by Brent McEnery We all know in business you have to advertise. The question is where and how do you invest your advertising dollars for the highest return. Promotional Products can be of the most versatile and effective forms of advertising to satisfy all of your internal and external customers.

The trick is how you navigate through the 700,000 to 800,000 items to find the most effective ones to meet your requirements. I won’t say there are any bad items on the market; I will say many have been misapplied.

At McDonger we work on the 4 R’s principle – the Right item, to send the Right message about your company, for the Right application (what you are using this item for), at the Right price.

Promotional Products can be used in all aspects of your business to:

• launch new products or service
• Trade Show advertising
• Customer recognition and appreciation
• Employee recognition and appreciation
• Branding to re-enforce existing services or products
• Joint advertising with manufacturers, distributors and sales reps (this can be very cost effective)
• Safety Awards
• Generation of new sales leads
• And much more

We all enjoy receiving a free gift. The correct promotional item will be retained and used by the recipient and it will achieve its intended purpose. What you need to ensure this is a promotional distributor who will become an extension of your Marketing Department and analyse the application and identify your target market to ensure the item will appeal to that audience.

Many times I have received a call from a customer saying, “We are participating in a trade show and we need something to give-a-way to the attendees. Your distributors answer should be, “What are you trying to achieve at the show, who will be attending the show, and how many of the attendees are lookers only, potential customers, existing small and large customers. After finding out all of the above, your distributor should be recommending more than one item. The first should be an effective item to be handed out to everyone that comes to your booth. You should also have one or two higher level handouts. This way you and your staff can present these items to your target group this set them above the general trade show attendees. Think about it – how would you feel if you were a large customer of mine and I was handing out 50 cent pens to everyone at the booth and that’s what I gave you. How important and appreciated would that make you feel? Now, what if I took you aside to talk to you and, as well at the 50 cent pen you just picked up, I gave you a $10 pen set. Would you feel better than before and would you remember that? Did we fulfill our customer recognition and satisfaction? This little tip is just one way a good distributor can help you to maximize your promotional advertising dollars.

I would like to thank you for reading this article and hope it has given you some insight into your next promotional product purchase. If you have any questions or require additional information, please contact me at 416-657-4205 or bm@mcdonger.ca

Also, in appreciation for your time, you can go to our website – www.mcdonger.ca – and hit the special button and you will find a Brampton.com article code. This code will entitle you to a 10% discount on any order placed with McDonger before Oct. 15, 2006.