The Promotional Idea Showcase - Fall 2001 - Updated Quarterly

Hand Me That 3/4-Inch Key Tag, Wouldya?
If you watch public TV at all, you’ve likely seen New Yankee Workshop with Norm Abram. 
While I understand you don’t become a master carpenter by just leafing through a Time-Life book, Norm still fascinates me. In an hour, he manages to flawlessly construct anything from an oak armchair to a house addition and make it look as easy as gluing two popsicle sticks together. True, the fact that he’s got a house-sized workroom and close to a half-million dollar’s worth of equipment doesn’t hurt, but you still have to know what you’re doing. Let’s face it; if most of us ever tried – even with all that cool stuff – there’s an excellent chance it would look like a third-grader’s science project, with the added possibility of a mangled appendage or two.

But beyond his skill, there’s a reason Norm can do his thing week after week: Whatever’s needed, he has exactly the right tool. When that table leg dictates a notch three inches long and a quarter of an inch wide to properly fit, he pulls a lever on his table saw or pops a new attachment on his router, and the job’s done in seconds.

With promotional products, there’s a direct parallel to this. Ironically, one of our stories this issue discusses the use of tools themselves as promotional items – pretty convincing ones, too. But the correlation goes way deeper than that. Put basically: Depending on the advertising or marketing need in question, an imprinted product can be precisely the tool you require to get the job done.

Sounds simplistic as hell, doesn’t it? The truth is, it actually is. With incredibly few limitations, no matter what objective your company has, an ad specialty can help you reach it. Sometimes it’s the product itself that becomes the tool; there are situations where you’d be insane not to use a mug or pen or mousepad or whatever. Other times the tool isn’t the product itself, but what’s on it – a mini-screwdriver with clever copy, a wood paper clip holder with a subtly placed logo. In still other cases it’s how the product is delivered or packaged – a thank-you desktop piece by private courier, a beach towel compressed into a water bottle. And occasionally, it’s a joining together of one or more of all these elements – a pen with a lime green imprint placed inside an equally vivid water bottle and delivered in a wood crate, for instance.

But what tool to use when? Easy – think of your marketing goal as a woodworking activity and your counselor as Norm (or Norma, as the case may be) Abram. Whatever you need, talk it over with him. He’ll be able to pull just the proper item out of his – get ready, here’s the painfully obvious analogy – promotional toolbox.

Seriously, however, and as you’re already likely aware, your promotional products partner really can give you what you need to look good to your clients and your boss. And that’s a pretty handy tool to have around.

PS: Good news: The 2000 sales figures for promotional products were just released. Smart businesspeople like you bought $17.8 billion worth of imprinted merchandise last year to distribute to their own customers. That’s the largest increase the industry’s ever experienced, placing it far ahead of outdoor advertising, P-O-P displays, couponing, magazines and sweepstakes, among others. 

Thanks for recognizing and supporting promotional products as the highly effective medium we’ve always known it is!

This online version of IMPRINT MAGAZINE is updated regularly along with the printed version.