The Power of Promotional Advertising

Promotional products can be a powerful form of advertising - even for small businesses. They are a fantastic marketing tool that can be very useful in putting your company name where people will be exposed to it on a regular basis. Promotional products create company exposure, name recognician, or even help create an identity for your business. Whether it be a pen, a note cube, a refrigerator magnet, or a mug from which you drink your morning coffee, promotional items are nearly everywhere. Even the local pizza place or the plumber probably has a plot of promotional real estate on your refrigerator!

You probably receive promotional items from local businesses on a regular basis. For instance, local banks, as well as national financial institutions generally give away promotional items with new accounts, such as keychains, magnets, or pens, in hopes that your local community will see the bank name and possibly open an account there as well. Dentists often provide customized toothbrushes or tooth-shaped magnets with your next appointment date, helping to ensure another visit to their dental business.

If you haven’t already considered how powerful promotional products can be, just take a look around your home, your car, or your office. Imagine the advertising power that you can harness by promoting your business on a simple item such as a pen. Pens are constantly “borrowed” and never returned, and a single pen can pass through the hands of a large number of people before the ink runs out – and in the process, it exposes the company name to a great deal of people.

Promotional items can be passed out as holiday gifts around the office or to clients, they can be given to customers as a token of thanks, or earned by your sales staff as an incentive. There are literally hundreds of thousands of promotional items available, and all of them have the power to get your business noticed. Promotional products give you the unique ability to keep your company name in front of your customers!

What Jay Leno Says About Branding Really Works

A few days ago in Jay Leno's "eBay" segment of the nightly show, he brought up an item that was once one of his "Not Sold!" items. (For anyone who doesn't watch the show - he holds up a picture of a strange object listed on eBay and has the audience guess whether it was "sold" or not sold".) So the item that had gone previously unsold was now a somewhat well known item. The owner decided to list it again. This time, after having been mentioned on the Jay Leno show - it sold for over $120.00!

But more intriguing than the final sale price of the item was the truth of the statement that Jay Leno repeated several times was: "The power of branding."

If you truly think about it, the item was "advertised" on the Tonight Show - that's big-time. What more could an eBay seller want than for the silly item they listed to end up as a joke on one of the most watched nightly shows in America?

Think . . . your name out there for people to remember. You too can take advantage of the power of branding - but you have to take action to get your name where it can be seen.