When is a good time to use promotional products?

Research studies have shown the outstanding effectiveness of promotional products-especially in a tough economy-in developing brand identity, generating leads, improving direct mail/advertising responses, encouraging repeat/return business, increasing trade show traffic and building customer loyalty.

Each month hosts abundant opportunities to use promotional products for a variety of reasons:

• corporate gift-giving
• employee incentives
  
• safety programs
  
• consumer education
  
• building customer loyalty
  
• reinforcing your brand
  
• launching a new product
  
• awards/recognition
  
• corporate endorsement
  
• product tie-ins
  
• charity sponsorships
  
• commemoratives
  

There are month-long observances, week-long celebrations and numerous daily holidays. Some events are by official Presidential proclamation (e.g., National Flag Week), others are sponsored events, designed to educate and raise awareness (e.g., American Diabetes Month, AIDS Awareness Day). There are sports events (e.g., World Series), religious holidays (e.g., Rosh Hashanah, Easter), ethnic/international observances (e.g., Chinese New Year), national holidays/observances (e.g., Mother's Day, Fourth of July/Independence Day), historic anniversaries (e.g., Pearl Harbor Day) and important birthday observances (e.g., William Shakespeare, Margaret Sanger).

Most events in the list we've complied are obvious and popular, a few are obscure-but interesting-and some are included just to get your creative juices working. The potential is limited only by your imagination. It's easy to see: there are very few bad times to use promotional products!