8 April
How to Create Brand Awareness With Promotional Merchandise
Freebies.
A word that instantly raises eyebrows. A term that has resulted in as much as 66% of a survey's participants saying they can remember the brand they received the freebie from.
Freebies are stuff that made 79% of consumers wanting to again do business with the company they got it from. And a 2012 British Promotional Merchandise Association study backs this up.
The same study says that 56% of the participants had an improved view of the company.
So... What does this all mean?
It all points out the benefits that promotional merchandise brings to businesses. It reminds businesses that they are as important as other digital marketing techniques.
Use them correctly, and you can make your own organization's marketing campaigns yield better results.
How?
Let's show you the techniques on proper promo merchandise use to boost awareness of your brand.
First Things First: Why Does Brand Awareness Matter?
The only way you can get people to buy your products or services is to let them know they exist. After all, no matter how great your business' offers are, they won't do you any good if people don't even know about them.
To make it in today's business sector, you need to make your brand immediately recognizable.
Here's a quick stat to put things in perspective:
You have 5.6 million other small South African business brand names to compete with. And no, the large corporations aren't even included in that count.
Even if they're not all your direct competitors, those millions of brand names can easily drown yours. This is why you need the right strategies to make people know your brand exists. That you have products or services they would want to pay for.
This is the core of brand awareness. But its functions don't end there. It's as closely related to brand recall as all your other marketing strategies.
Just think about it. You build your marketing campaigns around your brand. And the only way an entire campaign reaches success is when you've established in the minds of consumers that your brand exists.
The bottom line is, everything starts with brand awareness. So, you need to get it right the first time. Promotional merchandise can be one of your best tools for reaching this goal.
Let's now take a look at how you can get the most out of your investment in free stuff to make your brand known.
Take Advantage of the Science Behind Free Stuff
Brand awareness is key to releasing new products and launching new services. It gives you a chance to let your target market know the difference between your business' offers and those of the competition.
And what other better way to give consumers a taste of what's to come than freebies?
Just look at how people respond to free or sample food. It's food and it's free.
But because they're only samples, they only whet the appetite. This term actually applies to both literal and figurative speech. In other words, they make consumers want more of what they just had.
And so, when you give people free products, you're giving them some sort of preview to more good things. And the more useful the promotional merchandise is, say for instance, pens with your business logo, the more consumers will use them.
And the more they use these items, the greater their exposure to your brand name. Ultimately, they'll have an easier time recalling who you are and what your brand is all about.
Once they need something that you offer, this brand awareness and recall you already instilled in them will pay off. They'll immediately think of your brand.
Go for Items You Know Consumers Will Use
Consumers love free goodies.
So, when it comes to choosing promotional merchandise, you have countless choices, from branded writing items to bags, notebooks, and USB memory sticks.
You can give away all these, if you have that large of a budget to invest. But it makes better financial sense if you choose items that you know will have the most use for the recipients.
Aside from the pens mentioned above, which by the way people use multiple times a day, there are the drinkware, coffee (which one can use for tea too) mugs being the most popular. And here's why: And here's why: 88% of the population in South Africa prefer tea, while the rest are coffee lovers.
Branded shirts and clothes are other good examples, seeing as people wear them every day.
The point here is that you're making a big investment in giving away free stuff, so you want to make sure they'll work on your behalf too. For you to reach this goal, you want your promotional items to be of use to consumers. The more usable and useful, the better the brand awareness results will be.
Use Them as an "Extra"
With the rising costs of living, consumers are looking for ways to stretch their budget. They want to get more value for their money.
So, how do you think they respond to products that come with extras? You guessed it right. They tend to favour these over others that don't come with a freebie.
They're more likely to buy a product that may even cost slightly more, as long as there's an added value. And your promotional merchandise can serve this critical function.
Show Off How You Appreciate Your Employees
Branded corporate merchandise is as useful for customers as for employees. And this'll still work as a way to create brand awareness.
You can give away promotional merchandise to your hardworking people as a gift of recognition for all their contributions to your business.
Remember though, that the more use they have for your employees, the higher the possibility of them using it outside the office. And when they do this, it's free publicity for your brand too.
Ready to Increase Brand Awareness with Promotional Merchandise?
As you can see, promotional merchandise has too many benefits for you to skip out on them. They may be a considerable investment, but the kind of returns they bring easily outweigh this cost.
So, what are you waiting for?
Explore our catalogue of quality and useful promotional products that can raise your awareness about your brand.
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