Sunday, 24 November 2013

Promotional Gifts through Passage of Time

All of us have received promotional gifts at one time or the other in our lifetime. We have appreciated the gift for its usefulness, shown it to others and some gifts we preserved for long time. Promotional gifts are meant to advertise the company and engage more customers to buy the product as well to increase the marketing of the product. Many customers become aware of the company through promotional gifts find out more about the organizers and attitude change is seen in buying strategy.

Promotional product has big or small money value. It is printed with the logo of the company with its contact details like address to engage more customers. In short it is a marketing gimmick through advertisement. The giveaway products could be clock, diary, cap, bag, calendar etc. imprinted with services and use of the product. Logo of the company is prominently placed to bring about recognition in on lookers as the held for work. It is a free giveaway with the company bearing the cost. The company invests in such gifts to get returns later through new customers and loyalty of the old customers.

The concept of Promotional gifts is not a new one. It has been by small and big organizations over the centuries. In 1789 there is reference of commemorative buttons as promotional items.

Promotional gifts

In business, promotional word in general means those communicative activities which include advertising, personal selling, sales promotion, and publicity. Advertising is a form of mass communication which is non-personal and paid for by an identified sponsor.  Personal selling is a form of person-to-person communications in which a seller attempts to persuade prospective buyers to purchase his company’s product or service. Sales promotion is a term for those marketing activities other than advertising, personal selling and publicity which acts as incentives to stimulate quick buyer action. Such activities include coupons, premiums, free samples, trading stamps, and the like. These three promotional activities namely advertising, personal selling and sales promotion are variables over which the company has control. Regarding the fourth activity, publicity the company generally has little control over its presentation. Publicity usually comes in the form of news or editorial comments about a company’s product or service. On occasion however companies can instigate publicity through the release of controlled news item. In these situations, a company might exercise some measure of control over the publicity component of promotion.

The blend of these promotional activities is referred to as the promotional mix. Depending upon product type, consumer characteristics and other factors, the weight or emphasis assigned to each element in the promotional mix will vary. Even producers within the same industry will have different promotional mixes depending upon the size of the firm, its competitive strengths and weaknesses, its managerial strengths and weaknesses and its managerial style and philosophy. The promotional industry is very organized since 19th century. The promotional mix has long been viewed as the company’s sole communication link with the consumer. Distributors in present times have the resources to supply innumerable products globally. With the coming of internet the distance has been reduced and supply chain has become more prompt.

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