‘The means to place your product in the minds of your customers’ is what marketing is all about. Having said that getting to the mind of each individual customer is probably the most difficult thing and therein lies the ultimate challenge for a marketing team / specialist.

In a world where everything ‘Free’ will sell like hot cake, I believe promotional merchandise is among the most important marketing tools of our times. This is exactly what I told my elder sister while formulating a marketing strategy for her fashion design related business. Though skeptic in the beginning, she went ahead with the idea and have so far gained considerable profit margins as a result. Irrespective of the narrated success story, use of promotional merchandise in marketing really works.

Promotional merchandise can further be categorized. Merchandise that is closely related to the core product / service (for example, accessories with clothing line) or Merchandise that has no relevance to the core product / service and is just being used for generating positive word of mouth and advertisement reach. Promotional merchandise, if relevant to the core product can be excellently used to attract prospective buyers for return purchase. Such promotional merchandise if used properly can be used successfully as an effective and cost effective means of advertisement as well. Most designer wear products in their initial life span have used promotional merchandise to generate customer interest in their core products.

Proper use of promotional merchandise in marketing is the responsibility of each and every marketeer. Promotional merchandise that is being used for marketing a product or service must be thoroughly researched to find out its harmful effects on society members. Products that may be used in a harmful manner must not be used. The responsibility for proper usage of all products and promotional merchandise further lies with all users as well.

Personally, use of promotional merchandise is an effective mean of generating positive word of mouth and advertisement that goes a long way in enhancing the profit margins for your business. Isn’t that what its all about.