Just this week my stylist tells me that she will no longer color my “stress highlights” until I learn to lay off the straightening iron. This was very untimely since I have naturally frizzy hair and the humidity here has been hovering around 100%. Now, I know you guys (and girls for that matter) really don’t care to hear about my bad hair days but hang with me because I do have a point…eventually. Hey, I’m female so it takes a few more words than you’re used to… so back on track… Consequently, I’ve been experimenting with different ways to look presentable and in the process have found a new respect for the mounds of promotional headwear that I’ve collected throughout the years. Notice I said collected and not worn. Yeah, I know what you’re thinking: I work for a headwear company! But I’ll be honest, caps and hats have never been a wardrobe thing for me- until lately. Now, because of a flat iron hiatus, I’m sporting all kinds of headwear from the military to the baseball and yes, even the plaid bucket (okay, I was canoeing but still).
Which brings me to some interesting statistics (and more importantly, to my point). I read in the Impressions Study conducted by ASI Central (http://tinyurl.com/6ffsqdq) that that promotional headwear is the third most owned promotional item in the United States! This excites me not only because my livelihood depends on it or because my hoarded mound of promotional headwear has been validated as normal but because it’s an effective and affordable medium to include in most companies marketing mix! According to the study, the cost per promotional product impression averages 0.005 cents with 83% of the promotional product owners able to identify or recall the advertiser. In my humble opinion and as a person that is in charge of some marketing dollars herself, that’s a pretty impressive ROI. But alas, there’s more! The study also revealed that 41% of the promotional product recipients viewed the advertiser more favorably and 2/3 of the recipients passed along the promotional product to someone else if they didn’t plan to use it. So the impressions are carried onward and elsewhere!
I’m almost glad my stylist banned me from my favorite styling tool so I could become a participating member of the promotional headwear marketing cycle. Now if I could just find a fedora that matched my… well, anyways… Don’t forget about promotional headwear when you’re out selling!
