Price is important but it would be unwise, to say the least, to entirely base a promotional item purchase based on price alone. Promotional companies generally have the same kinds of promotional products listed on their websites, and it can be quite a temptation to just go with the cheapest. Those pictures of two similar promotional items from different companies might look the same, but there is usually a reason one is cheaper than the other.

You might not be very concerned by the quality of your promotional giveaways for a variety of reasons. You might not really expect for them to see a lot of wear and tear, even. If this is the case, you really ought to be putting more thought into your promotional item purchases. A randomly selected cheap product could ultimately be a complete waste of money. They should be something that will be used in a client's daily activity. A bank giving out toothbrushes because they were cheap isn’t going to generate much of a return on investment. Toothbrushes would be appropriate for a dentist's office or maybe even a promotion aimed at Dental Health Month at a different type of business.

With very few exceptions, a company should purchase a promotional product appropriate to their business. The extra money a bank might spend ordering wallets made of colorful fabric or filled with Monopoly money would pay off both by being a fun or memorable giveaway and by making simply sense.

Low prices come with a tradeoff somewhere, whether you are buying promotional items or groceries. That tradeoff can sometimes be a difference in material quality or manufacture quality. A batch of coasters with your logo on them could potentially only be remembered because they were easy to break or looked bad. Your company’s brand hopefully won’t be associated with the substandard promotional product you gave out, if you are lucky. Saving money by purchasing cheap trinkets could ultimately cost you more than you expect. Not only could your investment be wasted, it could have a detrimental impact on your brand.

It can be difficult to understand from the perspective of someone not in the promotional products industry, but the process of completing an order has many steps and a variety of things that must be kept track of. The prices you see on a promotional items website will reflect this, as well. There's something that can go badly at every step of an order, but most of them can be caught before it is too late by a skilled or experienced individual who can spend some time hand holding the order. You can often find the same exact product on several different websites, but are cheaper at one site because the company selling them has worried less about hiring top notch staff or having employees keep a close eye on existing orders. The type of mistakes that would be noticed by an experienced sales representative can be the potentially disastrous kind. The worst possible thing that can happen is discovering an artwork mistake only when you've opened your five thousand piece order. You might get a refund, but chances are you won't be able to get the order fixed before you need your products.

The ever popular Super Bowl commercials are remembered because they are funny and sometimes because they are just plain terrible. One year there was a memorable car commercial that involved an action figure hopping in a toy car and taking another doll out on the date. It was fairly popular, but no one could really remember who made it. Don’t make the same mistake, and ruin your message because you wanted to save a buck on a promotional product.