My husband and I have a new puppy.  We are in our 50’s; our children are all grown and out of the house; we have fewer responsibilities than we had a decade ago and….we bought a puppy.  What were we thinking?  We had forgotten how difficult it is to introduce a young creature to our household rules and schedules.  In trying to train her, we rediscovered how difficult it is to get the attention of a mind that has lots of distraction.

 
With distractions (in the case of the puppy, anything that moves – a leaf, the cat, a dust ball…), then the corresponding ‘attention getter’ has to be pretty powerful (and almost always food related).  Through trial and error, we discovered that pieces of hot dog get and hold her attention well enough to give us a minute to get our message across.

 
So why is this story relevant to promotional products?  It is because the crucial step to communicating an important message is to get (and keep) the attention of one’s target audience.  Your target customers are probably almost as easily distracted from your message as my puppy is from mine.  There are so many messages bombarding the average consumer that the chances of your standing out are pretty small…unless you find that compelling ‘attention getter’.

 
A recent survey conducted by PPAI talks about how promotional products can provide the attention getting (and keeping) tool that might work for your customers.  Here’s what it says:

 76.2% of consumers surveyed could recall the name of the advertiser, the productor service advertised and identify the type of promotional product received in the last two years.  
Dimensional branded products have been proven to catch (and hold) attention more effectively than printed media and television.  ASI (Advertising Specialty Institute) surveyed 600 participants (over the age of 21) if they could recall promotional swag received over the last 12 months. Key findings include:

• 84 percent of consumers remembered an advertiser based on a product they received.
• 42 percent had a more favorable impression of an advertiser after receiving a promotional product.
• Nearly one quarter (24 percent) indicated they are more likely to do business with an advertiser based on items they receive.
• The majority of respondents (62 percent) have done business with an advertiser after receiving a product.
• Writing instruments are the most commonly owned tchotchkes, with 54 percent of respondents owning them, followed by shirts, caps and bags.
• Most (81 percent) promotional products were kept because they were considered useful.
• More than three-quarters of respondents have kept their items for about seven months.
• Among wearables, bags were reported to be used most frequently, with respondents indicating that they use their bags on average nine times per month.
• Bags deliver the most impressions, with 1,038 impressions per month on average. 

These numbers are impressive and good news for those of us who are in the business of promoting branded merchandise. Our customers can feel assured that we will help them get and keep the attention of their customers in order to deliver an important message.  We have years of experience in reaching an audience that has lots of distractions.  We will even brand hotdogs if necessary….