Why cheap, low-quality giveaways are bad for brands: Quality of freebies drives consumer attitudes, but personalization can help

Companies employ giveaways primarily to create awareness and strengthen their brands. Little academic research has examined the effectiveness of giveaways, however.
Stäbler

MANAGEMENT SLANT

  • Investing in cheap and low-quality giveaways is a waste of money.
  • Consumers more likely will recall sponsor brands of low-quality giveaways than of high-quality giveaways, and low-quality giveaways have a negative impact on consumer attitudes toward the sponsor brand.
  • For certain types of giveaways (e.g., matchboxes instead of pens), the negative effect on consumer attitudes is even stronger.
  • Familiar brands with strong cognitive associations are not protected from the immediate negative consequences of low-quality giveaways.
  • Sponsor brands can benefit from distributing giveaways if the giveaways are imprinted with the...

Not a subscriber?

Schedule your live demo with our team today

WARC helps you to plan, create and deliver more effective marketing

  • Prove your case and back-up your idea

  • Get expert guidance on strategic challenges

  • Tackle current and emerging marketing themes

We’re long-term subscribers to WARC and it’s a tool we use extensively. We use it to source case studies and best practice for the purposes of internal training, as well as for putting persuasive cases to clients. In compiling a recent case for long-term, sustained investment in brand, we were able to support key marketing principles with numerous case studies sourced from WARC. It helped bring what could have been a relatively dry deck to life with recognisable brand successes from across a broad number of categories. It’s incredibly efficient to have such a wealth of insight in one place.

Insights Team
Bray Leino

You’re in good company

We work with 80% of Forbes' most valuable brands* and 80% of the world's top top-of-the-class agencies.

* Top 10 brands