Sounds like an odd question, doesn’t it? But how many times have you picked up a pen with a business imprint on it? Has that imprint ever caused you to say, “Yeah, Sheraton, that’s where I need to stay”?
That’s the question I contemplated as I opened my junk mail today and had a pen with my company imprint on it from National Pen Company (a little plug for sending such effective junk mail, and what the heck, the pen probably cost you a few cents) . Should I take advantage of their generous offer of custom pens for 39 cents each? Seems cool, but as a small business owner, you have to ask about the return on the investment (besides ego boost, but surely I already know the name and URL of my business so the pens should be writing in somebody else’s hand).
So I ask all you cyber shoppers… have you ever bought anything from a pen?
PS – I’ll give you the spoiler – I bought the pens. Those National Pen marketers are extremely effective at creating false sense of urgency/scarcity, or maybe it’s like when you get your kid’s school pictures – hard to contemplate them being discarded. Or maybe it was a page from the “12 Angry Men” playbook – tit for tat, I give you a lousy ten cent pen and you buy fifty bucks worth. In any case, it worked. Look for pens as your lovely bonus prize in upcoming coffee shipments.
No, I’ve never bought anything after reading the ad on a pen!
When I started my business, I received one of these pen offers not too long before traveling to the SCAA conference in Philadelphia. The theme was patriotic so I ordered red, white, and blue pens for attendees to pick up at my booth. At the show, people from other countries were interested in the pens for souvenirs but they never ordered any cozies!
From then on, I just kept the freebie pens that came in the mail and used them myself!
Irene, KozeeLady
sigh… My pens will have a “lava” pattern, reminiscent of Hawaii. Since I cannot use a hundred pens, we’ll see what comes of the experiment. Perhaps I should have printed them with a special coupon code so I could track business from them. Next time! I’m a sucker for junk mail.
Readers… Irene’s Kozys are awesome. Buy one for your french press and you will have warm coffee for 30 minutes or more (if you need longer, buy a smaller press pot from me!). You will be able to buy some of Irene’s stuff on my site in the near future (just for convenience of buying your coffee and related stuff in one place)
Hi,
I am a Physical Therapist. We have used the pens for many years. One, because the one we use has a very comfortable tripod grip tip which is good for our arthritis patients. Two, because if they have our pen in their purse or on their desk they can find our number to schedule or cancel appointments and to give to friends when they recommend us.
Have I done any actual studies to objectively evaluate the cost benefit. No.
Ed