Businesses will spend millions of dollars each year on printing and publishing costs, for both external and internal purposes, and hundreds of thousands of dollars are spent on expensive printing equipment. However remanufactured toners and printer cartridges are now providing an effective alternative for businesses keen to reduce costs, while at the same time reducing landfill and creating a positive effect for the environment.
Remanufacturers replace the worn components in printer cartridges, clean the cartridge and re-charge the toner, making them available at lower cost. However there are doubts about whether remanufactured toners are more expensive to maintain or have a shorter working life than a new cartridge.
PrintSmart Cartridges has supplied both original and remanufactured toners for years, from all major manufacturers, and has conducted extensive reviews into the benefits of remanufactured cartridges (also known as compatible cartridges). PrintSmart has found that not all remanufactured toners are the same and not all are worth the trade-off; however certain brands of remanufactured toners can serve businesses well in printing quality and reliability.
PrintSmart houses all major brands of new and remanufactured toners, including hp Toner Cartridges. Other brands inlclude Canon, Lexmark, Panasonic, Kyocera, Epson and Brother, and on request can provide an obligation free quote to businesses. PrintSmart also have a team of experts on hand who are more than happy to discuss each business’s individual printing needs, and recommend the use of remanufactured toners if it suits the needs of your organisation’s needs and budget.

Secure and easy identification is best attained with a photo ID system or card. ID badges and cards are already essential to enter many apartment buildings and workplaces, as well as the usual applications like proof of age, driving licenses, library cards, various membership cards and the others we accumulate in our wallet or purse.
If you need to produce your own ID badges and cards for your own purposes (such as a membership card, loyalty card or student card), save money and produce your cards in-house with a Magic Card ID card printer. The single side printer (with double side option) allows you to set your desired specifications for a quality card that can be produced in bulk for an affordable price.

Magic Card produces ID badges of the highest standards and magic card printers offer a two year guarantee to back this assertion. If you need to produce more than 5000 cards per year, it makes far more financial sense to produce your own ID badges than to continually outsource. Magic Card printers are compatible with Windows operating systems and either standard or ‘value plus’ internet packages also containing blank PVC cards, colour printer ribbons and ID card making software.

Magic Card also supply all the accessories you need to produce ID badges like card holders, lanyards, clips, straps and punches, cleaning kits and colour ribbons. Importantly, cards have the option of coming with a magnetic strip, encoding and watermark for security purposes.

The humble whiteboard has been a staple of many classrooms and meeting rooms for decades, and it has now received an extreme makeover, in order to increase learning and collaboration opportunities. Interactive whiteboards can be used with a computer and projector to create large touch screen displays, where you can even use your finger as a mouse!

This new technology is available from Command Integration, which has been offering interactive whiteboards and new audio visual solutions to schools, universities, TAFES, local government, and health & corporate clients for ten years.

One of its solutions is the TeamBoard interactive whiteboard, which offer all the features of the SMART Board, the first interactive whiteboard, with additional benefits. The TeamBoard interactive whiteboard:
•    Doesn’t require any pens or erasers
•    Can run off a computer’s USB port
•    Has the lowest reflection of any interactive whiteboard on the market
•    Can be used as an image capturing device
•    Doubles as a normal whiteboard that can be written on
•    Can be wheeled into place in any room, making it ideal for sharing across multiple rooms
•    Comes with a surface lifetime guarantee

Using the TeamBoard interactive whiteboard, you can surf the internet, send and receive emails, plays movies and DVDs, connect to video conferencing systems, write over the top of programs and work on documents collaboratively with your colleagues.

For general presentation purposes, Command Integration offers the CINQ multimedia cabinet, containing projector, sound cabinet and DVD/VCR, all controlled from the one control panel. And Command stocks a range of premium audio visual equipment, including digital TVs, DVD players and recorders, and radio mic systems.

Design is a great way to tell your business’ story, via a sharp image or a catchy slogan or phrase, summing up what your company can offer to potential clients and customers. A display banner is a common technique of getting your message quickly and emphatically out to the population, and can be transported to many locations like trade shows and exhibitions.

Digital Signage Solutions do the whole range of display banners and business signage, and offer free artwork as part of their display solutions to create the catchiest signage for your business. Based in Melbourne, Digital Signage Solutions can deliver display banners Australia-wide. If you need action quickly, Digital Signage Solutions can offer same day service, and has created display banners and other signage for some of Australia’s most recognised companies, including car manufacturers, telecommunications companies, food and wine makers and football clubs.

An amazing range of products are offered by Digital Signage Solutions, with the most popular being the roll-up display banners. Standard, premium and extra large display banners can quickly and effectively project your company’s images, can be taken anywhere and assembled and demounted in just a couple of minutes. Take them wherever you wish, from conferences to trade events. Outdoor displays, made from durable materials and designed to resist harsh weather conditions, can be positioned outside your organisation’s offices and can also be displayed indoors.

Digital Signage Solutions also offer flags and tear drops, pop up walls, shop fronts, posters, car graphics, design, web design and digital label printing to help your organisation stand out from the crowd.

There are hundreds of different promotional items for you to choose from, making it difficult to decide which one to go for to promote / advertise your brand. So how do you choose which one to go for?

The wrong choice of product can either be a waste of money or worse still, can give the wrong impression. Here are a few guidelines which you should follow when choosing promotional items:

1. Make sure your promotional item is tailored to your target market
2. Choose a promotional item which will be used by your target market i.e. they won’t throw it away
3. Make sure your promotional item is convenient i.e. it is small and/or can be carried easily

Spend a little time thinking about the above 3 points when choosing your promotional items and you should, hopefully, come up with the perfect product for your promotional giveaway campaign. Here’s a few more specific pointers though:

If your promotional giveaway is being hosted at a sporting event, why not give away something like promotional drink bottles, promotional caps or promotional polo shirts? These types of products can be branded with your company logo and the logo of the sporting event or teams. Done properly, these types of promotional items can be very effective.

Is your target market children? Why not try giving away novelty pens such as glitter pens or different coloured pens?

Maybe you are hosting an event – You could try something like promotional lanyards?

Promotional golf day? Why not give away promotional golf umbrellas?

Trade shows? Try something like promotional USB drives, promotional pens, keyrings and stress balls. These are small and easy to carry.

Using promotional items is a great way to promote your brand and can be highly effective if you take the time to think about what might be the best promotional item for your target market.

There are many ways to launch your new product in store, from display bins through to posters and even price promotions, but sometimes it takes something a little more personal to really get that product in your prospective customers’ faces. Promotional sampling is increasingly finding a place in the marketing mix, and promotions sampling using a fully trained brand ‘expert’, who customers can talk to and ask questions, can be a very effective way of marketing your new product or brand. An in-store brand expert can:

• Increase the number of people who trial the product
• Build awareness
• Educate customers
• Distract from other products

All this leads to an increased number of sales. In-store “demonstrations” have evolved to more effectively and speedily push products off the shelf and into consumers’ shopping baskets. Promotional sampling has developed several variations of in-store promotion to meet a variety of budgets and objectives, from simple in store sampling, to ‘gift with purchase’ promotions, and a hybrid of the two.

So what else do you consider when thinking about promotional sampling? Before you decide to undertake your next in-store promotions sampling, consider the following:

1. What do you want to achieve? Is it sales, overall brand recognition or something else?
2. When is best to undertake the activity? At the weekend, in the evenings, in the day? Is your product seasonal?
3. How much do you have to spend?
4. Are your competitors releasing similar products at the same time? What are they doing to promote their products?

In summary, promotional sampling can be a great way of getting your brand noticed, much better than simple price promotions or display bins. As with almost all types of marketing there are costs to take into account, but don’t overlook promotional sampling when thinking about options for your product launch.

Trade shows are the perfect time to exhibit your company and your products and services to your prospective customers, right in front of your competitors. Your stand is likely to be surrounded by your direct competitors, so you have to stand out. So how do you do this without breaking the bank? And have you considered every little aspect?

It’s a few weeks leading up to your trade show. You’ve got your stand organised, your wall graphics are almost ready, and you have application forms and suggestions forms ready to go. Is there anything else you haven’t considered? Of course there is – you need something for your visitors to take away. While you may have the most fantastic looking stand in the show, your visitors are likely to forget about your brand after they have left the show if you don’t give them something to remember you by. So you need them to walk away holding something imprinted with your brand, your contact details and what you do. Here’s how:

Brochures and Flyers

Company brochures are a great way to give prospective customers information about your company, it’s history and the products and services you supply. There are many companies available to print brochures, and these can be done relatively cheaply depending on the number you get printed. Don’t forget to include your contact details in the brochure – this can be done as easily as including your business cards. Can’t afford brochure printing? Why not consider flyer printing? Flyers are a much cheaper option and although not as effective as brochures, they are a good way to market your brand.

Promotional Products

There are hundreds of different promotional products available, from promotional stress balls to promotional pens. Office products are usually the best type of marketing merchandise as these are likely to be used by your target market day in, day out (see my post on promotional pens). Don’t giveaway something which is going to be discarded straight away! What else is there to consider when looking for promotional products. Well, never overlook size. Certain promotional products can be big – how much space have you got on your trade show stand to store all of your promotional giveaways? You should consider giving away promotional items which are either small (i.e. promotional flashdrives / promotional USB) or can be folded or stacked effectively to make the most of the limited space on your stand (think promotional t shirts).

Promotional Bags

If you are giving away brochures or promotional items, your customers will need something to carry them in! Promotional tote bags are the perfect way to give your brand that extra bit of exposure. Put all of your promotional giveaways in a branded promotional bag and everyone at the trade show will see people carrying your bags branded with your company logo. They may be interested to know where the bags have come from and will hopefully be intrigued to know what is inside them – a great way of drawing people to your stand without any extra effort.

Last but not least, make sure you wear something which is going to make you stand out as a staff member on your stand. Try wearing something like branded polo shirts or other types of promotional clothing.