11.11.06
Profiting from Promotional Products
I found this article at findarticles.com by Mark Richard Moss, Black Enterprise, Jan 1999. I felt it was an accurate account so I wanted to post it to my blog.
Troy Nalls, president of Answer Austin Inc., an Austin, Texas, voice-mail service, likes to give away T-shirts with his company’s logo. The perception, Nalls claims, is that his small company is as large as the big guys.
He spends $500 per month on promotional products like T-shirts, mugs, letter openers and coasters. “A lot of people tell me they have a coaster sitting next to their computer, and when they hear of someone who needs my services, they tell them to call me. I’m right in front of them every day.”
Like Nalls, entrepreneurs can successfully use promotional products- giveaways that usually carry a company logo or message–to boost their bottom line. “The benefit of using strategically thought-out promotional products is that it gives the customer a certain ‘feeling’ about your company’s products or services, says Bennie F. Giles III, president of Creative Advertising Techniques Inc., in New Rochelle, New York, which has been distributing promotional products since 1988.
“Most people have no idea of the depth of this industry and the impact it has in terms of advertising and marketing,” says Giles. In 1997, Americans spent $11.9 billion on promotional products, strong evidence that they have become an integral part of many businesses’ strategy for growth.