Another Ignorant Hit to our Industry!

ppailaw@ppai.org links to: mailto:ppailaw@ppai.org

If you have industry critical information, please contact Paul Bellantone at PaulB@ppai.org or Anne Lardner-Stone at mailto:AnneL@ppai.org

PaulB@ppai.org links to: mailto:PaulB@ppai.org
AnneL@ppai.org links to: mailto:AnneL@ppai.org

One of my guilty pleasures is that I post quite frequently on a Linkedin Group that has some of the brightest minds in the Promotional Marketing Industry as part of its membership. These are major suppliers in the industry, top rated marketers and trade organization executives. What I like about this group is that they discuss problems critically, argue passionately from their point of view and are open to look at opposing viewpoints.

Today, the discussion came up regarding President Barack Obama's mandate to reduce the use of promotional products within the Federal Government by 20%. This will affect thousands of people and hundreds of jobs within the United States, but that is far from being my point. My point is that the lobbyists within the Promotional Marketing Industry have gotten it all wrong. Instead of focusing on lost revenue, they should be demonstrating on how utilizing a lower cost, but more effective medium, can increase brand awareness and return on investment. True dollars spent by the Federal Government on Promotional Marketing items is a very small percentage of their overall marketing spend. It is their perception that this spend does not provide ROI that has led to this decision. This perception could not be further from the truth. It has been proven time and again that promotional marketing items, if used properly to support the brand initiatives, create better recall and spur call to action better than any other medium on a dollar cost averaging basis. For further information on this, please see the following studies.