FAQ
Q: What Are Promotional Products?
A: Promotional products—usually imprinted with a company's name, logo or message—include useful or decorative articles of merchandise that are utilized in marketing and communication programs. Imprinted products that are distributed free are called advertising specialties. Imprinted items given as an incentive for a specific action are known as premiums. Business gifts, awards and commemoratives are also considered promotional products.
Q: How Is The Promotional Products Industry Organized?
A: Supplier firms produce or process products offered for sale through promotional products distributors. There are more than 3,500 supplier companies in the promotional products industry.
Distributors act as independent agents and sell products to their clients. There are more than 20,000 distributor firms in the industry.
More than 7,000 distributors and suppliers are members of Promotional Products Association International (PPAI). Click here to view PPAI's Association Profile.
Q: What Is A Supplier?
A: A promotional products company that manufactures, imports converts, imprints or otherwise produces or process promotional products offered for sale through promotional products distributors.
Q: What Is A Distributor?
A: In the promotional products industry, a distributor develops ideas for using promotional products in a marketing or promotional campaign, buys the items from the supplier and sells them to advertisers.
Q: How Are Promotional Products Used In Marketing?
A: Since promotional products can be used alone, or integrated with other media, there are virtually limitless ways to use them. Popular programs cited most often by industry counselors (called distributors) are business gifts, employee relations, orientation programs, corporate communications, and, at tradeshows to generate booth traffic. They're also effective for dealer/distribution programs, co-op programs, company stores, generating new customers or new accounts, nonprofit fundraising, public awareness campaigns and for promotion of brand awareness and brand loyalty. Other uses include employee incentive programs, new product or service introduction and marketing research for survey and focus group participants. Click here to view promotional products case studies.
Q: What Kinds Of Promotional Products Are Available?
A: There are literally tens of thousands of different types and styles of promotional products. In many cases, it's even possible to obtain custom items that aren't found in any catalog. Examples of common items include: pens, calendars, t-shirts, caps, coffee mugs, calculators, key chains, desk accessories and bumper stickers.
Q: What Products Are The Most Popular?
A: Of the $17.3 billion that was spent in 2004 on promotional products, the most popular was wearables/apparel.
Q: How Can I Use Promotional Products For My Marketing Campaign?
A: Visit our website, BuildAPromotion.com. It will provide you with effective keys to planning a successful promotions campaign. Hard-pressed for ideas? The award-winning case studies can help generate ideas for your next promotion.
Q: Where Can I Find Someone In My Area To Help Me With My Promotional Campaign?
A: Visit our website, BuildAPromotion.com. Use our distributor search engine to locate a PPAI-member distributor in your area.
Q: How Effective Are Promotional Products?
A: Research Shows...
Promotional Products: Impact, Exposure & Influence
A survey conducted in 2004 for PPAI by LJ Market Research reveals the power of promotional products by measuring how end users respond to organizations that use promotional products as part of their marketing mix. This survey was conducted by interviewing business travelers at DFW Airport. More than 71 percent of travelers indicated they had received at least one promotional product in the last 12 months. The study also showed that respondents' ability to recall the name of an advertiser on a promotional product they had received (76 percent) was much better than their ability to recall the name of an advertiser from a print publication they had read in the past week (53.5 percent).
Promotional Products' Impact On Brand/Company Image
An experiment conducted by Georgia Southern Univervisty shows that recipients of promotional products have a significantly more positive image of a compnay than consumers who do not receive promotional products.
Promotional Product Incentives Produce Valuable Referrals From Satisfied Customers
A survey conducted exclusively for PPAI by the Manship School of Mass Communication at Louisiana State University indicated that among other findinds, accompanying a request for referrals, an offer of an promotional product incentive, or an offer of a promotional product incentive plus eligibility in a sweepstakes drew as many as 500% more referrals than an appeal letter alone.
Q: Where Can I Get More Information About Becoming A Member Of PPAI?
A: PPAI Membership Department