How to buy promotional products for less money
Insider Information on “How to buy promotional products! for less money”.
Promotional products are often sold by local resellers, who buy their product from a warehouse that buys their products from a source factory. Each step along the way everyone adds, 30-70%! Why would you do this when you can buy direct from the factory?
How To Buy Promotional Products For Less Money!
“It often starts this way….someone in the marketing department says we need some swag for the trade show, here’s the logo we want on it, get me some ideas!”
Does this sound familiar?
This is often how promotional product purchases start. Not much in the way of planning, very little definition of what you want to achieve and their purchase and decision is often a near afterthought accompanied by a statement like “shit! We need some swag for the show!”
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Here’s some helpful hints.
Hint. When you speak with someone (like us) about promotional products or if you go online to look for swag, have answers to these key questions already answered. A) When do you need it? B) What are you trying to say and to who are you saying it? C) What’s your budget?
When Do You Need It?
If your trade show is next week and you are just now getting to this, you have just cost yourself way too much extra money and have severely limited your ability to choose the correct promotional product product for your target audience!
Give yourself 3 weeks, 2 at the least before the show or launch. Anything less you will pay through the nose and limit your options. Suppliers of all products price prey on the disorganized when they wait to the last minute.
What are you trying to say and to whom?
This is a key point often overlooked. Let’s say you are a high-end plumbing fixtures brand (ie Lefroy Brooks https://uk.lefroybrooks.com/ ). No matter how awesome your products are, there are at least 2 types of customers to market to and 2 types of promotional products you may need!
Trade shows. When Lefroy Brooks goes to a plumbing supplies trade show to show their wares they are showing them to both Plumbers and Bathroom Designers. The problem is that at the trade show Plumbers outnumber the designers 40-to-1!
As a result, LB needs lots of cheap and cool things to give to Plumbers, such as Phone Socket Grips. While the higher value targets (Bathroom Designers) will be more impressed with a higher perceived value item like the Stojo folding coffee cup.
Factually speaking, the Designer was worth more of an investment per unit (ie folding cup) as they brought rich ready to buy clients to LB’s business while Plumbers were more on the frontline of the business, installing and replacing them, where the plumber interacted with their clients in a “much more casual setting, such as the Loo!”
The best result for LB was 500 Phone sockets at $1.48 each and 100 folding coffee cups at about $5.40 each. About $1500 including our always free shipping.
What’s your budget for all of this?
Let’s be honest, unless you print money (illegal in most countries) you are on a budget. Budgets are variable and under internal pressure…The head of marketing will always want to spend more than the head of finance. This is an immutable law of the marketing universe.
Instead of trying to get the 2 department heads to come to an agreement I have a suggestion. Call us and tell us what you are trying to do and who you are trying to reach with your promotional product marketing. With all the experience we have in this field we can (for free!) have a phone consult and give you some good ideas and solid feedback. Isn’t that a great idea!
In closing.
We can save you money on your swag, help your brand look cooler and in short, become a key part of your marketing team. Shouldn’t we talk?
