A Promotional Products Story:
What does a pizza cutter have to do with selling a house?
As one who is relatively new to the promotional products industry, I am continually surprised where these products appear, by the overwhelming deluge of their forms, and especially by their efficacy. We’ve all seen them. I would be hard pressed to find a home without at least one. But the most potent example I have is my own. This is a story of the world’s best pizza cutter.
Once upon a time, my mother began dating the man who would later become her fiancé. One evening as they sat down for pizza, he noticed how she struggled to cut through the layers of delicious cheesy toppings and crust with her $20-plus pizza cutter. He just shook his head and said, “I’m gonna get you the best pizza cutter you’ll ever have.” She soon held The World’s Best Pizza Cutter, and she’s had it ever since. That was about five years ago.
What’s remarkable about this little cutter is not only does it slice through any pizza properly the first time, it is a promotional product. This particular cutter, has the name and number of a realtor, and a slogan, “For cutting edge service, call [realtor’s name].” Recently, my mother began to sell the house we lived in for over twenty-four years. “Who are you using?” I asked one evening, and she gave me the realtor’s name. It hit me, and I flung the kitchen drawer open and pulled out the cutter. “You mean her!” I felt like I’d unburied treasure. Yes, she called that same realtor.
I realized that:
- I fall into the 91% of promotional products recipients that have at least one promotional product in their kitchen (PPAI study 1).
- I am one of the 76.2% that can recall all three key pieces of information: the product, the advertiser, and the message (PPAI study 1).
- I am one of the 73% of recipients who use product at least once a week (I eat pizza too often, I know) (PPAI study 2).
- I am one of the 55% that keep the product for more than a year (it’s been five (PPAI study 2).
- My mother and I have both received a promotional product from one of the 26% of recipients that give the item away to someone else—from my mother’s fiancé to her, and from her to me (PPAI study 2).
I love that little pizza cutter, and hopefully the realtor who purchased it does too. Thanks to that $2.98 product with her name, number and slogan on it, she’s selling a house. If you’re not convinced promotional products work now, revisit those statistics. Ask people around you. We all have stories of our own. What’s yours?
To share your promotional products story, please reply to this blog’s post on Facebook! We’d LOVE to hear them!
