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Promotional items are usually called as identity products and advertising specialties, imprinted with a company's logo, name or message. These items or products also include decorative or useful articles of merchandise that are useful for educational, communication and marketing programs.
What are the four categories of promotional items?

The four categories of promotional items are: Advertising specialties, premiums, loss leaders and business gifts.

1.Advertising specialties are those imprinted items that are given away for free.

2.Premiums are those imprinted products that are given as an incentive for some action.

3.Loss leaders, sometimes are those imprinted items that are sold at cost . They can provide free advertising.

4.Awards, business gifts and commemorative s are also considered to be promotional items.
What are the uses of promotional items?

There are various uses of promotional items as these products or items can not only be used alone but can also be integrated with other media in various effective and interesting ways. Popular uses are: Employee relations, business gifts, orientation programs, corporate communications, incentives (for work, purchasing and safety programs) and trade show handouts. They excel at encouraging particular actions such as filling out a form, responding to a survey etc.

Other effective uses of these items include:
Company stores
Sales or distribution programs
Marketing research
Promotion of brand awareness
Co-op programs
Incentive programs
Nonprofit fund raising
Encouraging brand loyalty
Public awareness campaigns
Generating new customers or new accounts
New product or service introductions

Available Items
There are around tens of thousands of different styles and types of promotional items. A list of common items include: calendars, pens, bags, T-shirts, cups, caps, mugs, calculators, napkins, key chains, desk and computer accessories, bumper stickers, totes, yard signs, decals, labels etc.

Industry Statistics
Through professional promotional products distributors, advertisers have been spent more than $14.9 billion in 1999 and more than $17 billion in 2000 on items purchased. The Promotional Products Association has found the top product categories (from the bottom) and the percentage of the market that are as below:

Marketing research - 1%
Customer Referral - 2.8%
Non-Profit Programs - 3.2%
Internal Promotions - 4.6%
Safety Education/Incentives - 4.4%
New Customer/Account Generation - 4.8%
Trade Shows - 5.7%
Employee Service Awards - 6.4%
Public Relations - 7.1%
Brand Awareness - 8.3%
New Product/Service Introduction - 8.7%
Employee Relations & Events - 10%
Dealer/Distributor Programs - 14.9%
Business Gifts - 17.6%

Promotional products marketing can be fits easily into any advertising budget. These products increase the effectiveness of other advertising media and can be directed to selected audiences, which dramatically increases their effectiveness.