Who was the target audience for promotional items?

[peggyrothschild]

I’d emailed David Huelsing yesterday on a period Mopac Railway advertising mirror and the question came up on who received these. Given the thousands of passengers handled by the railroad I don’t think this was the intended audience due to costs. The general public was already targeted with timetables or small flyers and framed pictures hanging in the depots and hotels. Ink blotters were probably a normally stocked item on the passenger trains.

So I assume the early MP/IM mirrors, worlds fair buttons, the various Sunshine Special mother of pearl pens, bottle openers, etc were intended for the medium to larger freight customers. As to the perpetual calendars I saw these hanging in depots, government offices and shippers offices. When I worked for the Mopac the large wall and desk calendars went to shippers and railroad offices, pen and pencil sets, Mopac cheese knives and coin sets only went to rail customers not the employees.

Perhaps too some of the intended recipients in the passenger era were travel agents to reinforce booking their clients trips via the Mopac.

Appreciate others thoughts on this subject.

[merlina]

Know this is not the MoP, but on the Frisco in the mid- to late ’70s, sales promotional items (Cross pen and pencil sets, desk sets with scissors and letter openers, playing cards, book matches and so on) were for customers only. Safety promotional items (caps, jackets, key chains and such) went to Operating Department (Transportation, Mechanical, Engineering) employees.

Pat Hiatte

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