Promotional Marketing Products - Selecting the Perfect ItemWritten by Cindy Carrera
People are known to shop on impulse- buying an item just because it is on sale, or purchasing something because it looks great in store. When shopping for promotional items, you really can't succumb to impulses. Instead, you must carefully decide on an item that will help meet your objectives.A career school admissions representative who worked with high school market once wanted to buy magnets to give to people. Although magnets were in budget, they would not really do job of spreading word among other high school students, as magnets would be at home on fridge where maybe a handful of other students would see. A better idea was to give out day planners (only to enrolled students) that they could carry to school everyday where hundreds of classmates could see. "Oh- that's where I'm going to school after graduation" they would say when asked about school's name on planner. Rachel, rep, was hurt that magnets she liked did not get ordered. But, Rachel does not have a marketing background and she didn't understand that these items served another purpose. So, when ordering your items before you even browse pages of catalogs or websites, you want to have some objectives in mind. You would not want to invest money in an item that doesn't match tactic. Think about these: -Do you want to stimulate trade show traffic? -Do you want to use these as sales aids? -Are these going to be premiums? -Are you introducing a new product/service? -Do you want to thank current customers? -Are these for an event giveaway? -Are these to motivate employees? -Are you trying to gain back lost business? -Are you trying to improve customer service? -Are these going to be used as gifts? -Are you using them to supplement a direct mail campaign? These are just a few questions you will want to ask yourself. If you are looking to supplement a general direct mail campaign, you will want to keep postage costs in mind. Perhaps mailing a magnet, sticker, pocket calendar, pen or pencil would be something good to use. You would not want to mail a t-shirt or mug- that would be very pricey for response rate of direct mail! If you are doing a campaign to target past customers or are just doing a smaller-gauge mailing, perhaps something a little bigger would work.
| | Trade Show Display Booth - A Marvellous Contact SystemWritten by Patty Stripes
Trade show booths are one of best direct contact systems with end consumers. The face to face meeting opportunity with customers can provide some excellent results provided you have a good communication strategy in place. Keep in mind that there are at least a hundred other advertisers at same trade show vying for attention of consumer, you have a small window to make an impression on persons mind. Here are some tried and tested strategies to implement to maximize your on-the-floor communication:Be crisp: Don't make mistake of beating around bush while communicating at trade show either verbally or visually. No one has time to listen to a sales person rambling on (and if someone does listen to long sermons at tradeshows, he probably has no where else to go to). You need put across your message selling product or service in hand in a direct manner. Your booth display should have message in readable format with meaningful graphics. Meaningless graphics are biggest turn-offs for trade show veteran. For example, use graphics and text on display which communicates directly about your products and services. Avoid using generic graphics. If you are not sure of what to put there, take professional help. It is also advised that you get display design done by professional agencies rather than in-house team. This may be a bit more expensive, but if you get a re-usable variety, costs are going to be well justified. Know demographics: Most trade show organizers give information about last year's demographics of visitors. These inputs can form an important ingredient in your communication strategy as you get to know visitors before they visit your booth and prepare your pitch accordingly. Sometimes, it might also be a good idea to break tradition and have a strategy which might not be so obvious. For example, if you most of visitors are serious management level people, you might like to feature a basketball loop on that trade booth to appeal to their playful mindset rather than a serious looking demo. Such a strategy can make you look different as well as have a great recall value. Your company also wins image of being a fun company.
|
