Bag yourself some brand-awareness!

Promotional products are everywhere!! I bet there’s one on your desk right now plastered with a logo, be it an old classic like a mug, or an eco solar power bank for keeping your smart-phone alive. Promotional products have been used for years in the UK – but why? Why do companies spend hundreds of thousands every year on printed merchandise, giveaways, goodies, stocking fillers, what ever you call them? Hopefully I can shed some light on this, and show you the benefits of promo items. More importantly I’d like to show you why the humble bag is the best – and in many cases the essential – promotional item for any campaign. Rather than bore you with the long and illustrious history of promotional items, I’m going to go straight into the benefits they can provide, and offer some tips on choosing the right products. Before we do, first consider the alternative; unbranded giveaways. Do you think a product with no logo would make a lasting impression – do you think you would remember who gave if to you a month down the line? Even a week down the line?

Selling point no.1: Brand awareness

The term is self-explanatory – how aware the consumer is of you. A great example, though an extreme example of strong brand awareness is Sellotape – a brand is so stuck in our minds (excuse the pun) that we call sticky tape by the brand name (brainwashed?). What about Post-it Note (Sticky Note), Hoover (Vacuum), Fridge (Frigidaire), Portakabin (portable building) and Coke (Cola) ? Even the word tabloid, used to be a brand name! Promotional merchandise is great for brand awareness, and branded items can be distributed in many ways in order to get your logo in front of potential and existing customers. It also sends the right signals – to be seen to be spending on merchandise suggests you are a stable organisation, in a strong financial position. On top of this, once your brand is printed on the product, and in the hands of the lucky receiver, there are many future opportunities to make an impression. It could be that this one individual is subject to continual awareness (a pen). Or – if you choose your product wisely – the product will travel (a bag), meaning that your brand could one day be on the tube, the next day on the beach. Each time it is seen by more and more people, the cost for that advert reduces. In simple terms, promotional products, if chosen correctly (high quality and useful), can offer long lasting, cost-effective advertising.

Selling point no.2: Staying Power

Choosing a product that will not only travel but also last is important. The right promo can offer great longevity as a marketing tool, especially compared with alternatives. Let’s consider a flyer – it arrives in your letter box, you may read it, then it goes in the bin, It doesn’t get pinned up on the wall, or put in the photo album. Now consider a promotional bag – it has a use. It may be used for trips to the gym – and with the advent of the 5p plastic bag tax – to the supermarket. If you’ve supplied a good quality this will continue day after day. Every trip to the gym or the shop is adding to the awareness and visibility of your brand. With the introduction of the bag tax in England, the opportunity levels have increased dramatically for bags as a promotional item – making promotional bags a ‘no brainer’. At Bags of Ideas, we believe that the best way to get these benefits using promotional items is through the good old fashioned bag. Bags are the best. They’re useful, purposeful products. They also look great, with many on trend options available. Everywhere you go, someone is holding a bag – why not have your logo on that bag. And bags never run out, like a pen, or a notebook – bags are for life! But don’t just take our word for it – studies prove that there are bag loads of bags out there, making them the most popular promotional item even more than the most popular trusty pen. I think our argument for bags is pretty strong – but even if you decide to give away other items at your next exhibition, surely it’s best those items are in a bag with your logo on!