People open to starting a business can find a golden opportunity in health and wellness. According to the Global Wellness Economy Monitor, this industry reached a value of more than $4 trillion in 2017. It means that it grew almost twice as fast as the global economy. In only two years since 2015, it also experienced nearly 13% growth.
Although most of the expenditures went into healthcare, wellness spending also didn’t fall far behind. Within the same period, the expense was over 50% than global healthcare. People can even venture into different niches. These include fitness, diet or food, and supplements.
The market, though, is competitive due to the many startups and stable businesses. To set itself apart, a company needs to focus on building a brand. To be more specific, one has to invest in promotional products. This short case study aims to highlight the effectiveness of promotional items, especially when it comes to increasing brand recognition for fitness-related products.
Do Promotional Products Work?
In this age of e-commerce and digital media, some business owners find no need for promotional products. After all, they’re additional expenses. The success of a promotional product depends on many factors. These include the creativity of the design, uniqueness, usefulness, and the relationship with the brand. In most cases, they work.
For one, most of the promotional products are visual, and people process information a lot faster in this manner. Take for example customized cornhole bags. Cornhole might not be on the same league as other types of professional sports, but it’s a social game enjoyed by hundreds of Americans.
Customizing the bags can provide an opportunity for a fitness-related business to incorporate their logo or name conveniently. These products do have a large surface area. Making the bags colorful can also help the game and the brand associate themselves to concepts such as fun and casual.
This is essential to fitness in the United States. Here, about 75% of the people believe that fitness—exercise, in particular—is necessary, according to a survey by Report Linker. In reality, almost 50% also don’t live an active lifestyle. One of the common reasons is that they view such an activity as a burden.
Second, promotional products can help meet business goals. In 2018 data from the Promotional Products Association (PPA), almost 70% of the surveyed brands revealed they found these items to be a significant contribution to marketing objectives.
To be specific, 89% of the consumers received a promotional item within the last six months (based on the survey). Among this group, 90% were able to recall the brand. About 70% remembered the call to action while 80% understood the message or the purpose of the product.
Most of the consumers who received these items also kept them for one to five years, which then boosted the exposure of the brand many times over. They also increased the brand’s resonance, with 82% finding the company favorable or impressive.
Lastly, an infographic by Design Rush cited how consistency in brand presentation, both online and offline, can increase revenue by as much as 23%.
Fitness is a broad wellness sector, so there’s plenty of room for growth, but competition can also be challenging. Using promotional products is one practical way to differentiate one’s brand from the others.
