Don’t despair!

Let’s start with the bad news. Unfortunately we live in an age where it seems that everybody has a service that they think is guaranteed to enhance your life somehow. They all have products which they think will make your life easier or more fun or which will be the answer to all your prayers in terms of getting your message across to your customers.
You are one of these people. Being in business, you are daily trying to convince clients that using your product or service will be best possible thing they could do to further the success of their own operation.
It really is a battlefield. I’ve spent the last few years involved in exhibitions and have been a regular visitor to shows in a huge variety of different sectors. The one thing that has always struck me is that even in industries that appear to the outside observer to be niche, or incredibly small, there is a plethora of companies supplying the same materials, all vying for the customers’ spend.
Here’s a few examples. At food exhibitions there are always numerous companies selling freshly squeezed fruit juice or ‘homemade’ biscuits. Every single area of the UK has a cheese manufacturer that is desperate to get your order. How many breweries now have their own delicious real ale? Just how many smoked salmon manufacturers do we really need?
What about the outdoor events industry? Have you any idea how many portable toilet suppliers there are? Would you care to hazard a guess about how many different firms could supply you with a marquee?
Look at the number of destinations around the world that are desperate to get your tourist spend. It seems that only a few years ago we were being incredibly exotic if we went to the Costa Del Sol for our holidays rather than the usual two weeks in Margate. Nowadays you can more or less choose anywhere be it Mexico, Mombassa, Malta or Moscow and you’ll find hotels, coach companies, guides etc etc etc all with a story to tell. Usually this story is that your life will only be complete if you visit their place.
It would seem that life has never been so complicated for the consumer. Even a visit to the local supermarket presents decisions that have to be made. How many different kinds of soup are available? Which baked beans should we have? Organic or not?
As a reader of this newsletter you have seen the value of using promotional merchandise as part of a carefully considered publicity campaign and it is here that the good news bit comes in.
It would be all too easy to give it up as a bad job. With so much competition it seems ludicrous to enter the market, after all, what would I be offering that the others aren’t offering already?
The fact is, though, that products and companies do succeed and there is no reason that yours can’t be one of these.
It seems to me that the products that succeed are those for which the provider has established an identifiable brand that contains the right values for the potential customers. Car manufacturers have been at it for years, they work very hard to convince the buyer that by purchasing a given car they will be adopting a given lifestyle that is exemplified by the brand.
The basic principle is no different whether you are selling cars, orange juice, real ale or mobile toilets.
The problem is that it is down to you. It is you that must decide the most effective way of getting this message across. Certainly you can enlist the help of people like creative agencies but ultimately it is you that must sit down and carefully evaluate what you are wanting to achieve.
Remember that the service providers listed on our Promotional Merchandise website are all experts in their field and will be only too delighted to help you with your campaign, why not give them a call?

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