There were, of course, the pens and coffee mugs emblazoned with company logos that are standard take-home fare for anyone who has attended an industry trade show or conference.

But the more than 300 exhibitors who set up booths at yesterday's New England Promotional Products Association client show at the Royal Plaza Trade Center in Marlborough didn't stop with the signature products. Manufacturers for the $20 billion US industry took it further, offering giveaway golf shoes monogrammed with company logos, $300 attache cases (also with logos), engraved wine glasses, and breath mints, among a numbing array of items.

"We have everyone from a single person working part-time out of their home to companies that have annual sales of more than $100 million," said Stephen Monahan, of Marshfield-based Themco LLC, a distributor of promotional products, and president of the regional trade association. "They're selling everything from 20-cent pens to $400 executive gifts."

But these are not easy times in the promotional-product business. Nationally, manufacturers and distributors have been hit by shrinking marketing budgets brought on by the economic downturn. Also, the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, a drug-industry trade group, has adopted a voluntary ethics code banning gifts to doctors. And in Massachusetts, recently adopted regulations make it mandatory for doctors to report gifts from pharmaceutical companies that are worth more than $50.

"There are some guys who sold exclusively to the pharmaceuticals, and for them the shift is going to be huge," said Steve Hettrick of Lawrence-based Gemline, which sells tote bags, pens, and corporate gifts. "And those guys are going to start looking for business in other industries, which is going to increase competition for everyone."

So far, Hettrick said, Gemline has avoided a significant sales drop but the company has seen customers looking for cheaper products. "They're still ordering the same number of pieces, but instead of going for the $25 tote bag, they're looking for totes in the $2 to $5 range," he said.

Promotional products, unlike other forms of advertising that may get chucked in a recycling bin or clicked past with the remote during a commercial break, stay with the user, Monahan said. Someone might wear a golf shirt several times, and a pen gets used until the ink runs out, he said, and that makes an impression on the user.

Still, companies are being more careful about who gets freebies. Henry Shepard, a sales representative for Geiger, a promotional- products company based in Lewiston, Maine, said companies are now working to make sure their brands get into the right hands - or in the case of the golf shoes, on the right feet.

"In the old days, you might see a pretty girl standing out in front of these booths just handing out products," said Shepard, a 27- year veteran of Geiger. "Now there's more of an effort to get the client in the booth, exchange business cards, and see if there's a connection."

One of the hot items at this year's Marlborough show was a "sticky drive" offered by Prime Resource Corp. of Bridgeport, Conn. The computer drive looks and works much like the USB devices that have been popular trade show handouts in recent years. But in addition to allowing users to store files and transfer them between computers on a keychain-sized disk, sticky drives are embedded with software that will alert the user to updates on a company's website. They have been popular with the clients of Hillary Gallagher, who runs Spry International Inc., a marketing consulting firm in Newton.

"A lot of car companies are using them, and so are a lot of retailers," she said.

The industry has seen its share of fads - stress balls, then different-shaped stress balls, were a big hit earlier in the decade. But the pen remains mighty for those who buy and sell promotional products.

"A lot of people don't realize how important it is, or how effective it can be," Monahan said. "It's cheap, but it's something people use every day and can continue to use for a week, a year, or five years."