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The Power of Promotional Products: Science Shows How Promo Product Benefit Your Brand

Posted by Chris Higgins on Wed, Mar 19, 2014 @ 08:00 AM

It's no secret that promotional products help increase brand awareness and influence consumers' buying behavior, but the extent of that influence may just surprise you. A ground-breaking 2013 study from the Advertising Specialty Institute (ASI) polled more than 7,000 consumers in metropolitan centers across several continents to gauge the true power of promotional products. Survey results indicate that promotional products deliver impressive advertiser recall, making them a powerful -- and cost-effective -- marketing tool

promotional items

Study Highlights

A few highlights stand out from ASI's Global Advertising Specialties Impressions Study:

  • An average of 82 percent of those polled reported advertiser recall linked to promotional products
  • Among promotional products, jackets have the strongest advertiser recall at 95 percent
  • Promotional bags and writing instruments have the lowest cost-per-impression of any promotional items
  • More than 50 percent of Latino consumers own a logoed product, more than any other demographic group
  • 50 percent of U.S. consumers own a logoed pen or pencil

Study Methodology

ASI's study polled 7,145 consumers -- mostly business people and college students -- over a two-year period. Interviews took place in 21 major metropolitan centers in eight countries, including the U.S., Australia, Spain, Germany, Italy, Canada and the U.K. Respondents were asked a number of questions about promotional products, such as:

  • How many they have
  • Why they keep them
  • What they use them for
  • Their impressions of the advertisers that gave them the promotional items

The study's focus falls into three categories:

  1. Product popularity, broken out by product type and demographic characteristics
  2. Recipients' impressions of advertisers, broken out by product usage, length of time kept and demographic characteristics
  3. Cost-per-impression, broken out by different types of products and by comparison to other forms of advertising, such as radio and Internet ads

Study Findings: Product Popularity

In order to gauge which promo products were the most popular, survey respondents were asked about products they'd received during the past year. Promotional products were defined as any item that displayed a logo or an advertising message. Results were broken out by types of products, as well as demographic factors like race, gender, political affiliation, age, geography and income. These study outcomes will help you choose which promotional products will resonate most effectively with your target audience.  

Overall, writing instruments were the most commonly received promo item; more than half of Australian, U.K. and Canadian respondents and 50 percent of U.S. respondents reported having received a pen or pencil during the past 12 months. Certain metro areas ranked even higher for writing instruments, with 66 percent of respondents in Philadelphia reporting that they'd received a pen in the last year. Fifty-six percent of Caucasians had received a writing instrument, and 6 percent more women than men owned promotional pens and pencils. 

Next on the list: Shirts. In Rome, 53 percent of respondents reported receiving a shirt, while totals in other countries ranged from 34 percent in the U.K. to 44 percent in the U.S. and Spain. Logoed shirts were popular across age groups, but were more likely to be owned by consumers ages 21 to 34. Of U.S. cities polled, consumers in Atlanta, Georgia were most likely to own logoed shirts. More men than women owned promotional shirts by 5 percent, and Latinos were the most likely to own a promo shirt than any other demographic, coming in a 52 percent.

Other popular items across geographic boundaries included: 

  • Bags and totes
  • Calendars
  • Hats and caps
  • Desk and office accessories
  • USB and flash drives
  • Cups, mugs and drink ware
  • Health and safety products
  • Outerwear

Study Findings: Impressions of Advertisersbranded items

This portion of the study explores what recipients of promotional items actually do with those items, including how long they keep them. The outcomes in this section help you decide which promo products command the best advertiser recall within. 

In the U.S., bags and totes generated the most impressions; 31 percent of consumers polled reported owning a logoed bag, with women, African Americans and Democrats being the most likely to own a promotional bag. Of the more-than 7,000 people surveyed, 5,983 -- a significant majority -- indicated that bags generated a strong advertising impression.

However, promotional outerwear such as jackets and fleece pull-overs commanded the strongest advertiser recall. While only 9 percent of consumers polled owned promotional outerwear, 95 percent remembered the advertiser's name as printed on their jacket. Forty-eight percent of those who owned logoed outerwear said they were more likely to do business with an advertiser; further, consumers were much more likely to have a positive impression of the advertiser after receiving a jacket. 

When it came to staying power -- or how long consumers kept promotional items -- calendars took first place, with consumers keeping them for an average of 9 months. In contrast, writing instruments came in last, and were kept for an average of 5 months. Outwear, drinkware and USB drives were kept longer than any other item except for calendars. Across countries, survey results showed that recipients were more likely to pass a product on after they were done with it -- from 48 percent in Rome to 67 percent in London -- then they were to throw it away, thus extending your branding reach. Recipients revealed that the more useful they found a product, the more likely they were to keep it or pass it on, rather than discard it; bags took the top ranking on the "usefulness" scale.

Study Findings: Cost-Per-Impression

The final section of the ASI study analyzes the cost-per-impression for a range of promotional products, from pens and t-shirts to totes and jackets. This data is helpful when making decisions about which promotion items offer the best return on investment for your business.

Across countries, the products that generated the most impressions were:

  • Bags
  • Writing instruments
  • Hats
  • Outerwear
  • Shirts
  • Calendars

The survey also found that promotional products offer a better cost-per-impression than other forms of advertising, including television, magazines and newspapers. Promo products, on average, came in at about a third of the cost of advertising on TV or in a magazine. Additionally, promotional products deliver this return on investment with the interruption that's built in to other forms of advertising -- and that many consumers don't like. 

Overall, the ASI study found that promotional products allow you to target your ideal customers, offer built-in branding opportunities, and offer a low cost-per-impression as compared to other forms of advertising. 

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Topics: Promotional advertising, promotional merchandise, promo items