Back-to-school time is around the corner – a perfect opportunity to plug products and services to parents and kids. They’re a powerhouse market worth your while. In fact, there are 65 million kids aged 0-13 and 22 million teens aged 14-18 who you can tantalize. Add in their parents and you’ve got hundreds of billions of dollars in consumer sales potential.

Here are a few ideas:

• Launch a school-supply drive for the underprivileged. It’s a great way for businesses of all kinds to draw media and consumer attention. Pick a week for individuals to drop off donated school supplies at your store or office. Then reward them with an imprinted gift, acknowledging their goodwill. It could be a t-shirt compressed into the shape of a school bus that, when expanded, showcases your company name/logo about town.
• Announce your back-to-school specials and promotions. Products such as imprinted bookmarks, pencils, rulers, book covers and notebooks can be handed out at local summer camps, school registrations or via direct mail.
• Provide parents with back-to-school checklists to help them get their tikes ready for the school year. The checklist can include everything from dates/times for public school registration to list of forms/immunizations required in your local school district. Add in a few lines to promote your product/service (e.g. apparel musts offered by retailers or car maintenance by auto shops to get ready for carpool). Imprint the checklists on handy magnets or notepads.
• Ask your local schools/teams what supplies they need. Then you can sponsor imprinted products to fill their needs.

There are so many opportunities. The key to success is making sure you choose products that kids find “cool.” Also, remember to appeal to parents’ sense of safety and well-being. For example, a product that would appeal to both kids and parents might be a CD-ROM game that has educational value or an imprinted flying disc that encourages physical activity.

Give me a call at 888.356.7657 or send us an e-mail and we can sign you up for an A+ back-to-school promo!

Best Regards,

Dale Shetterly