The marketing world is just a shadow of what it was before the turn of the millennium. Rewind to the 1980s, and it was all down to handing out flyers on the street to anybody, without considering whether or not someone could be a customer or not. The business of posters was booming, with businesses sticking their posters on any wall space they could find, only for them to be covered by another poster within minutes. The advertising strategy was 100% paper based and included prints in magazines and newspapers. The latter two were incredibly expensive, which meant not many were able to afford it.
A Changing World
Slowly but surely, and through direction from consultants such as Haris Ahmed, businesses started to question how effective their strategies actually were. They started to understand that there was no point handing out flyers to people who would simply put it in the next trash bin, unread, or even drop it on the floor. Flyers were good to target an entire geographical area, but businesses started to understand that marketing had to be about more than just geographical areas. This was one of the main reasons why different and more effective options needed to be considered.
Today, we know that a business should start by identifying their target demographic. For instance, if they sell tennis attire, they won’t necessarily be successful handing out flyers in a shopping street. They will be far more successful having advertisements at the nearest tennis club and not in the form of flyers, but rather in the form of promotional materials with your business name printed on them, such as tennis balls or grip wraps. This offers benefits for both the business and the customer.
It was also found that flyers didn’t work because information would be provided at a time when it may not be needed. This means even customers that may be interested would soon forget about the information, putting it away in their bag or pocket, never to be seen again. With the advertisement as described above, however, it will be visible in the place where they are most likely to actually need it as well.
Clearly, promotional products have to be attractive, but they also have to be useful and instantly deliver a message to customers. Something like a baseball cap, a mug or a key chain delivers an instant message with all the most important information about your business: who are you and where are you?
Printed promotional products are now some of the most popular types of marketing out there. This is also because it is affordable and can be used to raise awareness of a new business, handing out little fun gifts to customers who enter the store for the first time. The shift for marketers is that they now have to find things that are useful, fashionable and original. With thousands of different products out there, some are struggling to choose the one that is best for them.