It seems like more and more often companies have been concentrating on a single aspect of the fundamental four P’s of advertising and marketing. Day after day we see posters, outdoor boards and special offers sent out from thousands of brands across the nation. All this clutter can turn into white noise in the mind of the customer and lead them, inevitably, to ignore the message. Promotion doesn’t end with these quirky TV commercials or an eye catching print ad with an offer to win a cruise; it really comes to life through the use of exciting promotional products.

     Promotion, as a tactic in a marketing campaign, communicates important information to the public and helps achieve the overall objectives of the entire campaign. Promotion can include anything from personal selling and a sales force to traditional advertising and public relations. Within all these sub categories lays plenty of opportunity to incorporate a strong promotional product program. Traditionally, tradeshows and industry expos use promotional products more often; however why not enhance these other categories with a promotional product?

     PepsiCo did just that with a campaign known for its advertising and merchandising. During the Cola Wars of the late 1990’s, PepsiCo designed a fully-integrated international marketing campaign the encouraged and used all categories of Promotion. The campaign, known as Pepsi Stuff, encouraged customers to collect Pepsi Point by collecting the points from specially marked Pepsi cans and fountain drinks and purchasing the Points for 10 cents per point. Participants used the pointed to purchase merchandise for the PepsiCo empire. To successfully diffuse this idea, PepsiCo used celebrity sponsored print, television, outdoor, in-store, Internet and catalogue advertising along with top-quality promotional products. (more…)

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