The concept of promotional giveaway products are being recognized worldwide, giving a real boost in building brand awareness. Distributing gift items to promote brand names is, standard today - especially when it is targeted at attracting new customers. They can prove to be a highly lucrative tool to endorse your business's brand identity and build customer loyalty and retention.
With a wide variety available, you need to choose the right product which can suit the nature of your business and attract new potential customers. Anything that catches clientele's attention, and can fit a logo, can be an appropriate promotional gift. However, promoters should make sure that the giveaway product is relevant the service they are rendering. Its utility for the users is most important.
One of the most preferred promotional options available is a logo pen. In fact, what can be better than a beautiful pen to promote a company's brand while offering a highly desirable engraved pen as a reminder to the consumers, clients and prospects? Custom promotional pens are useful for every user. These writing instruments, when customized to your needs, can refresh your brand image every time it's used.
There are a host of options available for promoters to choose the type of custom promotional pens. Whether different promotional needs call for a stylish, sporty, eye catching, professional, or sophisticated pens - availability is perpetual. Pens with different inks and unique features can be used to attract consumers. Their prices can range from under a dollar and higher, giving you an additional option of choosing luxurious materials such as heavy brass, chrome, or rosewood finish - which also gives higher end, exclusive feel they're looking for.
Different kinds of promotional pens can be used for different purposes- like tradeshow advertising, giveaway advertising, employee incentives, and advertising through executive gifts.
You can give your clients a sense of the professionalism to mirror your company's goodwill. Different executive style, high-end advertising pens are available in rollerball, ballpoint, ink, push-action, twist-action and many other versions which strengthen the company's awareness.
But when it comes to mapping out winners and losers in the GPS devices marketplace, we turn to the guidance of our 15,000-member ChangeWave research network. And what they've told us is that Garmin (GRMN) ? the top GPS manufacturer in the world ? has achieved near total domination of the U.S. marketplace.
During February we conducted two ChangeWave surveys on global positioning systems ? one on consumer GPS trends (n = 3,773) and the other on corporate purchasing trends (n = 2,013). Here's what we found:
Consumer GPS Trends
Our February 18-25 survey of consumers who own a GPS navigation device, shows Garmin with a 56% market share ? an increase of 4 percentage points since the previous survey in January 2008. Garmin's percentage towers over its closest rival Magellan, which captured only 12%.
Looking at the next 90 days, Garmin (54%; up 5-pts) remains first on the map in terms of planned consumer purchases of GPS navigation devices. TomTom is second with 8% (down 1-pt), and Magellan has fallen to third place with just 4% (down 2-pts).
Corporate GPS Trends
In our February 11-15 corporate buying survey, Garmin is also the dominant leader with a hefty 58% share of the corporate GPS market. That's a full 11-pts higher than the previous corporate buying survey in November 2007.
Magellan also gained some corporate ground since the previous survey (12%; up 4-pts), even as TomTom's numbers have fallen to 9%, down 3-pts since November.
Going forward it's more of the same, as Garmin is dominating planned corporate GPS purchases for the 2nd Quarter with a 56% market share That's a huge 10-pt jump since November.
Magellan takes second with 10% (up 2-pts), while TomTom limps in at 5% (down 7-pts).
Best Quarter in History? Now Wait a Minute.
Garmin's February 20th quarterly earnings call has confirmed our ChangeWave survey findings, with the company stating flat out that it was the ?best quarter in our history.?
Garmin reported earnings per share of $1.39, on sales of more than $1.2 billion ? a 99% increase from a year earlier, with profits up an impressive 70%. Analysts had projected earnings of just $1.12 per share. To top it off, the company stated that its outlook for the rest of 2008 remained strong.
So with all that good news, you might wonder why Garmin's share price took a big 20% hit in the weeks immediately following their quarterly earnings announcement. Or why Garmin's stock price is now down nearly 60% from its 52-week high.
According to Wall Street analysts, the combination of significantly lower profit margins for Garmin (down more than 15%) and a retrenchment in U.S. consumer spending has undermined Garmin's stock price. In addition, Garmin's average unit selling price dropped precipitously last quarter, and their CFO recently predicted it will drop another 20% in 2008.
Another factor is the continued slowdown in U.S. consumer spending. Our February survey found an astonishing two-in-five U.S. respondents (39%) saying they'll spend less over the next 90 days than they did a year ago ? 5-pts worse than our January 2008 survey.
The decline in spending is occurring across all income levels. But most ominously ? not only for Garmin but for the entire GPS devices industry ? the survey showed consumer electronics spending in the midst of a major slowdown.
To put this in perspective, it's the weakest outlook for electronics spending ever recorded in a ChangeWave survey.
Given such a slowdown, it's understandable why Garmin and so many other high flying electronics stocks have had an extremely rough go of it lately. But despite shrinking profit margins and an extremely tough consumer spending environment, our latest ChangeWave surveys show Garmin is gobbling up share in the high growth GPS market.
The verdict is out on whether Garmin can return to its previously lofty heights ? but it's a company investors should be watching closely.
Both Chris Shetler & Jim Woods And Paul Carton are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
Chris Shetler has sinced written about articles on various topics from Promotional Advertising, Brand Name and Shopping. Chris Shetler is a well known author who writes articles on promotional items like key chains, pens, etc. for . Chris Shetler's top article generates over 4400 views. to your Favourites.
Jim Woods And Paul Carton has sinced written about articles on various topics from Promotional Advertising, Cars. The ChangeWave expert research network is composed of 15,000 highly qualified professionals. Members are surveyed weekly on a range of topics, and ChangeWave converts the findings into proprietary reports. For more ChangeWave GPS findings, go to. Jim Woods And Paul Carton's top article generates over 3600 views. to your Favourites.