Christmas is now well and truly upon us and the traditional time for giving and receiving gifts is here. For the corporate gifts market, Christmas is a hugely important time, with companies looking to thank their best staff and customers with premium corporate gifts.
These gifts will of course have a marketing motive behind them and look to try and tread the line between gift item and promotional product. But putting corporate gifts to one side, how important are promotional products as part of a festive marketing campaign?
At Christmas, promotional products work a little bit differently to the rest of the year. Promotional products tend to be cheaper items with a more obvious marketing motive than corporate gifts, so using them at Christmas can be quite tricky. When sending out promotional products to your best clients, you want to be sure that they don't interpret these items as their Christmas corporate gift. This could look like you are rewarding their valued custom with something like a cheap plastic pen and is certainly not the impression you want to give.
So what is the best way to use promotional products during the Christmas period?
The key here is the word "promotional". Usually the trick would be disguising your promotional activities behind the appearance of a gift, but at a time of year where people are sending each other premium gift items, you want the recipients to know that the item is purely promotional in nature. Use promotional products as part of a targeted marketing campaign, offering your products and services to new and existing customers. Make it more obviously sales oriented than you normally would. People are more likely to be looking to buy at this time of year, so if your company can offer them something of interest then it might just catch their attention.
Promotional products at Christmas can also be used as a giveaway with products, giving you a potential advantage over your competitors. By including giveaway promotional products that are relevant to the items you are selling, it ensures that your products contain more value for money than your competitors and gives your core audience a practical item with your logo prominently displayed.
They can also be used alongside a festive marketing campaign to help bring attention towards your adverts or commercials. Increasingly, marketing campaigns are being seen as "events", with audiences looking out for them and taking their characters to heart (think of the famous Meer cat as an example). Promotional products can be used as an effective way of promoting your advertising campaign, giving you maximum exposure.
During Christmas it is important to use
promotional products carefully, but that is not to say that they cannot be used. Use promotional products wisely to give your company added value for money and greater exposure over the holiday period.
