When BIC released its first ballpoint pen in the early 1950s, it entered a market with established fountain pen manufacturers like Reynolds International, Eversharp, and Parker. These pens were largely distributed as durable goods, intended to be refilled with ink and replacement nibs. 

BIC took a different approach, producing inexpensive, consumable pens that allowed the company to distribute them at a scale competitors couldn’t match. That sheer volume meant BIC pens appeared in countless everyday settings, from hotel lobbies and office buildings to schools and hospitals. 

They were used because they worked, and when they needed to be replaced, more were always available at a very reasonable price.

By the 1960s, the BIC name, along with the small ballpoint-headed figure used in its branding, had become widely recognizable. The company’s visibility in everyday settings ensured consumer trust, which made their expansion into products like razors and lighters a relatively seamless one. 

So, what does that all mean for modern companies?

Keeping your brand top-of-mind really comes down to two things: visibility and reliability.

What Is Brand Visibility?

Brand visibility refers to how often, and in what contexts, people encounter a company’s name, logo, or identifying elements over time.

Visibility has always mattered in branding, but the conditions that create it have changed in the last 75 years, primarily through the addition of digital channels. With the rise of search engines, email, and social media platforms, brands took to the internet in droves to try to increase their audiences far past the range previously possible with physical visibility alone. 

As with most good things, however, you can eventually have too much.

Consumers are now inundated with 162 billion spam emails per day globally, which is nearly 50% of all traffic. The same goes for Facebook feeds, where users report that 1 in 3 posts are ads, suggested content, and posts from business pages.

At this point, visibility is easy to achieve, but it has very little staying power. When you’re competing with dozens of other brands in the same digital real estate, being seen doesn’t amount to much, and the chances of making a lasting impression are slim.

Physical visibility, in the form of promotional products, addresses the lack of staying power. A branded item that stays in circulation creates repeated exposure in the same context, which is something digital channels struggle to sustain.

Looking for ideas to increase your brand visibility?

Get inspiration in our recent post: Company Swag That Actually Gets Used: Practical Branded Ideas

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What Is Brand Reliability?

Brand reliability refers to how much faith a consumer can put into the product or service you’re providing. In the context of marketing swag, it looks a little different because the product itself isn’t manufactured or distributed by your business.

Even so, when you give someone a branded item, you’re effectively saying, “This is something we’re comfortable putting our name on.” If a pen stops working halfway through a meeting or a charger stops working after a couple of uses, the item just gets tossed. Whatever impression that swag was meant to create ends there.

Well-made branded swag, on the other hand, stays in circulation, accruing impressions over time and becoming one of the most persistent forms of visibility a business can buy.

Studies show that promotional products consistently rank among the most memorable forms of advertising, with most people able to remember the brand on a promotional product long after they received it.

Further proving the value of tactile marketing through branded swag are the results of ASI’s 2023 Global Ad Impressions Study. Promo products boast a recall rate of 83% and enjoy an average 8-14 month lifespan, compared to digital campaign’s 53% recall rate and 2-5 second lifespan.

The branded swag that you choose matters.

Read up on how generational preferences might influence your promotional marketing decisions in 2026.

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Promotional products only keep a brand top-of-mind when two things happen at the same time: the item stays in circulation, and it reflects sound judgment on the part of the company that chose it.

At TBK Promotions, we balance both variables with the expertise that can only come from spending more than three decades helping clients create tactile marketing strategies that take your name further than it’s even been before.