In the following article CMYMK directors, Matthew Gatt and Anika Gatt Seretny discuss whether the scale and type of your business decreases the relevance of using promotional products for marketing efforts.
The following is based on an interview with Coryse Borg that was originally published on NEWSBOOK ON 12TH MAY 2021.
At what scale does my business need to be for merchandise to generate value?
Promotional products can be used by everyone. Whether you are a lawyer, an accountant, self-employed, whether you have an office, or whether you work from home; everyone who has a business wants to build relationships. Regardless of the size of your business, promotional products are a good way of building and nourishing relationships.
An example of a team of professionals we worked with is the dental clinic, Sammut Specialists. They wanted promotional products that they would be able to use at their clinic. So their primary objective was to achieve functionality while having their branding associated to their clinic.
What is the most common promotional product?
A good example of the everyday promotional product is the simple pen. A pen can be used by everyone, so they have quite an iconic place among other promotional products. If you think about the product cycle of a pen you can really see how promotional items can end up everywhere. For instance you can pick up a free pen at the dental clinic’s reception desk and take it home. Family members will use it when they need to write something down. Perhaps they might even put it in their bag and take it to work. And so on and so forth. So even if we speak about small scale businesses in terms of number of employees, promotional products can generate a reach that goes far beyond the immediate proximity of influence. And the pen is just one of the many items you can have branded at the office.
What other common merchandise would you expect to find at the workplace?
When we talk about branding a workplace we look at the journey and experience of the customer, patient, or employee. So for example when we were working with Sammut Specialists the journey began at the entrance; the branded welcome mat, the branded pens at the reception desk, branded uniforms or name badges for the staff that greet you at the entrance, etc…
Branding a workplace doesn’t end with the items which you physically place around the office. Giving free promotional items and corporate gifts to the people that work there or the patients that visit; that’s what truly mobilises and leverages the branding experience. People move around and interact with other people. And by gifting them branded gifts, those people will become ambassadors for your brand.
How can a gift experience be used to create a brand impact?
Sammut Specialists also wanted to create a branded gift for their staff. They wanted to design a gift that would be impactful and look good. And they chose a beautiful aluminium drinking bottle which allowed them to not just create a great gift, but to send a message promoting good hydration, while reducing single use plastic. It doesn’t hurt of course that the bottle will be a great way to remember their brand!
The following is an edited except of the original interview. Click here to read about another project that we worked on.
