Promotional Products Buyer's Guide

Choosing the right promotion items

Updated: September 2008

Anything a logo can fit on can be a suitable promotional item. The challenge can be narrowing down your choices to just a few, when there are so many different types of products that you could use. Here are some of the major categories and their relative advantages and disadvantages.

Clothing – the most popular category for promotional items. Promotional t-shirts are the most common, and other popular items include hats, fleece vests and blankets, rain jackets, scarves, and more.

• Pro: free advertising, popularity, great for employee items.
• Con: styles change, ordering multiple sizes can be hard, sometimes costly, items are seasonal.

Food – includes fruit baskets, candy, gums, coffee, and more.

• Pro: wide range of costs, appreciated by most people.
• Con: limited duration, allergen problems.

Office gifts – stress balls, photo holders, sticky notes, even USB flash drives, anything designed to be used at the office.

• Pro: many items very cheap, used in the office environment where you want your message.
• Con: popularity makes it hard to stand out; high-end items expensive.

Useful items – coffee mugs, pens, calendars, bags – can be for the office or the home.

• Pro: everyone uses them, good branding opportunities.
• Con: can get used at home or by kids, outside your target audience.

Food – includes fruit baskets, candy, gums, coffee, and more.

• Pro: wide range of costs, appreciated by most people.
• Con: limited duration, allergen problems

Office gifts – stress balls, photo holders, sticky notes, even USB flash drives, anything designed to be used at the office.

Useful items – coffee mugs, pens, calendars, bags – can be for the office or the home

These are just a few examples - the variety is nearly endless, including golf balls, squirt guns, yo-yos, umbrellas, ice scrapers, breath mints. You can find anything ranging from serious and useful to amusing and silly. With all the options, it's worth spending some time to make the right choice. The best promotional items effectively associate your company's name with an item related to your industry.

For example, a financial services company that wants to build customer loyalty might have success with pocket-sized solar calculators. A car repair shop may want to give away tire pressure gauges with a logo and phone number. And a popular choice for technology-driven businesses is mouse pads with colorful logos.

In many cases, it's possible to obtain custom items that aren't found in any catalog, so if you have a unique idea, don't hesitate to bring it up with your vendor.

Before you start talking to potential vendors, take a look at some promotional item web sites or catalogs. You don't have to know exactly what you want – vendors can help you decide. But having some ideas and an understanding of what's available beforehand will help speed the process.

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