A marketing mix is commonly described as: product, price, place, and promotion. Today, the most important “P” in the marketing mix is Promotion. Promotion really defines the ways in which your brand connects with consumers. Using personalized gifts to engage customers gives your brand a voice, creates a discourse with customers, and when used the right way, forms a framework on which culture can grow.

Examples of brands using promotional products as a part of their marketing mix are rampant across the beverage industry. Does a Boston Lager taste better out of a Samuel Adams glass? Maybe or maybe not, but more importantly, it stimulated the conversation. And in a rapidly expanding craft beer market, any attention, especially curious attention, is good.

The Sam Adams glass is almost too good of an example. Does a brand need to create an entire department to engineer and design custom promotional items in order to be the stars of the tradeshow? Certainly not when there are companies like Pinnacle Promotions, who provide a wide array of products to be imprinted in a variety of methods that help to market any brand, event, company, person or thing.

Generate a Buzz Around Your Brand

Generating buzz around a brand doesn’t come without the proper planning, though. Defining the objectives for each promotional initiative is a crucial step in solidifying the direction of the campaign. Ideally, consumer research projects should be answering questions such as:

• At which tradeshows will we be present?
• Who is the target audience at these shows?
• The secondary audience?
• How do these groups communicate best?
• What is the competition doing right? Wrong?

This type of information gathering can then give marketers an insight into the consumer’s perspective. Additionally, one can also use this data to map out important short-term goals or milestones throughout the relationship. Promotional materials then act as a catalyst for conversation between brands and both existing and prospective customers as well.

Keeping these customers engaged is largely defined by the scope of the project but brands must also maintain the relevance of the message. Informing consumers that swimwear is on sale during winter months may be rewarding for some, but if your primary demographic is fashion savvy, this type of message may be lost on them. This is why following up with consumers is important to every prong of the campaign.

Gauge The Impact of Brand Messages

Gauging the impact of brand messages at and beyond the tradeshow is important to future initiatives. It helps illustrate the right elements to a campaign as well as the wrong. Not only that, but following up with consumers increases the brand’s visibility in their lives and also tends to humanize the brand. Promotional products have the ability to trigger these types of responses, something that is becoming increasingly valuable to organizations the world over.

In conclusion, promotional products are an integral part of a brand’s marketing mix. They serve as a conversation starter, relationship reminder, and indicator of thoughtful planning on behalf of the organization. In a tradeshow setting, they can be used to observe how consumers communicate with each other as well as businesses. However, their actual reach is much greater as they go out into the world to build new impressions through contact, conversation, and utility.