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Interview with Gordon Glenister Director General at British Promotional Merchandise Association

We though we would ask the British Promotional Merchandise a few questions about our industry to help our customers understand why we are members and to get an inside view of what is considered best practice in our industry. We met up with Gordon Glenister Director General at BPMA and the info below is to help you as you ponder your next approach to promoting your brand. We hope it helps you.

Who are the BPMA?
The bpma is the UKs trade association representing the £1bn promotional gift industry.  The association conceived the idea for bringing together the gift industry to promote the value of promotional branded gifts as an effective advertising medium

What benefit to marketeers is there from buying from a BMPA registered distributor?
All our members are financially checked, referenced and sign up to our code of conduct. Sadly not everyone in the promotions industry adheres to high standards and its important buyers check carefully they are buying from professional bpma distributors

What three things should a marketeer consider in selecting a promotional product?

  1. Target customer – who are they, what do they like – are there different types of customer eg a sales person from a MD
  2. Type of product – that’s useful and relevant to their campaign
  3. Message – what’s your objective, make sure you don’t just add a logo but a powerful message or call to action

What is your favorite use for promotional products?
Exhibition brand awareness probably is my most favorite use of promotional products  of it as it’s a very powerful engaging technique to stop and attract customers

How important is measuring your campaigns?
Where possible it’s really important to try and measure the effectiveness – sometimes that can be done by a website link, a QR code, a unique telephone or more commonly anecdotal responses.

Where can end users obtain independent statistics on the use of promotional products?
On the bpma website we have a resource section with a number of different presentations that anyone can download. (Click here – bpma.co.uk opens in new window)

What do you think will be the next big thing in the promotional products world?
Mm, interesting point.  I think anything that incorporates virtual reality.  Pokemon go has been so powerful in this area, and I think its now as much about branding and messaging as physical product.

Remember to check out the free resources on the BPMA page on the link above.

Happy promoting…

Promotional Calculator Ruler

VAT on Promotional items

I have been asked many times about the supply of promotional items and VAT charges so to clarify the majority of promotional items we supply will have VAT charged apart from the following:

Childrens clothing – There is no VAT charged on items such as school uniform.

Construction Hard Hats supplied with your logo – There is no VAT charged on branded Hard Hats with your logo on.