Jasper Meeks, a printer in Coshocton, Ohio, is advised by many to be the originator of the mob when he convinced a local shoe store to supply book bags imprinted with the store head to local schools. Henry Beach, another Coshochton printer and a competitor of Meeks picked up on the concept and fleetly the two men were selling and printing bags for marbles, buggy whips, card cases, fans, calendars, cloth caps, aprons and even hats for horses.
At one time, the capitalization of promotional products was hampered to accidental give-aways and not as a part of an integrated marketing effort. Today, many more promotional Promotional Products products are distributed by businesses and organizations, sometimes with the assistance of a promotional consultant, to specific bull%27s-eye markets to generate specific and measurable results.