By Nathan Bailey and Kiana Yandell
This is a question we get a lot at Ideation from new and prospective clients during our initial calls. It certainly seems like a reasonable question for anyone that walks trade show floors, attends sales conferences, or receives any type of company-branded merchandise. However, it’s a question our team refuses to answer because it doesn’t account for the different recipients of and purposes for purchasing branded items.
To lump “the hottest items” together as one size fits all simply isn’t effective outreach marketing. The purpose of handing out branded merchandise to existing customers, potential customers, and employees is to create a cerebral and emotional connection with your brand so they remember and fall more in love with you and your products. Giving “the hottest item” to a techy millennial at CES won’t be the same, nor have the same effect, as giving the same “hot item” to an experienced construction executive at World of Concrete.
The products that excite a computer engineer are different than those that excite a marketing specialist or graphic designer. Salespeople are going to get excited about different items than finance folks. Is it possible they get excited about the same item? Yes, it is, but “what’s hot” may not be exciting to any of them.
The key to picking the best item is to truly understand who the item is going to and what that type of person typically resonates with. What does that person ask for at holidays? What does their Amazon order history look like? Understanding those types of things about various demographics will help you to determine not what the hottest item is, but what the exact right item is.
The fundamental questions that should be asked, by you or a promotional marketing agency, are:
- Who is receiving the item? Demographic, job title, geographic location, etc.
- What is it that you’re trying to accomplish? Brand affinity, loyalty, create buzz, drive traffic to website, opt-in to a database.
- How many items do you need and how much do you want to invest to create the best ROI for your desired outcome?
Our focus on the specific best item, rather than the generic “hottest,” is what makes Ideation so unique and helpful to you. We literally buy gifts on behalf of our clients all day, every day, multiple times a day. If you’re familiar with the 5 Love Languages by Gary Chapman, you’ll know that one of the languages is Gift Giving. We tell people all the time that a person who does well at an agency like ours has a knack for gift-giving. Of the five, it’s the language most of us at Ideation speak fluently. So, instead of asking us what the hottest items are, tell us who you’re buying for, what you’re trying to accomplish, and how much you want to invest in that outcome and our team will curate multiple ideas to help you achieve your objective and make you look like a rock star in the process.