Promotional Product Categories

Pick the Right Promotional Product for the Right Job

Promotional products break down into four major categories.  Different people call them different things, but we like to call them “The 4 G’s”.  Determine which G you’re looking for and it will help you decide what type of product is right for the job.

Gimmes:

Your Gimmes are used for broadcasting and brand awareness.  These are the low-cost items (typically under $1) given out at tradeshows, handed out at networking functions, or used in direct mail campaigns.  They’re great for introducing new products to the market, driving traffic to a website, sales call leave behinds, etc.

Gotchas:

Your Gotcha products are sales incentives, your “free with purchase” items.  These are used to up-sell your products, to improve customer loyalty, etc.  In order for a Gotcha promotional product to work it has to have strong perceived value to the person who’s receiving it.  Gimme products don’t work as Gotcha products.  Your customer isn’t going to increase the size of his order if his incentive is a pad of sticky notes, but he might do it for a nice leather padfolio.  With Gotchas, the cost per item isn’t as important value to the end-user.

Gratitudes:

Your gratitude promotional products are just what they sound like.  These are products you use to thank your customers for their business.  They should be appropriately tied to the type of business that’s taken place.  An example would be a realtor giving a bottle of wine with branded stemware to the client that bought a house from them.

Grand Gesture:

Your Grand Gesture is the real big gun.  These are high end branded items reserved for your top people.  Again, the perceived value is the big thing.  It has to have meaning to the end-user or it’s a waste.  Use the Grand Gesture sparingly.  The end user needs to feel like it’s a big honor to get this.