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Posts Tagged ‘promotional usb flash drives’

Beware of Fake Flash in Promotional USB Memory Flash Drives

Friday, December 11th, 2009

The continued popularity of USB memory sticks and flash drives for promotional and marketing activities has spawned a parallel market in the supply of cheap and often fake products.

Understandably procurement managers and buyers are constantly looking at ways to drive down their costs and it’s tempting when you’re offered memory sticks at a significant discount to order them. After all the pictures of the memory sticks you’ll be shown to support the order will look pretty much the same as other quotes you’ll no doubt have obtained from other suppliers so how do you know if what you’re being offered is genuine?

USB Memory Sticks

Firstly, lets be clear on what some of the typical scams are:

Quality memory sticks

  • Use of “re-cycled” and Grade B flash memory chips. These are flash memory chips that have been salvaged from other products or perhaps failed a full QA process. They are likely to be to correct memory size but they will have a much higher failure rate and will typically perform poorly, e.g. the read/write speeds will be slow.
  • “Masking” smaller capacity flash chips to make them look bigger. This is where the external flash disk and packaging is marked up to look like it’s a 1GB stick, the memory stick when connected to a PC will also suggest it has 1GB of storage but the actual capacity is say 256MB or 512MB. Extremely difficult to spot.
  • Using cheaper memory components rather than the specified brands. If you want a memory stick with a specified high-grade chip such as Intel or Samsung then you’ll pay a premium for these but you’ll also trust your supplier that these used. Once your memory sticks are delivered you don’t want to have to go through the hassle of breaking open a sample just to check that the internal memory is as specified.
  • Simple repackaging and re-labelling the memory sticks to make them look like they have more memory than they actually do.

The best way to avoid becoming a victim of these scams is to buy from a trusted and reputable supplier and ideally a local supplier that will take ownership of any post delivery problems or issues you might have.

Whilst it’s incredibly tempting to buy direct from some of the “factories” advertising themselves on the Internet think long and hard about it before you commit to an order. How for example will you deal with any problems once you have taken delivery of them? Typically once a “factory” has shipped they will not take the product back and your chances of recovering your money and taking action against them are slim to non-existent!

Also many of the supposed “factories” offering discounted prices are not really factories or manufacturers at all. Whilst they may have fancy web sites with lots of images of production staff diligently sitting at desks manufacturing and assembling memory sticks these are typically just “stock photos” and the factories will either be agents, middlemen or fraudsters.

The only way to be truly sure is to visit your supplier on site, check their factories and working conditions, check that they are complying with the current RoHS regulations and that they meet all the latest WEEE and REACH Compliance Regulations. Failing this just go with a local supplier that has already undertaken all of this due diligence.

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Beware of Fake Flash in Promotional USB Memory Flash Drives

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Promotional USB Flash Products Can Place You In Front

Friday, August 21st, 2009

If you want to have an impact with your promotional goods, you need to be able to offer a good or product that will be used regularly enough. This is because a greater degree of benefit will arise when your logo or name is continually seen by the company or employee that you gave the promotional gift to. With so many rival firms competing for attention, having the gift or promotional tool that makes you stand out from everyone else is priceless and would pay for itself in no time at all. This is why a promotional usb flash product could be the difference between you and your rivals.

No matter what colour is associated with your firm, it will be possible to find a promotional usb flash to match your corporate branding. The importance of having a cohesive image is one that is extremely important to a firm as this will make it much easier for a firm or potential customer to remember you. Using the right sort of usb flash or promotional item will reinforce your image in the mind of a customer and could place your company at the forefront of any decision they will make in the future. Given the current economic crisis that is affecting so many people around the world, it has never been more important to do everything that you can to improve your companies fortunes. Again, it is important to remember that if you don’t do it, your rivals may well do this and they will get the opportunity to make the sales that you are missing out on.

One of the other benefits that comes with using promotional usb flash technology as a gift to other firms is that it is possible to preload the flash drive. This means that you can include details about your firm and your products or services for the recipient to view at their own leisure. This will give you a greater chance of making an impact upon them and it should ensure they will always be able to examine your product details and will have your contact details at close hand. This form of promotional activity is extremely clever and goes a long way towards creating a relationship between the two firms. Given the current economic climate, anything which can be done to make the bonds between a supplier and buyer stronger should be encouraged.

Anything that you can do to sell yourself and make your firm more attractive to potential customers is well worth considering and promotional usb flash products are a little bit different. The fact that they offer fashion and functionality should make them the ideal product to use these days and by offering them to other people and firms, you will be doing everything you can to promote your firm. Every time your potential customer goes to use their promotional usb flash drive, they will remember where they received it from and you may be rewarded with future sales and business in the months and years ahead.

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Promotional USB Flash Products Can Place You In Front

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Posted in Promotional USB, Promotional USB Flash | 1 Comment »

Promotional USB Memory and Data Integrity

Wednesday, August 5th, 2009

While flash memory has revolutionized business communications, promotional USB memory, when used to share data and important or even confidential information, requires a bit of foresight before a company decides to distribute a whole series of flash drives to end users.

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.

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Promotional USB Memory and Data Integrity

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Posted in Promotional USB, Promotional USB Drives, Promotional USB Flash, Promotional USB Sticks, promotional usb memory | No Comments »

Top Ten Pitfalls Of Buying Promotional USB Memory Sticks

Wednesday, July 15th, 2009

Buying Branded USB Memory sticks should be a painless process and for the most part it is. However, there are numerous examples of where things have gone wrong – some real horror stories! However, the good news is that by asking the right questions and selecting the right supplier you can avoid most of these issues.

This guide illustrates the top ten pitfalls of buying Promotional USB Memory Sticks and how to avoid them.

Find a reputable supplier

There are many suppliers providing Branded USB Memory Sticks As with any industry the quality of the organisations varies widely. Whilst normal due diligence is always required, here are a few tips to help you with the process:

• It is always good practice to run a credit check to make sure your supplier is in good financial health. This is more important if you are being asked to pay upfront for the Branded USB Memory sticks.

• Reputation speaks volumes. Don’t be afraid to ask for references and testimonials from their existing customer base and make contact. If they have provided excellent service levels, they will not be embarrassed to share their successes.

• Make sure there are full contact details on the web site including address and contact telephone numbers – and phone them!

• Ensure they are working from a business premises. There is a growing trend for individuals pertaining to be companies are working from home without the infrastructure to support you if things go wrong. An easy way to check this is by using Google Earth.

Hidden costs

When stating your requirements to a supplier be specific about your needs and ensure that they are all met by studying your quotation carefully. Ask for terms and conditions and be aware of payment terms and delivery date promises. For example some companies will charge extra for print and origination, so ensure that these are covered in the quotation.

Quality of Chipset / Housing

If you quote sounds to good to be true – then it probably is! The core cost of any Branded USB Memory Stick is made up of the USB Housing and USB Flash Chip components. There are ways of saving costs on these buy using poor quality housing and reconditioned USB Memory chips.   Both carry reputation risk for you or your client if things go wrong. So ensure you ask for a sample to check the housing quality and your supplier provides new branded A Grade chipsets such as Samsung, Hynix, Micron or Intel.

It is also worth asking what the manufacturer’s Quality Assurance testing procedure is.

Dataloads

To autorun or not to autorun that is the question! Many clients are faced with the dilemma of whether they should add an autorun facility to their promotional USB Promotional Memory Sticks.

An autorun facility allows users to insert a USB Branded Memory Stick and for the computer to automatically run a programme e.g. a movie file.

The advantages of this facility is that it ensures the user is presented with the information the client wants them to see, without having to find the information themselves. This makes is a very intuitive process and ensures the information on the USB Memory Stick is delivered. However there are some hidden pitfalls:

• Nuisance factor. If one of the objectives is to ensure that the USB Promotional Memory Stick is a keepsake that the end user will access on a regular basis then its worth bearing in mind that every time the user wants to access or save a document they will have to run through the dataload programme. Fine for the first few times, but thereafter they may find this an irritation and relegate the memory stick deep into a draw!

• Autoruns will not work on Win 98 or 2000 operating systems – beware there are still many users out there with these systems. You will also need to ensure that the appropriate code is written into any autorun for it to work on Mac operating systems.

• Some corporate firewalls restrict autoruns, so the danger is that the end user will never see the data.

There is a middle way, why not consider loading the data onto the USB Branded Memory Stick with an icon labelled ‘Click Here To Start’ and allow the user to access the data when they want.  This data can be protected so it would not be deleted, but overcomes may of the issues detailed above.

Proofs/screenshots

Many suppliers will mock up a visual of what the Promotional USB Memory Stick will look like before production. This does not always match the finished product. So ensure that the proof carries the colour pantone references and size of the logo. Some suppliers will provide a picture of a printed pre-production so you know exactly what you are going to get.

Shipping / Customs

Almost all Branded USB Memory sticks are manufactured in the Far East and as such need to pass through both Chinese / Taiwanese and UK Customs. For the vast majority of orders this is pretty seamless process. However, any consignment can be pulled for inspection and customs may request additional information. If a global brand is printed on the Promotional USB Memory sticks they may ask for written authentication from the end clients that the goods are not counterfeit.  Either way a custom check will delay your order from a few days to up to 3 weeks!

Returning goods / Warranties

Things go wrong! The mark of a good supplier is how they manage these issues. All Customised USB Memory Sticks should carry at least a 12 month warranty. Ensure your supplier stipulates this as part of their Terms and Conditions.  However, if the items need replacing it make take several weeks for the Branded USBs to be returned to the manufacturer and repaired or replaced.

Poor Packaging

Poor quality packaging can ruin a great looking USB Memory Stick. In particular the insert that holds the USB memory stick within a box needs to be of the same shape and size of the USB Branded Memory drive. Again the only solution is to have a sample of a box before you order.

Delivery Timeframe

Do not leave the ordering of Branded USB Memory sticks to the last minute unless you want to pay a premium for rush fees and limit your choice of what is available in the UK. Allow at least 2, ideally 3 weeks, from providing your supplier with the artwork, which kicks off the production process.

Quality Of Print

The printing of logos onto your Branded Memory stick is a real art form that at best makes a perfect reproduction of your logo at worst makes it look like real mess and something you would not want to associate your brand to. The typical printing process is spot or screen-printing. This is great for simple logos with up to 4 colours. However it cannot print tints, tones, complex logos or a logo with many colours. A new full colour printing process is now evolving allowing greater printing capabilities. Again if time permits ask for a pre-production printed sample and remove this potential pitfall.

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Top Ten Pitfalls Of Buying Promotional USB Memory Sticks

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Drawing in the Crowds

Monday, July 13th, 2009

Many companies and businesses today are finding more and more that attending trade/marketing shows is one of the best ways to attract new business, especially in these hard times of the recession. Many potential clients can be approached face to face, and leaflets and freebies can be handed out, which help people to remember different companies and their services.

There are many types of giveaways that companies can offer to prospective clientele. Free pens with the company logo or slogan written on them are a big hit, as everybody needs a pen from time to time. Other companies opt for things such as stress balls, chocolates, balloons and even alcohol, occasionally, to draw in customers. All of these usually have the company logo and details featured prominently on the packaging and are ordered in mass quantities.

However, it seems that one of the latest trends in advertising your business is to use promotional USB memory drives, or pen drives. These are memory sticks which come in a variety of sizes, from as small as 64mb to a larger 4 GB, or sometimes even more. They can be used to store vital company information on them, such as price plans, contact information, available packages on offer and even videos and images showing the company to its best advantage. Also, they can be locked after they have been created, meaning that once the information is on the promotional USB memory drive, it cannot be deleted.  In addition to all these benefits, the exterior casing of the USB pen drives can be customised to show the company logo and/or slogan on the front. A lot of them also come in plastic cases that prevent them from being damaged and make them easier to stack and display on a marketing stand.

A lot of companies that are using promotional USB memory sticks to advertise their business seem to be finding that they have a bigger impact than using items such as chocolates or balloons. This may be because they are easy to slip in a handbag or wallet, so people will find them after they have left the show and access them to jog their memory of the company. Also, as it is so easy these days to use a laptop whilst travelling, people can access the promotional USB memory sticks even when they are going home on the train or the tube, for example.

The range of promotional USB memory drives that are available is ever growing. From the classic brushed aluminium style to leather, from wooden ones to novelty varieties such as wristbands or spheres, there is a type out there to suit every need. They can also be bought in an array of colours including yellow, green, red, blue and pink. Eco friendly memory sticks are also available, which are classed as environmentally friendly.

So, if you have booked yourself in for a trade show and need to find some way of advertising your business that is not only cost effective, but doesn’t hurt the environment, USB sticks may be the way forward. With such a wide range to choose from and incredible versatility when it comes to choosing the actual design that will best suit your company, promotional USB memory drives cannot be beaten.

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Drawing in the Crowds

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Secrets to Growing Your Business: Promotional Pen Drives

Monday, July 13th, 2009

Portable USB memory has advanced significantly in the last few years, and the range and style of flash drives available today are many. Companies who want to market their logos and products to a large audience of potential customers are using promotional pen drives to “spread the word” about their business.

The phrase “pen drive” is a general term for many types of USB storage that don’t all necessarily look like pens. The other interchangeable terms for this type of portable storage are flash drives, jump drives, and memory sticks.

However, the most stylish pen drives do resemble executive ballpoint pens. When you unscrew the cap, however, instead of a writing instrument you find a handy USB flash drive to store documents, data files, pictures, and other important information that can be used with any available computer.

For a business that sells products or services, promotional pen drives offer opportunities for cost-effective advertising and for building up brand awareness with their clients. Customers appreciate these promotional “freebies,” since they can be plugged into any available USB port on a Windows or Mac-based computer and used without any previous setup requirements.

Offering pen drives to all your customers makes smart business sense, since it generates opportunities for repeat business when people use the devices outside of your place of business. What you really get is a portable business card that has your business name, logo, address, or phone number.

If the recipient uses this device in public, it may generate conversation from satisfied customers who can tell others about what your firm does or how well they were treated when they did business with you.

As data files, computer documents, and digital photo files get larger and carry more information, a pen drive can provide some much needed storage space for frequently used files on a computer that are not vital to the operating system. Those who design audio devices, satellite receivers, and other electronic equipment are adapting their products to accept pen drives by adding USB ports to their components for easy transfer.

This means that music files, pictures, and digital media can now be accessed on more than just computers. The increasing availability of high-speed internet service and wireless networks allow business people to share information more quickly and easily than ever before.

In essence, by offering promotional pen drives to business associates and customers, not only are you contributing to the growth of your brand name and reputation, you are opening doors to inexpensive channels of communication that weren’t possible less than ten years ago. Flash drive companies are also addressing data security concerns by including encryption software with many of the newer drives.

The cost of producing flash drives is dwindling, and those savings are passed on to those who purchase them. They are more lightweight, durable, and reliable than other forms of media storage, with no moving parts. In addition, there are now wide ranges of “sizes” of pen drives that can now store up to 64GB of re-writeable data, although 16GB drives are much more common.

Remember, these are small devices that can easily fit in briefcases, backpacks, even trouser or shirt pockets. The colour, size, and style combinations now available are incredible, and designing promotional pen drives to match the personality of your business could be a small step that generates repeat customers and a greater market share than one might think possible.

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Secrets to Growing Your Business: Promotional Pen Drives

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Can you delete files from pre-loaded Promotional USB Memory sticks?

Wednesday, July 8th, 2009

Picture the scenario. You have just taken receipt of your bright new USB Branded Memory sticks for an event that is due to commence in 2 days. You load the first of the USB Memory Sticks into your PC and to your horror you discover that the data has been loaded incorrectly or there is an error with the original information provided.  Apart from putting a wet towel over you head what options do you have? He’s a list of things that may help:

USB Dataload

  1. Try to minimise the risk of this happening in the first place. Ensure your Custom USB supplier provides you with screen grabs of the data for sign off. Ideally ask for a pre-production sample of your Branded USB Memory sticks with the data preload. This way there little risk of any issues in the future.
  2. If the data is not protected or has an autorun. Then there are some easy solutions:

    • Delete the data from the memory sticks and re-load. Doing these individually is a painful and slow process and is not recommended for batches of over 100 units, unless you have an army of people to throw at this. This process is also prone to quality issues.

    • There are several data duplication companies in the UK that can take the Branded Memory sticks and format and reload the data relatively easily and quickly.  They can process up to 3000 memory sticks within a few hours. Job done.
  3. The nightmare scenario! If the memory sticks are data-protected or have an autorun it becomes far more complex. No surprise, as by the very nature the Promotional USB Memory Sticks are engineered to stop end users doing exactly what you want to do, namely delete and change the data. The software required to do this will be dependant on the controller that the Branded Memory Stick has been loaded with. The controller is the mini operating system that all USB Memory sticks have. Again there are several options to resolve this.

    • Return back to the manufacturer. They have the technology to format and reload the data, but the downside is that it will take time to return to the Far East, get them reloaded and shipped back. You would need to allow up to 2 weeks for this.

    • Some USB Providers will have the software to allow the data to be deleted in the UK. If not, ask them to try to obtain from the manufacturer. This would allow them to delete the data. Then the next challenge would be reloading the data. The easiest thing to do would be to load the new data with no protection or an autorun. However, if this is a pre-requisite then there are a few UK Data Duplication companies that have the capabilities of loading the data with copy protection and autorun. Again this will be dependant on the controller that is on the Branded USB Memory Drive.

The moral of this story is to ensure that you minimise the risk of this happening, by having a pre-production sample produced. Otherwise you will be entering a very stressful process and that towel will continue to get wetter!

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Can you delete files from pre-loaded Promotional USB Memory sticks?

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USB Hubs and promotional pen drives

Wednesday, July 8th, 2009

USB ports have a number of applications, allowing connection of USB sticks and promotional pen drives.  However, many people choose to use hubs.  Hubs are a device that allows for many other devices to be connected to a single USB port.  The advantage of this is that hubs are often built into computer equipment.  This allows for each device to work on one internal USB as opposed to every port having independent USB hardware.

Hubs come in a variety of forms.  Along with more regular hubs are hubs that are known as inverse or shared and these allow several PCs to access a single peripheral.  Only one PC can access a peripheral at any one time, but many computers can be hooked up, using all recognized devices off and on.

If a USB network has many hubs, it requires the hubs to be connected to each other.  A hub network can only extend a USB network up to five times.  Bus-powered hubs are not allowed to be connected with each other in a series; these specific hubs draw all of their power from the computer’s interface.  Many devices use more power than this type of hub can provide.

When creating hubs, you may end up blocking other ports.  Ports are closely spaced, of course plugging in certain devices may block a port rendering it unusable.

Due to hubs being external, you can now get them in novelty shapes to make your computer look more fashionable.  There are designs from time traveling spaceships to nuclear missile launch consoles to name just two.  We need to have these hubs for all our gadgets, but we also want to be looking good while using them.  Gadgets such as USB devices and promotional pen drives cater for our needs for novelty as well as practicality.

To allow for high-speed devices to work in their fastest mode, all hubs between the computer and devices must be high speed.  Devices should fall back to high speed once plugged into a full-speed hub. It is best to use USB 2.0 with high-speed devices.  Although this is true, USB 2.0 also incorporates and surpasses USB 1.1.  This means that full-speed and low speed devices are compliant, but not all 2.0 hubs operate at high-speed.

USB hubs use one or more integrated controllers.  They usually support a four port hub system.  You can get hub controllers that support 7 ports.  Some hub controllers can convert PS/2 to USB for your mouse and keyboard.

A self-powered USB hub is suggested for your smaller devices such as mice and keyboards.  When getting into your larger devices such as, external drives, printers and scanners, AC powered hubs are said to be a better choice.  Some AC powered hubs come with an adapter while others don’t.  Make sure to get the hub that best suits your needs.

If you have multiple devices that you will be using with your computer, hubs are probably the way to go.  They make your ports conveniently accessible.  They are inexpensive and especially handy with laptops where you may need more ports in order to use more devices.  You really can’t go wrong using a hub to support your devices.  You are more likely to have what you need right at your finger tips.  No matter whether you are using your promotional pen drives, a USB keyboard or mouse, make sure you have the correct hub.

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USB Hubs and promotional pen drives

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Sizzling Summer Special!

Friday, July 3rd, 2009

We are delighted to offer Free Pantone Matching on our most popular models, whatever the memory size or quantity of the order.

Simply provide the Pantone Colour you would like the body of the memory stick to match and we’ll do the rest.

Our normal Pantone Matching price is £150!

Promotional USB Free Colour Matching

The models included in this offer are:

• TWISTER – More info
• MOSCOW – More info
• BERLIN – More info

Please fill out our quick form and we’ll get back to you with a quick quote: Click here

This amazing offer will end at the end of August 2009 – so don’t miss out.

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Sizzling Summer Special!

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