I watched an old episode of Friends the other day, the one where Ross and Chandler decide to try and take revenge on a hotel that won’t give them a refund when Monica can’t make the trip. From the apples on the front desk through to the remote control batteries and light bulbs, they filled their cases (only for Ross’s to break as they left).

Whilst I’ve never been tempted to take things one shouldn’t from hotels, I will admit that I see the things that are consumables as part of the deal.

Quite why I feel the need to sweep up all those little bottles and mini-soaps I’m not quite sure: I always prefer the products I’ve bought when I’m at home and I always forget to take them when I travel. But then the places I visit usually have them, so I didn’t really need to take them in the first place!

Pens and pencils in hotel meeting rooms are something of a grey area – it’s OK to take those isn’t it? But is it OK to take the one that the person who was sitting next to you left behind? I’m not sure, but I do.

For the bigger chains the cost to provide some of these items must be reasonably high. And the number of adverts in marketing magazines for firms wanting to put your company’s name on pens, notepads, mugs, desk tidies and the like, suggests there are plenty of other firms desperately hoping to get their names on the desks of prospective clients.

And this isn’t a new thing either. I remember my grandfather having pencils, pens and even a tape measure (which I still have) for Mirabel – a fabric brand his company sold.

But does all of this branded paraphernalia really make any difference? Is it just something certain companies have always done? Amongst the many unquantifiable aspects of marketing is it money down the drain?

A recent study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine decided to find out whether small promotional items made any difference in attitudes towards drugs.

Two universities were selected, one where gifts, meals and samples from drug companies were prohibited and one where they were allowed and a study conducted on 350 third and fourth year students. Around half of them were exposed to small branded promotional items, such as the clipboard and notepad used when they signed in, the others didn’t.

The students then undertook a test of implicit attitudes towards two drugs; one the branded version whose name some had been exposed to, the other a generic alternative that was considerably cheaper and considered to be equally effective.

Differences in reaction times were used to gauge unconscious attitudes, as well as conscious evaluations for attributes like “pleasant” and “unpleasant”.

The results revealed two things of interest.

Firstly, students in both environments demonstrated an implicit preference for the brand name version of the drug.

Secondly, at the university where drug company promotion was permitted, the exposure to promotional items led to a stronger preference to the branded drug.

Other studies support the idea that unconscious priming does increase preference for brands. Familiarity is interpreted as safety by the unconscious mind, which makes the familiar object feel like a safer choice. The conscious mind then constructs reasons to support the feeling.

So it’s worth thinking about the opportunities you have to get your brand in front of people.

• Do you include it on all your emails?
• Do you include it on everything you send out?
• Are there inexpensive branded items that you could give to clients that will give your brand repeated exposure to their unconscious mind?

It turns out that a pen with a logo on could make quite a difference (but do make sure it isn’t a completely rubbish pen: that will register an unconscious association that your brand could do without)!

Source: Grande et al. Effect of Exposure to Small Pharmaceutical Promotional Items on Treatment Preferences. Archives of Internal Medicine, 2009; 169 (9): 887 DOI: 10.1001/archinternmed.2009.64

Image courtesy: Gep Pascual