The TV brackets and accessories market is incredibly cut-throat at the moment with lots of manufacturers struggling to achieve the sort of margins on the sale of TV brackets that they were able to command a couple of years ago. Like many sectors the traditional brands have been challenged by cheap imports from China.

Prices have been slashed and there has been a “rush to the bottom” by some manufactures, distributors and re-sellers. The inevitable price falls are on the whole good for the consumer but differentiating between a poorly made, cheap and cheerful bracket from China and a well designed, and well manufactured product from one of the leading brands is hard to do.

On the face of it this might seem like good news but the reality is that cheap brackets (particularly TV arms) tend to fail more frequently, the supplied fixings are poor and often then don’t comply fully with stringent import legislation. Companies like Vogels and Premier Mounts have a portfolio of products that are increasingly designed for the discerning buyer or the professional installer. Their brands and their products are bywords for design excellence and quality and they have effectively “walked away” from the bottom end of the TV brackets market preferring instead to protect the integrity of what they produce and their margins!

Vogels and Premier Mounts will often be found at major trade shows around Europe pitching their range of products to the corporate market, system integrators and the education sector. These are key markets for both companies and between them competition is fierce.

To help differentiate themselves from each other but largely to differentiate themselves from other, weaker players in the market both they are constantly looking at different marketing strategies. Vogels have used promotional USB Flash Drives to help develop their brand and to raise awareness. Premier Mounts are believed to be looking to do something similar. The adoption of promotional USB memory sticks should come as no surprise because they have been proven to be highly successful at driving “footfall” to a stand at a show (trade or otherwise) and they have been proven to be the most popular of all promotional products a company can give away.

Canny businesses that buy promotional USB memory sticks will pre-load them with data, sales brochures, technical sheets, video clips and prices before they hand them out. This way they can save on the printing of expensive glossy brochures. Vogels might be the first to use promotional USB memory sticks but given their well proven benefits and their popularity with customers don’t expect them to be the last!