Jun 13, 2012

Test Your Promotional Products IQ!

In marketing, it's all about repetition. Remember the longstanding Rule of Seven? The average customer will probably need to see and hear your message seven times before purchasing your product or service. That, in a nutshell, is the definitive reason why promotional products work. Instead of high-cost print ads customers might see only once a week or once a month, it just makes good financial sense to put a wisely chosen promotional gift in their hands--something that will keep your name in front of them (and possibly their family and friends!) consistently.

I thought it might be fun--and informative--to give you a short quiz on promotional products. Which items get the most impressions? What's the most-frequently-used promotional item category? The answers were obtained by an Advertising Specialty Institute study released in 2010, so the numbers may have changed slightly since then, but the numbers truly speak for themselves. Here's the quiz, with the answers at the end!

1. The cost per impression (CPI) of a promotional product in the U.S. is:
     a) $0.006
     b) $0.005
     c) $0.004
     d) $0.007

2.  The percentage of an audience consisting of the average American consumer that reported currently owning or possessing a promotional product they'd received in the last 24 months is:
     a) 60%
     b) 70%
     c) 80%
     d) 90%

3.  The product category that delivers the most impressions per month is:
     a) Shirts
     b) Bags
     c) Caps and Hats
     d) Writing Instruments

4.  The most-frequently-used promotional product category is:
     a) Calendars
     b) Writing Instruments
     c) Caps and Hats
     d) Bags

5. The percentage of consumers who could recall the advertiser on a promotional product they had received in the past 24 months is:
     a) 89%
     b) 72%
     c) 68%
     d) 94%

6. The number of respondents who remembered the advertisers of the promotional products they received was:
     a) 5 out of 10
     b) 6 out of 10
     c) 7 out of 10
     d) 8 out of 10

7.  The percentage of promotional products that were kept because they were considered useful is:
     a) 63%
     b) 81%
     c) 71%
     d) 66%

8.  The percentage of respondents who did business with the advertiser after receiving the promotional product is:
     a) 29%
     b) 46%
     c) 52%
     d) 37%

Let's see how you did! Here are the answers:

1. c
2. d
3. b (with an average of 1,038 impressions per month per bag)
4. b (a single writing instrument is used, on average, 18.2 times per month)
5. a
6. d
7. b
8. c

I hope the quiz upped your promotional products IQ! And don't forget--The Icebox is known for our QI (Quality Impressions!)