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Posts Tagged ‘drives’

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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Thunderbolt Flash Drives – Myth or Reality

Thursday, August 11th, 2011

Back in February Intel announced a new High Speed technology called Thunderbolt™. Thunderbolt supports data transfer speeds of up to 10GB per second, which means you could transfer a full-length HD movie between two devices running Thunderbolt in around 30 seconds!

Although Intel announced its Thunderbolt was a joint development with Apple so its no surprise that most of the new products launched by Apple since the announcement have included Thunderbolt. (new iMac, new Macbook Air, new Macbook Pro).

Considering that USB 3.0 is only just beginning to reach the market the announcement of Thunderbolt took many by surprise and raised doubts over what will emerge as the dominant standard for peripherals and data transfer – the thought of another VHS Vs Betamax tussle is not something the industry needs just now.

Thunderbolt Flash Drives

Thunderbolt Flash Drives

Whilst USB 3.0 products are backwards compatible with USB 2.0, Thunderbolt is completely different; different cables, different connectors and completely different protocol, so USB products, including USB flash drives will not work with Thunderbolt.

Here are a few basic facts to consider about Thunderbolt:

  • Thunderbolt I/O technology gives you two channels on the same connector with 10 Gbps of throughput in both directions.
  • Thunderbolt transfers data up to 20 times faster than with USB 2.0, up to 12 times faster than with FireWire 800 and twice as fast as USB 3.0
  • A range of Thunderbolt storage peripherals are already available including storage products from Lacie (Lacie’s Little Big Disk)

Talk in the market is that Intel has so far failed to build support for USB 3.0 into any of its motherboard chipsets. If this is the case just where does this leave USB 3.0 and are we on the verge of seeing portable storage drives that use Thunderbolt technology?

To confuse matters further HP (the worlds largest producer of PC’s) has announced that it is sticking with USB 3.0 because it has wider support in the market. They’re not saying “no” to Thunderbolt just yet but instead they seem to be keeping a “watching brief” on it.

With the amount of influence Apple and Intel carry in the PC and tablet market at the moment you have to assume that at some stage a Thunderbolt Flash Drive is going to appear. Exactly when and at what cost is anyone’s guess but for now most people seem content with their standard USB 2.0 flash drives.

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Thunderbolt Flash Drives – Myth or Reality

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A Custom NHS Reform Calls for Custom USB Drives

Wednesday, June 15th, 2011

The NHS reform has recently had a lot of media coverage, but what’s it all about?  The Coalition Government announced a proposed NHS reform last summer and it consequently received a lot of criticism.  The original proposition included opening the NHS up to allow for promoted competition in the form of private companies, passing the responsibility of the budgets and purse strings over to GP’s and to roll it out quickly to be in full effect by 2013. USB2U has already provided a wide range of medical USB branded flash drives from our classic pill drive to a customised branded syringe drive for Boots.  All of these drives were pre-loaded with marketing content designed to lobby and sell to potential customers.  A branded USB packed with marketing information and sales material would be a great idea for private companies to lobby to GP’s to provide medical services for the NHS.

Substantial criticism caused by the proposition lead to an independent review.  The review suggested the following amends to the original proposition: to have managed competition as opposed to more promoting competition, nurses and hospital doctors would also be included in the control of the budgets alongside GP’s and the roll-out would be slowed down and the consortia of nurses, doctors and GP’s take control in areas of the UK where they can.  As the review has called for a more managed approach to competition in the NHS it will take additional marketing touches like a branded USB drive packed with pre-loaded marketing material to stand out and secure the business.

Yesterday David Cameron spoke about the independent review of the original proposal.  He said that although the reforms general aim of wanting better care for patients was kept, the details and how that is achieved has changed.  Surprisingly the prime minister admitted that they had made mistakes in their proposal, but they had called for the review and they were amending the proposal accordingly.

Similarly to the new aim for the NHS, ours is to meet the individual needs of our customers whatever the purpose and shape of the USB drive.

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A Custom NHS Reform Calls for Custom USB Drives

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Capless Clip Style USB Flash Drives Are Proving Popular

Thursday, June 9th, 2011

We only added these Clip USB flash drives to our portfolio a couple of weeks ago but already they’re proving to be a real winner. For years the most popular promotional USB flash drive bar none has been the small, capless Twister model – it outsells everything else by miles and has become the de facto choice for thousands of companies and schools.

Clip USB Flash Drive

Clip USB Flash Drive

Can the Clip USB Flash drive challenge the Twisters crown – well, just like the Twister the Clip USB drive has no cap to lose, it’s small, lightweight, can be attached to a keyring or lanyard and it comes it a range of different finishes. Unlike the twister the whole drive is made from highly polished stainless steel so it has a “high-end” look to it.

The real beauty of the Clip drive is, as the name implies, that it can be “clipped” to most things easily and quickly – you

Clip USB

Clip USB

attach it just like you do a good quality pen. Ideal for attaching to your clothes, folders, portfolio files, bags and so on.

Because it’s made of stainless steel the Clip USB stick lends itself to engraving but you can also print onto it if you prefer.

Despite its small size (it’s only 38mm x 12mm) it’s available in memory sizes ranging from 128MB all the way up to a whopping 16GB!

If you’re looking for a promotional USB product that’s a little bit different but is still stylish and classy looking then you might want to add the Clip USB flash drive to your shortlist. If you’re not sure give us a call and ask for a sample so you can see for yourself just how compact and attractive the USB clip is.

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Capless Clip Style USB Flash Drives Are Proving Popular

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Personalised USB Sticks Make Great School Leaving Gifts

Wednesday, May 25th, 2011

Whether you’re leaving primary school to join the “big” school or leaving secondary school to start life at university it’s going to be emotional particularly if you’re leaving behind friends you’ve formed a strong bond with over the years you’ve been together.

It’s often just as tough on the teachers, particularly in smaller schools where they may have taught the same class of children for several years. The last day will often end in tears for the teachers as they dismiss their class for the last time and inevitably it will be a rollercoaster of emotional highs and lows for the students as the reality of the “last day” sinks in. No matter how hard nosed you are or how much you convince yourself it doesn’t matter the last day at school will put you through the emotional mixer.

School USB Flash Drives

School USB Flash Drives

With the rise of social networking applications like Facebook and Twitter it’s now much easier than it was to keep in touch with your school friends as you move on to a new school or to start a new life outside of school but, it’s also nice to be able to celebrate your time at the school with some form of tangible gift.

Some schools and classes have latched onto the idea of personalised USB flash drives as the perfect leaving or

School USB wristbands

School USB wristbands

graduation gift. The flash drives can be printed or engraved with the school crest or name and details of the “Class of 2011” or anything that is appropriate. They can even be individually engraved with each student’s name!

The really clever bit (but it needs someone to organise it) is to gather lots of photographs and video clips (school trips, school plays, concerts etc.) of the class together with the class register, sports achievements, school awards etc. and get all of this pre-loaded onto the USB flash drives before they are given out.

As pretty much everyone has a PC these days, personalised USB flash drives crammed full with “memories” of the good times at school are a great idea. They’re not that expensive either and the lead-time to get them produced is only around 7-10 days (but allow a little more time if you want a name engraved or printed on each one).

So, if you are looking for a leaving gift with a difference then you might want to think about personalised USB flash drives.

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Personalised USB Sticks Make Great School Leaving Gifts

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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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Squeezing The Most From Your Promotional USB Flash Drive Budget

Thursday, September 2nd, 2010

Advertising and marketing budgets have been hit hard over the last couple of years and whilst there are glimmers of the economy recovering its still early days and consequentially purse strings are still pulled relatively tight. That said businesses can’t afford to stand still and the need to advertise and promote your business and products is still of paramount importance but, where hard cash is being spent its critical that you squeeze as much as possible from your budget.

When it comes to buying promotional USB flash drives there are several factors that you should consider because they will help you to get the best possible “bang for buck”:

  • Don’t pay for unnecessary memory – USB flash drives are available in a wide range of sizes starting from 32MB all the way up to 64GB. Popular USB flash drive sizes are 1Gb – 2GB and these are normally ample for any corporate gifts or promotional give-aways. If you buy USB flash drives larger than this then the costs start to rise quite substantially. Similarly if you buy flash drives smaller than 1GB the price reduction is relatively small but more importantly the likelihood of the flash drive being used on an on-going basis is dramatically reduced. Without on-going use you don’t get the benefit of your brand being continually recalled or promoted.
  • Reduce the number of colours you want printed – Ink costs and each colour printed has a set-up cost associated
    Barclays USB Flash Drives

    Barclays USB Flash Drives

    with it. Whilst some suppliers might absorb some of these costs to secure your business its unlikely that they’ll swallow all of them. If you have a complex logo or a logo with 4 or more colours see if you can simplify it. Its not unusual for there to be various “complex” and “simple” versions of a company logo available because good designers understand that a logo will be used in a variety of way and so they plan ahead accordingly.

  • Plan ahead and order early – The vast majority of USB flash drives that are printed up with a company brand or logo are manufactured to order from factories in China. Despite the distances involved and the freight costs associated with shipping flash drives around the world it is still considerably cheaper to get flash drives this way. If you order flash drives at the last minute then you’ll pay a premium to get them printed locally and you’ll have far less choice in terms of memory size and style of memory stick.
  • Only buy gift boxes if you really need them – this speaks for itself but its worth checking that any price you are quoted does not include a charge for gift boxes (unless you want them). Most branded USB flash drives will come in individual “poly” bags or they’ll be in a free plain white box.
  • Pre-load any data during the manufacturing process – one of the best ways to offset the cost of buying branded USB flash drives is to pre-load them with your company sales brochures, media files, presentation files and so on – saving this data onto the flash drive means you won’t have to go to the expense of getting them printed. The trick though is to make sure you have the data ready early so that it can be loaded onto the flash drive at the point of manufacture (this is usually free). If you are late supplying your data then expect to pay a fee for it to be loaded post manufacture.
  • Get several quotes before ordering – we all have our own favourite or “preferred” supplier(s) but when you’re sourcing branded USB flash drives its definitely worth shopping around and getting several quotes. If you do choose a new supplier make sure you get a firm quote in writing, read any associated T & C’s and payment terms and make sure the price is a fully inclusive price. In particular watch out for print set up, print origination charges and high delivery charges!
  • Buying the cheapest USB flash drives can end up costly in the long run – before you just accept the cheapest price you are quoted its best to make sure you are comparing “apples with apples”. Some unscrupulous vendors will supply graded or re-cycled flash chips unless you specify “new”. Whilst most of these will work you can expect a much higher failure rate and much slower performance – not exactly what you want if you’re printing your brand on them! Choose your vendor carefully, check out their testimonials and if you’re at all concerned take references.
  • Avoid buying your USB flash drives during the peak demand periods – there are a couple of times of the year (every year) when the price of flash rockets and this has a knock on effect on the price of USB flash drives. The times to avoid if at all possible include the early run up to Christmas (late September and October) when many large manufacturers buy up flash chips for their Christmas manufacturing schedules and the time around Chinese New Year when there is a general scarcity in the market.
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Squeezing The Most From Your Promotional USB Flash Drive Budget

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Looking For A Robust Promotional Flash Drive

Friday, June 18th, 2010

If you’re looking to buy a strong, robust and stylish USB flash drive for promotional purposes or for use at an event or show then you might want to consider the metal Capsule USB Flash Drive.

Not only is this USB drive manufactured from metal but instead of the cap simply “pulling off” its screwed on to give a really tight fit. So much so that the drive is virtually waterproof as well as being virtually indestructible.

The Capsule drive can be supplied in any colour you want because its made to order and the shell is spray painted before any branding is applied. So, unlike most other flash drives that are manufactured from plastic with aluminium trims each capsule drive is hand finished and spray-painted. There are some standard factory colours (white, blue, black and red) that are available off the shelf but any colour is possible and it only adds a couple of days to the manufacturing process to get the Capsule Drive produced in your preferred colour.

Capsule Flash Drive

Capsule Flash Drive

Because of their innate strength these drives are excellent when attached to a key ring because they will absorb all of the usual bumps and scrapes that anything on a key ring and attached to a bunch of keys will pick up in every day use. Not only that but because of how they are manufactured, painted and printed the brand will last and is not going to get scratched away.

If you’ve got a brand or product synonymous with security, strength or resilience then the Capsule will certainly be a good fit.

Whichever flash drives you choose don’t forget to pre-load your company data, presentation slides, sales brochures and links to web sites. This data can be “locked” so it cannot be deleted, you could make it “auto-run” so an application starts as soon as its plugged into a USB port or you could simply load the data into a separate partition so that your pre-loaded data is always kept separate from any personal data the recipient might load onto the drive.

Data can be loaded onto the flash drives during the manufacture or just before delivery if you’re up against it in terms of pulling all of your data together! Either way pre-loading data is a great idea because you fully maximise the promotional benefits of the product you’re buying.

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Looking For A Robust Promotional Flash Drive

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