Like many people in the reseller community I get invited to conferences and events where a pen is part of the complimentary items. This is great for us media types because you can never have too many pens, but it has its pitfalls…
It is rather embarrassing if you interview someone and unwittingly pull out a pen emblazoned with their rival’s branding. Cue awkward laughter and the excuse that it’s a good writing pen. The anonymous blue Bic pen is very handy in these situations.
I understand why pens are popular freebies - they are a cheap and effective way of mass promoting an IT company name or product.
But surely not everyone has to hand out branded pens. Some more enterprising goodie bag items I’ve received lately are a business card holder and flash drive.
These are branded too but since they’re generally out of sight no one will take issue. And I’m sure resellers will hold on to these types of products longer than a pen which will eventually run out of ink and end up in the bin.
