Promotional products have proven to be one of the most effective tools in advertising.  They are particularly useful  to promote company, product or brand name; increase customer good-will, referral and traffic; build employee incentives and recognition; repeat business; mail ordering, fundraising, trade shows and so on.

Numerous independent research conducted by several universities and independent research centers have confirmed the positive power of promotional products.  It has been clearly demonstrated that promotional products as part of the advertising campaign has significantly improved business and product positioning in the market.  The following are a few examples of such results [used with permission from Promotional Products Association International, a non-profit organization]:

Study - Food Delivery Service - 1993 - Conducted by Southern Methodist University.
Customers who received promotional products reordered up to 18% sooner than those who received coupons and up to 13% sooner than those who received no promotion.

Customers who received promotional products also averaged up to 18% more orders than those receiving coupons and up to 13% more than those who received nothing.

In summary, customers who received promotional products reordered more quickly and ordered more often that those who received no promotional products.

Customer Goodwill: Foster customer goodwill (positive attitudes and feelings) toward a company and its salespeople with Promotional Products. 

Promotional products foster customer goodwill (positive attitudes and feelings) toward a company and its salespeople. This study, completed by Baylor University in 1992, involved a textbook publisher sending 4,000 educators either: (1) pocket calculator plus a letter, (2) a lower-priced highlighter pen plus a letter, or (3) a letter only.

F I N D I N G S

- Customers who received a promotional product expressed more good will toward the company and its salespeople than those who did not receive a promotional product.

- The attitudes of those who received the calculator were consistently more positive than for those who received the less expensive highlighter pen.

- Customers who received the pocket calculator or the highlighter pen rated the proficiency and ability of the sales representatives as 34% and 16% (respectively) higher than those who received only the thank you letter.

- On questions relating to the customers' personal feelings toward the company and its sales representatives, customers who received the calculator scored 52% higher than the letter only group (see table)

Customer Referrals: Increase customer referrals using Promotional Products.

Promotional products help encourage to provide you with the names of friends and associates whom you can contact in the future. A 1993 study by Baylor University found that customers who receive promotional products are more willing to provide these leads than customers who don't receive promotional products.

This study was conducted with 20 Mary Kay beauty consultants, half of whom distributed promotional gifts (imprinted lint removers) to customers; the other ten offered no promotional gifts. Both groups then asked customers (200 in all) to refer the names of acquaintances. Findings are presented below.

F I N D I N G S
Customers who received a promotional product were 14% more likely to provide leads than those who did not.

- Salespeople who gave promotional gifts to their customers received 22% more referrals than salespeople who did not use promotional products.

- 40% of the salespeople who used the gifts commented on how well the gifts were received by their customers.

- Providing promotional gifts to customers increases the likelihood of them providing your salespeople with business referrals, and increases the number of leads generated. Used within a one-time promotion to expand your customer base or as an approach to insure the continuous growth of your business, promotional products are effective tools.

Direct Mail: Make a significant difference in direct mail response rates with the use of promotional products.

Promotional products, when used in conjunction with a sales letter or as incentive to respond, can make a significant difference in direct mail response rates. The use of promotional products can also significantly improve a business' effectiveness in converting leads to sales appointments. The following are findings from a 1992 direct mail study by Silver Marketing Group.

F I N D I N G S

- Adding a promotional product to a mail promotion increased the response rate by 50%.
- The use of a promotional products as an incentive to respond generated four times as many responses as a sales letter alone.
- The use of a promotional product as an incentive to respond reduced the cost per response by two-thirds.
- The study was conducted in 1992 with 1,482 businesses divided into three groups. Each group received either a personalized sales letter, a sales letter plus a promotional product or a sales letter with the offer of a promotional product incentive.

Employee Awards & Incentives: Improve performance and motivate employees with awards & incentives programs.

Awards and incentive programs can improve performance and motivate employees to increase sales, reduce accidents, boost productivity and give customers better service. In 1994 Baylor University randomly surveyed 1,500 people, asking their opinions regarding employee awards and incentives.

F I N D I N G S

Survey recipients were asked to rate how most employees feel about awards and incentives. The TRUE statements are those with which respondents agreed; the FALSE statements are those with which they disagreed.
 
 

Survey respondents also listed the reasons they believe award and incentive programs sometimes fail. The top two reasons for program failure are:

Employees are not involved in the planning process - just managers.
Employees lose interest in programs because they are not given timely feedback.
This indicates that effective employee award and incentive programs will feature high employee involvement during the development of the program and timely feedback to employees during the contest.