Everyone has a story to tell, including brands. Whether it’s one that conveys encouragement like Nike’s “just do it” slogan, or one that inspires individuality like Apple’s “think different” campaign, stories are the messages that connect us. They make people, products and brands more approachable and relatable. And while brand storytelling may be a relatively new term used in the last five to 10 years, the marketing practice has been around for hundreds of years.
When it comes to brand storytelling, promo products play an important role. They offer a tangible storytelling medium—something that can be held and passed on to others. Here are three ways promo products like pens with flexible decoration options can benefit a brand’s story.
1. Higher the Relevancy, Higher the Brand Exposure
Practical, portable and used by nearly all end-users, writing instruments are a promo product category that offers extremely high visibility. With a low-minimum, low-cost entry point, pens can easily fit into any brand’s advertising/PR plan or marketing outreach efforts. This makes for an affordable promo product with a quick turnaround that can easily be changed up to match a campaign, co-branding opportunity, or otherwise.
2. Room to Share a Message
Pens—like ones decorated with SimpliColor 360—include an ample imprint area that can provide brands with extra room to get creative with their storytelling. As one fundraising team learned, they were able to re-create thank you messages using these imprints as a meaningful part of their donor recognition campaign. In a second example, a prestigious college used the large imprint area to display the school’s branding along with inspiring quotes. As a third example, a political consulting firm used SimpliColor decoration to include candidate value statements as part of their campaign marketing strategies.
3. Make It Memorable With Color
By selecting a large, full-color decoration option, branded promo pens can stand out from the crowd, making them more memorable than the average ballpoint. “What if my brand is one color?” Not a problem. Brands with a single color or a palette of colors can play with dynamic color presentations by simply changing the barrel color or opting for a SimpliColor stock art background. And you never have to worry about paying extra fees.
Market researchers and psychologists have found that color in marketing matters.
- Color can increase brand recognition by up 80 percent¹
- Color helps the mind process, store and remember scenes better than those without color²
- Color can influence perception (i.e., red signals feelings of hunger)
When relevancy, messaging and color aligns, the result is brand magic. And what brand story couldn’t benefit from a little brand magic? Explore promo pen options at www.goldstarpens.com.
1. Research conducted by E. Hoadley, L. Simons, F. Gilroy. Loyola University Maryland, 2007. 2. F.A. Wichmann, L.T. Sharpe, K.R. Gegenfurtner, “The contributions of color to recognition memory for natural scenes.” Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 2002.
