Think, it is still an effective promotional marketing product
Everywhere we go, we see pens with a logo on them, and even I’ve been guilty of thinking, oh, just another pen, why don’t they get something more exciting? The truth is that pens are still an extremely effective marketing product. People take pens and put them in their bag, because either they end up in their office or home where a family member or coworker ends up taking it, they use it for a while and it goes on to the next person. For some reason people don’t respect pens as “someone’s property” so they don’t think twice about walking away with a pen, in fact most don’t even realize they’re doing so. As silly as this is, it’s great marketing, because people are spreading your logo far and wide, you couldn’t get as much exposure with any other product if you tried!
In our company, every salesperson has their favorite items to show customers, one refuses to show pens because they think they are boring, and we have many more great products to introduce. We call another one the queen of pens because she sells thousands and thousands of pens every year. Knowing some of the statistics about how people use pens may change your mind about introducing pens to your customers. After all, almost everyone uses pens every day and most clients can budget for a pen somewhere, even if they have to budget for office supplies.
PPAI (Promotional Products Association International) conducted a survey on the use of pens and found that 73% of people always carry a writing instrument with them. 83% use pens on a daily basis and will keep and use it if it is given as a gift. What more can you ask for from a promotional product? If you can get an 83% hold on your item, you know that most people aren’t going to hide their item or give it away. Pens are both a functional product that everyone uses and an effective promotional product, so making sure you present a few pens to every customer is essential.
Some interesting facts to keep in mind when introducing pens or other writing instruments: Of the people surveyed about the types of writing instruments they use on a daily basis, 83% use pens as mentioned above, but 36% also use pencils, 31% use highlighters, 30% use gel pens and 25% use markers, 20% use mechanical pencil and 20% use ballpoint pens. So if someone wants something a little different, there are other options in the writing instrument category. Of course, as everyone in the industry knows, there are probably millions of options that we can present to our customers.
Statistics from the PPB to the PPAI publication July 2012