Occasionally, we get asked to compete with very low prices given to clients by offshore suppliers from developing countries. At the same time, we also have clients telling us about their nightmarish experiences sourcing direct from offshore suppliers and asking us to rectify a job that had gone wrong with an offshore supplier.

When comparing quotes, it’s only right to compare apples with apples. Here are a few good reasons why you’re risking your brand when you source promotional products directly from developing countries.

Cost of labour is much lower in developing countries and sweatshops with children working are common. This is in contrast to labour cost in Australia with human rights laws in place. I am sure you wouldn’t want people to associate your brand name with sweatshops.

The difference in language makes it harder to communicate with offshore suppliers. Communication is paramount when organising your custom promotional products. To get the job done right, you need to understand each other well. Imagine getting a load of thousands of custom printed tees shipped to you, only to find that the offshore supplier had misunderstood your order and misprinted the tees. Any chance of seeing your money back? I think not. Besides, are you willing to pay for freight to ship the wrong order back to the supplier? Yes, I didn’t think so.

End consumers do not have knowledge or expertise in the promotional merchandise industry and direct offshore sourcing like promotional products professionals do so they become vulnerable targets for these offshore suppliers. I remember a friend telling me how his dad was cheated by an offshore supplier in a developing country. His dad actually went to the country to see the manufacturer’s factory to check if all was legitimate after which he made payment for a $100k bulk order. The order never reached him and he could not contact the offshore supplier over the phone or email so he flew back to the same location. He found that the factory was deserted. He asked the locals there where the staff and the business had moved to and he eventually found out that the whole thing was a scam. The offshore supplier had hired pretend staff and the factory to scam a number of vulnerable foreigners. Don’t become that vulnerable foreigner. Local Australian legislation won’t be of much help for you in such situations.

When you source promotional products directly from China, for instance, the products are generic and are not backed by renowned brand names. This increases the likelihood of poor quality products.

Timelines for production and delivery from offshore suppliers are also much longer. Local promotional companies can turnaround and deliver your products faster.

So what’s the moral of the story?

Leave it up to local expert promotional merchandise professionals to source offshore products for you. You’ll be better off this way. By trying to save some dollars here and there, you might end up ripped off and deserted by offshore suppliers,which is too often the case.

The local Australian economy needs a boost to get back to surplus in our budget especially after the GFC. By purchasing from 100% wholly owned companies like PromosXchange, you’re keeping our profits in Australia.

Be Australian. Give Australia a fair go. Support local Australian businesses.

Much like other pieces of clothing, headwear has made itself known as one of the most versatile things a person can wear on any given day.  Since there is a headwear designed for almost every function or occasion, hats, caps, & other forms of adornments for the head can be seen practically anywhere, both indoor and outdoor.  This makes headwear an equally effective piece of mobile advertising and marketing, hence the emergence of promotional caps and other forms of promotional headwear.  Being situated on the head of a person, any type of promotional headwear is almost immediately noticeable, making it somewhat of a “prime slot” in terms of advertising space.  The visibility offered by the promotional headwear allows the brand being promoted to be seen even from afar, and in the case of highly catchy designs and colors, such as those found on personalized and embroidered caps, this is definitely a very effective marketing venue.

Not just strictly visual or ornamental, many forms of promotional headwear are actually functional, and depending on the type of local clime, such headwear can prove to be quite handy.  In countries where the sunshine can be quite harsh and blinding, having a wide-brimmed headwear or a cap with an ample bill to shield the face and eyes from the rays of the sun can be something that people wish they had.  Having already elicited an initial interest in people due to functionality of the promotional headwear, the goal of brand recall steps into play, since people will remember the perceived convenience of the promotional headwear seen, as well as the brand that was emblazoned on the item.  Should the promotional headwear be marketing an everyday brand that people have immediate access to, the entire goal of promotion is achieved all the more faster, since the hooked consumer will make the earliest attempt to purchase the same item, or at the very least buy the products of the brand seen on the item to receive their own promotional headwear as well.

Corporate gifts printed with your logo offer your business or organisation many benefits.  Who doesn’t like a freebie? I know I do, especially when I get a package and don’t know what’s inside. It creates a sense of excitement in me. When executed cleverly, corporate gifting is not just a matter of throwing a gift at a client or employee. It represents your relationship with your clients and employees. Corporate gifts and promotional products printed with your logo can build and maintain business relations, make the recipients feel appreciated by your business, encourage clients to become loyal clients and provide incentive to employees to perform better. Highly successful businesses are acutely aware of this and this is one of the reasons why they are so successful. When choosing a corporate gift for your clients and employees, make an effort to choose imprinted promotional products which suit their tastes, interests and loyalty level. For example, your top performing employees deserve better promotional merchandise compared to the rest. Or you might have a group of clients who love golf so golf related promotional merchandise would be appropriate. Not sure what corporate gift or print would be suitable? Simply call 1300 760 887 (9am to 5pm AEST) and speak to one of our promotional corporate gifts consultants for suggestions.

It’s been a year of uncertainty with regards to the Australian economy but one thing’s for sure, we avoided the recession and we’re heading into a brighter New Year. As reported in the Australian on 25th November 2009, Australia has ”recently entered a new upswing” and ” it is reasonable to assume that we will see this growth extended for a few more years yet”. So what does this mean for your promotions, promotional marketing and advertising right here and now? Well, don’t just sit there and be merry that Santa has come early. It’s the perfect time to swing into action for the New Year and increase your promotions to stamp out your competition. Use promotional merchandise, corporate gifts and  promotional advertising to get noticed and capitalise on the upswing in the economy to put your business at the forefront of your competition. PromosXchange has thousands of promotional products and merchandise to suit every promotional advertising budget and objective.  Browse through our large range of promotional products online on www.promosxchange.com.au or if you need advise on the right promotional merchandise or corporate gifts for your next event, please call us on 1300 760 887 to speak to one of our promotional consultants.

If Rihanna’s umbrella song is anything to go by, umbrellas are definitely the in thing to have (still can’t believe they made a whole song about umbrellas!). Advertising using promotional umbrellas is a practical and great way to promote your organisation. Other than in Rihanna’s hot umbrellas video, umbrellas can be seen at all different types of outdoor functions where large numbers of people come together such as sporting events, the races and festivals.

Umbrellas are a great way to show you care and protect your customers and employees, and the imprint area on umbrellas allows you to notably display your company logo. Moreover, an umbrella is one of the most useful promotional products that will be used over and over again so you’ll be sure to get the maximum exposure for your brand name. Some companies actually re-sell their promotional products including promotional umbrellas. These companies benefit from the profits and free advertising of their brand name.

At Promosxchange, we offer a variety of promotional umbrellas to suit your needs.  There are different types of umbrellas such as Folding Umbrellas which are perfect for storing away in concealed places, Long Handle Umbrellas and Golf Umbrellas which are bigger than the conventional umbrella. At Promosxchange, we offer screen printing and digital transfer of your logo on umbrellas.  

Speak to our promotional products consultants at our Melbourne head office to find out how you can effectively market your corporate logo on promotional umbrellas.

The promotional products industry is a thriving industry with sales in its billions of dollars each year. So who are the top buyers in the industry? Well, obviously the top buyers are the ones who are cleverly utilising their bigger budgets as they know the value of promotional products in their marketing mix. According to the Promotion Magazine (March/April 2009 edition), the sectors below with examples of the top buyers in each sector make up the top 50 Australian advertisers:

1. The Pharmaceutical Industry – eg. Procter & Gamble,   Unilever,  Johnson & Johnson

2. The Finance Industry – eg. ANZ, Suncorp, NAB

3. The Alcohol & Gaming Industry – eg. Fosters Group

4. The Media Industry - eg. Fairfax Media, News Corporation 

5. Motor Industry – eg. Toyota, Mitsubishi, Mazda

6. Retail Industry - eg. Myer, David Jones 

7. Telecommunications Industry – eg. Telstra, Singtel Group/Optus, Vodafone

8. Food Industry – eg. Wesfarmers, Masterfoods, Kelloggs

9. Travel & Leisure Industry – eg. Qantas, Harvey Holdings, Village Time Warner Group

No matter which industry you’re in, PromosXchange has a large range of branded promotional merchandise to add value to your brand. In addition to the promotional products, promotional corporate gifts and promotional clothing viewable on PromosXchange.com.au, there are thousands of other printed promotional items available from our promotional items manufacturers’ factories across Australia which are not shown on PromosXchange.com.au.

PromosXchange delivers Australia wide, catering for promotional products Melbourne, Canberra, Brisbane, Adelaide and Sydney. We constantly update our website with new promotional marketing ideas and promotional items so keep checking back with PromosXchange.com.au Whether you’re looking for promotional pens, imprinted bags, printed mugs, promotional clothing such as t shirt printing and embroidered polos or promotional corporate gifts, PromosXchange Australia offers a fantastic range of high quality, most popular promotional products and promotional merchandise from renowned manufacturers. PromosXchange uses the best imprinting techniques to brand all promotional products and promotional merchandise with your logo through embroidery, screen printing, pad printing, engraving, digital transfer and dye sublimation.

If you can’t find what you’re looking for on PromosXchange.com.au, contact one of our promotional products Melbourne head office promotional consultants. If you’re looking for a specifical promotional item that you would like sourced, please give us a call and one of our promotional consultants will discuss your promotional item requirements with you. From design through  to production and on time delivery, PromosXchange will take the best care of your brand. Just let us know the objective of your promotional corporate gifts or promotional clothing, your target market and we’ll source the best promotional item we can find to suit your promotional marketing budget and promotional campaign objectives.

When deciding on printing of your logo/artwork on promotional products, it’s best to know the basic differences between spot colour print vs full colour print.

Spot colour printing is a process where each colour is printed in its own single color ink. If there is just one color to be printed, there will be a single run. If there are two colors, there will be two runs, and so on. By using a single ink for each colour, it is possible to achieve good matching to both existing printing and future print runs and to colours from the Pantone spot colour swatches. For example, if you must match a colour in your corporate logo, spot colours should be used. Because of its good colour matching ability, spot colour printing also produces prints with extreme clarity and crispness. Since spot colour printing uses single inks, this method is typically cheaper and used for jobs which require no full color logos/artwork, such as for one colour printing on t shirts and mugs. However, it becomes rather expensive for more than 3 color prints on promotional products. With spot printing, you also have a smaller colour range to choose from.

4 color printing, also known as full colour printing or process printing, involves the use of four colour inks: Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Keyline (Black). When these four colours are mixed, you can get a wide variety of colours for printing of your full colour logo on promotional products. Full colour printing is usually more expensive than spot printing as it requires four different colours to be printed. Unlike, spot printing, it’s harder to match the colours in full colour printing so full colour process printing will not be as clear and crisp looking as spot colour printing.

Whether you decide to use single print colours with spot printing or full colour printing will depend on what you see as most important ie. colour matching of your logo, cost or achieving full colour print.

Transfer pad printing, commonly known as pad printing is a popular printing method for products of odd shapes, and sizes as they can be printed on without any sacrifice to detail. This method of printing is used for smaller sized promotional products such as promotional pens, mugs, stress items etc. Artwork required for quality printing are either vector EPS or Adobe Illustrator AI files and to size of the print area. Text must be converted to outlines. Images need to be at least 300dpi and either embedded or supplied as separate files. If all this sounds like a lot of technical jargon, don’t worry. PromosXchange provides free text artwork and free artwork enhancement for printing onto promotional products if you do not have your file in the correct format for quality print. This saves you $60 – $100 of what you’ll be charged from most other promotional products companies. The print area for pad printing is not large as it’s limited by plate, pad and efficiency of the machine and the size of the item being pad printed. So refrain from writing a thesis by using long lines of text and complex logos. Keep your artwork for pad printing simple. What works best is a very simple logo and short text. Anything else is an overkill.

I’ve got to say, I am a great supporter of Obama. Not because he’s now President of the United States but because he and his marketing campaign people had the sense to know the value of promotional products. His campaign’s investment into promotional products was a factor in getting him out there and into the President’s spot so obviously they know the power of promotional products. According to opensecret.org, Barack Obama spent double the amount of money on promotional items like promotional badges, promotional t shirts and promotional signs than John Mc Cain who shamefully did badly with the votes. Who can forget the promotional t shirts with Obama’s face worn by Hollywood celebrities like Oprah? So there you go, if party candidates and the President of the United States can’t do without promotional items, I don’t think you can afford not to afford promotional products for your marketing campaigns. Hmm…I might run for Mayor of Melbourne myself using all our promotional gear:))

So you’ve chosen the promotional products you need. What next? Well, you’ve got to have quality artwork for quality print. The preferred format in the promotional industry for all graphics files for print on promotional products are either vector EPS or Adobe Illustrator AI files. Text must be converted to outlines. Placed images need to be either embedded or supplied as separate files. Sounds like too much technical jargon to you? Well, it most likely is if you’re not a graphic designer. If your artwork is not supplied in the correct format, most promotional companies charge you anywhere between $60 to $100 to reillustrate your artwork and make it ready for print on promotional products. However, PromosXchange gives you FREE Artwork Enhancement meaning you don’t have to pay to reillustrate your artwork for print on promotional products. Even if you don’t have artwork but require text only for print on promotional products, PromosXchange will do it for free.