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Posts Tagged ‘branded’

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In the immortal words of Vernon Kay…”Our survey says…”

Monday, October 10th, 2011

OK, it wasn’t our survey but a recent survey undertaken by the BPMA (British Promotional Merchandise Association), which questioned businessmen and women about their behavioural trends, and preferences for different promotional gifts came up with some interesting findings.

As well as reinforcing the benefits that spend on promotional products deliver the survey also examined how people felt after being given a promotional item. The aim was to measure how such products affected the feelings, perceptions and the propensity to buy. Just a little more than half (56%) of those questioned said they felt more positive towards the brand/company and a very strong 79% said they were more likely to do business with the company in the future.

USB Flash Drives in Boxes

USB Flash Drives in Boxes

Interestingly the majority said they preferred to receive a promotional gift with a logo printed on it.

When it came to which promotional gifts people preferred to be given the clear winner was a USB stick which took 45% of the vote followed by a pen with 39% and a mug with 36%.

Usefulness is one of the main reasons for people retaining and using promotional merchandise and the majority of people (64%) found a USB sticks useful. The beauty of this is that repeated usage and perceptions of usefulness mean any brand printed on the product will get lots of positive exposure.

Promotional products also have a long term impact with around a quarter of all respondents able to recall the name/brand of the company that gave them the “gift” 12 months later – not something most other forms of advertising can claim.

Unsurprisingly given the results from the survey undertaken by the BPMA sales of USB memory sticks are rocketing at the moment. If you are in the market for your own printed or customised USB sticks then give the team at USB2U a call – they have been supplying USB sticks for nearly 10-years and are one of the most respected and trusted suppliers around.

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In the immortal words of Vernon Kay…”Our survey says…”

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Putting Serial Numbers On Your USB Memory Sticks

Thursday, June 30th, 2011

Lets face it the vast majority of USB memory sticks that are handed out by companies these days are primarily given away to promote the brand that’s printed on the USB stick. Occasionally companies will load them with sales material (brochures, price lists, tech sheets, movie clips and links to web sites) but more often than not the USB sticks are just used as a “giveaway”.

USB Memory Sticks with Serial Numbers

USB Memory Sticks with Serial Numbers

As giveaways they work well because they have a high perceived value and the people they are given to will typically use them to store and carry their own data around with them – it’s this regular and repeated use that gets the company’s brand exposed over and over again and the fact that the brand is associated with something that has real personal value helps to build strong emotional ties to the brand.

If sensitive data is pre-loaded onto the USB memory sticks it’s a good idea to consider password protecting the data or even putting some form of encryption solution of the USB memory stick. You might also want to associate every USB stick you give out to a specific person or company and the easiest way to do this is get a unique serial number printed on every stick and record who you give each one to.

USB Serial Number

USB Serial Number

Some companies that distribute their sales brochures and distributor and reseller price lists on USB flash drives do this not so much to track them if they get lost but to create different “batches” of USB sticks (determined by a range of serial numbers) onto which they then pre-load different prices lists (with differing discount structures etc.). When your faced with 500 USB sticks they all look the same so a serial number is just a bit of a safety net to make sure the right person/company gets the right information – you also have an audit trail of who’s been sent what.

For companies that give flash drives out to their employees of schools and universities that hand them out to students, serial numbers are a handy way of recording who has been given which USB flash drive – this way if they get lost (and they will) they can be returned to the rightful owner.

Whilst the examples here show every USB drive uniquely marked with a serial numbers they could instead be engraved a persons or companies name if preferred – you just need to provide a spreadsheet with these details when you place any order

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Putting Serial Numbers On Your USB Memory Sticks

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Check Out These Printed Gift Boxes For USB Flash Drives

Monday, June 13th, 2011

Whether you’re buying USB flash drives to giveaway as a promotional item or buying them to handout to delegates at a seminar, conference or press event then you’ll need to consider whether you need them boxed or not.

Most USB flash drives are supplied in bulk, which typically means they are supplied in individual polythene bags or bubble bags and bundled into “fives” to make it easier to count them. Occasionally they are supplied in individual polythene bags and a plain white cardboard box – the “poly” bags protect the print on the flash drive and the outer cardboard box helps protect the flash drive itself.

Some companies charge for the plain (unprinted) gift boxes, others include them free of charge. A downside of any packaging around the USB flash drives is the time it takes to unpack them and re-pack them if you are planning on loading data onto them yourself before you hand them out!

So, if you are expecting your flash drives to come in boxes then it’s in your own interests to get any data loaded onto them before you take delivery of them – if not expect to spend a few tedious hours unpacking and packing and sitting in front of a PC and USB hub data-loading….not the best use of your time!

The standard plain white gift boxes most suppliers use can be printed which will lift the overall impact of the flash drives when they’re handed out. Typically this only adds a few pennies to the overall cost so it’s certainly worth considering. The examples shown here illustrate just how good branded USB flash drives look when supplied in printed gift boxes.

Printed USB Flash Drive Boxes

Printed USB Flash Drive Boxes

Understandably some companies are anti-boxes and any unnecessary packaging because they want to push a strong environmental message but the boxes are primarily there to protect the flash drives in transit. Adding a print/logo to the boxes simply makes them look a little more professional. Yes, they’ll end up in a bin but they are made from recycled cardboard and they can be recycled when discarded so any environmental impact is tiny.

If you really want to push the boat out with your packaging then there is a huge range of packaging available including metal tin presentation boxes (with our without a window), plastic gift boxes with magnetic clasps and wooden (bamboo) gift boxes. Again these look fantastic but if you’re pushing an “eco” message its perhaps best to avoid the presentation tins and plastic boxes.

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Check Out These Printed Gift Boxes For USB Flash Drives

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Check, Check, Check and Check Again

Thursday, June 9th, 2011

That’s exactly what we do before we send any order for promotional USB flash drives to our customers. It’s not glamorous, it’s certainly not exciting but it’s something we strongly believe should be done.

We know there are lots of different suppliers of promotional USB flash drives in the UK and in a crowded market its incredibly important to us and our customers that they are confident in buying from USB2U. After all, we want our customers to come back to us and we want them to be delighted with their order from USB2U.

So, in addition to the QA checks that our factory make during the manufacturing process our own operations and fulfilment team carry out the following additional checks before any order leaves our hands:

  1. As the shipments from our factory arrive at our warehouse we carefully unpack every carton to make sure
    USB2U Checks

    USB2U Checks

    nothing has been damaged in transit from China. Any crushed boxes are paid particular attention to and photographs taken of any issues. If anything is found to be damaged or missing (it does happen albeit rarely) then we’ll alert the factory and ask them to prepare and ship replacements and we’ll notify the customer of any potential shortfall in their order.

  2. Every USB stick is checked visually to make sure it’s the right colour, that the print or engraving is correct (the right colour, in the right place and spelt correctly) and that any key rings or lanyards that have been ordered are attached.
  3. A sample of each order is checked for viruses using the latest Trend Micro anti-virus software – this is particularly important where we have been provided with data to pre-load onto the USB sticks.
  4. A sample of each order is checked to ensure that the internal flash memory is the correct size. If a customer has ordered a 1GB USB flash drive we double check here to make sure they drives have been assembled by our factory using 1GB flash memory chips.
  5. Assuming all of the above tests and checks are passed we then carefully box up the order in a robust USB2U box ensuring when we do this that we count every USB stick to make sure the number sent is exactly the number ordered.

All of the above information is recorded and stored for every job to provide our customers (and us) with peace of mind. We’ve been supplying branded and promotional USB flash drives since 2002 and these processes have been put in place and refined over the last 9 years to ensure that our customers can be confident that they get exactly what they have paid for every time.

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Check, Check, Check and Check Again

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5 Reasons You Must Buy Your USB Memory Sticks From USB2U

Wednesday, June 1st, 2011

Are you looking for a supplier for your branded USB memory sticks? With the range of “new” suppliers that keep popping up everyday it’s increasingly difficult to work out who to entrust with your order – after all, all USB flash drives are the same aren’t they?

The short answer is no – unfortunately there seems to be a lot of USB flash drives reaching the market that are not quite what they might appear at first glance so when you’re selecting a supplier you really do need to be on your mettle.

Branded USB Flash Drives from USB2U

Branded USB Flash Drives from USB2U

Here’s just a few reasons why you should buy your promotional USB memory sticks from USB2U:

  1. We’ve been around for a while – USB2U has been supplying USB memory sticks and other USB related products via its sister company (USBNow.co.uk) since 2002. What we don’t know about the USB standard and products that use it probably isn’t worth knowing. In this time we’ve supplied millions of USB products to hundreds of thousands of customers.
  2. We’re trusted by some of the biggest brands in the world. As you might expect our customers’ range from small start-ups to some of the most powerful and respected companies in the world. The USB memory sticks we supply to these companies carry their brand so it’s their image and reputation that is on the line – no ifs, no buts, the USB sticks we supply not only have to look good but they have to work.
  3. We don’t and won’t supply cheap rubbish – we know a number of other companies are passing off masked or recycled Grade B as new Grade A flash drives – it’s normally pretty easy to tell:
    • The price is significantly cheaper than most other established and reputable suppliers can supply them at – often the price is that low that its cheaper than the core flash memory component is to buy in the flash commodity market.
    • The read/write speeds will be very, very slow – promotional flash drives are normally a little slower than flash drives you might buy in the high street but low quality drives can be significantly slower.
    • A masked drive that claims it’s a 1GB might in fact only be able to store say 600K of data – when you plug it into your PC it will say it’s a 1GB, it will even let you save nearly 1GB of data onto it but if you then try and read the data in another PC it mysteriously won’t be there!
  4. We offer a solid guarantee – our own reputation has been built over the last 9 years and we don’t let out customers down. If things go wrong and in reality it happens occasionally then we’re here to sort it out for you.
  5. Our prices might not be the cheapest but they reflect the best possible price we can offer without making any compromise on the quality of the core product – the USB flash drive. We offer immediate 30-day terms for all educational establishments and public sector organisations and we’re happy to consider requests for credit from all other companies.
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5 Reasons You Must Buy Your USB Memory Sticks From USB2U

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Dragon Boat Festival – USB Flash Drive Impact

Wednesday, June 1st, 2011

The Chinese Dragon Boat Festival is a significant cultural holiday that celebrates the life of the great poet Ou Yuan.

Qu Yuan was a minister to the Zhou emperor during the Warring States Period (475 – 221 BC). He was renowned for his opposition to the corruption that was rife in the Imperial Court.

Ou Yuan’s views were popular and he became a great success but it was his success that led to his downfall. His fellow ministers became jealous and plotted against him, they convinced the emperor that Qu Yuan was a traitor and he was exiled to his hometown.

Whilst in exile Qu Yuan collected great stories, legends and folk tales, and wrote poetry. Throughout this period he remained a strong patriot and never lost his love for his emperor. On the 5th May, 278 BC he was distraught to hear that the emperor had been overthrown by Qin warriors- in a fit of despair Ou Yuan committed suicide by throwing himself into the Miluo river.

The local townspeople, hearing of Qu Yuan’s fate, rushed to their boats to try to save him. He was much loved and out of respect they tried to prevent the fish from eating his body by throwing rice dumplings into the water and beating their drums to keep evil spirits away.

To this day, eating rice dumplings and racing dragon boats celebrate the 5th day of the 5th lunar month. In 2011 The Dragon Boat Festival falls on the 6th June with celebrations lasting around 3 days in total.

Branded USB Flash Drives

Branded USB Flash Drives

Our factory is closed on Monday 6th June so any new orders for branded USB flash drives between now and the 7th June may be subject to a very small delay. If you need your flash drives urgently just give us a call and we’ll talk you through the options.

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Dragon Boat Festival – USB Flash Drive Impact

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Branded USB Memory Sticks – Smile Please

Thursday, May 5th, 2011

If you’ve been to a to a theme park at any time during the past few years and you’ve been on any of the rides then you can expect to have been photographed whilst you’ve had the living daylights scared out of you or been drenched with water on the water rides.

USB Wristbands

USB Wristbands

Of course these photographs make great souvenirs and they’re brilliant reminders of your day out. At some theme parks they are all pervasive and it can be a little tiresome if you’re a parent and you have children with you who want you to buy photographs and souvenirs at the end of every ride. The other challenge is carrying the photographs around with you all day although some of the theme parks have a facility where you can order them as you go around the park and pick them up on your way out.

Some of the more innovative theme parks have now introduced an option to buy the photographs from the rides digitally and supplied on a branded USB memory stick. This is a fantastic idea because not only is it often easier and more convenient to carry around a small USB flash drive loaded with the photo’s but, you can buy the photo’s you want at the end of each ride and simply have them up-loaded to your USB memory stick as you go around the park!

There are lots of styles and designs of USB memory sticks that the theme parks can use but one of the more popular models is the USB wristband – these are easy to carry, easy to use and they’re a little bit different.

With the photographs digitally stored on the USB sticks it’s easy when you get home to print them off on your own colour printer or alternatively upload them onto sites like Facebook or just email them around to your friends and family. Arguably you could do the same with printed photos but you have to first go through all the hassle of scanning the photographs and uploading them onto your PC before you can do this.

At the moment there are only a few theme parks offering this solution but it’s proving popular so expect to see it adopted in much greater numbers pretty soon.

USB Roller Coaster

USB Roller Coaster

If you’re a theme park operator and you’re looking for a provider of the USB wristbands or any other style of USB memory stick then you might consider the team at USB2U. Established in 2002 USB2U has years of experience in the supply of all types of promotional and branded USB memory sticks including those supplied to Blackpool Pleasure Beach and Wickstead Park.

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Branded USB Memory Sticks – Smile Please

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Pantone Matching On USB Flash Drives – Not an Exact Science

Thursday, April 14th, 2011

If you want to make an impact with your printed promotional USB flash drives then one option available to you is to colour match, or pantone match as its commonly referred to, the body shell of the USB flash drive.

Most USB flash drives are manufactured in a range of standard colours with some of the more popular models like the Twister USB flash drive typically available in around 20 different colours. Obviously, the more standard colours there are available for a given model, the more likely it is that you are going to find a colour that works with, and compliments your company or school logo.

But, if you want a specific colour for your USB flash drive then the only option is to find a supplier not only willing to produce the flash drive in your preferred colour but to find one that is able to do it at a reasonable price. Pantone matching or colour matching the plastic that forms the shell of your chosen flash drive is a manual process, its adds time to the manufacturing schedule and it is not an exact science. These are all elements that build in cost and often the cost of pantone matching can be high, particularly if you only order a small number of USB flash drives – this is simply because some of the fixed costs involved in creating the specific colour of plastic to be used in the manufacture of your flash drive are amortised over a small number of USB sticks.

pantone colour book

The basic principle of pantone matching is that each final “mixed” colour is given a number (a pantone number) thus ensuring that this colour can be repeated over and over again by a printer to ensure consistency of print/colour. Pantone matching is the way in which companies manage consistency of brand and their brand logo. For example, every time you see the Coca Cola red it is the same red irrespective of where you are in the word, it’s the same with the Ford Motor Car Company blue or the Starbucks Coffee green. Consistency of colour and of brand representation is incredibly important to build consumer awareness, association and confidence.

However, a word of warning, even when you use pantone matching there is always going to be the possibility of minor colour variations because paint and dyes react different depending on the material they are applied to or mixed in with.  When pantone matching the plastic body shell of a USB flash drive there are three main issues to consider:

  1. The colour matched plastic used to form the shell of the flash drive body is mixed by hand so the end result is largely down to the experience of the individual undertaking the mixing.  Typical results are excellent but because it’s largely a manual process there is room for interpretation to creep into what many expect to be an exact science.
  2. Repeat orders of the same pantone matched USB flash drives may not be exactly the same. Because the process to create a pantone matched flash drive relies on a human to mix the colours with the core plastic material and it’ s therefore possible for there to be minor colour variations between each batch produced – this is no different from than when you buy rolls of wallpaper or some specialised paints -  batches will vary so be prepared for this. If you cannot accept any colour variations no matter how small from one batch to the next then consider buying blank “shells” from which future orders can be made.
  3. Pantone matched inks and dyes look different depending on the underlying material and colour they are applied to. So, if you are using a pantone matched ink and applying it to a white plastic it will look different compared to when the same ink or dye is applied to a silver metal clip (like the type used to form the out piece of the popular Twister USB flash drive)

Pantone matching promotional USB flash drives can create fantastic results and you’ll end up with a flash drive that is unique to your company but do be aware of the above “health warnings”. Although pantone colour coding was introduced to help reduce and ideally eradicate colour variations the reality is that minor colour variations will always occur when you are manufacturing a product that involves some degree of “manual” work and where the finished colour is applied to anything other than white paper.

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Spring has Definitely Sprung and USB Flash Drives Are Flourishing

Monday, March 28th, 2011

What a difference a few weeks make. It seems only yesterday that we were facing blizzard conditions with airports and roads closed and much of the UK’s infrastructure coming to a standstill. Look out of the window today and what a difference – the sun is up, temperatures are rising and despite all the doom and gloom about the economy, there’s a really positive feel in the air.

Spring is also a time when trade shows and trade fairs kick-off with a vengeance. Look at the schedule of forthcoming shows and you’re see a crammed diary with shows covering all manner of topics an subjects including flower shows, caravan fairs and birdwatching to name but a few. As we drag ourselves out of our “winter hibernation” many of the shows have a real Spring feel to them.

The exhibitors at these show and fairs invest huge sums of money to attract potential customers to their stands with the typical cost of attending a national show running into many thousands of pounds. For the larger companies a show budget running into six figures is not unusual.

Spring USB Flash Drives

Spring USB Flash Drives

The majority of the costs are taken up by fees to the shows organisers (space fees) and the costs of the booth or stand. Small “extras” at the show like power sockets, signage, carpets and build costs also add significantly to the typical spend.

Much of the job of driving customers to the shows tends to be left to the shows organisers but once the attendees are in the show halls its down to the exhibitors to get their stand to draw in the customers. Some companies will rely on the compelling nature of their products or offer to draw the customers in, others will be confident in the sales skills of their staff to lure customers to the stand but for many they’ll combine these with a “giveaway” that can be picked up on the stand.

Typical show giveaways include printed bags, promotional sweets (again, often branded with a logo), soft drinks, caps, pens and stress balls. Another technique is to run a business card draw for a larger gift like an iPad or iPhone – show attendees are simply encouraged to hand over a business card which in turn is included in the prize draw.

Another promotional product that is finding favour with exhibitors is the branded USB flash drive. These are customised versions of a standard flash drive that can be printed with the exhibitors company logo, phone number and web address and more importantly they can be pre-loaded with the exhibitors sales brochures, price lists, product images, video clips and audio files.

The beauty of the branded USB flash drive is that it has a high perceived value, it will, without doubt, be popular and attract customers and its costs can be offset by the saving made by not printing and transporting brochures etc. Unlike other “giveaways” that frequently end up in the bins outside of the exhibition halls USB flash drives will be kept and will, in most cases, be used again and again so any company using them will be assured on on-going brand exposure.

Whilst promotional products and giveaways typically account for less than 5% of a show budget it’s important that this spend works and is effective not only during the show but also ideally after the show. Branded USB flash drives deliver on this aspiration hence why more and more of them will be given away at trade show and fairs this year.

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Spring has Definitely Sprung and USB Flash Drives Are Flourishing

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