Business gifts used to foster customer goodwill and retention are the most hackneyed use for promotional items at 18.5%. Other objectives that marketers exercise promotional development to facilitate include tradeshow traffic-building, brand awareness, public Promotional Stress Balls relations, employee relations and events, dealer and distributor programs, new customer generation, not-for-profit programs, employee service awards, new brand introductions, internal incentive programs, safety education, customer referrals and marketing research.

Promotional ego goods are also passed down in politics to promote candidates and causes. Promotional items as a tool for non-commercial organizations, such as schools and charities are often accustomed as a part of fund raising and awareness-raising campaigns. A prominent example was the livestrong wristband, familiar with to promote cancer awareness and raise funds to groundwork cancer survivorship programs and research.