Promotional Products Work — Even In the Church!
Simple, Affordable, Personalized Gifts Will Be a Big Hit This Holiday Season

By J.R. Roren

There’s a scene in Godfather II — not a big scene, but an interesting one — near the end of the film. Michael Corleone (played by Al Pacino) visits Cuba to attend a meeting with all the Cuban dignitaries and American industrialists. They intend to celebrate the partnership and growth plans of their new alliance. The chairman stops the meeting to thank American Telephone and Telegraph Company for its gracious gift, a gold-plated telephone (no doubt embellished with the AT&T logo).

This gift, like the millions of other “business” gifts given before and after, is the cornerstone of the promotional products world: a creatively chosen, tastefully decorated product that serves as a reminder and everlasting expression of the benefactor’s wishes. It’s no wonder that business gifts top the list of most popular uses of promotional products. But, as I will soon reveal, promotional products are much more than a gift with a logo — they’re the nucleus of an ever-growing industry that is many times misunderstood and, worse yet, underused.

While most people concentrate on the promotional products available and the sale prices attached to them, I think we need to go deeper — much, much deeper.

In America, the proliferation of symbols, tokens and mementos are everywhere. Early Americans branded their cattle; it was their currency. Branding was taken so seriously, in fact, that taking an animal carrying someone else’s brand was a capital offense.

Championship fights are centered on the transfer of the belt. The World Series is played every year for the coveted ring. Hollywood bows to a golden statue called Oscar. Our military goes into battle in proudly decorated uniforms adorned with badges, medals and ribbons. Remember how powerful and intimidating General Swartzkopf looked in his uniform during the Gulf War? It’s hard to imagine him in checkered shorts, a white crew-neck T-shirt and black socks up to his knees.

Promotional products are everywhere. Although the World Trade Center tragedy killed thousands, the Twin Towers were not targeted by terrorists because they held so many people; they were attacked because they were symbols of America. And how did the strongest nation on earth respond? I don’t mean militarily; I mean, how did the American people respond to those unprecedented tragedies? By designing, creating and distributing millions of products that showed our resolve — T-Shirts, buttons, ribbons, banners, you name it.

America loves symbols. America loves mementos. America loves promotional products.

Ever think about the phenomenon of pictures? Our obsession with capturing a moment in time has built billion-dollar industries in photography, art, film, processing, paper and printing. And what’s a photo but a piece of life, captured onto something we can hold, collect and treasure? Even though the industry is now all but digital, the phenomenon endures. Why do we get excited about watching on video an event we just experienced in real life? Because we love capturing, saving and showing life. Polaroid’s dominance during the ‘60s and ‘70s has been hugely eclipsed by the digital revolution. Most people think this is proof of how barbaric processes are naturally replaced by high-tech methods that are much faster and cheaper. This is true, but my point goes further — to the real difference or, better yet, the similarities between your Dad’s Polaroid and your daughter’s digital cell phone with builtin camera.

Polaroid’s success was built on our human need for immediate gratification — the ability of a consumer to instantly turn a moment in time into something that could be held, saved, framed and even kept for a lifetime. But its most unique virtue was the fact that it was instant. Move ahead 30 years to today: Now we’ve got digital photography. We have the ability to take a picture and not only have it output instantly, but also save it electronically. Our parents stood over that Polaroid, watching it slowly transform from an obscure gray print of nothing into a full-color masterpiece. It sounds ridiculous to us now, right? But is the thought of us staring at our monitor while we watch our image upload any less ridiculous?

We’re addicts of life, all of us. We want memories captured in the highest resolution. We want to be able to reproduce those memories on key chains as well as 40- foot-wide banners, but we want it saved on a disk smaller than a half-dollar (or, stranger yet, some ominous place called the Web).

But why do we want it saved? Why do we want it to be of the highest resolution? So it can be shown, displayed, printed, embellished, copied or hot-stamped onto something. And, as soon as we do that, magic happens — the magic of promotional products, which can turn a pickle jar into an iced tea jar.How? By taking a plain, generic pickle jar and imprinting a drawing of the sun accompanied with two words: “Sun Tea.”

Let’s get back to our photo. As is, a photo is nothing more than one of billions of pieces of paper or film that captures a moment in time. It’s something that might be kept, but more likely it will be filed in a photo box or in the infamous circular file. But, surround that same print with a 37-cent customim-printed magnetic photo frame and ta-da! You’ve created a promotional product. Yes, it costs less than $1 and is readily available and not the latest and greatest thing, but don’t let any of that fool you. Unlike a picture, it’s rare that a magnet (however plain or unimportant) ever gets tossed. Imagine this hard-working little magnet surrounding your prospective member’s loved one.

Now, let’s take that same item — a photo frame — and step it up a notch. Let’s make it a nice wooden or acrylic frame that costs less than $10 and that most members would find useful and attractive on their desks or credenzas. Now, imagine this frame contains a picture of your church in the wintertime or a special holiday greeting. What do you think the effect would be on a person who stares at this unique reminder of their faith everyday when entering and leaving his or her office? I think you get the picture...literally.

It’s not the product — or the price attached to that product — that gets way too much attention. Rather, it’s your recipients and the behavior you desire from them that should drive your selection. Once you’ve clearly defined these factors to your professional promotional products distributor, you’re on-track for success.

J.R. Roren owns Synergy (www.synergypromo.com), a promotional products firm in Tempe, Ariz. He has dedicated his adult life to building business with the creative use of promotional products. Reach him by calling 602.438.0500 ext. 223 or by e-mail at jr@synergypromo.com.