What things do you take into consideration when you are searching for new promotional merchandise, swag, or however you refer to it?
We do not recommend going strictly by price. You could pay dearly for that. Inexpensive items can be cheaply made and might not reflect well on your organization. And if it is a low-price distributor keep in mind that in order to keep prices down they have to cut back on expenses somewhere, and that could be on service.
Here's some tips we recommend:
- Who are you giving them to? You want to cater them to who you are giving them to. Make it something they can use, not something that will end up in a drawer or they give their children. Also consider gender, especially with apparel. Generally an item like this doesn't work well for adults, unless you are promoting a play or "have fun" type theme.
- Is there a message you are trying to convey with your promos? Try to choose an item that will help reinforce your message.
- Think about your imprint! First of all how many colors will it be. Not all items offer more than one color for an imprint. Also consider the size of your imprint. If it is a very small imprint area some fine details might not reproduce well. There are also items, like mugs sometimes, that due to the curvature or maybe they are tapered, will have a much smaller imprint area than you would think. This an example of an item, though it is a great promo, but has a small imprint area.
- Production time is a consideration. Post-Covid we still see many suppliers that due to staff shortages have longer production times than before Covid. Though there are still some who offer rush services, there are not near as many as there used to be.
- If you are going to be taking your swag to trade shows, conferences and such then weight and bulkiness is a definite thing to consider. Mugs can be quite a load to haul around, and also a lot of weight in someone's trade show goodie bag.
- Don't get caught up on having to find a new or trendy item. New and trendy can be good, but not if it doesn't fit the recipients, your message, etc. These Koozies are an oldie but still a top seller. And they offer a lot of imprint room.
- And we definitely do encourage customers to consider sustainable items. There are many more being offered in the past couple years and you are helping the environment!
Most of these suggestions pertain to hard goods and not promotional apparel. That is a whole different animal.
And the best tip is to use someone, yes like Promo Hounds, that has extensive knowledge of the industry and will research for you at no charge to suggest the best items for your particular needs.
Let us know if we can help!