Save A Tree By Using USB

The advent and incredible popularity of USB flash drives over the last few years has driven prices way down.   Although it is far from a perfect environmental solution using USB memory keys to carry your marketing slogan is a reusable medium that customers will keep in hands.  There are dozens of choices available from personalized versions to store bought and my recommendation to you is shop purely on price, here is why.

Your target market will care much more, or I should say should care much more about what is on the memory drive than what is printed on it if you are using it as a marketing message.  Simply put if you are using a flash drive as a promotional channel the message inside the drive is most important.   That is not to say getting a drive printed like the Leeds Beetle USB Flash Drive 1GB is a bad choice so long as the price is good, but there are less expensive alternatives that are just as effective.  If you are buying small numbers something like the Sandisk 1GB can save you a few dollars if you are buying small quantities especially when you consider shipping and setup charges.  The Sandisk requires a rebate and there is no loading capability at the store.  This means you will have to open each package and load up your marketing files yourself.   If you go with a factory drive that is printed you can pay a little extra money to have your message uploaded in bulk.   There are still cheaper alternatives but it surprised me greatly to find that the printed drives are now often less expensive than blank retail drives.  I am not really sure why this is unless competition is fierce or they are becoming a huge commodity.

The environmental benefits of going with a USB drive to put your catalog on are negligible in theory.  I am sure some company will try to claim they are green because they are reusable – that seems to be the big rip right now, everything is green if it is reusable.   At the very least it is a neat idea and one that your customer will almost certainly keep even if they delete the marketing material and use it as an in house drive to carry their own data.    Remember these are now commodities and prices will vary weekly so look around for the best deal and you will hopefully save yourself a few dollars.   Note the Circuit City listing I gave includes a rebate which would be a royal PITA while the Promo managers listing is direct pricing.  You can find even better deals in your local Costco or similar warehouse store.