Promotional Merch Cultivates Brand Loyalty

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Investing in promotional items does not have to feel like a loss. In fact, promotional merch should be considered standard practice, because the consumer market is so saturated with brands selling the same products or services, it’s good to stand out. We’ll take you through some stats and reasons why branded promotional items will generate revenue in the long run.

The U.S. alone accounts for an estimated $298 billion in ad expenditures annually and was recently named the world’s largest advertising market.
— Moumita Das

Why Does Promotional Merch Matter?

With so many marketers focusing all of their efforts in digital marketing, tangible promotional products have taken a backseat. Unfortunately, businesses that have chosen to dismiss such products, are missing out.

Infographic by PPAI Research

Infographic by PPAI Research

A 2017 study by the Promotional Products Association International (PPAI) explains everything you need to know about the effectiveness of promotional products. According to the study, most people keep promotional products for an average of eight months. That means your advertisement is sitting in front of someone longer than a simple PPC ad or pop-up on a website.

Promotional products provide brands with a reliable path to reach the target consumer group by positioning their message as it will be best received. In fact, according to PPAI research, promotional products are the most welcomed form of advertising by all generations and considered most effective in providing a rationale to respond. Promotional products not only allow brand messages to effectively reach their intended audience, but they also spread the word to anyone who sees the product displayed, used, or shared.

89 % of consumers have received a promotional product in the past six months; that’s nearly nine in 10 who own a promotional product, nine in 10 who use promotional products, and nine in 10 walking billboards for a brand.

Read more: Top 10 reasons to use promotional merchandise

Swag and Brand Representation

Brand ambassadors or brand representatives are also an essential part of driving your promotional product marketing strategy forward. In many instances, your promotional products are being distributed at large events and festivals. For a successful campaign, you will need an energetic team to help promote your brand and give out your branded swag.

Check Out 18 Company Swag Ideas Employees Really Want For 2021

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Every brand needs a face and voice that will go hand-in-hand with the product. It’s not just about choosing the right product, you must also find the right people to promote your brand, a friendly face with a charismatic demeanor can help build confidence in your brand. A simple pleasant interaction with your brand ambassador will eventually result in brand loyalty.

Know Your Audience

In order for you to grow your brand loyalty, you should understand who your current customers are; but no only WHO they are, but WHAT they are – in terms of their needs, their wants, and what drives them to choose you over a competitor. By focusing your time on collecting this type of audience information, you can easily build a large following that is loyal to you and your business . Once you have a good grip on who your target audience is, you can seal the deal by presenting them with custom promotional products that appeal to their specific lifestyle .

Read How To Find Your Target Audience And Create The Best Content That Connects

Continued Engagement

Show that you appreciate their business! If your brand sells products or services, a good way to ensure continued engagement and brand loyalty is by providing free gifts after a purchase has been made or after a client connection has been made. These small gestures keep you fresh on their radar and they will associate your brand with a positive feeling.

So, How does a Promotional Item Promote Brand Loyalty?

It is important to create a promotional item that is of high quality because people will associate the premium quality of the gift or promotional item with the quality of your business. This will help a lot in keeping the first-time buyers of your products forever.

Promotional products can drive consumers to your business in a cost-effective way. Giveaways bring instant brand recognition. You can expand the reach of your products or services amongst a larger audience, and these items are also excellent for building a solid customer base and driving customer loyalty.


3 Tactics for Promoting Your Branded Merch

So you don’t have the capital to give our free promotional items? Well, we think that you can make a decent return by selling them through your website for an extra revenue stream. This will of course depend on what type of business you have as it may not apply to everyone.

Check Out Launch like Steve Jobs: 7 Ways to Build Buzz for Your Next Product Launch

Limited Run

You can create a buzz around a product that is a limited-run item that would be worth buying. Find an item that would be useful, things that can be used in every-day life or that can be great decor. A good option would be to collaborate with an artist or another business to then create something unique, this way you will also attract the audience of that other artist or brand.

Promotional Discounts

Providing a promo discount code to loyal subscribers is also a great way to push your product, especially if it’s during a holiday or a special sales day such as Black Friday or Cyber Monday.

Bundles or BOGO Deals

Promotional merch can also be an added bonus to a purchase of another product. Many times this tactic drives the buyer to chose your product over the competition if it means they will get an extra item to compliment their purchase.

Author: Irene Floridia - Content Creator


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Best Promotional Merch Ideas

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In the corporate world, it is often customary to have branded pens, notebooks, or mugs. While having your brand on a pen is cool, we think you can do better! Much of the branded products you will find at a conventional office space are stationary and almost expected, but we believe that having more interesting merch brings excitement about your brand for both employees and clients. Promotional merch is also used to spread brand awareness and it can also be used to work with social media influencers to promote your services or products. In this article, we will show you a few ideas for cool branded merch ideas to fit your brand.

Remember! It is not about just having promotional products but about having the right promotional products that are geared towards your audience. Therefore, it is important to do your research before creating an item to promote your brand.

Unconventional Event Swag and Promotional Items

Robo-cube puzzle fidget toy

Robo-cube puzzle fidget toy

Magnetic interactive fidget pen

Magnetic interactive fidget pen

Hexagon spinner fidget cube

Hexagon spinner fidget cube

Ball of Whacks fidget toy

Ball of Whacks fidget toy

Fidget Toys are the new stress balls! Everyone loves a good fidget toy to entertain themselves while taking a mental break from your desk job. Especially now that more and more people are working from home and encounter more distractions than before. In addition to the improved learning benefits, fidget toys can also reduce anxiety and stress, enhance dexterity, improve coordination and fine motor skills. Besides the benefits, a fidget toy makes for a great promotional item for potential clients or current clients as it keeps your brand on their minds, but also, who doesn’t love a cool gift? Check out ‘Fidget Toys Are Not Just Hype’ - Scientific American

Conventional and Practical Branded Products

Supersweet Coffee & Tattoos

Supersweet Coffee & Tattoos

Panton blue light glasses

Panton blue light glasses

Verve Coffee Shop

Verve Coffee Shop

Ultra-portable speaker

Ultra-portable speaker

Promotional items are also great if you are looking to do a virtual giveaway. Depending on your business, you may be looking for more traditional items that can be used to promote your brand but still motivate people to want to participate. Promotional products such as t-shirts, hoodies, speakers, notebooks, and coffee mugs are more of the traditional branded merch and can seem boring to some but if you have a good design that also ties in your logo, chances are, people will want them. What is better than a free t-shirt? A cool free t-shirt. Incorporating giveaways can be an excellent way to get people excited about your event, while also spreading brand awareness in untraditional ways.

8% of promotional product recipients remember the name of the advertiser on the products. 85% of the recipients do business with the advertiser on the product. 83% of people like receiving them.
Praytell agency Promo Box

Praytell agency Promo Box

Why Promotional Product Work

Promotional products are a powerful marketing tool because they allow a brand to connect with consumers by engaging their senses. Branded items are one of the only forms of advertising that allows consumers to interact with a brand on a physical level, promotional products often create more memorable brand experiences and promote brand recognition.

Family Industries has worked with brands such as Praytell Agency to create a one-of-a-kind promotional items box which included a pair of bombas socks, a thermal mug, stickers, and a scarf. All products and the box itself contained a print of their signature logo.


How to Design The Right Promotional Item

When creating your own promotional items, it is tempting to try to pack as much information as possible, but we suggest you prevent overwhelming the design with too much text. Keep these points in mind when you're designing your promotional products to create memorable gifts.

Less Is More

Keep it simple, use your brand logo and a catchy tagline, website, and if you’re able to fit it in, a phone number or a social media handle.

Use Your Brand Colors

Choose a product with your standard colors to maintain consistency in your style and to improve the chances of brand awareness. If a product option is not available in your colors, select a neutral color that will allow your brand identity to shine through your logo and text, instead.

Usefulness

You will want your product to be useful time and time again. Novelty items such as fidget toys are great to raise a smile or promote a healthy work-life balance, but depending on your audience perhaps more traditional items such as travel mugs, t-shirts or flash drives are the best options. Do your research!

Key Takeaways

Promotional products are essential for your business, over 50% of adults use at least one promotional product regularly, and 85% of that group will eventually do business with the advertised company. Additionally, the cost of a promotional item compared to regular advertising is much lower, and corporate gifts build relationships and brand loyalty.

Author: Irene Floridia - Content Creator


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Our showroom at 2755 Fruitdale Street, Los Angeles, CA 90039 is open by appointment only from 10 am - 4 pm Monday through Friday.

Promotional Gift Ideas For 2022

As we welcome the new year, you may be thinking of ways to improve your business or step up your game in one way or another. Swag bags or promotional gifts may be a good way for you to maintain engagement or improve your brand visibility.

We will take you through all the promotional merch ideas for 2022.

Key Features

When looking for the best promotional gifts for your business, it’s important to keep a few things in mind. Certain criteria may apply better for your type of business, however, overall we believe these features will be helpful.

  • Small Items

  • Portable Items

  • Adaptable for Remote Work

  • Easy To Ship

  • Sustainable / Eco-friendly

  • Home & lifestyle-themed

  • Health and wellness-themed

  • Unique and on-brand

All the products below can be branded in different ways with a business logo, a graphics design, branded packaging, and more.

Check Out Best Eco-Friendly Merch

Swag Box

A swag box is commonly used as “Thank You” gifts or “Welcome” gifts for agencies or service providers for clients. Swag boxes are unique in the sense that you can pick and choose what type of items to include and the personalization aspect is much more pronounced.

For example, you can put your logo with your company colors on the box itself and include items that also display your logo, company moto, or tag line.

Check Out A Guide To Creating Your Own Merch


Top Ranking

Promotional Items

Water Bottles

This doesn’t have to be a boring items, you can make it cool by choosing the right bottle. There’s various styles you can customize to incorporate your logo and any other aspects of your branding.

For example, JBL used a MIIR wide mouth bottle and added their logo as well as some artwork they created for this specific merch item. Water bottles are a great promotional item because there’s a lot of surface to play with and because it’s a functional product.

Portable Laptop Stand

This simple yet sleek design is great for remote workers or people that travel for work. Woox laptop stand is the perfect compact yet useful gift for clients old and new. With more people moving towards remote work, this makes a thoughtful gift that can be included in a swag box as it is small and light. It’s also an opportunity to laser cut your logo into and keep the your cost down.

This is also a very simple design that most merch agencies such as Family Industries can produce for you.

Learn more about How To Capitalize From Branding Costs

Personalized Socks

You can never go wrong with socks! Personalizing socks with your company colors and logo is an easy and budget friendly merch item to include in your swag box. You also don’t have to worry about size as much as you would with other apparel items.

You can also include ankle socks if the weather calls for it. Socks are generally a safe gift as it’s a common wearable item that all us use, and because of the size it’s an easy item to ship.


Wireless Power Bank

A wireless phone charger is a great canvas for your logo and it can be used by everyone with a phone. This is a great gift for a client or employees. Again, it’s a small item that can be easily shipped and it’s a highly utilized product.


Pourover Coffee Maker

Corporate gifts don’t have to be boring. A branded pourover insulated coffee maker is the perfect alternative to a coffee mug or a travel mug as this is one step above the traditional gifts. With this pourover coffee maker, you are sure to impress your clients.

Author: Irene Floridia - Content Creator

Looking to assemble your own promotional swag kit?

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Best Custom Printed Bags

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A great way to step up your merch game is to consider bags. And depending on what kind you get and how you customize them, they can be surprisingly more affordable than T-shirts and other items. We will tell you about our top-selling customizable bags we customize, along with some details about each kind that can save you money and help avoid printing issues.


5 Most Popular Bags

It is good to note that for screen printed designs, it’s recommended to have a relatively big print area. For smaller items such as a fanny pack and wallets, embroidery is preferred or an embroidered patch to add an extra element of design.

Read Why Your Company Should Invest In Promotional Bags

Some bags call for specific events or occasions. This is why it’s important to consider your audience when it comes to promotional bags. The type of event will also dictate which type of bag is the best and what type of other promotional items to provide event-goers with.

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Tote Bags

A tote bag hits all the marks: affordably priced, simple construction, durable, lays flat for printing, and comes in a variety of colors and styles. People love tote bags and use them for everything, from carrying groceries to beach supplies, especially with plastic bags going away.

The most affordable tote bag is made of canvas which is easy to print on and you can be sure that people will use them long-term. Avoid plastic tote bags, which can look cheap and people are quick to get rid of. Additionally, plastic is bad for the environment! Tote bags probably provide the most opportunities for customizing out of all the bag types, especially if you go with cotton. They tend to have the largest print area and the widest variety of print methods to choose from.

Check Out 5 Benefits Of A Giveaway Promotional Tote Bag

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Drawstring Bags

Drawstring bags are great for big events where people will be walking for long periods of time. Because these bags are generally small and simple, they are great for people looking to hold just a few things while displaying your logo to several thousand people at large events.

Cotton fabric makes the best drawstring bag for screen printing a large order. Especially because you can’t screen print on the synthetic drawstring bags unless you want them to get all mangled and melted under the heat dryers. The other nice thing is that this bag can be washed like regular laundry.

Fanny Packs

Now that the ’90s are back in style, fanny packs are cool again. We generally suggest using embroidery for your logo or design application, as these types of bags are usually made of tougher material, and because of it’s size and shape, screen printing or DTG can be difficult.

Pro Tip: Avoid designs with too many details or thin lines, these types of designs are not good for embroidery.

Check Out 7 Reasons to Use Wearable Promotional Items for Your Business

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Duffel Bags

The duffel bag or gym bag is all-purpose, durable, and handy are some of the words used to describe the duffel. Take it to the gym, take it to school, take it camping, take it as a carry-on bag on your trips. Printing on a duffel bag has its’ restrictions that tend to come down to the print area, which can be small depending on the size of the gym bag. So be prepared for that with a logo that can be reduced in size and still look good. Avoid details and multiple colors for the best results.

Once again, we believe that the best way to customize a duffel bag is to use embroidery. This method has a more classic finish look than a simple screen print.

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Neck Wallet

This type of bag is not conventional and is mostly used by event-goers and athletes or outdoorsy people to hold phones, IDs, credit cards, keys, and other small flat items.

Because of the size of this bag and the area available for logo placement, it’s recommended to use embroidery or an embroidered patch which can give the bag a cool look.

Author: Irene Floridia - Content Creator


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Do Trade Show Swag Giveaways Boost Brand Awareness?

Promoting your brand at an event such as a tradeshow or a festival is a must. Giveaways is a good way to engage with the event goers and boost brand awareness.


Trade show Giveaways

Tradeshows can be great exposure for brands in the service industry and giveaways or promotional items can aid other marketing efforts. Whether you call them promotional items, tchotchkes or swag, exhibitors at every trade show hand out countless trade show giveaways to attract and encourage attendees to enter their space.

Check Out 6 PR Tips To Gain Exposure At Trade Shows

The right trade show giveaways can help generate leads and support integrated marketing messages that will prompt attendees to tie that message back to your company long after the show has ended.

What’s The Right Trade Show Promotional Item?

The perfect trade show giveaway items communicate a company’s brand strategy and messaging to attendees. Before selecting a trade show giveaway item, first consider weather or not they support your corporate or brand image and campaign theme.

Check Out How To Build an Effective Tradeshow Marketing Strategy

Brand Alignment

  • Ensuring your branded merch has your company logo printed, etched, or chiseled on it. It does not matter how cool the giveaway is, you will lose out on business and exposure if the item cannot be linked back to your brand.

  • Your giveaway items need to in some way tie-in to your brand and most importantly, your industry. This will help the attendee connect the dots between the physical merch item to your service or business.

  • If you’re attending a themed trade show, select an item that goes with the theme to further strengthen your brand messaging.



Pro Tip: Once you’ve chosen the right merch for your trade show booth, the way you display your items and present your brand is just as important as the items being displayed. Approaching your display as another tool for marketing is a good way to ensure a successful way to show the value in your business.

Check Out Trade show booth design is a key element to engaging with attendees.




What Is A Valuable Trade Show Giveaway?

The most important function of a tradeshow giveaway is the ability for that item to resonate with your clients and prospects. While unique and fun giveaways are always a good way to generate overall interest in your brand, practical merch items can present more value to a trade show guest.

  • Think of a trade show giveaway item as something an event goer can immediately find useful such as tote bags, water bottles, sanitizer, or a backpack.

  • Some of the most valuable giveaways are the ones that will be used frequently like a cool keychain, wireless phone charger, or a phone case / phone wallet.

  • Apparel such as t-shirts are always attractive for people and it’s an overall low-cost product and the perfect canvas for your logo.

Budgeting For Trade Show Giveaways

Like exhibits, trade show budgets vary in size from exhibitor to exhibitor. You should be conscious of the costs associated with your trade show giveaway regardless of your marketing budget. A good rule of thumb is to use 10% of your profit towards marketing, out of the 10% allocate a certain amount to your promotional merch as needed. This will vary depending on your business model.

Check Out How Can Branding Costs Be Capitalized

Tips To Cut Giveaway Costs

  • Making sure you get the most bang for your buck, may mean that you will have to get a little more creative or find inexpensive alternatives.

  • Shipping can add up and can sometimes be an afterthought that puts you over your budget. Think ahead and use a local merch agency so as to be able to pick up your merch instead of paying for shipping and handling.

  • Having the right staff to represent you on site can be a way to ensure your promotional items are being handed out to every person and nothing goes to waste.

Author: Irene Floridia - Content Creator


Looking for The Best Promotional Merch printer?

send us an e-mail at quotes@familyindustriesla.com, or give us a call at 323.227.1547 and we'd be happy to help.

Our showroom at 2755 Fruitdale Street, Los Angeles, CA 90039 is open by appointment only from 10 am - 4 pm Monday through Friday.


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