Sales of branded memory sticks continue to surge as more and more companies look to use them to promote their brand, their products or to use as a give away at conferences and exhibitions. Branded Memory sticks make great vehicles for brand promotion and brand development and the fact that you can pre-load them with tons of sales material (PDF brochures, videos, and presentations) helps justify their cost.

After all if you can load all of your sales material onto a memory stick you can offset your print and transportation cost(s) and these can be significant if you are, for example, exhibiting or running conferences overseas.

When you’re buying branded memory sticks there are a couple of size related issues to consider to make sure that you get a product that delivers for you particular activity or event:

1. Physical size: As in life not all USB memory sticks are born equal when it comes to size. A couple of years ago most memory sticks were pretty large with the average memory stick being around 7-9cm long and 2-3cm wide.These were (and still are) great if you need plenty of space to print you logo or message on but with the miniaturization of the core flash memory component there has been a comparative reduction in the size of the case or shell that the flash memory fits into. As a consequence the more popular memory sticks used for branding today tend to be the smaller models and styles. For example the ever-popular Twister (Swivel) Memory stick is 5cm long x 1.7cm wide and the new generation of “baby” twisters are a tiny 3cm X 1.5cm.Bearing in mind that the USB connector on the end of the branded memory stick is just over 1cm wide they can’t go much smaller and too small leaves little room to print you logo on!So, when choosing a memory stick consider carefully how your logo will look on it, don’t choose a model that’s too big and cumbersome and looks dated and bear in mind the bigger/older models can obscure other USB ports around them which then means you may need to consider supplying them with a USB cable. Similarly whilst the small, baby style of USB sticks look cute many of them are simply hopeless at carrying a brand and strap line and they are very easy to lose.
2. Memory size: The most popular choice for memory size at the moment is 1GB (this will store 250 music tracks, 1,000 pictures or tens of thousands of documents). A couple of years ago is was 128MB and if pricing trends over the last couple of months carry forward into 2010 then 2GB prices will be on a par with 1GB.The key to choosing the right memory size is make sure the user has enough space on the flash drive (after you have loaded any data yourself) to use for themselves. You don’t just want the memory stick to be plugged into a PC, any pre-loaded data taken off or viewed and then discarded. To get positive brand association and exposure you want the user to carry and use the memory stick and ideally use if for as long as possible. So, choose the most memory you can afford within your budget. If in any doubt talk through the options with your supplier.

When it comes buying branded memory sticks size is important so take your time and get it right.