Finding the best priced swag

[ashlen]

Hey everyone. A company I work with does vehicle wraps, assists with branding, etc. and we are looking to purchase swag to give to customers, primarily air fresheners, coffee mugs, tin water bottles and shirts. Do you have recommendations on how to find companies that offer the best deals on these products? I have read Advertising Specialty Institute (ASI) to be a good source for direction but am still looking around.

[ashlen]

I did talk to ASI and they mentioned I can access their search tool of wholesale providers for $150/month with no contract. This could be valuable to us since we often outsource for our clients to order promotional materials.

[Freelancier]

Seems like a lot. I'd just call a few printers and ask them who offers these kinds of items in your area. Mostly it's printers who do this kind of promotional materials, so they'll know.

I'd skip the $150/month and just google "branded promotional products" and see what happens.

[turboguy]

Yes, I would skip the $ 150.00 a month as well. For tee shirts try discountteeshirts.com. They are a couple of bucks a shirt. Google, cheap tee shirts, Advertising specialties, promotional items and the like and you will find thousands of sources. Alibaba is another good source. Even with shipping from China there are some great bargains in printed specialties.

[jamesray50]

I wonder who Intuit gets their stuff from. They been giving away some cool stuff lately. I haven't received anything yet, but I'm hoping it's just an oversite on their part.

[Business Attorney]

I agree with the comments from Freelancier and Turboguy. Unless you are buying in huge quantities, shopping around and buying through a company selling a variety of promotional items is probably the best idea. The prices are pretty competitive. Most of the companies selling promotional items sell the same items from the same vendors, so they compete primarily on price, rather than on selection or quality.

That is not entirely the case, though. I had a client in the business who did have a few proprietary items that they had created. In addition, they would locate or even create custom items for some large customers. For example, a national insurance company (or a company like Intuit, mentioned by Jo Ellen) can afford to create unique items because they can spread the upfront costs of designing the product and creating the molds over a huge number of units. Very few companies can justify the development expense on what are typically low-cost giveaways.