When choosing promotional items for your advertising, your goal should be to get them noticed and make people want them. The more people like your little giveaways, the more exposure they'll get, and the more exposure they get, the more recognized your name and your company become. The ?cool factor? of your promotional items can get you lots of eyeballs on your message. What you're aiming for is not only an item that is useful to the recipient, but one that is so cool that he can't help but pull it out and show it to others.



One important part of using the ?cool factor? to help spread the word about your company is convenience. In order to have a high cool factor, an item must be portable. After all, how often has someone nudged you at lunch, pulled a coffee mug out of their pocket and said, ?Hey, check out this cool coffee mug that I got?? Not often, right? What items are the most likely to be displayed to co-workers and associates? If you guessed promotional pens, you hit the nail on the head.

Of course, not all promotional pens have a high cool factor. In order to be the type of item that recipients can't resist showing off, your promotional pens have to have one or more of the following qualities:

Stylish good looks

Appearance counts when it comes to promotional items. Promotional pens that are sleek and stylish definitely have a cool factor. You'll actually get added exposure for your company, because the pen display will usually be accompanied with ?Look at the cool pen I got from XYZ company?. If you can get your gift recipient to say your name, you've got a winner of a promotional product.

Unusual Features

Pens that do more than write generally rate high on the cool scale, but the features that will impress change regularly. Pens with integral digital clocks, pens that double as digital cameras, pens that include an integral calculator ? all very cool and prone to be showed off. But the features don't have to be the latest in high tech to be displayed. One of the coolest promotional pens on the market includes an integral tape measure. Bulky, ungainly and definitely odd-looking, it still rates high in cool because of its unique, useful feature.

Brand Name

You can borrow cool factor by choosing brand name promotional pens to carry your logo or message. When you choose a well known brand name that's known for its quality, you get cool bonus points that rub off from the original manufacturer. Parker, Balmain, Cross? pick a range of promotional pens that is known for quality, and you'll usually have enough carryover cool points to be shown off as ?Look what XYX company is giving away?.

Novelty

Not quite the same as unique features, novelty is a quality that makes people sit up and take notice. Whether it's a funky shape, a bright, popping color or a neat use ? blowing bubbles for instance ? novelty can be a great ?check out this cool? factor.

If you choose to use promotional pens as part of your marketing strategy, take a few minutes to look through the catalogues at all the ranges and styles that are available.

You'll be sure to find more than a few that tweak the cool factor for your company.