For the last 30 years or so business management and other oracles have foretold of a time when all transactions between clients and staff were magically connected without the messy and superfluous paper trail which has long been an essential part of business activity. Whether it be a fear or prosecution, a need for insurance and certainty or simply as a way to featherbed employment opportunities, keeping filing cabinets full of cross-checked paperwork has always been a significant part of business activity. While the predictors of the future had their timing wrong it seems that eventually the trend towards the elimination of physical records of business transactions is here and is now becoming a daily reality for most of us.

Of course in promotional terms a canny marketer should always be on the lookout for developing trends as service to the trends and fashions of the market are a proven way to enhance the visibility and attention paid to a promotional product offering. So if a paperless workplaces are the trend of the moment it makes perfect sense top find a banded item which will enhance the experience of clients and contacts in pursuing this opportunity at a local level. Or maybe, just maybe, while the rest of the world is walking down a track to the same location the clever promotional executive looks for a short-cut to the same destination.

If a paperless office is the objective, maybe a promotional pen would be the right answer, but perhaps not just any promotional pen. How can you demonstrate to your business associates that your organisation is the sort of company they should trust with their budgets? A possible way to do this it to take the expectation of the market, that is for a pen with ink, and add to that so that it becomes a product which not only fulfils the expectations of those who wish to use it to write with. For instance stylus pens combine the traditional values of an ink pen with the advantage of having a soft rubber stylus at the other end which is perfect for texting and typing on smart phones and tablet computers.

Other promotional pen options are available which offer nuanced marketing solutions to the age old problem of visibility and novelty. Take for instance the range of large-scale banner pens. These pens are not only equipped with the essential necessities which have made pens a part of our daily business lives, but also include a huge printable image area which permits the inclusion of a catalogue or large range of messages within the body of the pen.

So even in these days when technologists predict that our world will spin on its axis and that all we know to be true and good today is the opposite tomorrow, there are always options available to those who see below the surface. The pen may have been with us since Egyptian times, and it's not necessarily a desire to write long reams of longhand notes that causes it to remain at the top of the promotional totem pole after many years. The regular reinvention of the promotional pen is all it takes to ensure there is still value in offering to clients an item with a hard edge of practical value.