The Joy of (Promotional) Cooking

Kitchens. One room, so much stuff. Blenders, spoons, frosting knives, pickle forks, frosting forks, mixing bowls, cake-traps, pizza-houses, beer steins, beer traps, poodle-shaped dish sponges, hand towels, that thing you put butter in when a girl is coming over and might look in your fridge, wine openers, bottle openers, plates (both with and without classy leaf patterns), olive carousels, carousel olives, etc. The list could continue indefinitely, which is fine if you're a cooking or olive-carousel enthusiast. If you've got to pick one or two good products for a kitchen promotion though? Much less so.

Do yourself a favor. Refrain from browsing the sprawling infinity that is all the possible kitchen items out there. Instead, let us give you a solid starting point and get your creativity flowing with a short list of some of the best kitchen products out there.

COOKING UTENSILS
What Makes Them Good: High visibility, functionality and user appreciation. "Right now, there's more cooking being done at home," said Steven Meyer, MAS, vice president of sales for Molenaar LLC, Willmar, Minn. "People don't want to waste their money, so items in the kitchen that are useful and functional are even more important now than a couple years ago when we all went out to eat."

A Recipe for Success: "The Five-in-one Spoon was used in a bank throughout several branch locations," said Meyer. "The bank bought the 5-in-1 spoon and put two of our measuring spoons together, so you had every kind of amount up from a quarter teaspoon to a tablespoon in this set of two. The imprint was 'banking beyond measure,' and it was kind of a rebranding of these retail branch locations that were located in grocery stores," he explained. "So it tied in very well to the geography of the land, so to speak, where [the customers] were, and of course to the bank. I believe over 30,000 sets were handed out over a weekend through half-a-dozen locations, so it was pretty successful in getting their rebranding out."