Promotional USB Memory Sticks are one of the hottest items in the promotional goods sector at the moment with millions of them being given away every year. Although USB flash drives have been in general use for the last 8 years or so it’s only in the last couple of years that the companies have latched onto the idea of using them as promotional giveaways. Having discovered them they are now giving them away at a phenomenal rate.
Leather USB Memory Sticks
The reason for their relatively slow adoption can be attributed to a number of key factors:
- Early versions of the USB memory sticks were expensive with typically drives costing around £20-£25 each. This price put them way beyond the budgets of most companies who might have otherwise considered them as a promotional product.
- The amount of storage on the average USB memory stick used as a giveaway today is around 1Gb – 2GB. A couple of years ago a 1GB USB sticks would have been a premium product with a hefty price tag associated to it. Like most things in the memory and computer space, given enough time, the price falls to a point where they are a viable mass-market product.
- The range of models and designs of early USB memory sticks were pretty limited. Most of them were simple rectangular plastic sticks that looked pretty ugly, they were much larger than the typical stick used today and they didn’t take print particularly well.
Today, none of the inhibitors that slowed down the early adoption of USB memory sticks apply; printed flash drives are available from around £2 each (including the print costs), the price of 1GB USB sticks has fallen dramatically over the last few years and the market is now awash with hundreds of different designs and styles.
Ironically, the challenge today for companies using USB flash drives as a promotional product is to make sure their particular flash drive stands out from the crowd. The market has not reached saturation point yet but there will be a point where everyone has more USB flash drives than they know what to do with!
One option is to use a flash drive that’s a little bit different. You might for example consider a leather USB flash drive – at their heart these are still standard USB flash drives but they are encased in a range of different leather “bodies”.
Leather USB memory sticks ooze style, class and suggest wealth and value. Leather has long been used on promotional products to elevate the product and generate a feeling worth.
Leather USB sticks are only marginally more expensive than standard “plastic” versions but they punch above their weight in terms perceived value.
