The country in which a product has been manufactured within has over time become an indicator for quality. In my opinion though it is a very very poor indicator. There is a fair bit of stereo typing at work here because of the huge amount of product that gets produced a couple of bad products tend to easily give people the perception that everything from that nation must be either cheap or poor in quality or both. Places like India, China, Thaliand, Brazil amongst others are given a bad reputation for producing poor quality products. This is quite unfortunate though as these same countries are also responsible for some exceptional pieces of work which are so high in quality that they probably cant be created in other countries. Work quality you see is not related to country of origin. By saying something from China is cheap and then wink to imply low in quality is simply wrong. The old maxim you get what you pay for applies. Yes! many products from China and India are lower in price because of their labour costs. However at the same time they produce some stunning products from High End Audio Systems as well as production for leading European fashion houses. All of these products being as high if not even better than what others can.

On the flip side having a product made in America or made in England may not neccesarily mean they are better in finish. I have 2 pieces of Audio Equipment which are hand made in England. They costed well over $5000 in rrp price (i got them at a really good deal at cost price!!). The items are brand new but the casework was not cut correctly and the base was made from really low grade plastic. It performs beautifully the but the internal mechanism is playing up after 1 year of use. In summary the quality is bad. On the flip side though I’ve seen some of the tailoring done in England and headphones which are made in the USA which are amazingly high in quality too.

What I’m trying to say is that quality and design can come from anyone and anywhere. China India much like England and USA are all capable of producing flimsy products. These same countries though are able to produce product which are staggeringly well made. Our promotional items are made in a variety of countries. Around 15% from Australia, 5% from India and perhaps 80% from China and other places. Some of which are high in quality some of which are lower. In all instances all our products are high in value. The higher priced products is made with a superior fit and finish as well as a look. We do recomend Aussie made products all the time though but if for some reason that same product is not produced locally please dont assume that the overseas alternative mean a lower quality product, in many instances the opposite is true!

SUPER DUPER COOL. The latest Coca Cola campaign is an absolute blast. Share with Bill, Susan or whoever you wish to share your can of coke with. The appeal of this ad campaign can easily be seen with the huge queues inside shopping centres where they have set up temporary stands to personalise your can of coke. Everyone likes having their name on stuff. When its seemlessly integrated to an actual product then all the better. An ad campaign makes clients better engage and interact with your brand. This is precisely what our promotional items aim to do when branded with your logo. With all our products we can have them delivered with your branding and in some instances even print individual names on them such as promotional mugs. Just give us a call to find out more!

Australias National Recycling week is ON…. 7-13th Novemeber. Its an event for businesses and schools and the community. In other words every single one of us. Whether you are actively participating in the event or seriously considering it (it is never too late) why not consider one of our eco enviro promotional items. Better still opt for a environmentally friendly product that is literally made from recycled materials such as:

newspaper pencils
cardboard pens
recycled notepads
cornstarch pens
recycled non woven bags

Recycling is definitely the way to go to minimize the impact on our environment. We’ve been working quite actively to have our products supplied with an option for an eco friendly one.

Spring is on us and a new month means a brand new set of promotional item specials. Check out our monthly deals where you get huge value for money products. This month in our specials we are offering a huge offer for promotional items. For custom printed post its we are offering:

- Purchase of 7.5 x 7.5cm Get Free Gift of 5 x 7.5cm post its for half your order
- Each Purchase 12.5 x 7.5cm a Free Gift of 7.5 x 7.5cm post it pad
- Each Purchase 15 x 7.5cm Get a Free Gift of 5 x 7.5cm post it pad
- Each Purchase 15 x 10cm Get a Free Gift of 5 x 10cm post it pad

On top of this we have our new best kept secret Aussie businesses in budget custom branded flashdrives. Our specials are not run out or clearance items. They are genuine discounts on some of our best selling ranges of quality promotional items. Throughout this week we will be offering even more september specials as we head towards the final quarter of this year. So check back to find out more!

Great staff, fantastic products or fabulous service. Thats only half the battle when it comes to branding. What your business sells and how it sells it all contributes to your branding. However how you look visuallly is the other half of your branding. It pays to have consistent key visuals in your presentation from your door signs to your business cards to your promotional products and advertising. Write down guidelines to your logo and have all your team members stick to it. Overtime you will create a visual image where your brand will be instantly recognised by existing and new potential customers. With products stick to a colour or theme. This is an easy way to create consistency in branding.

We have a huge range of products. Not to honk our own horn but last count we have around 7200 different products. Thats not even counting the fact that many of our promotional items come in a range of different colours too. So are all our products made overseas? Nope, in all instances where we stock a product from overseas we wherever we can will carry an equivalent Australian made product. These include:

Promotional Rulers
Custom Branded Frisbees
Plastic Satchels
Conference Compendiums

In some instances we ONLY carry Australian made products especially where we cant be confident about the quality of the items such as:

BPA Free Promotional Plastic Bottles
Conference Candy Jelly beans
Chocolate
Conference Candy Toffees

We try our best to support our local industry. So if you need promotional items why not ask us next time about an equivalent Aussie made promotional item?

Thinkng of promotional items but afraid that your hard earned marketingdollars may end up in a draw after a conference or a tradeshow? How about these simple items which you will typically find in any office but are always visible? How do I know? Well in my old workplace I constantly saw these promotional items and more often than not some of them were even competitor companies too! Products such as these ones below are always kept on desk tops and are well worth considering for your next promotional item:

1) Promotional Mousepads
2) Custom Post its
3) Promotional Mugs
4) Branded Computer Mice
5) Promotional yoyos (a surprising product that is always a perfect office toy)

So why not consider these products next time you are looking for promoational items.

Its been many years now since 2002 when the Australian Enviro Protection & Heritage Council decided on a nation wide need to reduce plastic bags. In place there was a set target with a gradual reduction of plastic bags in place as well as a recycling target to be met. So far this initiative is working! In 2002 there were 5.95 billion plastic bags used. Today there is probably around 3 billion bags so almost a halving since 2002. So our population has increased and our bag use has gone down. So what gives? What do we use to carry things around? Well the use of paper bags has gone up heaps, but the major contributor has been the reuse of products such as calico bags and non woven bags. Commonly these bags are branded with company logos and are resused. It is a very common site to see promotional bags being used every single day. If you are planning a conference now is a good chance to jump in with your own custom printed calico or custom printed non woven bag for your potential customer to use and re use whilst advertising your brand. Why? Well the next phase of the plastic bag reduction is actually a 100% phase out! This has already been supported by most retailers and super markets and is now just a matter of time until all retail bags are either paper bags or where no bag is supplied and that customers have to bring their own. In fact many places where I shop now require me to purchase a bag or to use my own. So now is the perfect time to jump in whilst Australia is in a plastic bag reduction phase to ensure that your brand gets out their first!!

The colour red is a very popular colour among many companies. There are many logos which are either predominantly red or have red motifs through it. In fact if you happen to be looking at a city skyline in any given city such as Sydney, Melbourne or even Hong Kong or New York you would notice many of the building signs are either in Red or White. This is because with LED lighting which powers many of these signs are mainly coloured in either red or white. Until recently Blue & Green signs were not popular as they were much much more expensive to produce.

The colour red works well on a variety of backgrounds such as white or black and is easy to make a simple logo stand out. We at Cubic Promote realise that red is a very popular colour and it is for that reason that many of our promotional items come in red such as:

Red Promotional Pens
Red Promotional Bags
Red Stressballs
Red Branded Yo Yo’s
Red Printed Fribees
Red Corporate Caps
Red Customised Flashdrives

More than any other colour red appeals emotionally to more people. It is a stimulating colour and a strong vibrant red radiates the impression of energy. In a corporate logo sense it conveys a sense of confidence and of youth and enthusiasm. It also conveys a shelter protection feel about it too.

This weekend was a popular weekend for expo’s in Sydney. There was an Investment Expo,a Housing Expo, an Optical tradeshow as well as an Organic show. All in the one Darling Harbour location. I went to the Organic conference just for fun to see what products are available. One thing I noticed walking out of the show was a huge huge huge amount of trash. The trash was mostly brand new catalogues and pamphlets. Apparently what many people were doing after doing the rounds at the various shows was to take out and discard every and anything that wasnt remotely interesting. I know a bit about printing, it is very very expensive. In fact printing a glossy catalogue can easily cost into the double digits for short run prints. So essentially I saw huge amounts of marketing dollars being thrown away. Promotional bags on the other hand were all readily kept as well as all products that I saw were available such as stressballs and pens from some of the more savvy stands.

This is where promotional items can make you more memorable. Granted that a typical attendee has a lot of information to digest in a small amount of time you have only a small chance to make an impression. Miss out on this chance and you miss out on a customer. However what if you had the opportunity to gain a second chance? What if the potential customer threw out your pamphlet but kept the personalised post it note pad for use at a later date? (no one I know will ever throw out a perfectly fine custom postit). There is a large chance that the recipient of the post it may revisit your company at a later date by perhaps logging onto your website or finding more about you if they were again exposed to any of your marketing at a later date? This is exactly where promotional items can make you memorable and may give you a better chance and a 2nd shot at reaching your customer!