Although popular the Quill had a habit of wearing out quickly and needed constant re-working so it was no doubt a relief to all concerned when in the early 19^th century the first metal writing tips were introduced. These were manufactured from sheet metal, they had holes punched into them to help retain/store ink, they were cheap and they guaranteed a uniformity of shape that could not be matched by Quills. Although the metal tips addressed several shortcomings in the Quill pen it was still necessary to travel with a separate supply of ink. This issue was ultimately addressed in 1884 by Lewis Waterman who invented the first proper fountain pen with its own integral ink supply.

USB Pen

Waterman’s invention was an instant hit and spawned many competitors many of whom are still household names today; Sheaffer, Parker and Montblanc to name but a few. But, fountain pens were relatively expensive and still a little fussy and messy to use so the market was left open for a Hungarian journalist named Ladislo Biro who in 1930’s introduced what we today know and call “the biro”

The biro revolutionised the writing instrument market because it was easy to use, inexpensive, and disposable! It needed no separate ink well or ink store and rather than refilling it when it was empty its low cost meant you simply threw it away and purchased a new one. Today hundreds on millions of biros are purchased every year and every person in the western world will use one.

USB Pens

So where next for the ubiquitous pen? Well, one new development is the combination of the biro with digital storage. The USB Pen is a standard biro with a USB flash stick built into the body of the pen. The barrel of the body discretely hides the USB connector and the USB flash memory giving the user not only the ability to write with the pen but store thousands of documents on the integral flash memory.

Available in a range of styles and colours these USB pens make excellent gifts for busy executives or fabulous promotional products for companies targeting high net worth clients.

It’s far to say that the humble pen has certainly seen significant development over the centuries and despite the growing dominance of electronic gadgets, mobile phones, PDA. Laptops etc. it looks like its going to be with us for many years to come.

The simple act of printing your logo or brand on a USB memory stick will create a fantastic promotional tool that will well received by anyone its given to. It will help develop and promote your brand and because USB memory sticks are used your brand will stay in the mind of the recipient.

But if you give-away Promotional USB sticks without preloading data onto them you might be missing a trick. Lets face it the memory sticks are fundamentally designed to store and carry data so you might as well use some of the memory you are paying for you load up your catalogues, power point presentations, flash presentation or a pop-up link to your company website(s)

Preloading data can be time consuming but if you’ve got your data ready when you place your order we can get the data loaded for you during the manufacturing process. Even if your data is not ready until closer to the delivery data we are still able to offer a competitive post-manufacture data loading service. You just supply us the data and we’ll take care of the rest.

There are several options to consider when it comes to data loading:

Standard Preload – A standard pre-load just is where we copy your data/files onto your promotional USB drives. Users can access the content at will but they can also delete the files if they don’t want them.

Pros: The data is not intrusive meaning the memory stick is more likely to be used leading to a higher retention value and thus more exposure of your logo/brand.

Cons: The user can easily delete any preloaded files.

Non-Erasable content

In some circumstance it might be appropriate to ensure that data loaded onto your USB memory sticks cannot be removed/deleted. Providing the data is supplied and loaded by us during the manufacturing process then this is not a problem.

During manufacture the memory on the USB Sticks will be “split” (partitioned) into two parts. Onto one section the protected data is loaded leaving the other section blank and available to the user to store/delete their own data.

Pros: Your data/files are always there and available to the user ensuring continuous and on-going exposure and data retention.

Cons: Users cannot delete data from the protected area of the disk to free up extra space. You also have to have the data ready when placing the order because its only possible to protect the data and partition the memory stick during the manufacturing process.

Non-Erasable Autorun

Autorun files do as they suggest – as soon as the USB memory stick is used it will launch a presentation or application. Typical examples would be a flash presentation, a browser with a dynamic link to your website or any other type of executable file that can be autorun in Windows. The autorun files cannot be deleted and as such they are not particularly popular with the recipients because they do become annoying after a while.

Pros: They’re a great way to get information about your company, your products and your brand “in the face” of the user.

Cons: Typically deemed as intrusive, a little annoying and as such retention value is impacted. They also sometime won’t work on older PC’s with Windows 98 or some networked PC’s.

If you’re not sure whether preloading files would be right for you or which type of preloading would be appropriate for your branded USB memory sticks then give us a call and we’ll talk you through the options in more detail.

It may be that the promotional USB sticks are required to contain information and content about the company but this is no problem at all as content is able to be pre-loaded onto the cards. This can greatly help a firm spread the word about their products and will make it easier for potential customers to have all the relevant details to hand. Using this form of promotion should enable companies to allow their customers to be more informed about what they can do, which will hopefully translate into a greater number of sales in the long term. Anything which can promote a long-term business relationship in this day and age has to be worth considering for a company.

The only thing limiting the style of USB sticks these days are budget and imagination. This is due to the vast array of new styles, designs and concepts that are being used for USB sticks and this inevitably filters into the promotional USB sticks market. The quirkiness of these new styles and designs lends them perfectly to the promotional world and should really help firms and businesses spread the word about them. It used to be that colours would be the most eye catching element of a product but with leather and wood being just two of the fabric choices available for the modern range of USB sticks, the sky is the limit. This has extended to different designs like credit card shapes holding the USB stick or wristbands all of which will help the owner stand out from the crowd.

promotional USB sticks have rapidly changed over the past year or two and if you previously considered them but thought against the decision, perhaps it is time to reconsider. No matter what you are trying to promote, having your name, logo or mission statement incorporated onto promotional USB sticks will act as a great marketing tool for you and your needs. Ensuring you reach as many people as possible is hugely important and this simple yet hugely effective marketing tool enable any company or business to get ahead in a difficult market.

One of the key things to consider when ordering Branded USB Memory sticks is how these are going to be handed to / used by clients as this will have a bearing on the type of packaging.

The following is a list of options that will help you to decide.

No packaging. If you already packaging to insert the Branded Memory Stick into them they can be despatched with no packaging. Ensure they are either placed into individual bubble bags or in tray to avoid them scratching.

Small Cardboard Box. This entry level box protects the customised memory sticks and is very cost effective. Most suppliers will provide these free of charge. Click here.

Boxes with windows. These are ideal to show the Branded Memory Sticks off in its full glory as they can be positioned to appear in the window.
Click here.

Tin Boxes. These gives the Promotional Memory Drive greater gravitas and is an ideal executive gift box. Click here.

Blister Pack. If the Branded Memory Sticks are for retail use then blister packaging may be the solution. It allows the memory sticks to be displayed and a printed card inserted. Click here.

Other things of note:

• All boxes can be printed with a logo or marketing message
• Make sure the size of the packaging will allow for any accessories e.g. Branded lanyard
• Ensure that you order your packaging with the memory sticks, otherwise if these are shipped in separately you would be charged duty on the shippment.
• Suppliers are now offering packaging in recycled material – worth asking.
• Remember the bigger and heavier the packaging the more it will cost to ship the Branded Memory sticks in.

Many businesses are now using usb sticks to store and pass their information and data between their staff members so you can imagine that a promotional usb stick would be of benefit to a great number of firms. Many of the promotional products that are sent to firms look great but have no real purpose which means they are probably stored away in a desk or unseen cupboard. This is frustrating as it would defeat the purpose of sending out the promotional product in the first place but using a product that is in demand can see the benefits rise greatly. A firm who receives a promotional usb stick with a company’s logo or contact details branded upon it may think that the firm is in touch with their needs.

They will likely look upon them in a more favourable manner which could make all the difference when decisions are made regarding future sales and contracts. Considering the current economic climate, it is hugely important for all firms to do the very best they can to increase sales and revenue and the promotional usb stick is a very useful way of increasing brand awareness amongst potential customers. Another benefit of using a promotional usb stick can come when working with a firm who undertake a great deal of work with the supplying company. It may well be that a pre-branded usb stick would be the obvious choice of storage system to record the work and data that is relevant to the relationship between the two firms.

Being able to have all this information in the one place and conveniently stored somewhere with that firms logo on it should make it easier to be retrieved when it is needed. This should bring benefits to both parties and help to ensure that the working relationship goes very well without any hitches. With so many different promotional tools and activities available it can be very hard to find the one that is right for you and for the parties you are trying to impress but there is no doubt that the benefits that arise from using a promotional usb stick are very apparent and should see any firm being placed in a better light. At a time when gaining any competitive advantage is of the upmost importance, this may be the factor that places you ahead of any rival firms.

A few extra steps may be required to ensure files that are pre-loaded remain secure and, if extra space for storing files is provided, that the flash drive remains useful to the widest possible audience.

Let’s say, for instance, that your company wants to distribute a product catalogue or an annual report to a select group of retailers that your firm normally does business with. To reduce the cost of printing hard copies and distributing them by mail, you decide to generate a bulk order of promotional USB memory sticks for easy reference within your sales network.

How do you ensure that this competitive information doesn’t end up in the wrong hands? The first step is to distribute these memory sticks only to authorized representatives that will have likely filed non-disclosure agreements with your company in advance. This ensures a measure of control over who has the information and how it is utilized.

The second step to protecting proprietary information is to encrypt or restrict the use of the files themselves. A distributor can pre-load data files with read-only access or include password protection that requires a user to enter a password to open the file. Strong encryption technology can delete files completely after a finite number of unsuccessful attempts to open a file.

In this way, marketing agreements between retailers and manufacturers, policies and procedures, and confidential data are protected and the risk of unauthorized access by competitors is minimized. If files are accidentally deleted or a flash drive malfunctions, a control group could retrieve the memory stick before replacing it.

These measures apply most in institutions where information is most specific and ultimately valuable, like government, non-profit, and civic organizations, universities, large corporations, and private interest groups.

promotional USB memory sticks distributed to employees or managers of these entities are not just handy tools for sharing information, but are company-owned assets that are subject to accountability and proper use, especially among principals with some measure of authority and cultural or professional influence.

Another factor in relation to data integrity and promotional USB memory is the issue of compatibility. In some cases, older computers will have problems running pre-loaded movies or applications that are native to newer operating systems like Windows Vista and Windows 7.

In addition, security firewalls designed by IT groups to protect corporate networks may prevent auto run capabilities for audio and video files or certain file types that could be used to spread computer viruses.

A corporation or an LLC, then, has important challenges with regard to IT security and data integrity. When designing and ordering promotional USB memory sticks, these firms must develop acceptable use policies, limit access to computers with USB drives, and keep antivirus software programs up-to-date to protect their company’s interests and ensure successful transactions when sharing information.