Talbot Marketing - Promotional Products

 Quite often as I move around the country I'm asked by customers and prospective customers what product can they get the biggest bang for their buck? Or they might say, "Steve what type of swag will work best for me?" This can be a complicated answer. We have litterly 1,000's of different products for companies to use as business gifts, promotional items, employee recognition, product launches, corporate uniforms or just overall branding initiatives. I don't think the accurate answer entails one product, but rather a combination of products with a thought out comprehensive distribution plan. In saying this, I do believe there should always be one product that is apart of this promotional advertising mix. That product is the calendar.

Just too regressive for a minute. My formal education was in advertising business. My aspirations were to live in downtown Toronto or New York City working at an Advertising Agency. I wanted to do (and be) Darren Stevens from Bewitched. After a few stints with agencies in Toronto I finally found my true calling, Promotional Advertising. My formal training positioned me well to understand advertising principles and outcomes. Everything about Promotional Advertising fit right into my education. More specifically everything about calendar advertising fit right into what advertisers are trying to achieve using other, more expensive advertising medias.

Let me explain. No matter what type of advertising you are using, TV, radio, print, whatever, you are always looking for measurable results. There are elements that all advertising is measured by. I know them as, the 6 key elements of effective advertising. Calendar advertising scores higher than any other medium that I know. Let me walk you through the elements of effective advertising and explain.

1. Permanence - Does your advertising remain to be seen? Calendar advertising has a life span of 365 days. It is hung in the office or at home and referred too numerous times each day. No other advertising medium has a longer life span that calendars advertising.
2. Clarity of message - is the message the advertiser is trying to convey clear? With calendar advertising it is always a who, what, where message. Who you are, what you do, and where you can be found or contacted. Not fancy, but simple and to the point.
3. Cost per profitable contact - this is a BIG one. Everyone that receives, hears or sees you advertising message can they do business with you? Everyone that hears your radio ad can they do business with you? How about everyone that sees your newsprint ad? Because the advertiser controls the distribution of their calendar advertising. Everyone that receives a calendar is already a customer or can be a potential customer. There is no waste.
4. Flexibility - can your ad be changes easily? Calendar advertising does not score very well against this element. Once their printed, their done. If there is a mistake in the ad they need to be reprinted. Not impossible, but certainly not easy.
5. Competition - Industry surveys tell us the average home has 2.4 calendars in the home. ( I'm not sure what point 4 of a calendar looks like - must be a collector items) How does that compare against TV ads, radio ads newspaper etc. Competition for attention with calendar advertising is very low compared to other advertising mediums.
6. Aim at the right target market. Calendar advertising utilizes the rifle approach to distribution as opposed to the shot gun approach. Again, because the advertising controls the distribution, they are delivering it to customers or potential customers; it is aimed at a specific group. Compared the shot gun approach that blasts stuff out in the hope it hits something.

There you are my rational on why I think calendar advertising is one of the most effective and least expensive forms of advertising available to advertisers. Simply put...it work! Of coarse my thoughts and ideas are somewhat biased, I make my living selling calendar advertising and 1,000's of other great promotional advertising products. However, it can not be dismissed. To have an effective, creative advertising mix, yes you need to have other advertising media in your mix, but you can not overlook the power of calendar advertising.

To have one of our Professional Sales Associates contact you and tell you more on how calendar advertising can help your business, complete the contact us form on our web site. A Talbot Marketing Associate will follow up immediately.