History of Promotional
Products
The first known promotional products in the United
States are commemorative buttons dating back to the
election of George Washington in 1789. During the early
1800s there were some advertising
calendars,
rulers and wooden specialties, but there wasn’t an
organized industry for the creation and distribution of
promotional items until later in the 19th century.
Jasper Meeks, a printer in Coshocton, Ohio, is
considered by many to be the originator of the industry
when he convinced a local shoe store to supply book bags
imprinted with the store name to local schools. Henry
Beach, another Coshochton printer and a competitor of
Meeks picked up on the idea and soon the two men were
selling and printing bags for marbles, buggy whips,
business card cases,
ad
fans, calendars, cloth
caps,
aprons and even
hats for horses.
In 1904, twelve manufacturers of promotional items
got together to found the first trade association for
the industry. That organization is now known as the
Promotional Products Association International or PPAI,
which currently has more than 7,500 global members.
Promotional Products
Industry
At one time, the use of promotional products was
limited to random tradeshow giveaways and not as a part
of an integrated
marketing effort. Today, many more promotional
products are distributed by businesses and
organizations, sometimes with the assistance of a
promotional consultant, to specific target markets to
generate specific and measurable results.
2006 US sales of promotional products totaled
$18.6 billion dollars, up from $17.8 billion in 2005.
The industry is growing at a faster rate than newspaper
or radio advertising and is larger than Internet
Advertising ($16.8 billion), cable television ($16.9
billion), Yellow Pages advertising ($14.4 billion) and
outdoor advertising ($6.8 billion). Some of the most
popular promotional products sold today are
Promotional Pens, Tradeshow
Tote Bags,
Screen Printed
T-Shirts, Travel Mugs,
Personalized
Coffee Mugs, Promotional
Key
Chains,
Stress Relievers,
Travel Bags
and Toiletry Gift
Handouts.
The industry is made up of supplier companies who
manufacture or import the products, inventory them and
decorate them on demand. There are approximately 2,000
supplier companies and 18,000 distributors in the United
States. Distributors buy from the supplier companies and
sell them to the marketers who are termed "end buyers."
The industry is made up of many small and
entrepreneurial individuals and companies with 95% of
distributor companies selling less than $2.5 million per
year.
New customers who receive promotional products,
on average, return sooner and more frequently, and spend
more money than new customers who receive coupons. In
two separate studies, SMU researchers tested whether
promotional products would outperform coupons in the
area of repeat business and sales. Promotional product
recipients spent 27% more than coupon recipients and
139% more than welcome letter recipients over an 8-month
period.