Mypromo has it in its name – and online print shops such as Onlineprinters and Flyeralarm have also long since recognized its potential: Promotional products. Even if spending on them has fallen slightly in Germany due to the Corona pandemic in 2020 and 2021, the potential is huge. After all, where haptic products are used, emotions arise, and appreciation is conveyed. This was recently confirmed by the “1001 Emotions” study. Likewise, Cimpress has rethought its promotional products strategy and recently integrated Promotique.de into Vistaprint.
This means that all the items previously offered on the separate website have been transferred to Vistaprint’s product range to enable – as the company emphasizes – a “better shopping experience for both customers and business owners at the same time”. As a result, Vistaprint now offers access to its entire product range through one website, similar to Flyeralarm and Onlineprinters.
With that said, let’s get back to promotional products in general. Although they are also very popular during the Christmas season, they are not the only ones. Because as the year draws to a close, many companies and brand owners take the opportunity to look back on the past, draw attention to current products and services (and generate additional sales), and also recommend themselves for the new year.
Print appeals to all the senses
This can be done, for example, with the help of a printed mailing which, thanks to a special material, finishing, die-cutting or a special format in combination with the right content, appeals to all five dimensions of the haptic effect: attention (Attention), recall (Recall), credibility (Integrity), appreciation (Value) and action or willingness to buy (Action). This model, which was coined by the Multisense Institute for Sensory Marketing years ago, applies today more than ever. Because of the contact restrictions during the Corona pandemic, everything that has to do with touch has gained in importance: Touch as one of our most important senses, together with an appealing visual, brings an extra level of attention. Advertising messages on products designed in this way are remembered more often and for longer, generating credibility and appreciation – and subsequently leading to a greater willingness to buy.
1001 emotions
The insights contained in this formula can sometimes also be applied to promotional products, because here, too, haptics play a major role and a specific message is made tangible in the truest sense of the word. It has long been known that promotional products therefore have a wide reach, use and retention period.
The GWW, the general association of the promotional products industry, wanted to know this in greater detail and commissioned a scientific study from the Cologne-based Institut Strategie und Forschung. The declared aim was to find out what emotional effects promotional products have on their recipients. To this end, the emotions of the study participants, aged between 18 and 65, were measured via body signals and then deep psychological interviews were conducted.
The basic findings of the study were expected, but the extent to which they emerged was surprising. According to the study, promotional products arouse far more emotions than other forms of advertising when it comes to the criteria of likeability, relevance and attraction, and have even exceeded the previous evaluation scale. However, the relationship between the recipient and the sender, i.e., the brand owner, also plays a role. The closer and more long-standing, the more striking the design of the brand message may be on the product, after all, the customer has already shown himself to be loyal.
Anyone who wants to know more about the results of the study and take a closer look at the effect of the various promotional products can do so on the campaign website 1001emotion.de, where the results have been prepared.
Haptic conveys credibility, touch generates appreciation
The fact that print has the potential to create products that appeal to all the senses is nothing new. Above all, interesting haptics, refinements or personalization can turn a simple mailing, a simple book or, yes, even a cup or drinking bottle, into something that first and foremost conveys one thing to the recipient: Appreciation. And who doesn’t like to feel appreciated?
