The Marketing Agency Talk

Last week I had afternoon tea with an old friend whose company sells computer peripherals. She was a hardworking woman but had little marketing experience. So when her boss tasked her to work on an upcoming road show in a shopping mall, she felt out of her depth. One of her biggest challenge was being completely in the dark on what promo items to select.

She shared that a corporate gift sales-rep advised her that fridge magnets and ballpoint pens were hot favorites for any roadshow. He told her they were relatively cheap to produce. She said she had prepared the quotation for her boss to endorse. I could see where she was coming from as these items are very reasonably priced if ordered in bulk volumes. However, these items were so wrong for her target audience.

Computer peripherals are generally for people who are more familiar with keyboards than pens. They are also usually targeted at guys rather than women. So pens and magnets are not likely to be sought-after gifts for a target base that’s mainly male, likely to be computer geeks who would go nuts over computer gadgets and widgets. I really can’t imagine them ever go ga-ga with such boring items.

The common mistake people make when choosing promo gifts is choosing in terms of trends and price. The cheapest is not always the most effective. In this case,the magnets will only stay on mum’s refrigerators at home (if it even makes it there), while the pen will lie idly in some stationary box. The target audience won’t get to see it often, or use it to remind them of my friend’s company.

I convinced her to consider mouse pads, wrist rests, lanyards for USB drives, amongst other gifts. Always ask “what’s in it for clients” before you work out your short-list. There’s another post I recently read on the selection of promo gift that I thought was a good read, click here to check that out.

In the next post, I shall talk about How to Give a Promo Gift Away Properly.

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