7 Questions to Ask Before Buying Promo Items

Promotional items are an important tool in your arsenal for attracting and engaging users, making your trade shows and events more compelling, and even rewarding employees for their good work and loyalty.

When you're considering making an order for some promotional items, you should do your due diligence and ask some important questions before you press the buy button. Let's talk about what's most important and why you should ask those questions.

1: How do these items fit with my brand's marketing and image?

The first question is one you ask yourself, rather than asking the vendor of the promotional items you're looking to buy. It's the only question of that type that we're putting on this list, but it's a big one, so it's worth dedicating some time and attention to the answer.

The promotional items you buy are going to represent your brand on some kind of stage. Maybe it's in swag bags for the speakers who attend a trade show you organize. Maybe it's for everyone who attends a career fair and visits your booth. Maybe it's something you offer to loyal employees or to encourage performance on a project.

So, think about this: how does that item reflect on your brand and your image? How does it tie into your marketing, and how does it encourage the results you want?

It can be surprisingly easy to mess these things up.

• A brand focusing more on casual, low-cost, or DIY-style imagery wouldn't do well with a corporatized set of golfing gear.
• A brand focusing on individual high-quality products won't get much value from mass-produced, lowest-bidder promotional shirts.
• A brand focusing on green, ethical, and sustainable operations will fall flat if it relies on unethical overseas products with no provenance.

So, before you start looking into vendors or sending out prospect emails, consider what kinds of products and designs you want, how they will fit in with your intended goals, and how to manage it all for the best effect. If you need help with any of that, you can read other resources on our blog or reach out to ask any questions you may have.

2: What are the items made out of, and where were those materials sourced?

One of the biggest questions you should ask, once you've decided on a product, is about the materials used to make the product.

Different kinds of products have different options for their materials. In general, you want to balance factors like cost and availability, with others like the sustainability and ethical sourcing of those materials. Sure, a basic cotton tee might be cheap, but if it involves two or more overseas trips on cargo ships, abusive working conditions in the factories making it, and an overall low quality level, is that really the product you want to go with?

We have a lot of guides to this kind of discussion on our blog. Consider reading posts like:

• Are Biodegradable Promotional Products Worth the Cost?
• Are Bamboo Products Actually Sustainable?
• Are Upcycled Fabrics a Good Choice for Company Merch?

You can also look into more tangible resources like these ten sustainable alternatives to plastic.

In our view, your goal should be to find products that are environmentally friendly, sustainably produced, and ethically created using labor that is paid a living wage, if not also union-represented or otherwise certified with something like Fairtrade. It will probably mean spending more per unit than you would on the other alternatives, but you benefit both in a moral and ethical sense, and in being able to use the fact that you're working for sustainability in your marketing.

It's not always easy to know where the products you're ordering are coming from. Some vendors will just tell you "oh, they're sustainable," but won't give you any more details or resources. You can choose to take them at their word, or you can push for more details, or you can even disbelieve them entirely and look for another vendor.

If possible, seek out a vendor that has at least one of the eco-friendly certifications - and validating it independently with the certifying body

All of this is also why we here at Ethix put a lot of effort (and a lot of pride) into maintaining records and pushing for the most ethical production we can. We're as transparent as possible with everything we offer, and you're free at any time to ask us for details.

3: Are there minimum or maximum order limits?

Different vendors work in different ways. Some of them cater to smaller businesses and allow you to make smaller orders. Others prefer to work with larger brands and might have minimum order quantities in the hundreds (or thousands) of units, because otherwise it's not as financially viable for them to go through the production process. Often, though not always, the higher minimums are for more customized or unique items.

This is all about right-sizing your ordering. You don't want to wildly over-order a product; if you have 10 employees on a team to give a promotional item to, but the minimum order is 100 units, what are you going to do with the remaining 90? Conversely, you don't want to push your vendor to the limits and end up with roadblocks, delays, and problems that crop up when they try to fulfill an order that is much larger than they're normally capable of handling.

Sometimes you'll run into a vendor like us. We source our base products from a variety of different companies for different kinds of products. That means the minimum order quantity can vary from product to product. Always check or ask about the specific products you're thinking of ordering, and if you need less than the normal minimum, consider asking if there's flexibility or if it's firm.

4: What is the feedback and refinement process for my design?

When you're making an order of a promotional item, you want to make sure it's as perfect as possible.

Start by brainstorming your design. You might make it in-house, or you might want to work with a graphic designer, either an independent designer you hire for the project, or someone who works with the vendor and knows their standards. For example, we publish the standards required for artwork and designs for our products, but we also offer design services.

Once you have a design that is compatible with the needs of the vendor, you should request a sample. Always request a sample. This allows you to see and inspect details about the product, such as:

• The size and quality of the item.
• The quality and vibrancy of the printing.
• Details like stitching, stretching, and how it reacts to being laundered.
• How the item is packed to be sent to you.

If you find flaws in the item, you can then work with the vendor to fix those issues. If they're unresponsive, difficult to contact, or not receptive to feedback, it's a sign you might not want to proceed with your order. On that note, be wary of vendors who want to lock you into a purchase before they send you a sample; if the sample is bad and they aren't responsive, you're stuck.

You will generally have to pay for your sample, so keep that in mind. That said, paying $30 or $50 or whatever for a sample isn't a waste if it ensures the quality of the finished product, or keeps you away from a bad deal.

5: Are there options to customize individual items?

Another question you might have is whether or not you can customize the products you're ordering on a one-on-one basis. It's one thing to order 1,000 t-shirts for your staff; it's quite another to order 1,000 t-shirts where each one is printed with the name of the employee to receive it.

Some vendors won't do this kind of customization. Others will do it for an additional charge. It's definitely one of the main considerations you should keep in mind if you want customized items.

If you aren't looking for individually customized items, then you don't have to worry about this one.

6: What is the turnaround time from order to arrival?

Scheduling is the bane of just about everyone at some point in their lives, and it's no different with businesses. Turnaround time - from submitting your order to receiving your products - can vary, depending on a lot of different factors. The size of the order, the level of customization, the source of the products, how many different companies are involved, and even the kind of shipping being used can all play a role.

Add onto this the process of ordering samples, receiving them, offering feedback, and getting more samples if necessary, and you can see how this eats up a lot of time.

In many cases, you're looking at a timeline of at least a month, if not six weeks, for the fulfillment of a general order. Added complexity and other details will add time to this. Be wary of companies that promise a faster turnaround time; they may be cutting corners somewhere and hoping you won't notice, or using substandard labor and exploitative conditions to speed up the process.

Don't forget to consider factors like holidays that can also throw a wrench into the works.

Alternatively, make sure you're ordering your products well enough in advance that you don't need to worry about a delay. If not, you might consider having an alternative vendor or three in mind in case one of them falls through. There are a lot of possibilities, as long as you're proactive in exploring them.

7: Are the items tax-deductible?

While we try not to focus too much on finances in our discussions - we think the ethics, sustainability, and quality of an item are more important, and worth paying for - we acknowledge that the money is an important part of the equation for many businesses.

There are a lot of different ways you can cut down on costs.

• Go with less complex designs or patterns.
• Go with lower-quality or less intricate kinds of items.
• Opt for slower shipping instead of expedited shipping.
• Find a vendor that can do what you want for less.

Not all of these are going to get you what you want without sacrificing something you need. You never know if the quality is going to hold up, or if there's some less ethical exploitation in the supply line to save that money down the line, or what.

Another option is to explore tax benefits for your merchandise. Tax deductions and tax exemptions can both help you cut down on the down-the-line expenses of the products you order.

We have a whole discussion of what kinds of promotional materials and merchandise can be tax-deductible, tax-exempt, or neither. You can read that guide here. That said, we're not tax professionals, so it might be worth asking your accounting department for advice ahead of time.

How Ethix Can Help

Where do we come in? Here at Ethix Merch, we pride ourselves on sourcing only the most ethically-produced, sustainably-manufactured, and eco-friendly items we can. We dig into supply lines and make sure it's not greenwashing, it's not surface-level, and it's not hiding exploitation down the line. All of that so we can provide the highest-quality items to as wide an audience as we can.

We have a ton of different items on offer, from promotional apparel to totes to pins to mugs and much, much more. Browse our shop to see if anything catches your eye, and drop us a line if you have any questions at all. We'd love to discuss your projects and your needs.