Unless you’ve done a deep dive on my LinkedIn page, you probably wouldn’t know my educational background is actually in psychology. Counseling was a passion of mine for a long time, but an undergraduate degree and a master’s later, I realized it wasn’t the path I wanted to pursue.
Which left me with the obvious question: now what?
A few roles across a few different industries later, I found my way into promotional products. And, as it turns out, a lot of what I learned along the way fits this industry better than I ever expected.
The longer I work in marketing, the more convinced I am that some of the best marketing education has very little to do with marketing. It comes from understanding people: what gets our attention, what influences our decisions, why we connect with certain brands, and what makes something worth buying, keeping, or talking about.
We spend a lot of time keeping up with what’s changing: platforms, algorithms, technology, products, trends. And we should. But underneath all of it, we’re still trying to reach people, and maybe we should spend just as much time studying them.
Knowing What’s Trending Isn’t the Same as Knowing What People Want
We’re really good at products in this industry. We know what’s new, which drinkware everyone wants, what apparel silhouettes are having a moment, and what we can somehow get delivered by Friday. But knowing what’s available and understanding why someone would want it are two very different skills.
Think about how often a client conversation starts with, “I need 500 of these.” Naturally, we jump to budget, quantity, timeline, and shipping. All important. But sometimes the better question is simply: why?
Maybe they don’t need 500 tumblers. They need 500 people to visit their booth. Maybe they need employees to participate in a program, new hires to feel like they belong, or customers to remember them three months from now. Maybe their marketing team just needs someone else to handle the boxes, inventory, and logistics.
The product is what they asked for. Understanding the problem behind it is where we can bring more value.
The better we understand our clients, their businesses, their goals, their pressures, and their audiences, the easier it is to uncover that problem. That’s also why relationships matter so much in this industry. Knowing enough to ask a better question can be far more valuable than immediately having an answer.
We’re Selling to People Who Are Marketing to People
There’s another layer to promo: the person buying the product usually isn’t the person we need to influence with it.
The buyer is thinking about budget, deadlines, brand standards, and objectives. The recipient is basically thinking: Do I actually want this?
A successful program has to work for both.
Human behavior plays a bigger role here than we sometimes realize. Choice can make a gift feel more personal. Limited editions can create demand. Something we customize ourselves can feel more valuable than something simply handed to us. It’s why people line up for product drops and proudly wear one brand while another branded shirt never makes it out of the drawer.
The product matters, but so does everything around it: how someone discovers it, how they receive it, whether they get to choose it, customize it, or earn it. Even the packaging can completely change how valuable something feels.
Those may look like product decisions, but they’re really people decisions.
Get Outside the Promo Bubble
One of my favorite ways to become a better marketer is simply to pay attention.
What are people buying, wearing, sharing, and collecting? What are they willing to wait in line for? Which brands are they talking about without being asked? And why?
Some of our best inspiration comes from outside our own industry. Retail, hospitality, fashion, sports, entertainment, and the consumer brands people genuinely love all give us plenty to study.
Nobody thinks of themselves as a “promotional product recipient.” They’re consumers. Their expectations are being shaped by the concert merch they had to have, the hotel welcome gift that surprised them, the collaboration that sold out, or the package they immediately wanted to share.
We don’t need to copy those experiences. We need to understand why they worked. If we only study promo, we’re going to keep creating things that look and feel like promo.
Curiosity Might Be the Differentiator
That feels especially important right now. Products have never been easier to find. Buyers can search thousands of options themselves, and AI can generate ideas, build presentations, and speed up creative work in seconds.
Access isn’t the differentiator it once was. Understanding is.
And in an industry built on relationships, understanding people may be one of the most valuable things we bring to the table.
Technology can help us move faster, but it can’t replace knowing a client well enough to understand the pressure they’re under, remember what worked last year, anticipate what they might need next, or recognize when the best solution isn’t actually another product. That comes from paying attention, listening, asking another question and being genuinely curious about the people and businesses we work with.
At its best, promotional marketing isn’t about finding more things to put logos on. It’s about creating something people actually want to engage with, keep, and remember.
Products will change. Technology will change. Trends will definitely change.
People are the constant.
And maybe… that psychology degree is paying off after all.
Stephanie Hinkle is the Director of Marketing & Vendor Partnerships at MadeToOrder (MTO), with nearly a decade of experience in the promotional products industry. She was named a 2025 PPAI Rising Star and has been recognized among PPAI’s Online18 and as a two-time Powerhouse Woman of Promo. Stephanie regularly shares her perspective on marketing, branding and promo as a speaker, podcast guest and industry contributor, and also serves on the board of Co-Creative Exchange (CCX) and as a mentor through PromoKitchen.