Companies use promotional products as a budget-friendly tactic to build brand awareness and ensure that recipients have a lasting, positive reminder of their brand. Sending a promotional item home with a customer or potential customer also increases the chance that your brand name and message will be seen by other potential customers.

Promotional products are a great marketing strategy for any company that wants to increase awareness and attract new customers. It’s important to choose the right items for your target audience. For example, a dentist may give out branded toothbrushes, but that tactic wouldn’t work for a brewery. A brewery would be more successful handing out bottle openers that feature their logo, or other items related to their business.

Yes, promotional items do work to build brand awareness and a positive reputation for companies. Though the type of product a company hands out determines the marketing strategy’s success, in general, people love receiving gifts and will happily use them. The more they’re used, the more potential customers will learn about your brand!

To see the best results when giving away promotional items, it’s important to choose products that are practical, but desirable. The products you choose depend on your brand and budget, but some popular examples include sweatshirts, headphones, notebooks, and novelty pens.

A good promotional product should be functional yet interesting. The goal of handing out promotional items is to build brand awareness, but this can only happen if people actually want to use these items throughout their day. When choosing branded products, decide on something useful for the activities or hobbies that your target audience participates in.

Some examples of good promotional products include pens, bottle openers, lip balms, or blankets. These are all commonly used items, which means they’ll maximize the opportunity a brand has to increase their awareness to a new audience.

The most effective promotional products are items that are exciting to receive and that encourage the recipient to use them often. When choosing branded items, a company should consider which products their target audience is most likely to use in their day-to-day lives to ensure the largest number of people learn about their brand messaging.

Effective promotional products vary from company to company. A gym might choose to give out custom water bottles because their customers are likely active and drink water frequently to rehydrate. A veterinarian might instead hand out branded pet products because they’re more likely to be seen by other pet owners at a park or pet store. It’s important to choose promotional products based on the hobbies and interests of your target audience.

The industries that buy the most logo items are healthcare, education, government, non-profit, and companies from startups and small businesses to major corporations. Just about every organization needs items printed with a logo, design, or message, and Crestline is proud to serve them all.

Let’s take a closer look at a few of the top purchasers of promotional items:

Business

• Businesses of all types and sizes buy printed office supplies, trade show booth displays, and giveaways to drum up new business, branded gifts for clients, and appreciation gifts for employees. What each type of business chooses will match the product and services they offer. For example, real estate firms will customize closing gifts for home purchasers and banks will show off their logos on piggy banks, while boutiques will invest in printed gift bags.

Education

• K-12 schools buy printed school supplies like backpacks and padfolios, prom favors, and school logo gifts for teacher appreciation week.
• Colleges and Universities buy everything from spirit wear for the bookstore and university swag for recruiting top students to gifts for visiting alumni.
• We stock all the cool promotional items that schools from kindergarten to university need to raise school spirit, appreciate staff, and celebrate graduation.

Healthcare

• Hospitals, private medical practices, healthcare service networks, and senior care organizations put their official emblems on a variety of custom business promotional items for patients, staff, and the public.
• Some favorites include pens and bags, as well as folders imprinted with contact information and employee gifts for Nurses Week, Hospital Week, and a host of specialized healthcare worker appreciation holidays throughout the year.

Government

• Social service departments, municipalities, and first responders like police and fire departments, as well as branches of the military, lend their seals to office items and giveaways for the public, all printed with the addresses, phone numbers, and websites that citizens need to take advantage of their services.
• Classic logo-imprinted items for government organizations include pens, folders, and other supplies as well as giveaways to attract recruits and gifts for veterans. Police stations and fire stations customize themed giveaways to help raise awareness during Fire Prevention Week and Crime Prevention Week.

Non-Profit Organizations

• Charities buy commemorative thank you gifts for their donors and volunteers, fundraising items, and awareness items that spread the word about their causes. Not-for-profit groups also purchase swag bags and supplies for money-raising events like color runs and 5Ks.

Other industries that invest in promotional items include real estate, banks, energy, hospitality, automotive and legal.

Promotional products have a variety of uses, including:

• appreciating employees
• retaining clients
• increasing brand awareness
• finding new customers
• launching products
• inspiring school spirit
• creating souvenirs
• selling to fans
• raising funds and awareness for causes
• outfitting sports teams and clubs
• providing an official look for institutions

Swag, trade show giveaways, corporate gifts, recognition items, branded merchandise, souvenirs, fundraising items, company supplies, school spirit items, tchotchkes, souvenirs, mementos, and custom party favors are all names for different types of promotional products. While each is an item that is customized with a logo, design, or message, each has its own use and strategy.

Let’s look at different types of promotional products and their purposes.

Corporate Gifts

• Branded corporate gifts are presents for staff, customers, clients, board members, and partners that bear the company logo. The purpose of companies gifting to their staff is for appreciation, recognition, engagement, and to unite associates as a team. Corporate gifts to clients and customers are meant to retain and grow business relationships with current partners. Personalized corporate gifts are also good publicity. When recipients are using them, the company logo is seen by everyone they encounter.
• Whether your staff is in-office or remote, we have thoughtful corporate gifts for all employees. Choose from luxury gifts for executives, welcome swag bags for new team members, or budget-friendly employee appreciation gifts. For holiday corporate gifts, consider ornaments or food gift baskets. Let your associates or clients pick out their own branded merchandise and corporate apparel with a free custom online company store!
• To make corporate gifting even easier, our kitting and drop shipping services allow you to create and ship promotional gifts directly to recipients. Our mail-ready pre-assembled gift boxes or custom gift sets feature branded merchandise and packaging that are sure to leave a lasting impression. You pick the products, and we will handle the rest.

Swag

• Swag is a gift with a logo on it. It can be a luxury, high-end present, a small token item, or a collection of branded items assembled into a swag bag. The purpose of swag is to delight the recipient while creating goodwill and publicity for the giver.
• Swag is given out at events like races, parades, golf tournaments, and festivals to create a memento of the occasion and to amplify the brand of the company that provided it. Trade show exhibitors hand out swag to send their marketing message and contact information home with potential business partners. Startup companies use company swag to reward supporters and investors. Swag is also used to welcome new employees, celebrate company milestones and staff achievements, and to create school spirit in students.
• Need inspiration? Our promotional products blog is full of creative solutions for all your custom swag needs. Your dedicated Account Manager is ready to help find the promotional items with logos that will have the biggest impact on your marketing success.

Branded Merchandise

• Unlike corporate gifts, giveaways, and swag, which are given away for free, branded merch refers to customized items that are created to sell to fans for profit. Huge corporations, sports teams, universities, social media content creators, and artists can all benefit from lending their brand, slogans, and creative designs to branded merch that their audiences will want to buy.
• Branded merchandise not only generates revenue, but it can also engage fan bases and generate marketing impressions whenever it is worn or used in public. The creativity that goes into making unique branded merch can also be part of what creates a brand.
• Our goal is to make buying branded merchandise fun, simple, and successful for your business. We have thousands of promotional products you can customize with your logo or design. Create brand boosting promotional merchandise with stickers and decals, t-shirts, hats, tech accessories, eco-friendly items, drinkware, bags, and so much more.

Trade Show & Event Giveaways

• Trade show giveaways are gifts or promotional items that guests receive or win during a trade show. They are designed to increase a business’s visibility and interest by exposing their brand to a targeted and interested audience. Giveaways help to attract potential customers to trade show booths and generate qualified leads. For a trade show giveaway to achieve high ROI, it should solve a problem for the user and stand out enough to be remembered.
• After the show, giveaways ensure that potential clients see your brand and contact information as they use the giveaway items in their daily lives. At the same time, corporate merchandise items spread brand visibility outside the event audience as they are used and displayed.
• Trade shows aren’t the only events where giveaways come in handy. Giveaways can help initiate conversation, seal the deal, and create goodwill at job fairs, college fairs, conferences, expos, community fairs, conventions, summits, festivals, charity events, sports games, political rallies, social events, and corporate events.
• Stand out from the crowd at your next trade show or event with promotional giveaways, branded marketing swag, customizable banners, and branded table covers.