Media and The Message

by Nicholas G. Licata, M.A.

Quality Goes a Long Way [Back to Columns]

My local Chamber of Commerce's annual trade show is approaching, so I thought it would be helpful to comment on advertising promotions. These are the little trinkets with your name and logo on them that attract droves of shopping bag carrying spectators to your booth. Every vendor at the show has them, but many give little thought to their purchase.

While attracting potential clients to your booth is the goal of everyone at the show, consider the long term value of your advertising promotions.

At a brunch I recently attended, a colleague of mine handed out some very cheap pens printed with her company's name and logo. She asked everyone to fill out a card, and told them they could keep the pens. At the end of the meal, as the attendees filed out of the dining room, she went around and collected the pens, nearly all had been left on the tables.

Her promotions had not achieved their goal of taking her message out into the community. In fact, they probably had a negative impact on her business by sending a message to her potential clients that her company doesn't value quality, or even worse, that it doesn't know what a quality product is.

One of my favorite T-Shirts came from an International Reading Association trade show in Atlanta, Georgia in 1989. It probably cost the publisher who handed it out about $7. It's heavy cotton. It's got an attractive design on the front. It's comfortable, and I still wear it today. That works out to a cost to the company of about .58¢ per year -- not bad.

The publisher that I represented at the show also gave out T-Shirts. Ours cost us $2 per shirt. They were cheap polyester. They had a less than professional design on the front. They were not very comfortable. And, once the show was over, mine ended up as an oil rag in my garage. It's easy to see where I'm going.

Whether you spend a lot or a little on your advertising promotions should be determined by your goals and objectives and the size of your budget. My company thought they were saving money by purchasing the cheaper shirt. They weren't. They were throwing away several thousand dollars, and they didn't realize it.

Here's a good rule of thumb to follow: If you wouldn't keep the pen or wear the shirt, don't let it represent your company. There are quality items available at almost every spending level. If your budget is too small for even the most modest of them, consider giving out candy or having some kind of game at your booth. In the long run it will be much more cost effective, and no one will go away with the wrong impression.