The Word Is Out On Custom USB Flash Drives

For several years the promotional USB flash drive sector has been dominated by standard, factory-designed flash drives that are simply overprinted with a company logo. Standard flash drives are relatively easy to procure, they come in a wide range of different styles and colours and they are given away in their millions every year. Branded and printed flash drives have become a runaway success in the promotions sector.

Standard USB flash drives are popular with companies because they’re the “easy option”. Plenty of suppliers offer them, there are lots of examples around that show how good they look branded up, the lead-time for them is pretty short at circa 10 days and they’re relatively inexpensive.

Compared to standard factory designed USB flash drives, custom USB flash drives seem to be in another league of difficulty in terms of ordering them and the perception is that they are much, much more expensive with horrendous lead times. Historically this is might have been true but with significant investment in production facilities and increased competition amongst the factories that produce them prices and lead-times have been reduced quite significantly.

Even with this extra investment Custom (bespoke) USB sticks are still a little more expensive than standard USB drives but if you want your drives to stand out from the crowd and really grab people’s interest then they are the way to go.

In some ways the standard models have become victims of their own success because they are everywhere today and as the old saying goes “you can get too much of a good thing”. Lets face it if you’ve been given numerous USB flash drives and they are all pretty much the same model with broadly the same memory on them and you’re given another one it’s a case of “so what”. This is exactly the reaction you don’t want if you’re the company that has invested in the USB sticks!!

Conversely if you take the time and trouble (and you spend a little more) on custom USB flash drives that are designed and manufactured specifically for you then you’re still pretty much assured of generating a “wow” when they are distributed.  If you want people to sit up and take notice of your company, your brand and your products then custom sticks are definitely the way to go. You don’t even need to come up with anything spectacular in terms of design – these custom models have been manufactured in the shape of the company’s name but they look fantastic and really do arouse the recipient’s curiosity and interest.

Of course these days anything can be moulded and manufactured so if you are thinking of going down the custom route challenge your supplier and see what they and their design team come up with. After all if they want your business they should be willing to invest some time in coming up with some creative ideas for you.

Whilst standard designs will no doubt continue to dominate in the short term the word is out on the benefits of custom USB flash drives.