Once upon a time... We could start the story with a proverb: good wine needs no bush. This proverb was true in the past: good wine was popular and sellable, the sky was blue, grass was green, people were happy - and good winemakers produced excellent wines. The idyllic situation lasted until lousy winemakers with their poor wine came on the scene, made their wine bottles showy and tempting, and offered their selections at bargain prices. The winemakers making quality wine must have taken up the gauntlet to convince their customers to keep on buying their products – for they have also now put wine into nice bottles, decorated them with fancy labels and have given customers small bags of raisins as gifts. And this is the end of the fairy tale... 
Yet the story of our company has just started... Today, it is clear that promotional products and small gifts are indeed great incentives via which to convince hesitating customers and clients to make a purchase.  A stimulating product or idea might interconnect with a product you want to sell (like washing powder with a laundry bag, bank products with a purse or wallet, food with a lunch box, schoolbooks with a bag for gym clothes); or go with one which implies your service type (e.g. a mug with a radio channel, T-shirt for an insurance company, shopping bag for an IT firm). There are regular actors on the promotional products' market: refrigerator magnets, pens with logos, T-shirts, diaries, paper bags, pen-drives or mugs have been extremely popular for a long time, and will probably remain so for many more years. From time to time there are products – like a mouse-pad, liquid-filled mouse, an ashtray or laser pointer – which show up for a while, though their popularity then fades away.   
Feedback from our customers indicates that "green" products are becoming more and more fashionable. We have a great offer! We can provide a "green" option for almost every product line.  You can choose notebooks, pens, pencils or ring files, even pen-drives made of recycled paper; or pick one of our shopping bags, sacks for selectively collected waste, pens, pen-drives made of  PET bottles; or choose from a selection of hats, T-shirts and shopping bags made from organic cotton. Water-battery powered calculators and watches, or solar-powered toys and lamps have also been gaining ground over other promotional products that remain harmful to the environment. 
When you want to choose a promotional gift, there are more perspectives to consider when seeking to get the best one. One of the most important points of view is identifying the target group. Cosmetics, a bag holder, a piece of jewellery or a scarf can be good idea for ladies, while a shoe-cleaning set or a laptop bag may attract a man. Children might be happy with a ball, a backpack or a furry toy. Another important perspective is the product itself (consumer electronics, food, services) which is to be enhanced with a gift. One needs to consider two more things: one is the deadline (if the chosen gift is available from either a local or European distributor, or should be produced on request, delivery conditions will be different); the other is the client's budget, which is generally a very tight one, though it must be always considered. We have to note something else: a more expensive promotional gift doesn't necessarily mean a better one. A shopping trolley token is always used when one is doing shopping, a key ring when leaving or going home, while a shopping bag is noticeable in a car park or at a bus stop. Fortunately, the time of dust catcher presents is over – our clients prefer more useful and practical gifts.  There is a triply positive effect here: first of all, everyone loves practical things; secondly, practical items are often shown to friends and colleagues; and, thirdly, unlike dust catchers these things won't be thrown into the garbage – and this third issue is an especially important point of view if one seeks an eco-friendly lifestyle.
We gained a good experience while spending some leisure time at Lake Balaton. Every fifth family brought their beach supplies in a huge and durable bag, which had definitely been bought in a drug store. This bag was neither a typical beach bag nor a promotional bag, despite showing the promotion of the store chain on both its sides. The bag was simply attractive and practical. For a lot of people the summer experience and a drug store chain came to mind together. This is a hit!
The new fashion is worth paying attention to! Choose a functional, timeless, useful and useable gift – and your clients will promote your products or services with satisfaction. It is obvious today that good wine needs bush too, in the same way that the best quality product needs an incentive promotional gift.