Promotional items are widely appreciated and often requested because they refer to all ages and affect all five senses. The usage of these items is becoming more and more popular because they are targeted to specific markets.

Promotional items include logo-branded goods like: premiums, incentives, advertising specialties, business gifts, awards and commemoratives, pens, badges, bumper stickers, keychains, caps.

Promotional items today are used everywhere: in politics to promote candidates, by schools and other organizations as a part of fund raising and awareness-raising campaigns. A positive example was the livestrong wristband, used to promote cancer awareness and raise funds to support cancer survivorship programs and research.

These items are sometimes referred to by the slang terms "swag" and "tchotchke". These phrases grew from the random use of promotional products not as a part of an integrated marketing effort. Today, many more promotional products are distributed by businesses and organizations, often with the help of a Promotional Consultant, to generate specific and measurable results.