How promotional merchandise works
Promotional products in the country, nicknamed as promotional merchandise, are products named with different brands and their respective slogans and logos. They are all put out on special exhibitions and campaigns, and companies even do guerilla marketing. During 1789, in the country, the first set of promotional products were commemorative buttons. The advertising of these products were done through calendars, papers, and radio. An organized marketing set up was missing on these promotional products for creation of and to give away these promotional products till the late 19 ^th century.

What is the history of promotional products in the country?

• This idea of promotional products was started by a Ohio printer named Jasper Meek, who persuaded a local store to supply school bags with their store name to localities and schools.
• Another printer called Henry Beach heard about this idea and revisited it since he was Meek’s competitor, and the two thereafter decided to sell different products like card cases,cloth caps, printing marble bags, fans, calendars, buggy whips, etc.

Did the distributors make an association for promotional products?

• In 1904, Promotional Products Association International came to being when 12 promotional manufacturers met for the first time and established the association.
• WIth around 10,000 members globally, this international association has over 4,800 manufacturers and 22,000 distributors.
• It was during the 1950s that promotions started being backed up, like giving away a gift or bundling products.
• They were mainly recognized by 1980, and the demand started witnessing a huge growth, leading to them featuring their own logo and amazing product range.

How was promotion carried out in the 1990s?

• Catalog services were started during 1990. Catalog groups also began, which offered special catalogs to a set group of distributing companies.
• This group’s membership offered other services of support as well.
• They started offering products on discounted prices, improved perks on bundle pricing, festival gifts, and minimum entry barrier on the market as well.
• During the busy seasons, most promotional products would be sold.
• Giving away gifts during Christmas and reducing the prices of products during Easter and Good Friday was all promotional product marketing they did in small ways.

How did promotion work during the 21 ^st century?

• Corporate companies started working on marketing and invented campaigns for promoting products.
• During the 21 ^st century, building of the merchandise catalog and promoting vast number of products, etc. were critical tools for marketing teams.
• This invented new jobs for the employees and started building business cards for the distributors as well.
• They started analyzing the buying behavior and targeted people accordingly.
• By 2000, they understood the need for a target audience for each product.
• Distributors were experts in bringing promotional products.
• They knew their products and competitors very well and always looked at promoting the products creatively.
• The distributors started attending trade exhibitions globally, like the Trade Only National Show that took place in London, Promotional Product Service Institute show held in Europe, Promotional Products Association International trade show put up at Las Vegas, etc.

How did promotion move to the internet?

• The year 2004 saw the advent of online trading.
• The internet united worldwide distributors and manufacturers.
• It also increased the coverage and gave easy marketing opportunities.
• The internet service was not available for corporate companies; it was only for the promotional merchandise distributors, which assisted them better.

Did the move affect distributors?

• By 2008, every distributor started creating their own website.
• E-commerce had changed the phase of life of these distributors.
• This year saw huge changes. Many distributors were, thus, skeptical, making signing up for selling promotional products too risky.

What were the products used for promotion?

• Main items were t-shirts, caps, keychains, posters, stickers, bumpers, mugs, toys, mouse pads, etc.
• The most selling items were the wearables, which came up to 30 percent of the total promotion capacity.
• The promotional products ranged from small to highly valuable products.
• Celebrities were gifted high-end promotional perfumes, leather items, or even electronic items.
• Probably an autograph on a similar product or a picture with the gift given were the celebrity endorsements.