Back in the “Dark Ages” of the Promotional Gift Market, the 1960’s and 70’s, and ranked alongside the Calendar and Diary, the basic, most often used gift was the humble Notepad. Inexpensive and always useful (as nowadays) it was the staple diet of the Business Gift Industry. As Advertisers increasingly saw the benefits of Promotional Products, room was found in almost all budgets for activity of this kind. The professionals used to refer to it as “below the line activity” though what the “line” was remained a mystery for many.
As the Promotional Product market took off in the 1980’s the range of Paper Products expanded.
The Notepad, available in sizes A7 to A2 and as popular as ever, was firstly joined by Plastic Note Dispensers. Injection-Moulders, the producers of these, had been selling mostly to the Stationery Retail Market, their colour range restricted to white. They soon realised the potential that the Promotional Gift Market offered and the range of sizes and colours available increased accordingly - many able to be Pantone-matched to Companies’ house colours.
Paper Blocks, usually 100mm cubed and glued to one side, were a significant addition.
These were designed to be printed to the sides of the blocks and the process was initially patented and in the UK only available through one company. As the patent ran out these became more readily available.
A large stride forward in this product area was provided by 3M with their Post-It Note Pads. The Pads, with their self-adhesive strip along the top of the reverse of each leaf, proved an instant success doubling up both as a memo pad and, effectively, a paper clip.
As public awareness of the urgent need to recycle has increased, manufacturers of paper products have responded.
Most products are now available from recycled materials – recycled paper and cardboard, certified paper fibres, unbleached and un-dyed cardboard and so on.
A late re-entry into the market place is the wiro-bound note pad available in sizes A5, A6 and A7.
So, although so many more products are available in the Promotional Gift Market, Paper Products remain as popular as ever.
