marketing items/give aways

MonicaG

Hi all,
I would like to know the consenses on brandishing my logo on a usb plastic holder for a freebee to drive traffic to my site.
My nature of business is web marketing, I`ve scoured pages&pages of marketing products-but keep coming back to this idea..Any thoughts?

Jackede

Monica,

I am a distributor of promotional products. You are thinking in the
right direction by tying the item into the type of services/products
you offer. By choosing an item with a higher intrinsic value, this will
pro-long the life of your brand in your customer`s mind. Another idea
to consider is mouse pads.

If there is a specific event/show that you have coming up, it is also
nice to relate the item to not only your brand/company, but to the
event itself.

Please let me know if I can help  you in any way.

Regards,


Jackede

LogoMotives

Monica -I do think that trying to find a unique marketing item, that is directly related to your business in some way, is a great tactic to take.  Do give a great deal of consideration to the end-user.  Is your speciality marketing item they will actually use or see on a regular basis - or will it just collect dust or end up out of sight in a drawer/box?I don`t need or want any more traditional ballpoint pens, pencils, coffee cups, travel mugs or mouse pads.  I`ve received way too many of each over the years - and I don`t even use a mouse pad with my infra-red mouse at my desk or with my PowerBook when I`m traveling.  Most of the travel mugs I get don`t even fit into the cupholders of my car or truck.  In looking over useful things I`ve received recently as promotional items the ones that are still around are:  high quality desktop calendars, inexpensive canvas travel bags, canvas "briefcases" (that my 17-inch PowerBook can fit in if I want to run to a local coffeeshop with it and not take my whole computer travel case), small fabric bags that I can stick computer cords and "stuff" in when on the road, T-shirts, sweatshirts, baseball caps and a couple really nice water bottles.  The ones I probably keep on my desk and use the most are customized Post-It notes.  A recent promo that I`ve used a lot is a USB pen I received from a client - it`s been great for loading a file from my desktop system at the last minute as I head out the door on a business trip.  I still use a small, high quality, pocket-sized tape measure that a business gave me over 20 years - and have used the business` services many times over two decades.  None of the items actually make me run to my computer and immediately go to any specific web site.  However, because I am actually using them on a regular basis, I am constantly reminded of the business promoting themselves with their logo on the piece.  Just this weekend I was using one of the fabric "briefcases" I received two years ago from a paper manufacturing firm.  It reminded me that I needed to contact the company about some of their latest samples. The most successful marketing item I`ve ever used for my own business is a plain old white T-shirt with my logo in black on the front and back.  I`ve given them to clients, vendors, family and friends - making them all walking billboards for my business.  I always ask people contacting me how they learned of my business.  Over the past ten years I`ve had quite a few people respond with "You`re not going to beleive this, but I saw your logo on a T-shirt..."  For something that cost less than $5.00 a piece to produce at the time, I`ve received an incredible return on the effort.All the best - J.
LogoMotives2006-8-22 9:51:26

Jackede

Jeff,  you were fortunate to have good results with the t-shirt
idea. There is though a life and death to a shirt and not everyone
wears them and most of the time they are kept inside a drawer. You are
right to state that it depends on who you you are giving your giveaway
to, however it really depends on who your customer is. A mousepad,
although overdone at times, gives you that brand identity and
recognition when the user sits at the computer and is in the working
mode....The key is designing it in such a way that people will want to
use it and have it on their desk.


jackede

adman

how about a USB drive key fob or those little calendars that fit on top of the Function keys on a traditional keyboard.