Top 10 Tips on Specifying Promotional Pens

Stuart Warne is the UK Channel Sales Manager for Newell Rubbermaid CG&PP (formerly Sanford Brands) – Europe’s largest manufacturer of pen brands to the promotional and incentive industry with 1 in 5 pens used in Europe being a Newell pen.

With the pen having 30% of the promotional and incentive market you would think choosing a pen is an easy task. But with so many manufacturers/importers/writing modes/styles and colours available, it can be a bit of mine field. Detailed below are some important rules to remember when choosing the perfect promotional pens and for you and the intended recipient of your message.

1. Think about your target for the pen, (Chief Exec, marketer, shop floor or consumer). The pen now has 4 main writing styles (not including PDA Stylus or highlighter multi promotional pens) Fountain Pen, Roller Ball, Ball Pen and Gel, which style best suits them – this will help define budgets and pen style.

2. What is the pen going to be used for? Is it a low cost advertising tool, sales incentive, corporate gift or award, do you need a disposable or refillable model – again this will help define budgets and pen style.

3. Marking Options – What advertising/corporate or incentive message are you trying to get across? We have really moved on from the simple 1 colour print option, you can now fully custom mould/custom print /rotary laser-engrave or digitally print. By using some of the virtual tools on the market you can see real life images of how your brand, message or corporate image can look on a pen. Marking and design options should be used in a creative way to make sure that your pen is the one that your target carries or uses on a daily basis

4. Make sure your pen delivers the right message about your company. Choose a quality brand that adds weight to your message – you do not have to bust budgets to achieve this as there are global brands out there from all price points. By also choosing a recognised brand, you will be confident in the knowledge that the correct help and support is there to help you choose the best pen for your needs (for example be careful of lacquered products with chrome or silver trim, when you laser through the lacquer, most substrates are brass so you will get a mix of silver trim and brass branding!)

5. Choose the correct supplier/manufacturer – make sure they have the correct certification in place (quality control management systems, environmental management systems, health & safety policies, etc.)

6. Colour options – are you looking for a match to your own corporate colours or are you happy with providing something different? There are a number of low cost mix and match options out there, or you can mould to colour match on larger volumes.

7. Budgets – How much money do you want to spend? Sounds simple, but if you get this wrong and either spend too little or too much on your Promotional Pens, it can affect your whole campaign. By focusing on who is receiving the pen and how it is being used you should get it right.

8. Quantity – this will be primarily driven by the usage of the pen, best advice would be to plan to have more rather than less to save those embarrassing shortages.

9. Timings – when do you need the pen for? This point is often overlooked and left until the last minute which can cause issues for non-UK /EU manufacturers. (There are a number of ‘fast track’ services available from one colour print in 24hrs to 2 colours in 5 days – but in general you are looking at 10 working days from order in, to ship out. If you do need a unique customised product, lead-time from the Far East is approx 12 weeks.)

10. Physical Sampling – I would always advocate a physical sample prior to placing a bulk order, sometimes timings can’t accommodate this, but the pen will be there to deliver your message when you are not. Therefore you need to be confident that the weight, material used, branding, packaging etc. all deliver what you want. The only way to be certain is to see a sample first.