Identity crisis - Is it a Promotional Pen or is it a Promotional USB Flash Drive

The cheap and cheerful promotional pen has long been one of the most popular products for companies looking to source giveaways for trade shows, trade fairs and seminars. Will the new hybrid USB pen challenge its dominance?

Promotional pens are popular because they’re cheap. Prices for printed pens start at below 20p per pen for the more basic versions (assuming your buys around 10-20,000) but you can go spend up to several £’s per pen if you choose some branded and more “up-market” versions.

Arguably everyone needs a pen albeit the growing use of products like Smart Phones, iPads, super lightweight PC’s and chip and pin cards is gradually reducing our reliance on the pen but realistically pens are going to be here for the foreseeable future. But, will people given a cheap promotional pen keep it and use it or will it just end up in the nearest bin?

If the objective of any promotional item you buy is not only to attract people to your stand or booth at a trade show but also to give them a product that they will value, they will use and will encourage them to do business with you then a cheap printed biro is unlikely to do it for you.

If you really want to give our Pens then better to consider a USB Pen. This is a standard pen (biro, rollerball or fountain pen) 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 also to store thousands of documents on the built in flash memory.

Although the USB pens will cost more, pre-loading your sales brochures and sale material onto the flash drive rather than paying to get them printed can offset much of the increased cost and by giving your customers (and prospective customers) something with a high perceived value they are far more likely to keep it and use it.

The USB pens are available in a range of styles, colours and memory sizes, they look fabulous and they can be supplied in complimentary presentation tins or gift boxes.

So, next time you want promotional pens for an event you might want to consider USB writing pens rather than standard pens.