Regularly included with Marketing magazine and B&T magazine are brochures for promotional products that can be custom made with your business’ logo, colour scheme etc. There are all manner of cool knick knacks, and plenty of stock standard things like bags, shirts and boring stationery items.

From my experiences at expos, conferences and far too many university Orientation weeks, it’s always a good measure of the creativity of firms and student societies to see what they have chosen to represent their brand.

My first Orientation week was ten years ago and I can still remember that Deutsche Bank had ‘Brain’ yo-yos (a prized possession for my generation while at Primary school, that incidentally I could never afford!). They were fun, memorable, valuable and unique. By contrast, all the other commercial firms had pens, post-it notes, note pads and binders. All useful and relevant for university study, but not unique or memorable. Bonus tip for marketers out there, always have the largest show bag you can find. Everyone will put all their freebies and souvenirs in your bag, and you get the brand exposure!

It may take some thought, but I would argue every business can have a relevant promotional product for use as a gift, engagement tool or even business card. Even better, make it a usable product your customers will get value out of and not just use as a novelty paperweight.

Sure, items with mass appeal can work, but it’s bets if they fit the spirit of the company, the value delivered or the context of the product/service.

A beach towel suits Coca Cola and Corona as they have branded ‘summer’ and ‘a place you’d rather be’. People may be less likely to promote their accounting firm while on holidays. Quality is also essential. A committee I was on made the mistake of getting a great deal of hundreds of pens for a student society. They looked cheap, felt cheap, and most of them didn’t write properly! Not the best signifier of our business unfortunately!

I’m thinking:

• A ‘business card’ comb for hairdressers
• A high quality branded dog leash for a vet (Guess who else will see it at the park?)
• Dentist’s own brand mouthwash (Put a scale down the side of the bottle with a reminder to have a check up, perhaps?)
• Calculator with a branded message such as ‘Could we be doing this for you?’ for an accountancy.
• Florist branded calendar with key dates marked in bold and ordering info.

There are lots of potential creative match ups between firms and promotional products. Make it unique, strong, useful and memorable.