Custom Made versus Stock Products

Why customise merchandise overseas?

• Stand out from your competition – with customising you create merchandise unique to your organisation.
• Save money – by manufacturing a custom order in overseas based factories you will achieve economies of scale, low production costs and avoid warehousing overheads

What can I customise?
Custom Made Baseball Cap
Almostanything. From a polo shirt in your corporate colours decorated in a dynamicway – to a backpack with custom zippers and pockets. From a stress item shapedlike your mascot – to a custom shaped 3D key ring to multiple custom items andprint material packaged in a blister pack. If it can bemanufactured, we can customise it for you. JEM have a network of contacts ableto communicate in the local language with literally hundreds of factories inChina, the US and the developing world.

Popular Categoriesinclude:

• Custom Made Caps
• Custom Made Bags
• Custom Made Apparel
• Custom Made Key Rings
• Custom Made Hoodies
• Custom Made Jackets

We also sort our custom products into 3 product categories that you can browse through:

• Australian Custom Made: Products that are fully custom made from scratch in Australia
• Express Customised: One example we have of this is with Legend Express. Legend Express is a service that allows you to pick from over 150 styles of caps and then customise the cap to the colours you want from the extensive colour range available. The best features of this service is that you only need a minimum order quantity of 100 and you will receive your goods in approximately 3 weeks from digital photo approval.
  • Think of it as being similar to Paint by Numbers…we will give you the Colour Palette and let you know where the colours can be changed.
• Fully Custom made: These products are fully custom made to your specifications. They are produced off-shore and normally take 12-14 weeks.

Decoration Options When producing something direct from the factory you have access to a lot more decoration options including:

• Standard Embroidery & 3D Embroidery – thread is still matched to PMS Colours
• Screen Printing – including tone on tone prints
• Process Prints – the ability to print in full colour with gradients
• Rubber Badges
• Metal Badges
• Embossing
• Heat Welding
• Rubber and Metal Zip Pullers
• Heat Prints
• Woven Labels & Tags
• Printed Labels

Not only are you able to use different methods to decorate your item but the branding area itself is much larger when you produce off-shore. When the product arrives in Australia it has already been sewn together and so it can be quite difficult to be able to have a screen put on the fabric so we can screen print it or access certain panels in order to embroider. When we manufacture off-shore we actually do all the branding before the item is put together. Because the fabric is flat there is no limitation on where we can and can’t print.

Not only are you able to use different methods to decorate your item but the branding area itself is much larger when you produce off-shore. When the product arrives in Australia it has already been sewn together and so it can be quite difficult to be able to have a screen put on the fabric so we can screen print it or access certain panels in order to embroider. When we manufacture off-shore we actually do all the branding before the item is put together. Because the fabric is flat there is no limitation on where we can and can’t print.

Are there minimum order quantities? Yes. The minimum order quantity varies according to the product – ranging from 100 for a custom cap to many thousands for temporary tattoos or plastic pens. The nature of a custom order is that our chosen offshore factory has a production run for your product – meaning that extremely small runs are uneconomic. If your equire only a few items, we may be able to offer local decoration of a product warehoused in Australia. Please look through our website to see what other products may be available.

How long does it take? With some products such as lanyards, caps or USBs that are broadly generic you will receive your product within 4-5 weeks of placing your order. If there is a high level of customisation or if it is a large item the production run could be longer and we would use sea freight to ship the goods to Australia. In this instance you should allow 12-14 weeks production. Airfreighting the goods into Australia at additional cost will bring down production time frame to 6-7weeks.For NewZealand customers we can arrange to have your order sent straight from China toyour doorstep which means your lead time is not longer plus you are not hit up with a freight charge from Australia to New Zealand.

Will I receive an art approval or preproduction sample?

You will always receive an art approval prior to production. For items such as temporary tattoos, lanyards or an item where you have previously seen a sample such as apen or USB without extra customisation this is sufficient. In every other instance our offshore factory will produce a preproduction sample for you to inspect prior to full production. Only once you are happy with the quality of the preproduction sample will we authorise full scale production.

Summary:

by producing off-shore you get to pick the colours you want, have a larger branding area with the option of printing more than 1colour and the price is actually cheaper if you are able to wait the two extra weeks. It pays to be organized and get your order in early!

Case Study: Inflatable Rugby Hats

JEM Promotional Products were approached with a brief frogman RTD Alcohol brand who was launching into the Australian market in the winter of 2007.
They were launching during the Rugby World Cup and they wanted a promotional product that would be a talking point, aimed a gaining publicity and generating word of mouth advertising for the brand.
A range of innovative ideas were proposed but the ‘inflatable rugby ball hat’ was the chosen product concept. Accurate pricing was provided within 3 hours of the brief and go-ahead on the project was given immediately. This began what would become one of the toughest lead-times JEMPP has ever had to meet, particularly for such a heavily customized product that was developed from as ketch concept.
Inflatable promotional products from concept stage through to delivery take on average 14-16 weeks to produce and deliver, but in this instance the entire order of 9,000 inflatable hats was produce and delivered within 4 1/2 weeks of the initial enquiry. The goods were delivered in full on the promised delivery date and the client was impressed and 100% satisfied with the product and the service. Supplier liaison and client communication was critical in making this deadline possible and ultimately a successful marketing brand.

How do I brief JEM Promotional Products on a custom order? Send us an email and we will talk you throughit. If you have a sample of the product you have in mind, a jpeg image from the Internet oreven a written description, we can have a quote to you within 48 hours or if it is very obscure 72 hours.

(Courtesy of JEM Promotional Products ©2009)

If you have any questions relating to promotional products, or need assistance in choosing corporate gifts, please don’t hesitate in contacting us.

If you have any questions relating to promotional products, please don’t hesitate in contacting us.
JEM Promotional Products
Phone: (02) 8205 1334
E-mail: enquiries@jempp.com.au

Website: www.jempp.com.au