Interesting tidbit: Only a little bit more than six percent of the promotional products produced in the United States are aimed at attracting new customers, according to the Promotional Products Association. What are the rest used for? Business gifts, employee relations, branding, public relations, and dealer and distributor programs – all to retain existing customers and employees.
When you’ve been working with promotional products for as long as I have, you instantly know this is both sad and exciting. It’s sad because so many businesses are missing out on the sales advantage inherent to promo products (and that can’t be good news), but it’s also exciting because this means that we can grow even more as an industry.
This means that we can – and should – refocus some of our energy to educating our clients about how promo items can widen their customer base instead of just retain it; how promo items can attract potential employees instead of just increase the morale of those already there.
So that goes down on my to-do list (which, lately, has been filled with contact numbers of all the clients needing rush promo items). Looks like I would be busy in the next couple of weeks. I have to admit – this business still surprises me.
– Jen