Promotional merchandise

The first known promotional products in the United States were commemorative buttons dating back to the election of George Washington in 1789.

Henry Beach, another Coshocton printer and a competitor of Meek, picked up on the idea, and soon the two men were selling and printing marble bags, buggy whips, card cases, fans, calendars, cloth caps, aprons, and even hats for horses.

The UK and Ireland promotional merchandise industry formally emerged as corporate marketing became more sophisticated during the late 1950s.

In the early years, promotional merchandise catalogues were very much sales tools and customers would buy the products offered on the pages.

Membership in a Catalogue Group could also offer improved buying terms, a network of fellow distributor companies, and provide other support services.

Members of the Envoy Group have regional exclusivity as one of their perks providing some protection to the low entry barrier of the market Before the 1990s, the industry had a peak season in which the majority of promotional products were sold.

In the early 21st century the role of a promotional merchandise catalogue started to change, as it could no longer fully represent the vast range of products in the market place.

In 2009 published results from research involving a representative group of distributor companies, which indicated the usage of hard copy catalogues was expected to fall up to 25% in 2010.

Promotional products by definition are custom printed with a logo, company name, or message usually in specific PMS colors.

Common items include T-shirts, caps, keychains, posters, bumper stickers, pens, mugs, koozies, toys or mouse pads.

Eco-friendly promotional products such as those created from recycled materials and renewable resources have been experiencing a significant surge in popularity.

Promotional items as a tool for non-commercial organizations, such as schools and charities are often used as a part of fund raising and awareness-raising campaigns.

Using promotional merchandise in guerrilla marketing involves branding in such a way as to create a specific visual effect, attracting more attention.

The unique aspect of promotional merchandise is that on most occasions the product is printed with the logo, or brand, of a corporate organization.

The BPMA host an awards dinner and banquet on the middle night of the exhibition which is called the Trade Only National Show.

The July research from a representation industry focus group also found that the current fastest-growing product was hand sanitiser, which at the time coincided with the outbreak and growth of swine flu in the UK.

[citation needed] Sales of the US promotional products industry totaled $24 billion in 2017 and growing at a rate of 2.5 percent since 2012, according to statistics released by IBISWorld.

[7] The most common promotional items include T-shirts (25% of the market), writing instruments, tech accessories,[7] bags, keychains, brochures, bookmarks and notepads.