ou don't have to rely on traditional advertising techniques to get your business's name out there and drum up some new customers. It's easy to spend too much money on marketing techniques that are over-exhausted, techniques that many consumers are completely immune to. These days, practically everyone is a “smart shopper”. You need to be able to penetrate deeper and offer more than your competitors. How can you advertise in a way that goes beyond the jaded expectations of your clients-to-be?
Why, promotional merchandise, of course! Everyone loves free – or mostly free – stuff, even the most jaded and intelligent of consumers. Take, for example, you standard office drone of a consumer, living out his salaryman life and careful not to overspend. He has an easy time shrugging off most advertising, but what about his promotional wall calendar magnets?
The fact of the matter is, promotional wall calendars stare us in the face every day; we have every reason to look at them several times a day without having to be coaxed to do so. It's practically free advertising, except for the small cost of the initial print run. When you throw in promotional business calendars for the office worker's desk and then promotional calendar magnets for the refrigerator in the break room, your business is getting advertised all over the place in an unobtrusive and yet omnipresent manner. The dream of every marketing executive!
Speaking of the break room, that's where people relax. It's where they just want to hang out and let the stress of the day wash off them. That's where you can introduce promotional can coolers for the sodas that people will inevitably be using in the break room – yet another innocuous marketing device that someone can carry around, advertising your business for you. How nice of them!
You can even create psychological associations between your business and certain feelings. Your typical American office worker is over-stressed, and many use a stress ball to work off that excess energy. Why not get in on the fun with promotional stress toys? When those over-stressed individuals look down at the simple yet effective toy that is giving them so much relief, they'll see your company's logo, creating an association that will last for quite a long time. You can't buy advertising like that.
Except, apparently, you can. Yes, it may seem like a lot of money to invest in trinkets and doo-dads, but the fact is that trinkets and doo-dads are an important part of our lives, and there's no reason you can't take advantage of that.