http://www.promotionalmerchandiseblog.co.uk/">Our Impression – The Promotional Merchandise Blog from LSi

If there is one word that does NOT sum up this industry it’s ONLY. There is nothing only about a pen, a polo shirt, a ruler…..if I do a search within Google for printed pen I get 199,000 results, if I search for printed umbrella I get 219,000 results. That’s not to say there are 219k different umbrellas but there are hundreds without doubt and on pens there are hundreds of thousands of different options. What I’m getting at I suppose is that for the person not in the know it is a mammoth task to find the right pen….at the right price…..with the right leadtime for their event. That’s where we come in. We have knowledge in this industry dating back over 20 years, we know what we are doing. We live by the ethos that there is ALWAYS a solution and we have to place the right product that suits your needs. My boss, Lloyd, is always telling us that anyone can sell a pen or a mug – what we’re trying to offer is a solution to your needs not just a product that will make us a sale there and then. If we do it right then the product we place will be so good that you keep coming back to repeat the order.

We understand this industry, we understand the products and the printing techniques….what we don’t understand are your needs and that’s why we need to talk. If you want to talk to the best then give us a call on 01274 854996.

Since the credit crunch came to the public eye a lot has happened to this industry and not all for the better. My feelings on the past 18 months are mainly that the business is still out there but the companies taking x product are wanting x product again just cheaper or they are wanting an alternative that once again is cheaper. This is fine and we’ll do everything we can for every customer or potential customer but somewhere along this price path there has to be a limit to what can be done.

Recently I worked on a job for USB memory sticks, the product was roughly £4 and my competition was selling at £3, that’s 25% cheaper than my price, I’m buying this product direct from the factory in China and I’m bringing it in using our own freight company and I’d be more than happy to in the first instance be making 25% let alone wipe off 25% in price – so how is it done? This is my concern and on this product I know how it’s done, the product is compromised, you can only go so long dragging down the price of the product before you get to absolute cost value so to get cheaper you have to drive down the quality of the product. The USB has to have recycled memory so you end up with a high failure rate, the cotton shopper is made in 4oz cotton instead of 5oz and it’s not interlock stitched so when you put a bit of weight in it the handles tear off, the pen has a refill that’s only a quarter full and the end result is that it the end user has a pen that runs out in no time. So how does this reflect on the company giving away the product and of course the company supplying it (us)…it reflects badly.

LSi was not built on this and I know that our MD, Lloyd Simpson, would simply not allow this company to go forward in this way. Our aim is to keep our customers for life not for one order that makes us good profit. We’d rather just walk away from orders like this.

So why the blog? Well I want any customer or any potential customer to know what LSi are about, I will hold my hands up and tell anyone that we’re not the cheapest company out there but I don’t want to be. I want to be the best and I want to be the best value for money for all our contacts and we will NEVER compromise the product.

Be it 10 USB sticks or 50,000 polo shirts, we’re here to help and advise. myself and my team are always available.