Response to President Barack Obama’s “Mandate” against Imprinted Promotional Products
You may have heard, President Obama has mandated that government agencies stop using what he refers to as “swag”, a term that I myself have found to be typically used by people who have no understanding of the power of imprinted promotional products and what they can do for them. (To learn more about the power of promotional products Click Here)
Our President however, should know full well the power of promotional products, as they were a major part of his success in his first campaign and appear to be an even larger part of his upcoming campaign in 2012. The President’s campaign website is chalk full of “swag”. Imprinted items galore! Bags, buttons, stickers, lanyards, necklaces, drinkware, clothing, etc, etc.. Clearly these branded products are a massive part of his campaign strategy for 2012.
The bigger issue is when our government, or in this case, our President, makes decisions that they don’t fully understand. For example, did President Obama do any type of research before coming to this decision? If he had done the research, he would have learned that imprinted promotional products saved an estimated $85 million dollars on the last U.S. Census. Not only did it save those millions of dollars, but it also helped to provide better response rates then the previous U.S. Census done in the year 2000. In the latest census, over 72% of households had mailed back their census information by April 2010, compared to 67% total for the entire 2000 U.S. Census. Ref: ASI Press Release
So for a government that has always struggled to be effective in nearly everything they do, why would the President mandate something that he doesn’t understand the capacity of? Does he realize that there are over 500,000 people in North America that rely on this industry for their livelihood? Does he realize that many of these 500,000 people are in small businesses that are women and minority owned?
Does the President realize that Promotional Products cost just half a penny per impression, beating out prime-time TV, radio and print advertising as the most cost-effective advertising medium available, meaning even smaller companies can pack the advertising punch of multimillion-dollar companies. ASI studies show 83% of ad specialty recipients in the U.S. say they can identify the advertiser on a promotional item they own.
Mr. President, the products you used to get yourself elected and possibly re-elected in 2012 are far more powerful than you know sir. If you want to cut costs, I suggest you look into those $16 muffins that we’ve been hearing so much about. When you hand someone a functional branded product like the water bottles that you mention in your White House press release, your message is seen many, many times and your cost per impression is half a cent. On the other hand, when you give someone a $16 muffin, your cost per impression is $16 and in 5 minutes it’s gone! There is no long lasting impression because in 6-12 hours guess what your gift has turned into… Well, you get the picture.
Make decisions based off of facts and knowledge, not solely based on someone’s suggestion who sits at an administrative desk in DC.
