Business Gift or Promotional Advertising? - By: Mark Yokoyama

The difference between corporate business gifts and promotional products is often a subtle one. Both are products imprinted with a logo and/or message designed to have an effect on a target audience. Both are given away, making it a gift, and both contain your message, making it advertising. This article will help you distinguish between an imprinted business gift and a promotional product and help you understand how these differences affect product selection and imprinting depending on your needs.

Your Goal Is the Difference
Identifying the ultimate goal of the item is the best way to distinguish between a business gift and a promotional product. If your primary goal is to thank your customers and your secondary goal is to make sure they remember it was from you, then you need a business gift. On the other hand, if your goal is to reach new prospects, introduce a new service, drive traffic to your trade show booth or get someone to open up your direct mail, you're engaging in promotional advertising.

Product Selection: Price, Type and Style
In general, corporate logo gifts will be more expensive items. Since they're typically given to your top customers, they need to reflect the value you place on your relationship. While the gift does not have to be extravagant, it does need to be valuable. Consider where you’d like it to be seen and used—at home, in the office, while traveling? Stylistically, the gift should be classy and tasteful since it is a reflection of your company. Considering all these factors together will help you focus on the best gift choices.

For example, if I wanted visibility in an office setting, I would send out a gift that was as nice, or nicer than the other things I would expect to see on my customers' desks. The gift could act as a replacement for something my clients already had or be something completely new. If my own desk is a decent example, it wouldn't take anything expensive to become one of the nicest things on my desktop-- just something that's useful, tasteful and of good quality.

For promotional advertising, the message is something more than “Thanks!" Because promotional products serve such a wide variety of purposes, strict pricing and product selection rules aren’t so useful here. Instead, the key considerations are finding a product that fits into your budget and allows you to reach the audience you wish to reach, and finding a product that will appeal to this audience and tie into your message. While it is a gift, the emphasis should be on the advertising-- think impact, not heirloom.

Imprinting Considerations
If you're sending a business corporate gift, I would always recommend branding it as tastefully as possible. In general, a simple logo is best. You already do business with them, so they know who you are and what you do. Laser engraving, embossing/debossing and tone-on-tone printing are all great ways to include your logo on the advertising gifts without harming its appearance or value. On the other hand, a logo is almost never enough for promotional advertising. Creative imprinting will make a big difference in the impact of an advertising product, so use multiple imprint areas if available and come up with a message that ties the product to your campaign or your organization's value proposition. At the very least, include contact information for your company so that when the time’s right, clients will know the best way to reach you.

About the Author

Mark Yokoyama is Director of Marketing for ePromos Promotional Products, Inc., one of the largest promotional product and corporate gift distributors in the US. This article is copyright protected.

Article Directory Source: http://www.articlerich.com/profile/Mark-Yokoyama/54503

Additional Articles From - Home | Business | Advertising