Having my undergraduate degree in marketing I can tell you that the point of giving a pen with your company name on it is not so they pick it up and look at it when they need an appraiser. It is purely to give them a sense of obligation to you. When you give a person a gift, no matter how small, their natural inclination is to give back to you, and to keep giving...
Don't know why it works, but it does.
I understand the point you are making. In the realm of psychology I'm sure it is correct. But, I believe the "belief" is wrong. When someone gives me a pen I don't feel obligated to them. A $1.00 pen doesn't have any value to me. Come on. Lets be realistic. I don't even remember who they are. How can I feel obligated to them if I can't even remember them. I've got dozens of pens with businesses embossed on them. When I need something I don't look through my pens in order to remember who I subconsciously feel obligated to give my business to first. I open up the phone book. I surf the web. I call friends.
If I were the only person to ever give you a pen. You might remember who I am. When everyone and their mother's are giving you pens are you going to remember who I am? No. I'd have to give you a Rolex to stand out and have you remember me. Everyone "knows" the cheap gimmicks works. Unfortunately, it saturates any intelligent person's psyche. The gimmicks become background static in the realm of advertisement. And therefore don't work when your pen is put in a pen holder overflowing with obligatory pens.
Wait, wait, I just remembered. There was this one pen someone gave me once. It was really fancy looking. It looked like they spent a good bit of money on it. I definitely remembered them because it was a really nice pen, at least a $5.00 pen. It stood out amongst the forest of pens in my pen holder and I knew who gave it to me and what service they offered. I mean, this pen even felt like quality. It just felt good to hold. It impressed itself upon my psyche and through it I was impressed with the company that gave it to me. It was a pen that twisted to expose the tip. I thought to myself, "Man, that is classy. Better than the pens that click or the ones with a cap". This was a really a sophisticated pen. I showed my boss. I said, "Bossman, look at this pen. We should get pens like this to give to our clients to impress upon them our name. It is the sheeznit". My boss took the pen and said to me "Yeah, this is really nice. I bet they spent a fortune on these". It even had a nice feel as I wrote across the paper. Not the cheap ballpoint feel, but something close to the more expensive reservoir pens with that classic old fashioned tip. And because of the way it glided across the paper it even made my handwriting look classy. Again I thought to myself, "Man, I love this pen!!". So, I took it with me on an assignment so I could look sophisticated in the presence of the homeowner as I twisted the pen and commenced writing. I rang the doorbell with my right hang, my clipboard in my left. The homeowner opened the door, I introduced myself proudly knowing any second I would have cause to pull out the pen and use it triumphantly, "Hi, I'm C W D. I'm the property appraiser.". The home owner said "Hi, I'm Candice. I think your pen is leaking!". I looked down at my shirt pocket and a huge black blob had spread across my shirt. "GD, MFin pen. And GD the MFin company you came from! I hate you pen!". And from that moment on I vowed never to do business with that company ever!
Just sayin.......
