Promotional Products: Beyond the Price

By: Jaime Weinstein

The Internet has greatly changed the way consumers shop in ways that go beyond the ability to purchase everything from apparel to automobiles without ever leaving the house. One of the biggest changes is that it provides the faculty to compare and contrast items from different companies, or their websites, based on a certain factor – price. While the cost of goods is certainly an aspect to be considered when deciding what to buy and where to buy it from, there are many other considerations that need to be addressed, especially when it comes to purchasing promotional products. The following article will discuss several additional criteria regarding promotional products, their distributors, and what you’re really paying for.

Trust
The promotional products industry is composed mainly of suppliers and distributors, essentially those who import or manufacture the goods and those who sell them to consumers. There are two umbrella organizations – the Advertising Specialties Institute (ASI) and the Promotional Products Association International (PPAI) – to which both suppliers and distributors belong. These groups not only supply members with a network of other companies with whom they can negotiate special pricing or preferred status (that can be translated to discounts for consumers), but membership also provides shoppers with a means of identifying the legitimacy of these companies and ability to recognize them as reputable sellers of promotional products. All ASI distributors are assigned a six-digit identification number and members of ASI and PPAI will feature each organizations icon on the homepage of their website.

Accuracy, Quality and Guarantee
Once you’ve identified that a promotional products distributor is a member of both ASI and PPAI, you can begin to delve deeper into what exactly you will be paying for. Sometimes items are cheap regarding price because they are cheap regarding quality. Many companies allow you to request a sample of your promotional products so you can be assured of exactly what you are ordering before you commit to a specific item. You also want to pay attention to the quality of the imprint on your promotional products. An item will not serve much benefit in advertising your company if your name and logo rubs off. Distributors should also have a very specific order procedure in place so that the consumer can see a virtual mock-up of their promotional product with its graphic and approve it before their order is processed. And if, for some reason, after placing an order, it does not arrive on time or is not exactly as approved, the distributor should have some sort of guarantee in place that ensures the purchaser’s money will be refunded or the order will be reprocessed.

Creativity and Customer Service
The Internet may have eliminated the need for face-to-face interaction with salespeople, but a good promotional products distributor will still have employees available to speak with consumers and provide aid and service through e-mail or over the phone. Many companies even have the option to ‘livechat’ with a representative during all business hours if you need immediate assistance. And speaking of assistance – they should be able to readily provide it. Your company should be knowledgeable about the promotional products industry and be able to help you with every step throughout your entire purchasing process, from choosing items that are right for your company and your event, to the best methods for decorating them, and even distributing them. You may also want to see if they provide additional services you may be interested in such as rush delivery or logo creation and other graphic design solutions. You can also look out for additional resources that may be available on their website like case studies, educational articles about promotional products, and even a company blog.

As you can see, there are a lot of things to consider that go beyond simply the price when considering what promotional products to purchase and where to buy them from. The internet may have eliminated the need to leave the home in order to purchase products, but the types of things one used to look for in a store are still very applicable to a website - just as you would have hesitations shopping at a physical location with poor quality products, inattentive salespeople, and no return policy, for example, you should have the same hesitations shopping at an online promotional products site of the same low standards.

Jaime Weinstein is the Multimedia Team Lead at Pinnacle Promotions. She has written about a wide variety of promotional products and how to effectively utilize them as part of a marketing campaign. Visit Pinnacle Promotions online to browse a large selection of promotional products and learn more about using them to advertise your brand.

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