Ideas and Concepts

Continuity

Keep in mind any other forms of advertising you may already be using and consider promotional products that reinforce your existing message. Here is one lame example:
You have a tagline that you are using in your print advertising which reads

"Performance you can count on!"

In this case you may want to consider some type of calculator imprinted with your logo and tagline to reinforce the advertising copy in your print ads.

Target Audience

Who will be receiving this product and what do they do on a daily basis? Consider if the recipient is the type of person who works at a desk most of the day, travels outside of the office most of the day or works in a production / manufacturing environment. Once this determination is made you can begin to consider products that will be useful to the recipient on a day to day basis thereby increasing the number of times that they will see your company name and/or message.

Distribution

Keep in mind how your promotional items will be distributed to the intended audience. Will the items be given away at a trade show? If so then consider the following:

• Does everyone who comes to your booth receive a gift or do they have to do something to qualify for the gift ( eg: participate in a survey or product demonstration)? You may want to consider a lower cost item that anyone can have and then a nicer item for the people who stay in your booth long enough to participate in a survey or demo thereby allowing you to qualify their interest level in your product.
• How big is the promotional item?
• Is it something a recipient can easily take with them?
• How much storage room will it require in your booth and do you have room to store it?
• Is it something that is transportable without having to worry about breakage or special packaging?