or a pound of Godiva all have value. They are things that your prospect will probably go out and spend their own money on if you don’t give it to them. THEY ACTUALLY WANT THESE THINGS!.

Now, cost, quantity and speed are all intertwined in the budget equation. Yes, we can sometimes produce just 1 or 2 of an item if that is all you need. However your cost per piece will be significantly more than producing 50, 100 or 10000 of them. Your cost for just one 11 oz white ceramic mug with a full color imprint is somewhere between $11 and $15 plus shipping. If you can find a use for 72 full color mugs, then your cost per piece would drop to somewhere around $3 each plus set up and shipping. That is a savings of $7 per piece, so it behooves us to think of other ways we can use them...door prizes, gift baskets, sales contest awards, thank you gifts filled with candy, board of directors meeting or whatever.

Yes, we have a lot of products that can be produced very quickly...some we can ship tomorrow if we have everything ready by 10 am today. But please don’t wait too long. Not only will the production cost be more, but the shipping will be more as well. Shipping 144 mugs via UPS ground might cost you $90. Shipping them UPS Second Day will probably cost around $190 while UPS Next Day will cost $350 or more. That is more per piece for shipping than for the mugs themselves.

That's it. These are the things we have to know in order to help you pick the best promotional products for your particular needs.

Steve Raggo
www.raggo.com

Choosing The Right Promotional Product (Step 4)

Here is a list of the questions we must answer when choosing the perfect promotional item for your campaign:

1. What do we want to happen?
2. How will we measure success?
3. What is our target demographic?
4. How will we deliver the item?
5. How much can we spend?
6. How quickly do we need the product delivered?

Delivery method is a very important consideration when choosing an ad specialty for your campaign. Promotional products are most commonly handed out at sales calls, trade shows or expos or at the front counters of offices or retail establishments. Other delivery options include direct mail or through third pardies - like donation them to non-profits or business organizations for their golf tournament or other event.

The delivery method helps determine the size, shape, weight and fragility of the advertising item we will choose. A customer once decided that they wanted to send champagne flutes out to all of their customers as a thank you on their business’ anniversary. Flashing red lights started going off in my head as we talked this out on the phone. While an attractive gift with a lot of perceived value and promotional endurance, wine glasses and champagne flutes are bulky and highly breakable, especially when we are ’sending them out.’ When I asked how they were going to deliver 2000 champagne flutes to their customers the only response was…”Oh, wow.” We decided to send out a brass key tag with their anniversary logo instead, along with a post card invitation to their Anniversary Celebration directing the customer to bring the card (filled out with their contact information) into their nearest branch on that day for a free anniversary flute.

Steve Raggo
www.raggo.com

Choosing the Right Promotional Product (Step 3)

Here is our list of questions we must answer when choosing the perfect promotional item:

1) What do we want to happen?

2) How will we measure success or failure?

3) What is our target demographic?

4) How will we deliver the item?

5) How much can we spend?

6) How quickly do we need the product delivered?

Taking Aim

We have discussed what we want to happen as a result of our promotional campaign and how we will determine if we are successful. Now a little bit on the target. In many cases, the people receiving the promotional products and the products' targets are not the same. Banks, police and fire departments, medical providers and most non-profit organizations have become quite adept at this sort of indirect approach. Advertising balloons or coloring books featuring a popular theme with the organization logo prominently displayed are generally not handed out with the hope of the child opening a bank account or making a donation, but can help influence the parent to do so.

If you are giving an anti-drug presentation to a classroom of pre-teens or you are participating in a "Career Day" at the local high school, your promotional products can be handed to the student who will carry them home and end up influencing the parent later that day.

You know your prospects better than we do. Imagine where your prospect is when he or she realizes that they need your product or service. Are they at their desk, in their kitchen, in their car or are they somewhere else? The most effective product we can offer to them - the one that will have an impact on them in that place at that time - is one that is in their vision at that moment.

Say, for example, you own a pizza place and want to increase deliveries to a neighborhood nearby. The neighborhood is made up mostly of young commuters who arrive home in the evening hungry and tired from their work and commute. They open the refrigerator and think to themselves, “There is nothing here I want to go to the trouble of cooking” They close the refrigerator and see the magnet from Donato’s Pizza holding up their To Do List, and Donato's Delivers! No looking through the phone book. No need to go online to find a restaurant. No need to find the newspaper to see who has a special. No need to cook or to drive! Just call Donato's.

One of the strengths of promotional products is their endurance. Check out your refrigerator. I still have a magnet given to me by a real estate agent with a 1999 calendar on it!

Steve Raggo

www.raggo.com