I love our business. We are in the business of delighting and surprising audiences. Our industry is like an amalgamation of advertising, entertainment and appreciation all rolled into one biz.
It's also, what I call, emotional marketing (not promotional marketing). We're orchestrating an experience, cultivating a response. The chief vehicle for triggering the response takes the form of a product: a personal (hopefully) well-chosen, appropriate product that triggers a reaction:
- Wow!
- Cool!
- Thanks! For me?
- You mean every conference attendee gets one of these?
- You shouldn't have!
Examples? They abound - think about the next tradeshow or conference your are planning. Instead of asking "what should we give to our attendees", ask, "what will absolutely delight and surprise our attendees"? After all, you're working to create an exceptional experience, right?
People love surprises and they relish being cherished and recognized individually.
The problem is, when buying promotional products, most people ask the wrong questions (and some in our profession are making it worse by not even knowing this ourselves).
You ask: how much will it cost? Wrong question.
Right questions:
- How do we delight and surprise each audience member?
- What will our recipients value the most?
- What emotion do we want to evoke?
- What response do we want to trigger?
Cost is important. We have to answer that question at some point but not until we determine our objectives. Worse, use cost as your only proviso and you'll end up buying landfill. Buying the wrong item for the wrong reason is expensive, no matter how cheap the item seems.
It's time to think differently about how we recognize the most important people in our world.
(I comment further on this, along with my super smart friend Mark Graham, in a recent video recorded by the awesome, hilarious and brave Jeff Solomon of Free Promo Tips; thanks, Jeff, for the vids. If you are reading this post via email, click here to watch):
