Promotional products may seem like kind of a modern concept, but they’ve actually been around for centuries—George Washington may not have had cork pens or stainless steel water bottles, but he did have commemorative buttons to give out when he was elected the first president of the United States back in 1789.

The Industrial Revolution of the 18th and 19th centuries, following Johannes Gutenberg’s invention of the printing press in 1438, led to a surge in the creation of promotional products. New manufacturing techniques allowed businesses to get more creative with items they used to advertise themselves; one newspaper printer once used his printing press during off-times to print a shoe store logo onto bags to be given to customers. Bookmarks and even branded corkscrews and pocketknives also came into play in the early days of promotional products.

These types of products can also be a reflection of culture changes. For example, ashtrays and matches used to be highly popular promotional products; but now that smoking is less prevalent in our culture and flameless candles have made a rise, you don’t see them as much anymore.

Promotional products can be cultural icons and markers of a certain time period. Make your mark on today by seeing what Benefit has to offer? Come partner with Benefit together we can come up with something that will make its mark on history.

Co-branding: an interesting marketing tactic done by aligning your brand with another brand that has a great reputation. At Benefit, we can put your logo on generic brands, but we also have a number of name brands available for co-branding opportunities.

Want to use apparel to promote your business? Your logo can appear on tons of clothing items from name brands like Lacoste, Nike, Calvin Klein, Kuhl, The North Face, Marmot, Spyder and more. Looking for promotional items other than clothing? Try Apple, Beats by Dre, Swiss Army, Tumi, Callaway, Cuisinart, Swarovski, Igloo, Thermos, Jawbone, and Mont Blanc, among many others.

If generic brands fit better in your marketing program and budget, you can stick with them—they’re great too! But placing your logo on a name brand that has a good reputation and high popularity can make your customers perceive your brand as one aligned with the name brand’s image and product quality. 


Source: inc.com