History of Promotional Products
Promotional products are merchandises that are imprinted with a company’s name, logo or messages. This powerful marketing channel seems like a modern invention. However, promotional products could actually be dated back to over 220 years ago, when the first commemorative buttons were produced for President George Washington in 1789.
During the late 1800s, the economic was slow. This motivated newspapers companies to get additional profits to survive. As a result, they utilized their printing technology to produce promotional products. This signaled the beginning of promotional products industry. The originator of this industry was Jasper Meeks, a printer who had a vision and persuaded a shoe store to provide school bags imprinted with the store name to a few local schools. His competitor, Henry Bench followed suit and started to print bags, aprons and hats for horses.
During this period, companies produced everyday items like calendars, rules, fans, bags and other items. With these products, companies were able to increase their brand recognition to potential customers during this pre-television period. Each company tried to include its company’s identity using unique and attractive promotional products.
In 1904, twelve promotional products manufacturers formed the first industry trade association, now known as the Promotional Products Association International. The members discussed about the pricing, new ideas and operating procedures. The first president of the association was Benjamin Whitehead.
In the 70s, there was an explosion of growth in the industry. Many companies realized the benefits of marketing their brands with gifts. The demand began to grow in the early 80s for company to have a generic promotional products catalogue where customers could buy the promotional products. In the 90s, distributors saw the demand of unique catalogue service, resulting in the formation of “Catalogue Groups”.
In 2004, worldwide distributors were connected with the launch of an online trade sourcing service. In 2007, the use of hard copy catalogues started to loss its popularity and companies began to email the catalogues to targeted customers. It is now used as a business card to show what the company is doing, instead of a sales tool. In 2010, promotional products industry has become a $15.9 billion industry.
