March 2011

Current New at JP’s

JP Promotions has recently become a distributor for Elliott Australia. Elliott has over 40 years of experience in specialized safety products with over 1000 lines to choose from. Their product lines include chemical protection equipment, electrical arc flash and flame resistant clothing, gloves, welding apparel, high visibility clothing, wet weather gear, eyewear protection and much more. We are pleased to have Elliott on board!

Also, keep your eye out for our ‘Experience Us’ flyers in the southern suburbs in the coming weeks. We have over 11,000 being delivered to potential clients outlining who we are, what we do, products we offer, brands we supply and industries we operate in. If you would like a copy; or know of someone who would, please advise one of the JP’s team and they will get them out to you.

What is? The cost comparisons between embroidery and screen printing?

A common question that we at JP’s regularly get asked is: what is cheaper? Embroidery or screen printing? Now, this is not an easy question to answer as the two are very different forms of decal. One is obviously print and the other thread. Both forms incur initial set-up fees for films, screens, artwork (screen printing) and digitizing (embroidery) all of which are kept on the clients file for future repeat orders.

Screen printing prices are formed from the following variables: amount of colours, size of the decal, amount of positions and the quantity to be printed. So a basic White T-shirt with one colour print (say black) on the rear of the shirt will cost less than the same Tee with two positions, front left hand chest and back, or multiple colours assuming the quantity stays the same.

Embroidery prices are determined by the amount of stitches in the decal, the complexity of the design and the quantity of items to be created. And therefore colour is not a main driver in cost. For example, If your logo has 4500 stitches and 4 colours it will cost the same as a logo with 4500 and 1 colour (generally). Now, the ‘complexity’ component of the price is determined by additions by the client which requires added labour or additional machine time. This could include double backing of material for added comfort or removing jump stitches (jump stitches are the minute stitch that links between letters) from the design which slows production.

As a general rule: on smaller designs that are suited for above pocket decal embroidery is a cheaper alternative to screen printing. The opposite is true for large decoration suited for rear of shirt designs and it is not un-common for us at JP’s to do embroidery on the front of the garment and screen printing on the rear for our clients. However, as mentioned above, there are many variables to consider when determining the price.

Tips from JP’s - Lead Times

Promotional Products - When planning for your next campaign, product launch, expo, etc it is imperative to understand that the promotional product industry has varied lead times. For Australian sourced products it is generally accepted that you will receive your product within 3 weeks from artwork approval and deposit paid (cash accounts).

For customized goods that are produced offshore the general lead time is 10-12 weeks via sea freight and 6-8 weeks via air freight.

If you are able to remember these lead times for future campaigns then you should have timely delivery and smooth sailing!

Industry News

In the most recent edition of Marketing Magazine (Feb 2011) there was a fantastic article, ‘A Little Flair’, regarding promotional products and their use. Please see below for an appropriate reason to use promotional products as a tool in your Marketing Mix.

‘Promotional products can build brands and increase sales. Promotional products that are unique, innovative, highly targeted, relevant (to the consumer and the brand) will pull consumers towards the brand and create positive word of mouth (in the real world and online) that builds the brand – affinity and awareness – at a fraction of the cost to traditional paid media. Effectively used promotional communication tools ultimately tip the AIDA (attention, interest, desire, action) model on its head – rather than targeting many people and only affecting a few, they target a few people and affect many.

(Source: ‘A Little Flair’, Marketing Magazine, February 2011, p.26)

Tip: When speaking to your Account Manager at JP Promotions be sure to fully brief them on the entire campaign and where the promotional products fit in with the brief. This will result in a more focused meeting with the Account Manager and they should be able to offer more effective solutions to you resulting in a successful launch.