Business advertising

It seems like more and more often companies have been concentrating on a single aspect of the fundamental four P’s of advertising and marketing. Day after day we see posters, outdoor boards and special offers sent out from thousands of brands across the nation. All this clutter can turn into white noise in the mind of the customer and lead them, inevitably, to ignore the message. Promotion doesn’t end with these quirky TV commercials or an eye catching print ad with an offer to win a cruise; it really comes to life through the use of exciting promotional products.
Promotion, as a tactic in a marketing campaign, communicates important information to the public and helps achieve the overall objectives of the entire campaign. Promotion can include anything from personal selling and a sales force to traditional advertising and public relations. Within all these sub categories lays plenty of opportunity to incorporate a strong promotional product program. Traditionally, tradeshows and industry expos use promotional products more often; however why not enhance these other categories with a promotional product?
PepsiCo did just that with a campaign known for its advertising and merchandising. During the Cola Wars of the late 1990’s, PepsiCo designed a fully-integrated international marketing campaign the encouraged and used all categories of Promotion. The campaign, known as Pepsi Stuff, encouraged customers to collect Pepsi Point by collecting the points from specially marked Pepsi cans and fountain drinks and purchasing the Points for 10 cents per point. Participants used the pointed to purchase merchandise for the PepsiCo empire. To successfully diffuse this idea, PepsiCo used celebrity sponsored print, television, outdoor, in-store, Internet and catalogue advertising along with top-quality promotional products.
The traditional advertising coupled with promotional products led to extensive publicity for the PepsiCo company and helped it to establish itself as a leader in the cola industry. According to various critics, the Pepsi Stuff campaign significantly surpassed Coca Cola Company’s marketing and advertising campaigns for the Atlanta Summer Olympics. It also allowed for PepsiCo to gain two points of share over the Coca Cola Company.
The Pepsi Stuff campaign, with its merchandise giveaway, started in 1996 and generated enough participation and revenues to continue into the next several years. The campaign ran again in last October and now included “virtual awards” like downloadable music. This campaign now serves as a classic example of both the marriage between the online and off-line advertising and use of merchandising and promotional products.
Obviously, a successful marketing mix needs a larger and more distinct approach in order for your brand message of a campaign to work. Including promotional products serves as a great way to diversify and broaden a marketing campaign. You can achieve various campaign objectives like sales increases, increasing brand perception or introducing a new product can all succeed by integrating a promotional product as an informational medium. Think about including simple giveaways like pens and baseball hats to generate higher awareness and recognition. Rather than the message falling into the background with television commercials and outdoor boards, your message can stay fresh and top of the mind with your audience with promotional products.
Promotional products reinforce the message heard in the various tradition media used in the categories of the four P’s. Using them can definitely enhance the exposure of your brand and in some cases put you miles ahead of the competition. Stay in the marketing mix and include promotional products to break away from traditional advertising and incorporate more active participation from your audience