As we all know, as one of the best ways to promote a brand, promotional products often need to show the LOGO, patterns, slogan, and other content, which will usually be printed on the product or packaging directly. In this article, I will share 9 different ways and their corresponding approximate costs. I believe that this will be of great help to you in accounting for import promotional products costs.
Screen printing is a common printing method at present. It is suitable for almost all materials (such as plastic, stainless steel, glass, silica gel, etc.). And its MOQ is relatively low, generally, more than 500 pcs could be customized LOGO with screen printing. And the cost is relatively low. Generally speaking, you could customize any LOGO by paying about $70 off the plate-making fee. Usually, the cost of screen printing per each piece ranges from $0.02 to $0.03 (depending on the size of LOGO). However, the only disadvantage of this method is that it is not suitable for polychromatic patterns, especially gradient patterns.
#2. Thermal transfer printing
Compared with screen printing, heat transfer printing is more complicated. And it has some limitations on materials. Generally, it is only suitable for plastic, leather, wood materials, and so on. If you need a customized LOGO with 3 or more colors, or even with gradients. Then I suggest that you use heat transfer. The cost of the plate-making fee of this method is generally $90.00. According to the size of the logo, the cost of printing per piece ranges from $0.03 to $0.06.
#3. Mold printing
This way is to make LOGO in the mold of the product, that is to say, when the product comes out of the mold, LOGO is already on the product. This method is applicable to any products manufactured by molds, such as plastic products, metal products, silica gel products and so on. Its advantage is that the LOGO or pattern on the product will be very natural. Moreover, because no additional printing process is needed, the production efficiency will be greatly improved. The only disadvantage is that its cost will be relatively high. For each customized logo, it means that you need to make a new set of molds. Mold costs usually range from $800.00 to $4000.00.
#4. Laser printing or Laser engraving
Because of the use of numerical control technology, the LOGO produced by laser printing or laser engraving is quite clear. If the size of LOGO is relatively small, we usually use this method. In addition, it does not need an additional plate-making fee, and the production cost of a single LOGO is between $0.03 and $0.05.
#5. Sticker label
Sticker label is really a versatile way to label almost any product. Most importantly, its cost is the lowest of all. You could order 2,500 pcs sticker label with size 3x4cm at a cost of about $40.00, and then paste it on your product. Maybe you would say that I only have 500 products, and I do not need 2,500 pcs at all. It’s very simple. You could leave the remaining 2,000 pcs to your supplier for safekeeping. You could still use them next time.
#6. Embroidery
Embroidery is mainly suitable for textile products made of cloth. Compared with the way of screen printing, it looks more upscale, so its cost will be higher. Depending on the complexity and size of the logo, embroidery usually costs between $0.1 and $0.25.
#7. Hang Tag
Hang Tag is also one of the most popular ways, which is widely used in clothing, toys, and other products. Usually, it is mainly made of paper or kraft. Of course, sometimes you could even see hang tags made of plastic or metal (but they are usually used in high-end products). In most cases, many people will choose 250gsm or 300gsm ivory cardboard, which is also commonly used in business cards, because it is the most cost-effective choice. The cost ranges from $0.02 to $0.03.
#8. Printed Poly Bag
In fact, I personally do not recommend this method, because of its high MOQ, which is usually 20,000 pcs per design. And the cost of plate making is $90.00 per color. If the quantity of your order is small, I suggest you not choose this method. Other ways are obviously better for you.
#9. Customized Color Box
There’s no doubt that an exquisite box could make the product look more upscale. Moreover, because of the large surface area of the box, you could print more information on the box. Box packaging is a very huge industry, its cost depends on the size of the box, different paper materials, different printing technology. All these will directly affect the prices of the box. The cheapest box, corrugated case, for example, if its size is 5 * 5 * 5 inches, it costs $0.19 per piece. Besides, there is one thing you have to consider if using box packaging, the final volume of goods will increase a lot without a doubt. It means you need to pay more for transportation.
The ways to customize logos on promotional items have been basically included in this article, and hope it is useful to you. Plus, I have written another article – How to customize attractive gifts for own employees?
