1 out of 3 people who receive a promotion at work, use a mug with the company’s logo on it.

I recently read an article from another distributor which said that a Personalised CD case was the latest and greatest merchandise product available. I was confused so immediately checked when the article was written thinking surely it was written 5 years ago, but it was written only last month!

Forgive me but a personalised CD case is not the hottest product on the market, it wasn’t even 2 years ago, the CD case went out of date about the same time the I-pod was launched, and that was 2001. So why would someone try and pitch a product that’s 9 years too late?

There are a lot of products available in the merchandise world, over 750,000 off the shelf products, so you are really spoilt for choice. But how do you differentiate between what is a product that would work for your campaign and what wouldn’t. It all goes back to my first blog, I am not going to try and flog you a pen unless it is really what suits what you are trying to achieve. It is about understanding your objectives and matching the best product to that. So next time you ask for a pen, instead of the usual response you will get from most merchandise companies, which is how many, I will ask you ‘why’?

Here’s an example of how we might tackle one of your objectives. If you are trying to increase employee retention or loyalty, rather than picking a mouse mat from a catalogue, let us look into it a little further. What you won’t know is that 1 out 3 people promoted use a mug with a company logo on it. Another fact is that throughout the lifetime of the mug, the employee will look at the logo 1500 times. So why not give everyone a mug with the company logo and their name on the other side. Nobody would throw something away that had their name on it. Increase the value even more by packaging it in a lovely gift box, an in-expensive way to do so. Its personal, it’s simple, and it has the facts to back it up.

And the craziest thing is that whilst a marketing agency will charge you through the nose for a creative concept, we do it for free. So next time you need a creative angle on merchandise and not just some swag from an online website or paper catalogue, get in touch.