Promotional merchandise is used in a large variety of different industries, as a way to create brand identity and engage customers. Promotional merchandise is known by many names, including promotional item (Werbeartikel) gifts, promo gifts, advertising gifts, and swag. While almost any item could theoretically be used in these kinds of promotional campaigns, the vast majority of items are inexpensive to purchase or manufacture and small enough to distribute easily.
Some of the most popular examples of promotional merchandise include pens, caps, bumper stickers, posters, key chains, USB sticks, T-shirts, and coffee mugs. However, some luxury goods industries and other businesses involved with high end products sometimes give away more expensive items for promotional purposes.
From a business perspective, there are a number of advantages associated with promotional giveaways, allowing businesses to reach out to more people and create brand identity in the wider community. However, while brand identity is the biggest advantage associated with this kind of marketing, there are also a number of other benefits that are perhaps not so obvious. Some of the other reasons why companies use promotional items include new customer generation, employee relations, public relations, brand loyalty, not for profit program awareness, internal incentives, safety education, general education, referrals, and marketing research. While there are a number of products that can be given away to create these opportunities, the vast majority of commercial giveaways are inexpensive to produce and have the potential to build brand awareness.
Along with common promotional items like pens, caps, and key chains, there are also many higher end products that can be given away in promotional campaigns. For example, expensive products are often gifted to celebrities in exchange for free promotion, such as perfumes, leather goods, and high end electronics. This kind of gifting is common place at film festivals and music events, where celebrities are given free products and then asked it they will allow a photo to be taken with the gifted product. In an extreme case of promotional merchandising that verges on sponsorship, car manufacturers and travel agents will sometimes give away expensive items in television game shows in exchange for a massive amount of publicity.