How to Choose Branded Products People Actually Keep

We've all done it. You get home from a conference or a trade show with a tote bag full of stuff, dump it out on the kitchen counter, and start sorting. A few things you keep. Most of it goes straight in the garbage.

No guilt. No second thought. Just gone.

And it's happened to me too. It's happened to people I know, people I work with, people who care a great deal about their brands.

That is exactly why I created The BIG Show & Tell.

What the show is really for.

The BIG Show & Tell is where I get to show you the better options — the ones most people never see. Because they're not the first thing that comes up when you go searching online.

Every quarter I put real products in front of you and walk through what works, why it works, and how to use branded products and gifts strategically to increase your business. Live demos. A little fun, a little whimsy, sometimes in full costume. Just sayin'.

It's an hour of EDUTAINMENT. And it exists because the question most people ask is "what can we put our logo on?" — when the question that actually grows a business is "what would matter to the person receiving this?"

Useful beats random.

This number tells all. 

65% of people say useful is one of the most important things about a branded gift. Clever is fine. Trendy is fine. But it has to be useful — something that won't break, something somebody might really need.

So the first thing to know is that every product needs a job.

An actual job. Take a stress ball. At a wellness fair, handed to somebody who's stressed out, that's a job — and a good one. That same stress ball on a table where nobody's thought about who's walking by is just something on a table. It's never really about the product. It's whether you can say out loud what it's supposed to DO for the person getting it.

And the job changes depending on who you're giving it to.

A trade show giveaway has a completely different job than a client thank-you. An employee recognition gift is a different gift than something you hand a prospect you just met. Same company, same brand, four totally different products — because the person on the other end is different every time.

So the goal is picking something that fits the people you're actually giving it to. That's very doable. You just have to think about it before you order.

A simple product that solved a real problem.

During COVID, everything changed overnight. Kitchen tables became offices. Guest rooms became conference rooms. Everybody was on video calls, sharing computers, hunting for their phone.

There was a real need. And I wanted to stay connected with people during all of that — so I sent a gift. A branded cell phone stand.

Simple and practical, and it sat right on the desk —or moved to the kitchen counter, wherever the day happened to be.

The stand is what made it work. And the tagline printed on it — Who will you inspire today? — helped keep the day in check during a really difficult time.

I cannot tell you how many phone calls I got from people telling me it was something they really needed.

The product had a job. The message meant something. And the timing made sense. That's the whole formula, and it isn't complicated. It just has to be intentional.

Don't give something people throw away.

You already know what it feels like to receive the wrong thing. That's never anyone's intention. It just tends to happen when the product is the last thing decided instead of the first.

So pick it first. Start with the person. Give the product a job. Then choose it.

And if you want to see what that looks like — real products, in hand, with the strategy behind each one — that's what The BIG Show & Tell is there for. Come watch. Let's make sure it's something they keep, use, and remember.

I will leave you with one question:

Are your branded products making you money?

If not, you don't necessarily need a bigger budget. You need a better STRATEGY.

SURPRISE!!!! — an EXTRA BIG Show & Tell in September!

I know we moved The BIG Show & Tell to a QUARTERLY event — BUT, I want to add this EXTRA BONUS Show to give you more gift ideas earlier, so you can get ahead of the holiday rush and Surprise & Delight your clients. We'll get into the gifts people remember and the relationships they can build, with enough time left to plan it and do it well. Consider it my own surprise and delight.

Tuesday, September 29, 2026 at 1:00 PM CST —

Live on YouTube at DonnaBenderGIVING,  DonnaBender.com,  LinkedIn and Facebook.

Watch Good Morning Entrepreneurs Show 154 Featuring my weekly Roving Reporter, Surprise & Delight Marketing segment,