5 Types of Promotional Products Your Clients Want But Won’t Buy Themselves

Some of us hate shopping, while others enjoy it immensely. But no matter which group of shoppers you belong to, we can all agree on one thing – there are certain things that you will never see us buy. There’s no reason behind it, either; most of these are relatively inexpensive, and it’s really not a hassle finding them at the store. So what gives? Why is it that we’re all avoiding buying certain products, no matter how much we might need them?

While there’s no scientific explanation for this phenomenon, I’m gonna give it a wild guess and say it’s because every time we could buy the thing, we tell ourselves, “Ah, I’ll just get it next time. I don’t really need it right now.” And with this, we trap ourselves in a repeating cycle that we never really leave. Would these items be of use in our day-to-day lives? Yes, definitely. But … are they really worth commuting to the store for? Maybe, but we’ll just grab them next time. (See what I mean?)

And because of this mindset, such items are the ideal promotional gifts. They’re cheap, useful, and people are sure to love them! Let’s look at the five most popular promotional products that your clients want but won’t buy themselves:

1. Flash Drives

Let’s be honest, flash drives don’t exactly make for an exciting shopping experience. If anything, we dread the day we have to take the time to make our way to the store and then choose from a bajillion different kinds and sizes of USB sticks. We try talking ourselves out of it by saying stuff like, “Do I really need one? I can send the files through email or just store them on my computer.” As a matter of fact, yes, you do need one. A flash drive can be an important backup of all of your documents and work files in case your device decides to off itself and delete everything you’ve been working on in the past month.

But there’s no denying that shopping for a flash drive just isn’t fun. Receiving it in a goodie bag at a conference, on the other hand? Super fun! What’s even better is you can personalise it with your own company logo and work on promoting your brand through gifts!

2. Power Banks

It seems impossible to think about leaving your house without a phone charger nowadays; since we’re living in a computerised world, we’re almost expected to keep our phones on us at all times – and at a full battery, nonetheless. Staying connected at times seems more important than other stuff, which is why many of us place high values on everything and anything that can improve our lives in some way, especially when it comes to technological innovation.

Power banks have recently become one of the most popular promotional gifts because they’re something you can rely on in your time of need; more specifically, in your time of needing to charge your phone. And as much as we talk criticise our phone addiction, it is true that having the chance to charge your phone on the go can sometimes mean the difference between life and death. Similarly to power banks, car chargers offer a similar kind of comfort.

3. Umbrellas

Yes, people usually own a couple umbrellas, but that doesn’t mean they don’t want another one! You see, the thing with umbrellas is, we tend to forget them at home on the exact day when it randomly decides to rain. With your umbrella as a gift, they might decide to leave it in their car when returning home from an event. The next time they find themselves surprised by unexpected rain, they’ll remember your thoughtful gift they decided to keep in the backseat.

Think about choosing a specific colour as well, as different colours invite different emotions in people!

4. Wallets

We use wallets on a daily basis, but do you even remember the last time you brought out your wallet to … well, buy a wallet? Me either! It’s weird, I can’t even seem to remember when or where I actually got the one I own now – maybe it was a gift itself?

When it comes to gifting your employees, clients, or business partners a wallet as a promotional product, remember that before anything else, you should be looking at its functionality; this means you need to check it has slits to store cards in (maybe even add your business card before surprising your giftees), a pouch for change, and, of course, bill slots. You can even take it a step further and choose a wallet equipped with RFID technology.

5. Earbuds and Headphones

It happens to the best of us – we lose our headphones and don’t bother to buy new ones until a long road trip knocks on our doors. But even on short bus rides or even during a commute to work, we find ourselves bored or even annoyed with the outside noise, wishing we had replaced those earbuds or simply bought a pair of headphones. And we promise ourselves we’ll do it first thing next time we walk by a store with mobile accessories, only to betray ourselves every single time.

Headphones and earbuds are a hit promotional product, even though it may seem like everyone already has their own pair. But so what if they do? In case they lose it, your gift will be the thing that’ll save them from going mental in a loud coffee shop.