Beyond The Mug
Al Urban loves mice. Well, mouse pads, anyway. He hands them out to everybody who visits Computer Masters, his retail computer store in Vermillion, Ohio. Urban credits the custom pads, imprinted with the store's name and phone number, with generating 25% of the sales at his 2½ year old store.
"I use them like I'd use a business card. We give them out to everybody, even if they're just looking. That lets them know I'm interested in them, and that brings them back to my store."
Urban says the pads are like the Eveready™ Rabbit - they just keep goin' and goin' to promote his business. "I like the idea that people have them on their desk beside their computer. When they're showing off their new computer, there's the mouse pad with my name on it right there, and they tell their friends, 'this is where I got it.' When they need an upgrade or repairs or anything about computers, they've got my name right in front of them."
The mouse pads, which cost Urban $1.75 each, show what promotional products and advertising specialties - the giveaways imprinted with a business' name and phone number - can do. But while Urban boasts about his success, most businesses don't see that kind of result.
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© Fran Severn
