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Archive for the ‘promotional flash drives’ Category

USB Flash Drive Prices Rise by around 15%

Monday, February 25th, 2013

Sterling has been on the slide for the last couple of weeks and reached a 31-month low against the dollar on Friday. This was before the announcement by Moody’s of it downgrade of the UK from the much coveted AAA rating. Today sterling has continued its slide and it’s a brave man that would predict where things are likely to end up by the end this week.

Whilst a weakened sterling is good news for exports its really bad news for imports. Given all USB flash drives are manufactured in China and traded (paid for) in US dollars it’s particularly bad news for any business or educational body looking to buy printed or engraved USB memory sticks right now.

What makes things worse is that the factories in China that manufacture USB flash drives are just returning from a 2 week Chinese New Year Holiday. This long break creates a build-up in demand which in turn drives up prices. This annual “spike” in demand always drives up prices until things settle down again but this year there is the spectre of a “double whammy” of rising prices and falling currency values – combined the net effect is broadly a 15% increase in USB flash drive prices.

The Chinese New Year effect usually lasts around 4 -6 weeks before prices begin to come down again but an 8% fall in the value of the £ against the $ is unlikely to mean prices will return to where they were just a couple of weeks ago.

If you need to buy your promotional USB flash drives now or in at any time during the next few weeks then brace yourself for higher prices. If you can delay your purchase for even a couple of weeks it’s probably worth doing so.

USB Flash Drive Prices Rise on Back of AAA Rating Downgrade

USB Flash Drive Prices Rise on Back of AAA Rating Downgrade

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USB Flash Drive Prices Rise by around 15%

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Leather adds a touch of class to any Promotional USB Flash Drives

Monday, August 20th, 2012

With so many different types and styles of promotional USB flash drives to choose from it can be intimidating trying to narrow the choice down to just one USB drive that reflects your brand or image.

If you’re after something that has a quality feel and will be something different from the general USB drives that are available in the high street or those that can be picked up from on-line retailers then you might want to consider a leather flash drive. After all, what’s the point of going to the trouble of arranging for your own drives if they end up looking like something you could have picked up in Staples or PC World!

USB2U have several options available and everything about them is top notch – the internal memory and controller chips are all branded and Grade A (and come with a 5 year warranty), the leather is top grade and the clasps and outer shells are made from highly polished stainless steel. The resulting leather flash drives look stunning and although there are a range of standard colours (black, brown and white) the leather can be supplied in pretty much any colour you want albeit there is a small additional charge for pantone matching.

Leather USB Flash Drives

Leather USB Flash Drives

To really top off the look you could your leather USB sticks supplied in some smart looking gift boxes or presentation tins. These come with custom cut foam inserts and the tins or boxes can optionally be printed or engraved.  Providing the boxes or tins are ordered with the USB sticks they don’t cost the earth and you end up with a really classy looking solution.

 

Pantone Matched Leather USB Drives

Pantone Matched Leather USB Drives

Promotional leather USB drives can be printed, embossed or engraved. Some people prefer engraving because anything engraved into the leather will last a lifetime but the finish cab be too subtle for some who opt instead for printing. Whilst printing is not as resilient as engraving the ink does impregnate the leather so it’s still going to be pretty robust.

Black and White Leather USB Flash Drives

Black and White Leather USB Flash Drives

Whichever leather model you choose and however you get your logo put on them you can be assured that you’re going to end up with a high quality product that will support any use you put them to.

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Leather adds a touch of class to any Promotional USB Flash Drives

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Should You Data Load Your Promotional USB Flash Drives

Friday, May 27th, 2011

USB flash drives do an excellent job of promoting a company’s brand, generating brand loyalty and brand recall but you can get much more “bang for your buck” if you pre-load them with data files.

The fundamental function of a USB flash drive is, after all, to store and transport data so it make sense when handing out any promotional USB flash drives to make sure your own data files are pre-loaded onto the USB sticks

USB Data Loading Service

USB Data Loading Service

The type of files you can load onto a USB flash drive can be anything you would normally save onto your PC so the obvious candidates are PowerPoint presentations, PDF’s, Word Documents, media files (video and audio clips) and links to your web site. Pretty much anything that informs prospective customers about your company, your products and the services you offer are ideal.

Pre-loading data files will mean you have to factor this step into your project plan. Data loading can be done during the manufacture of your USB sticks or just prior to delivery so you don’t have to have your finalised files ready when placing your order.

The best option (if you can get organised in time) is to supply the data you want loading so it can be added as your drives are manufactured. This way the data loading is typically free or it’s charged for at a negligible rate (charges depend on the size of the data files to be loaded).

If you want the data pre-loaded a little later in the order cycle, i.e. just before delivery, then be prepared to pay a little more for it because it’s a much more manual process and will typically involve more expensive UK labour.

Given the relatively small incremental cost for data loading you’d be daft not to do it because the more information you can put on the drive about your company, your products or your announcements the less you have to print and the less transportation costs you’ll have for any printed material. So, not only will you save a small fortune on printed material but you’ll make life easier for anyone you’re giving the USB flash drives to because they won’t have to carry around huge sales brochures, presentation files and notes.

If you take advantage of data loading offers it’s possible to build a cost benefit case that shows you can offset all of the costs of buying promotional USB flash drives by pre-loading them with data and reducing your print, storage and transport costs.

At USB2U we are seeing a significant increase in the number of customers now asking for data loading onto their USB flash drives. Fortunately we’re well geared up to handle these requests in our factory during production or at our secure offices/warehouse in Northampton where we have our own professional data loading machines which are capable of handling up to 2,000 USB flash drives an hour.

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Beware Cheap Promotional USB Flash Drives

Thursday, April 21st, 2011

If you’re in the market for some promotional USB flash drives then you’re likely to be shopping around and getting a few quotes from the numerous suppliers of flash drives that have sprung up over the last year or so.

Getting a few quotes for comparison purposes is exactly the right thing to do but the big challenge is how do you know when you get the prices back that you are really comparing “apples to apples”. On the face of you’d expect a 1GB USB flash drive from one supplier to be the same as a 1GB flash drive from another supplier but actually nothing could be further from the truth.

Within the promotional flash drive market the memory sticks supplied come in a wide range of grades and standards and unless you know what to ask for you could find that one supplier is quoting for USB flash drives that use top quality Grade A original flash whilst another (likely to be significantly cheaper) is quoting for USB flash drives that use Grade D cheap and cheerful “masked” or fake flash chips.

Of course when the printed and boxed USB flash drives arrive it’s incredibly difficult to tell whether the flash drives have been produced with Grade A or Grade D flash chips – they might look fantastic, the print job could be excellent and the packing might be exactly as you specified but how do you tell if you’ve been duped and supplied with inferior goods.

Ideally the time to deal with these questions is at the start of the procurement process by spelling out to the suppliers you approach exactly what you expect from your USB flash drives. If you need a high performance product that uses named original flash drive memory chips from companies like Samsung, Hynix or Micro then you need to specify this.

If you simply ask for a price for say 100 X 1GB USB flash drives then you leave it up to your supplier to interpret what standard of flash you either need or they can get away with quoting you for!

If you do end up with USB flash drives built around Grade D flash chips and cheap flash controllers then you can expect the following:

  • The flash drives are highly unlikely to have the amount of storage on them that you have purchased. In other words they will be something like a 512MB made to look like they are 1GB (masked) – when you insert them into the PC and check the “properties” of the flash drive they will appear as 1GB disks but if you try and load over 512MB onto the sticks and then take them out and re-insert them, then anything over say 500MB won’t appear.
  • The read/write speeds will be very slow which may be a problem if you are loading large amounts of data onto the drives before you hand them out to your customers.
  • The expected life (the number of read/write cycles) of the flash drives will be poor and the failure rate will be high.
  • The customer experience using them will be disappointing, they may not work, if they do work they will be slow and they won’t have the amount of space of the drive that they were expecting – not the sort of experience you want to associate with your brand.

So, when deciding whom to place your order for promotional USB flash drives with don’t just be lead price unless you do so in the full knowledge of the possible consequences. Ideally choose a company that has an establish pedigree and can point to lots of repeat business and will offer guarantees and warranties on their products that have some meaningful recourse.

Buying on price and price alone is an easy option but to do so is to ignore the complexities and risks of what should, on the face of it, be a simple and safe transaction.

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Beware Cheap Promotional USB Flash Drives

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What Do You Give An Executive That Has Everything

Tuesday, December 7th, 2010

It’s that perennial challenge. You want to send out some gifts to your executive staff or high net worth clients but the gift has got to ooze quality and style without costing a fortune. Not only that but the gift has got to be appropriate and relevant and worthy of adding your brand to – no small challenge then!

Old favourites like fine wines; champagnes and cigars are now considered by many too “risky” to give in today’s politically correct world – no matter how popular they might be with many! The risks of upsetting the health lobby, the anti-smoking lobby, or those who can’t or won’t partake of such things on religious or health grounds pretty much rule them out today.

Executive USB Writing Pens

Executive USB Writing Pens

As boring as it might seem it is much better to stick to simple executive gift ideas like watches, leather wallets, desk organisers or writing pens. If you are looking for a new twist on the writing pen you might consider an executive USB writing pen.

USB writing pens add a “tech” twist to a classic gift and combine the merits of a good, stylish USB memory stick with the well established virtues of a classic writing pen. The USB pens are only marginally larger than a standard pen (the size being dictated to some degree by the USB connector that is hidden in the barrel of the pen), they work just like any standard USB memory stick and are available in a range of memory sizes starting from 1GB and going all the way up to 16GB.

USB Writing Pens

USB Writing Pens

The “writing part” of the pen can be a standard biro (using standard biro refills) or a fountain pen and of course the USB writing pen can be printed or engraved with a personal greeting or your brand/logo.

Just like any quality writing instrument these USB pens are available in top quality gift boxes that will add a personal touch to the gift. Where USB writing pens score highly as a gift is the ability to pre-load onto the flash memory stick information about your company; media files, sales brochures, stock reports, links to web sites etc.

USB writing pens meet all of the criteria of an “executive gift” but because you can pre-load data onto them in a way in which you can with no other gift they ought to be at the top of any executive gift shopping list!

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Top 10 Tips For Buying Promotional Flash Drives

Tuesday, June 1st, 2010

The growth in the use of USB flash drives, memory sticks, thumb drives, pen drives (call them what you will) by the promotional sector continues unabated. Its no surprise really when you consider just how well printed or branded flash drives look, the fact that you can avoid costly print costs by pre-loading electronic copies of your sales material on the drives and the benefit the recipient gets by being able to use the flash drive to store their own documents on.

When looking to buy promotional flash drives there are a few things to look out for:

1. Make sure you choose the right style of flash drive: There are lots and lots of different standard designs of

Promotional Flash Drives

Promotional Flash Drives

flash drives on the market with the twister flash drive as the most popular but this is not right for everyone because its relatively small and as a result complex or large logo’s don’t work well on it. To help you choose ask you supplier to work up various examples with your logo and ask them to send you samples of the short list if you have time. Most companies will do this free of charge. Material, shape and colour options are the fundamentals to consider.

2. Choose the right memory capacity: There is a balance between choosing flash memory capacity based on your budget versus a higher level of memory that makes the flash drive more appealing to the recipient. As you’d expect the smaller the memory capacity the cheaper the price of the flash drive. But, if you’re looking to pre-load and “lock” your company data onto the flash drives it’s important to make sure that there is sufficient space, not only for this data but also to ensure the drive is of value to the user. Its all about balance – there’s no point paying for memory that you don’t need for your own data but you want people to use the flash drives and promote your product or company effectively.

3. Choose the right logo to print onto the flash drive: If your company logo is complex, contains graduated colours and/or tints then it might not be suitable. Remember the space you are printing onto is relatively small and the printing options on some memory sticks are limited. Its not unusual for complex logo’s to be simplified before being printed onto a memory stick

Promotional Flash Drives

Promotional Flash Drives

4. Choose the right printing option: Typically flash drives are “spot printed” but they can also be laser engraved or embossed. Another option that’s growing in popularity is to use “Dome Stickers” – these top quality stickers enable complex logo’s to be printed and protected under a layer of resin and are ideal for logo’s with tints or graduated colours

5. Have your artwork available in the right format: If you want your printed flash drives to look good then its essential that you provide your artwork in the highest resolution in a format that does not compress the image data, e.g. Jpeg. Ideally you should supply your artwork in EPS or AI format.

6. Choose the right packaging: For many the right packaging option is no packaging but before you discount packaging on ethical or ecological grounds remember that promotional flash drives in gift boxes do look better and more professional. You don’t have to opt for a top end tin presentation box with foam inserts because printed cardboard boxes (manufactured from recycled cardboard) work just as well.

7. Choose the right accessories: Key rings, carabineers and lanyards are a great option to add value to your branded memory sticks by making it more functional and easier to carry.  The lanyard or carabineers can also be branded to increase your brand exposure.

8. Be clear on your timeframes: Its critical that you allow enough time when ordered printed flash drives. Whilst many companies will offer a “rush” service you will typically pay more for this and reduce your design options. The majority of flash drives are manufactured in the Far East and as such you need to allow around 10 days from approval of the proof to the delivery of your final product.

9. Cheapest isn’t always the right option: There are certain factors to be consider when comparing prices for

Promotional Flash Drives

Promotional Flash Drives

branded USB flash drives. Make sure the prices you are being quoted are for new Grade A chips and not re-cycled or Grade B chips that have a much great failure rate, Secondly make sure all of the cost quoted is fully inclusive, e.g. does it include; print set up, print origination, pantone matching, data-loading, accessories delivery and finally what are the payment terms.

10. Select a Company with a proven track record: It’s incredibly important that you choose a reputable company that has an established reputation in the marketplace. There are far too many people trying to make a ‘quick buck’ from unsuspecting customers so don’t be afraid to ask for testimonials from companies they have supplied to. Pre and post sales support from designated account managers will help to ensure that whole process runs smoothly and you are provided with the correct information from the outset. Remember that guarantees on products are worthless if the company is not around to honour them.

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