Hey all,
Does anyone hear know about Pharmacuetical Promotional Products? The kind of products designed as give-aways for pharma reps that gives them to doctors offices and exam rooms such as clocks, clips, chartholders,scales, calculators,etc. What do you think about it? Not a dream job like working for a consultancy; just curious to hear your thoughts.
ya
I guess nobody has heard about it!!!
Google “promotional products” – you’ll find a million.
People also call them “chochkies.”
“chochkies” are usually designed already and companies buy them, put their logos on them and such like ASI products.
Pharmacuetical Promotional Products isn’t really like that although some of those companies will purchase ASI stuff. It is more like taking a logo and designing a product so that it is similar in design to the emblem. It is a couple of levels up from chochkies because they are custom.
those i’ve seen were rather in the “chochkies.” category.
probably depends on the budget…
i think i’ve seen once a pen that was in the shape of syringe,
really looked like a syringe from 3-4 meters.
minhloc-
Do you know the drug name on the pen? Can you reply with a link?
schwag. again, tons of companies out there that take your logo and make into X (clock, pen, doorstopper, paperweight, etc.).
Not much real design here…what kind of info where you looking for? most stuff is normally pretty useless and generic. Perhaps specific to an industry (like pharma), but likely stuff like the pen you saw is available for any company to stick a logo on, not custom made.
R
that was a few years ago…
i dont remember the company it was made for.
but it was realistic, i think they managed to fit a pen system into
a real syringe design. that would be custom, but not too expensive as the
syringe body was in production anyway.
just found a good link
not what i remember, it is really a pen shaped like a syringe.
i guess it is the liquid inside which makes you think you are seeing
a real syringe…
http://giftshop.nmfh.org/shared/images/products/large/Syringepen.JPG
and an “in-context” photo:
http://shop.advanceweb.com/ProductInfo.aspx?productid=2573
that’s a cool pen minhloc.
I disagree rkuchinsky. Go to Pharmadesign.com and see how they won ID magazine awards for thier designs. What do you refer to as “real design”?
Curious to know!
I checked out the pharmadesign.com site. That stuff looks like medical equipment not promotional products. The medical devices are of course real design…I was referring more to the promo stuff like pens, clocks, etc. you originally mentioned that is just cheap logoed stuff with no real design…
R
YAYO, obviously you are biased tword the industry you are playing in, however I have played in it as well. I would have to agree that most of the 1.2 billion spent on this catagory is on chochkies. With the vast majority of the products are stock peices coming from HongKong Direct, or Alexander, or any of the other asia based manufactures.
The reason that the Pharmadesign won the award is that they designed a product first. It might have been always intended to have the ability to be a promotional peice, but it unlike 99.9% of the rest of the products filled a potential need.
a stethescope and hammer i wouldnt really consider a promotional item. sure you can stick a logo on it, but thats like calling an ipod with a company logo printed on it a promotional product…more a by-product use i think.
the pen example, i wouldnt expect to get any ID mag awards anytime soon
R
A company like Pharma Design does both medically relevant products of all
kinds such as equipement and chochkies. If your company is involved with selling to Pharma companies, chances are you will do all types of products. I work for a company that does this and I have done all types of marketing and design. If your client would throw you 100k in designing equipment or 50K puting a logo on a pen you would do it.
ML-You don’t know what your talking about. The company I work for does mostly custom design than ASI. If 1.2 billion spent on this catagory is on chochkies then my company must get the cream of the custom jobs while others get the ASI junk!!!
I wanted to know if there are members on Core77 that know and does this type of work and what are thier thoughts. I was curious to know the perception. Obviously from you two it is a bad and an inaccurate one!
Nope, have worked almost exclisively in for Pharma clients over the last 4 yrs, never once been asked to do a promotional or marketing item. But then never been asked to do a project for less than 100K. Strickly the core products and delivery systems. Personally if you are working for a ligitimate design consultancy and your clients are asking you to do primaraly their free giveaway items, while they give me their 6-12 month contracts then you should re-evaluate the role and importance you play in they eyes.
Previous employer was on retainer with 2 main trinkets and trash companies; one traditional items (pens, rulers, keychains, etc.) the other more specialized custom items to assist in development of new…cough…innovative concepts within the pharma and general promotional give away catagory. Yes the Pharma promotional catagory is $1.2 billion dollar a year internationally, with 90% being items that wholesale for $2.00 or less imprinted in quantities of 1000. If you are truely getting strickly custom work that addresses a real need then kudos to you. However, the vast majority of this product is mearly landfill.
Nope, have worked almost exclisively in for Pharma clients over the last 4 yrs, never once been asked to do a promotional or marketing item. But then never been asked to do a project for less than 100K. Strickly the core products and delivery systems. Personally if you are working for a ligitimate design consultancy and your clients are asking you to do primaraly their free giveaway items, while they give me their 6-12 month contracts then you should re-evaluate the role and importance you play in they eyes.
Sounds like you have a decent job there; good for you. If you made less than 100k for 6-12 months, I would think you need to go back to the drawing board on finances instead of doodling for weeks on a piece of equipment! Anybody would see that we are important considering the fact that we have a 25+ year relationship with the countries top drug manufacturer. Kind of makes a 6-12 month contract sound like an after school job doesn’t it? I’ve been at my job for 4 years which is about the same as your company “have worked almost exclisively in for Pharma clients”; I think I would be more knowlegable about the subject. I would rather stay with this type of company for security than with a “ligitimate design consultancy” that has a revolving door that spins fast enough to provide air conditioning. Ever heard of eco-design?
YAYO,
You seem to have a serious attitude problems. We seem to only get posts from you that are either about haw much you hate you job and your boss picks on you to you blasting people that probably have a hell of a lot more experiance than you. Have you ever thought that you might be having problems at work because you don’t want to listen to others. I agree that most of these products are “trinkets” and end up in a land fill. I know this be cause I have been to medical conventions and I have seen the stuff they hand out. But then agian I am a package designer everything I design eventually gets thrown away.
All I’m trying to say is relax.
Package ID,
Read the thread and see who has more experiance. Going to a medical convention doesn’t give you any real insight this industry and I am not trying to put you down. I will relax, but some of the others shouldn’t generalize,make broad statements,give false statistics, and only be interested in contributing negative and inaccuate comments for sh*ts & giggles. I may not have the best job, my boss might be a prick to me and others, but at the end of the day it is all about writing that check to WellsFargo at the end of every month. Maybe this topic caused me to see that where I work its not that bad.
have a nive day.
Kind of makes a 6-12 month contract sound like an after school job doesn’t it?
Not when I have 3-4 at any given time, and I ussually kick off the next within a week of the finish of another. Multiply this by the 4 main pharma manufactuers that I work with, as well as the medical equipment manufactures and it is far from an afterschool job. Especially since we have a 20 yr relationship with 2 main pharma companies, with multiple red dot, dupont, IDEA, and Appliance (medical catagory) awards throughout the years.
Delivery systems, yes landfill as they are poredominently single use… medical/surgical devices, and capital medical equipment…not landfill for many many years!!!
You resurrect yet again!
A very moving piece. Lets Keep working hard.