Have you ever been in the situation where you were standing at the register and the cashier did not have a pen to loan you to write your check? Was there a line a half mile long behind you waiting for you to finish your transaction? Did you feel confident that when you looked in your purse or pocket that a pen would miraculously appear? Did you end up emptying out the contents of your purse or pockets to desperately find a pen? When you did finally find a pen was everyone around you looking at that pen with joy in their faces?

Wouldn't you have loved it if that pen was one of your promotional pens and had your name and logo on it? Just think about all the people in that line who were made happy just by the sight of your pen. The level of elation the people waiting in line felt made your name and logo even more remarkable and loveable to them. What a fabulous brand name moment! Your promotional pen saved the day for a whole line of people.

You know, a clever promotional idea might be to always carry a handful of your promotional pens with you wherever you go. You can give them out anytime someone is having trouble finding their pen. You can give them out instead of your business card. Heck, how many people really know what to do with a business card? Unless they are professionals and have a rolodex to put it in, it most often goes into a drawer with all the other business cards they don't know what to do with.

Actually, receiving a pen instead of a business card is probably more preferable to most people because a pen is practical and can fill a need. A business card is a card with your name on it and they don't know what to do with it. You do know what to do with a promotional pen ? use it.

The real challenge to using promotional pens as your marketing tool is being able to find some pens you feel are good enough to put your name on. Promotional pens can be bought for as little as a half a dollar each in bulk. You need to think though, is a cheap pen what you want people to notice about you? There certainly are situations where the cheap pens are appropriate but, it is for you to decide what impression you want your pens to make.

Do you see your pens being used in well decorated board rooms, in spacious and luxurious corporate offices? Or, do you see your pens being used in schools, at the public library etc.? The vision you have of where your pens will be seen and read determines the quality and cost of your pens. In order to know what kinds of promotional pens to buy, answer these questions:

1) Who is the target market for your pens?

2) What are these people like?

3) Where do they go?

4) What do they value?

When you know the answer to these questions, you know what you have to do when selecting your promotional pens.