For the past 50 years, PPAI (Promotional
Products Association
International) has been conducting independent research related to the
use, effectiveness
and relationship of promotional branding to the consumer. At Promotional
Partners we value the research provided to our industry as education
for our team and knowledge for our clients.
A recent feature by PPAI contributor Moumita Das, titled
Unlocking The What Behind The Buy- New Research Reveals How Brand Agencies
Value Promotional Products- revealed some interesting
data related to the perceptions of promotional products by brands and
agencies.The article also explored how promotional products most
effective to address common business goals, strategies to advertising
and overall positioning the brand with consumers. We extracted sections
of this article and diagrams in the PPAI publication to share with you.
Das article states,
“Like most industries, the promotional
products industry has its own set of terms and definitions that are used
describe the diverse scope of roles that promotional products fulfill. What
that looks like to buyers will help translate how brands and agencies view
promotional products and the value they serve today. Both brands and agencies
share similar views on what promotional products mean to them, with samples
leading the list with 57 percent of buyers, on average (Figure 5). The quality
(73%) and type of promotional product (63%) were leading factors influencing
purchases among buyers.
“Overall, 87 percent of buyers credit promotional products
with contributing to the success in reaching their marketing goals, and found
promotional products have the ability to regularly engage with their customers
(54%) in a way that’s distinctive to the medium (51%). Buyers and agencies also
acknowledged the cost-effective benefits of promotional product, such as their
flexibility to easily fit budget parameters (36%) and the bonus exposure
provided with no extra charge (27%). Ninety-six percent of buyers
believe promotional products are an effective form of advertising, with 36
percent indicating extreme effectiveness, 48 percent moderately effective and
12 percent slightly effective. Buyers commonly use promotional products to
increase brand awareness (63%) and recognition (61%); however, many found
promotional products most effective in strategies involving a direct response,
such as sparking word-of mouth (90%), prompting reviews (91%) and even gaining
new customers (89%) as shown in Figure 9. “
The research outlined in this publication challenges, “Can we do more?” Das sites “recently data
trackers have come under fire for being too costly, slow and for delivering unreliable
data—and while technology to track product usage is still in its early stages
and therefore expensive, 62 percent of brands said they would invest between
six and 20 percent more in their overall budget if and when a tracking
technology was offered to them (Figure 10). Until then, tracking methods can
still be offered during an existing stage in the buying process and that sits
at the heart of what makes a promotional product promotional. The message that
links your client to their desired audience offers a powerful opportunity to
track ROI. Including a call to action in your clients’ design, such as a
hashtag, custom website address, vanity toll-free numbers or QR codes, offers
tangible evidence to track campaign results. Remaining competitive requires the
ability to make constant course corrections and staying ahead of this developing
trend, and providing fresh new ways to track and measure their campaign. If we
don’t offer ways to give them data, they will buy an advertising medium that
will.”
Increasingly our sales team at Promotional Partners is seeing the ability to add smart data into
promotional brand selections, yet few clients are asking for it to be part of their
imprint space. When we suggest adding track-able data, the most consistent
responses we receive are, "my business does not have a system or dedicated
individual to monitor that type of data collection" or "we aren't consistently using
any form of call to action with a promotional item."
After reading this type of report, we wonder how many of our
clients will be interested in adding data to their imprint space. Are you?
Sources:
Moumita Das is market research coordinator at PPAI. Ask for a complete copy of this report from your brand consultant
Find the complete results from the 2017 Buyer Study and more
exclusive PPAI Research by visiting www. ppai.org/research.
