Promoting your brand on other products has for a long time been recognised as a great way to get your name out there. Recent years, however, have seen a shift in this process, as consumers are demanding more out of promotional products than they once did. This has created a number of promotional product trends, which, if implemented, can help to give you an advantage over your competition. Check out our top 7 promotional product trends below.
Technology Related Items
Unsurprisingly, the popularity of technology related items as a promotional product is growing at a rapid rate. Technology in general continues to develop, to the point where concepts which seemed impossible only a few short years ago are now a part of every day life. This, it seems, is likely to continue, if not accelerate, and so to does the reliance of people on it. This gives you the ability to promote your brand through something which is actually useful to consumers, which helps you in two separate ways. Firstly, a useful item is inherently going to warrant greater use from its recipient, meaning your brand name or logo will be seen in public more often, and will get more views. An item which is simply a quirk may never be utilised – more likely it will end up in the trash, and with it your promotional dreams. Secondly, the usefulness of this item is likely to generate a positive response from the recipient themselves, meaning they are more likely to develop an affinity for your brand. The importance of finding repeat customers cannot be undervalued, and by creating an association in their mind between usefulness and your company, you are more likely to be able to create these.
Higher Value Instead of Cheapest
A common mistake businesses make in attempting to promote their brand is to get their brand name on logo on the cheapest thing they can find. This saves money, and as long as your name is out there, it will help your business, right? Perhaps so in the past, but today consumers demand a little more from your promotional items. As with trend number one, an item with your name on it which draws a positive response from the people whose hands it lands in is much more likely to benefit your business. Rightly or wrongly, customers tend to view promotional products as a direct reflection of the quality of your brand. Hand out something cheap with your name on it, and your brand looks cheap. Hardly ideal if you're trying to sell something of any sort of decent quality. In contrast, put your name on something worth a bit, and people will develop a more positive association with your brand. This is why high quality sports equipment can be such an effective promotional tool.
Branded by
Disrupt offers custom-made sports equipment on which to promote, but importantly, these items stand up against high quality name-brand products.
Casual Apparel Instead of Work Apparel
Typically, when brands use clothing as a promotional tool, they provide corporate apparel. This makes obvious sense for employees and clients, who wear these clothes at work. Unfortunately, however, this almost always means that your brand will receive little recognition from this promotional tool outside of work. Rarely do employees wear their work clothes away from the office – they are often inappropriate for casual use, and many people wish to disassociate from work as much as possible in their leisure time. This is why
casual apparel can be such an effective promotional tool, and is a trend gaining more and more traction. By creating clothing which your employees and clients will want to wear outside work, you are able to maximise the potential of this promotional product. More people will see it, and in a situation outside of work, meaning that sneaky positive association concept will come to effect once again. To make this work, you need to make the apparel high quality – again, this ties into trend number 2. Cheap does not equal effective with promotional equipment any longer. By making this apparel both high quality and stylish, your employees are much more likely to wear it in public. Even better, if it looks good to the people who see it on your employees, they are going to remember your brand.
Promotional Items Tailored To Brands
This modern promotional trend is a highly effective one. It allows you to utilise the popularity of another brand – preferably one related to your product – in order to develop your own popularity. Think of it like this – if you see a
SHERRIN football with a brand you've never heard of plastered on one side, you're going to remember it. You're going to think, 'gee, what is this brand and why have my favourite footy manufacturer's decided to put them on my footy's'. They're then going to go home, and look up your company. As simple as that. Perhaps it doesn't work so effectively every single time, but it certainly will have an impact on plenty of potential consumers. It intrinsically aligns your brand name to a bigger, more well renowned company, and even if you have absolutely nothing to do with one another, people will associate you with them. This can be nothing but a good thing, and can really help to grow your brand.
Environmentally Friendly Products
As we as a society become increasingly aware of our impact on the planet, there is a stronger and stronger push for
environmentally friendly products. This is reflected in our promotional product trends, as these types of products have become more effective than ever as a means to advertise your brand. Essentially, this comes down to the same concept that has been prevalent in many of our promotional product trends. If people like the promotional product you use to advertise, they are likely to think more positively about your company. Environmentally friendly promotional products send the message that your company is concerned about the environment, and willing to do something to look after it. Furthermore, it suggests your company has gone the extra yard in considering what product to promote on, which conveys a positive message about the brand. For this reason, environmentally friendly products can be a great way to develop the way your brand is viewed by the public, as well as to do your part for the environment.
Promote with Socially Conscious Brands
This point is very similar to point 5 about environmentally friendly products. Promoting with socially conscious brands is a great way to illustrate to your potential consumers that you care about the social impact of the products you use, and by extension, the producs which you create. Advertising on equipment or merchandise made by companies which have a positive social impact can be hugely beneficial for your brand, as people are far more likely to remember your brand positively, and develop an affinity with it.
Corporate social responsibility is becoming an increasingly important part of business, so it is rare to find major companies today which do not partake in any socially conscious activities. Find a brand which is renowned for it, however, and this can be a great starting point through which to promote your brand. Branded by Disrupt contributes in our own way through our
1-4-1 program. This program ensures we leave a positive social impact by donating one product to communities in need for every product purchased. This means that by promoting through Branded's custom made sports equipment, you are having a positive impact, and ensuring your own business will be recognised as doing the same.
Presentation
Gone are the days when a dodgy t-shirt or a scummy mug will pass as an effective promotional tool. Today, people expect more, so it is important to ensure that your promotional products look great. As has been thematic of this piece, what you promote your product on is – rightly or wrongly – going to be directly correlated to your own products by potential consumers. This means that if you advertise on something that is non-aesthetically pleasing, people will think the same thing about your products. Maybe your product is the best-looking in your industry, but many potential customers will never have the chance to find this out if you promote on unattractive products, as they will feel no compulsion to go hunting for your brand. For this reason, it is imperative to ensure that you choose a product to promote on which will accurately represent the quality of your brand. The above may seem like too much to take in at once, but all the above points share one common theme which we mentioned throughout – if people react positively to your promotional product, they are more likely to take an interest in your brand. In the past, brands put much less effort into promotional products, and people tended to think if they used promotional products as an advertising tool at all, that was enough. These days, it isn't, and you need to put a lot more thought into what products you use to advertise your own brand.
