Why is it that promotional items are an indispensable component of the marketing mix?

If you think about it, you will probably be able to bring to mind quite a few promotional items that you have lying around the house – promotional items are sure to be found in any household. According to the latest GWW study, more than 90% of those questioned said that they had a promotional item at home, many of these had had the item for over six months, more than a third for as long as two years! It would seem that the effect of promotional items continues to develop over the long term. Although the costs involved are often lower, they not only get noticed to a greater degree than either TV or radio advertisements, they are also perceived rather as being presents and useful aids.

Promotional items are a tactile means of advertising that make the advertising message tangible. As was explained in detail in the last video, the key requirements are to adhere to the compliance regulations of the company, to meet the needs of the target group to the greatest possible extent, to involve the product in the campaign and to create a promotional item that is creative in terms of the occasion chosen, the product itself and its implementation, and that gets noticed. The authors of the definitive work "Marketing" define the promotional item in an almost philosophical way as "the advertising message that carries us from the conceptual into the material".

Promotional items take up a large part of the advertising budget and are thus an indispensable component of the marketing mix.  In particular in the B2B sector, promotional items are exceptionally well-suited for use in building customer loyalty and winning over new customers. Yet promotional items can also reinforce the impact of advertising, provide an incentive to buy or increase the response rate of mail shots – in all cases, they boost the memorability of the brand. So it is not surprising that countless companies include promotional gifts as fully-fledged component elements of their marketing mix.

The four traditional pillars of the marketing mix are the so-called "four Ps", product, price, place and promotion. Products, or rather the product policy, form the core of a company – which products it offers and in what quality, what type of service, packaging and other issues besides are the considerations which form the basis of every entrepreneurial success and the development of a brand value. The next P – price, or pricing policy – is determined by all the decisions relating to the pricing policy of the products being offered. In the promotional measures to follow, the communications and information regarding the product are decided upon. The key tools of any communications policy are advertising, sales promotion, personal sales, sponsoring, trade fairs, events and public relations. The entrepreneur decides on the place where the product is to be positioned and offered within the context of their sales policy.

Our world is becoming increasingly digital and the same goes for advertising. Tactile promotional items give us a tangible advantage in the truest sense of the word; they consolidate the advertising message and make it manifest. They may even be presented personally, underlining their character as a special "gift" and strengthening the personal links to the person presenting the gift. The item has a long-term impact in terms of company image, brand awareness and the customer's affinity with the brand. Overall, this makes the promotional item one of the most efficient means of advertising – the element that completes the marketing mix.