The Power of Customized Products for Your Branding

Branding is such an important tool for today’s businesses. It helps companies differentiate themselves, build customer trust, and increase brand awareness. But outside of developing a useful website, logo, and other marketing promotions, what else can businesses do to enhance their branding efforts?

Here’s an idea: Custom-printed supplies and products. Branded supplies that contain your company’s logo, tagline, and contact information – like Post-It Notes, mailing supplies, and laptop skins – add another level to your marketing efforts. They convey professionalism and help reinforce your brand to potential and existing customers. For instance, with branded shipping labels and packing tape, your products arrive and evoke immediate brand recognition. The customer knows exactly who the package is from and what it contains. Just look at how Amazon ships their own products: branded packing tape and a custom-printed box. The package reinforces the brand and may increase customer loyalty. Branding your shipping supplies and any other publicly displayed materials also shows pride and support in your company.

So how can custom products and supplies help you build your brand? And what types of products are perfect for customization? Here are a few ideas and tips to get you started:

How Custom-Printed Products Help Companies Build Brand Awareness and Trust

Whether you’re a small one- or two-person operation, or a hundred-person corporation, it pays to examine and optimize your branding efforts. For newer companies that need to build awareness, stamping your logo on supplies is one way to maximize brand impressions and build that recognition. For established businesses, branded supplies enhance customer trust – you look prepared and professional – and can potentially lead to increased customer loyalty.

Here are a few ways that companies can use custom-printed products in their marketing efforts:

• To Convey Professionalism: A custom-printed product can help legitimize your brand, and, really, it’s the little things that count. Consider a personalized Post-It Note. They can be customized by shape and by text. For instance, a dentist could use a tooth-shaped Post-It Note for their appointment reminder cards; that speaks volumes about the company, differentiates their office from competitors, and enhances brand awareness.
• To Build Brand Awareness: The custom-printed shipping label and packing tape example, mentioned above, illustrates this point nicely. Incorporating your company’s logo and contact information into your packaging materials or shipping products leaves your customer with an added brand impression. When building out your marketing, impressions are crucial.
• To Improve Customer Loyalty: Having products on-hand to share with your clients – like custom-printed sticky notepads and stickers – can be useful for rewarding customers and keeping them coming back. You could include these items with purchases or hand them out at events; either way, swag drives loyalty. But they don’t have to be free: Branded supplies that contain contact and social media information, for example, encourage your customers to interact with your brand.

Types of Custom-Printed Products That Help Build Your Brand

In reality, there is an endless array of products that you can custom-print and use to enhance your marketing. For instance, custom ballpoint pens that include the company logo, tagline and contact information are one of the most common types of promotional material. That’s an accessible example that many businesses do. Larger corporations, though, get creative with their branded promotional materials, like New Belgium Brewing’s custom bicycles. That’s not something many companies have the budget for. Fortunately, though, there are a range of cost-effective customized items that will help grow your brand:

• Mailing Supplies: For all types of business – from ecommerce companies to law offices – branded mailing supplies help grow awareness and build recognition. Examples include custom-printed packing tape, shipping labels, and envelopes. There’s a reason UPS, FedEx, Amazon, and USPS all use branded shipping materials: it quickly sets them apart from the competition.
• Laptop Skins: A personalized laptop skin – which is essentially a high-quality, glossy sticker that fits to the back of your laptop – instantly turns your computer into a billboard. This is perfect for businesses with employees that are in the field, like sales professionals, and for those that regularly attend industry events, conferences, and tradeshows.

• Post-It Notes: There’s a pad in every office, but it pays to go with something other than that traditional yellow. Personalize the shape of your Post-It, add your logo and contact information, and choose a color that matches your brand’s color palate. If it’s in the budget, print additional copies to share with clients.
• Domed Labels: Domed labels aren’t like traditional stickers; they’re made from high-quality polyurethane plastic, they have a glossy, bubbled appearance, and they will stick to your products for years. Auto dealerships commonly attach these to the vehicles they sell because they’re waterproof and designed to stick for ages. Yet, they can be attached to a range of products to create a quality, finished look, and help your logo pop.

Get Creative!

These are just a few ideas for branded supplies. Really, you’re only limited by your imagination: T-shirts, hats, stickers, and bags are other commonly used items. Whatever the case, you can see the power custom-printed supplies have in marketing. They convey professionalism, grow brand awareness exponentially, and they help differentiate your business. If it’s in the budget, these supplies are a must-have item for any company.

Matthew Davis is an associate of Stik2It, a custom Post-it note and office supply design company.