Research for Awards & Engraving Pros
Tuesday April 14, 2009 | Filed under:
I was recently asked by Recognition Review, published by the Awards and Recognition Association, about what research, trends and information awards and engraving professionals can use to expand their promotional products business and to service current clients asking for them.
Following is what I shared with them, which might be helpful to you in convincing your clients to increase their spending on ad specialties - particularly in these challenging economic times.
Promotional products provide a high ROI for marketers, and companies need them now more than ever to help them grab market share from their competitors.
***************
According to the annual industry sales estimate from ASI, promotional products sales topped $19.6 billion in 2007, and we're projecting the industry to be up slightly from that for 2008.
ASI released a new study that indicates that over 80% of recipients who receive a promotional product remember the brand on the item. That's powerful advertising and high recall for your marketing investment. The study is available free at asicentral.com/study and you can use it to educate your clients about the value of promotional products in their marketing.
The study also found that about 81% of recipients keep an item because they consider it to be useful. So choose items for your clients that customers find valuable everyday.
The return on your promotional products investment is stellar. Promotional products provide an estimated average cost-per-impression that is a fraction of a penny ($.004), which is lower than TV ads, radio ads or newspaper ads.
The annual State of the Industry report, published by ASI's Counselor magazine, indicates that the top five most popular advertising specialty categories are:
- Shirts.
- Bags.
- Caps/headwear
- Writing instruments.
- Other wearables.
And the top end-user markets are:
- Financial.
- Manufacturing.
- Health/Medical/Hospitals.
- Consumer Products.
- Education/Schools/Universities.
In addition, your creativity is the limit. At the ASI Show in New York, one of five national promotional products trade shows we host throughout the year, I found iPod carriers, customized LED name badges, rubber calculators that you can roll up, and other innovative tech items to be in demand with clients. Watch a video with some of the products here.
There are many more product ideas for businesses in videos from our national trade shows, available anytime and posted at asicentral.com.