What Promotional Merchandise Can Do For Your Brand Visibility At Expos And Corporate Events?

If you have ever attended a corporate trade show or industry conference, you must’ve noticed companies decorating their booths with branded merchandise. It’s almost a ritual these days. Earlier, companies would line up their corporate brochures, flyers, or business cards to promote their brand. However, things have changed. Businesses want stronger brand presence and visibility given the competition in the market. The trend is quite evident with the growing market size of corporate gifting industries. It is worth Rs 12,000 cr, according to eYantra’s 2022 report.

In this article, we will understand how you can enhance your brand visibility using this proven concept of promotional merchandise.

Impact of Promotional Merchandise

The corporate gifting industry is taking note of promotional merchandise. These products are embellished with a logo, motto, or branding element and are used for improving brand visibility. These branded products can be used at expos or corporate events to create a strong awareness of your business and increase brand recall value.

The purpose of this merchandise is to be used as an extension of your business card. You can hand them out to potential customers, industry leaders, and journalists. If they start using the products in their daily lives, it will further extend your brand’s reach. However, the key here is to make sure that your promotional merchandise is exciting and unique. You can achieve this by collaborating with one of the leaders in the corporate gifting industry.

Let’s quickly understand how exactly promotional merchandise helps your business.

Takes your brand to a new audience

As much as we want, reaching out to every potential customer at least in the initial years of your business is impractical. With promotional merchandise though, you can gradually expand your reach like ripples. With products like tote bags embellished with your logo, you can set the ball rolling to introduce your business to new eyeballs.

Pro-tip: Add a QR code that, when scanned can land on your website. In addition to getting more visitors, you can gauge the impact of brand merchandising.

Creates a lasting impression

By picking quality products that are unique, you can leave a lasting impression even before people learn about your brand. It is common for people to complement each other for things like clothes or bags looking at their quality. It is only later that they enquire about the brand. Therefore, promotional merchandise garners unprejudiced attention from different groups of people.

Pro-tip: Always go with a top brand when designing your merchandising program. Corporate gifting industries are rife with different options, but pick the one that gives you the best value for your money.

Lasts longer than your business card

Picking promotional merchandise like mugs, caps, or tote bags that are useful in day-to-day activities lasts longer than your business card or brochure. Items that only talk about your brand and add little value to the recipient often end up in a bin. Ensure that the quality and design of the product are such that people flaunt it around.

Pro-tip: Place your logo or motto very strategically, and make sure that the merchandise is as minimal in promotional quotient as possible. People may not want to be your brand ambassador, but they do want to use a good product.

Things to remember for promotional merchandise

While planning a promotional merchandise program, you must keep a few things in mind as mentioned below:

Brand your merchandise with logo: Promoting your business through merchandise involves associating your branding elements like logo and slogan with different compelling products like coffee mugs, notepads, t-shirts, and caps.

Personalize merchandise for the occasion: Along with a logo or brand slogan, you can personalize the merchandise for the event you’re attending. For example, if you’re attending a tech conference, you can design badges or t-shirts with quirky slogans like ‘Coding Ninja’.

Focus on creative promotional products: Most companies fail to maximize promotional merchandise because they go with generic items. It is important to think out of the box when planning for brand merchandise. You can partner with a company like eYantra, one of the leading names in the corporate gifting industry to help you out.

Invest in quality instead of quantity: When you distribute your promotional merchandise to peers at corporate events, you must ensure that they use the products. It is the only way your brand will have better visibility. And how you do that is by sharing good quality items. The better the quality, the more the chances that people use the products with your logo and that will directly impact your brand reach.

Conclusion

Promotional merchandising can be a trump card in taking your brand visibility to new frontiers aka target groups. It is probably one of the easiest ways to create a chain reaction that will expand your brand’s reach. However, you must be very strategic about how you brand the merchandise. Overdoing it may only hurt your business in terms of ROI on the entire program. eYantra, as a leader in corporate gifting industries, understands the critical role that brand merchandising plays for any business. It offers a range of options and customizations through multiple brand associations that you can leverage to make the most out of your corporate gifting.