I wanted a favor for my wedding that people would actually use (or eat). My man is a big nerd and he is constantly buying multi phone chargers for friends at work and friends in general. Basically if he hears you mumble "damn I lost my cord", or "I left my charging cord at home, anyone have a spare?" he buys them like candy off Amazon in sets of 10 and just hands them out. He's a good guy. Anyway I keep hearing 2 things: 1) Multi phone chargers are the "hot" give-a-ways at conferences 2) That Wedding favors are a big waste of money - but not if they are good So that was my mission, to get these things at a good/fair price and in a small (50-60) qty figuring only 75% of my guests would take one. I work in marketing so you would think I could pull a good vendor favor or two, but nope, my "regular guy" not only felt pestered by my puny request, he could only do 100 minimum qty. Let me just say he is no longer my "regular guy" because Courtnie at Creative Marketing Concepts now is my regular gal! Courtnie was a doll, not only did she work with me on quantity and price, but she also offered to have her team do the artwork for our wedding favors at $0 extra..sweet deal - I think I scored the "Courtnie discount" too. shhhh...don't tell her I told you. I am going to have a "phone charging station". .. (called a "Power Bar") at the wedding, so these favors will be displayed there. Another cool wedding task checked off the list! The chargers arrived within 2 weeks and were delivered easy peasy to my office via UPS. read more

Creative Marketing Concepts - My fantastic wedding favors. They were a HUGE hit. Wish I ordered more. I think some guests took more than one. - Marketing Near Me - San Francisco, California

It is very clear to me that CMC intentionally withheld the truth about our order delays to prevent us from canceling our order. They did not inform us of the true status (that the vendor was out of stock) until after it had imposed a high cost to our organization. We have placed three separate orders with CMC, all of which have gone badly. 1 - Order for 27 embroidered Marmot jackets 2 - Order for 100 branded pens 3 - Order for 180 American Apparel t-shirts 1. JACKETS: We ordered 27 Marmot jackets on Dec 19. We were initially told they would arrive by Jan 5, and then the expected delivery continued to slip. We were then told we would have them in time for our January 22 holiday party. If at any point we had been told that the delay would have been months, we'd have ordered a different brand or gone with another vendor. Instead, we were constantly told that everything was in order and delivery would be in 1-2 weeks. On Feb 27, I told our rep that if the jackets did not arrive soon, we'd need to cancel our order. He replied that they would arrive by March 7. I followed up on Mar 3, and our rep said everything was still on track. On Mar 24, our rep told us the delivery date was still uncertain and we could order different brands. He provided a few options, none of which were name-brand or high quality, so he later offered us Patagonia jackets. We tried on a few jackets and picked the style, and on Apr 12 we sent our new order. On Apr 20, we sent a follow up email since we hadn't heard back from our rep, and a few days later we called. Our rep NEVER told us that the jackets were out of stock until 3 months later. In fact, he constantly promised us delivery dates 1-2 weeks out. We followed up with him almost weekly, and he continued to assure us the jackets would arrive soon. I don't believe he even mentioned any problems with strikes until February. At that time, he told me that the jackets were DONE and on a boat for delivery. Later we hear they are out of stock - this means he blatantly lied when he said the jackets were ready to go and just delayed at port. It was not until March that he indicated the jackets might never arrive. 2. PENS Lest you think we're idiots for trusting CMC a second time - the one compensation CMC offered us for the incredible delays was a free order of pens, which we decided to take him up on. We placed an order about 2 weeks before our conference (for which we needed pens). Five days before the expected delivery date, we were told the vendor was out stock. Rather than find a similar alternative, he suggested a different style pen, in a different color (silver), with a different color logo (black). It wasn't until I called him for 30 minutes, that he found another black, metal pen with silver logo. Luckily, he was able to expedite the replacement order, and they arrived the day I was leaving for the conference. Only every pen was empty - no ink cartridges. Yes, 100 pens without ink. 3. T-SHIRTS While the jackets were processing (and so before we had any idea of the problem), we also placed an order for 180 American Apparel t-shirts on March 16. This order was also delayed several times and finally arrived on April 21. During this time, I ended up needing to place a rush order with CustomInk online, and they were able to deliver my shirts to me in less than a week. As of today, May 1, I still don't have any jackets. I did insist that CMC provide a discount on our next order and include jackets for the new employees who have joined since our original order. (Since these were a holiday gift, we only ordered enough for the current employees, but arriving six months later, we have new employees and it would be awkward for them not to get a jacket.) I spoke directly to the CEO, who went so far as to blame our organization for a delay in getting the sizes to them. He claims that because of our delay, their vendor ran out of sizes. Rarely does the CEO of a company blame the customer for the problem. But this doesn't explain the complete lack of communication, transparency, and honesty from CMC. I certainly suggest you avoid doing business with this company. read more

After using TCP for years we decided to test the waters and shop around. CMC had great service, with quick turn-around on many revisions for our lucites. They were able to accurately recreate a very low quality logo in sharp scalable vector format. They also waved the typical fees on design/etc. for our first order, and combined with a per unit price around $10 lower the cost at least for this order was better. Unfortunately now that we have received the order the quality is quite low and doesn't represent the drafts well. Specifically the design is on a white background, but the paper used isn't even a bright white so a green logo looks a pale yellow-green. There is also color banding on larger color sections, typical of any low-end printer you would have at home, and even the text/black graphics aren't sharp. Considering this is a service that would typically cater to frequent orders going into the thousands of dollars it's really unacceptable to not have a better printer. That's probably not CMC but their supplier/manufacturer, but either way they would need to make a change to be worth another order. Also several people felt their embedments were slightly misaligned. Overall the experience went well but with significantly lower quality results which won't justify any minor cost savings. read more

Always my go-to vendor for promotional products! On my most recent order, Tatiana was so incredibly helpful with selecting the right items and providing the information we needed to stay within our budget. Items arrived on time and produced correctly. Thank you to Tatiana and everyone at Creative Marketing Concepts! read more

The #1 best company to work with for promotional products. They have chosen to partner with the best promotional providers and it really shows. Brian Camp is the best. Anytime we need anything or problems fixed he is right on it. He even made a personal visit to our down town office to help us with a solution. read more

Over three years ago, I was curious about the window display on Market Street and walked in to visit CMC's 2nd story showroom. As a newly hired executive of a merged non profit organization which also had rebranded I wanted to find marketing and brand promotional items to give away at a staff advance (no retreating!). Using our non profit resources wisely as well as getting our name and reputation out, I conspired with Zack and his talented crew to select some items that were very functional as well as highly visible. Since then, I have come in at least twice a year to see what is current, attractive and available. In fact the one staple we have come to look forward see is logo apparel every year. All my 80 staff look forward to the new style, color and function of the new offerings. By itself, those selections are a big hit. Many staff wear their gear with pride every day! Moreover, I have been delighted with several other items from water bottles to electronic devices that helped promote our agency with style, fun and function. I like to seek quality, value and overall coolness of any marketing selection I make at CMC. To me its a go to resource for ideas, levity and a desire for excellent service with joy included. I have asked for fast deliveries or special quantities and am never disappointed with their response. I do feel that they search the globe for products that last, useful and indeed make a difference to the recipient of the product. Their showroom has been remodeled and worth a look to get ideas for your company. No doubt that just three years ago, that I randomly walked in and now feel blessed to have a partner to help promote our agency in a professional, attractive, fun and hip way to the world in a visible, artistic and lasting way. Kudos to the energetic and thoughtful staff at CMC for a 5 star all around level of service and integrity. Its all about the relationships ....as you develop the trust and respect then quality transactions are just a mere byproduct of your connections. Looking forward to our spring launch and a long term relationship of promotion and prosperity. read more

Courtnie Lim was very helpful, knowledgeable, efficient and willing to be flexible with our budget. She sent me a helpful link while on the phone and a great informative follow up email a minute later. Very professional. Thank you Courtnie! read more

Laura and Courtnie at CMC are making me look like a rock star at work. We recently re-designed some of our promotional materials, with CMC's help, and I have received so many compliments on the product and the design. I have looked into alternate vendors but always come back to CMC because I TRUST them to find me the best products at the best prices, and to work with me on my events and promotions so my company has the most innovative and remembered promotional items. read more

Our small budget non-profit organization helps disaster victims navigate fair insurance settlements. Part of our approach is giving out customized diaries to help people stay organized with their paperwork. We placed two orders for these diaries with Creative Marketing in the past. We recently placed a third order costing $14,000 - a huge sum to us - and it turned into an unpleasant mess. The company botched the production and at first offered us a discount to compensate us, then rescinded the offer and wasted hours of my staff's time. read more

If you need 100% satisfaction and 100% delivery on tight deadlines - reach out to these guys. They rock. Seriously - I've dealt with plenty of promo vendors before and none can match CMC. I've worked directly with Zachary (the owner) and Justin (representative) and they were on top of it at each and every step. A+ work. read more

I have ordered several products from this company in the past. I have been mostly satisfied with it. However, I just placed another order there and it was quite a disappointment. They delivered a very poor-quality product. They sent a closeup picture of the final product which was fine. However, when I received the bottles, the art was off centered and too small compared to the dimensions of the bottle. I expected more professionalism from both the vendor and the company that proved the service. When I reached to Marguerite at Creative, she was very uncooperative and put the blame on me saying that I approved it. This is not a way to do business. I'll never go back there, since they did not want to work with me. read more

I've worked with Courtnie at CMC for almost a year and it has been a great experience. She communicates quickly and professionally and always pays attention to the details. I've ordered conference banners, t shirts, water bottles, and many more swag items for different events. I continued to work with Courtnie and CMC after switching employers because of the quality of the items and the relationship. I recommend CMC for your swag needs! read more

We loved working with the staff at CMC. They helped us get terrific products for our school and the items were delivered on time . The sales staff assisted us with the adaptation of our logo to fit the products we bought, they also made excellent design suggestions. When we weren't sure which water bottle to choose, they advised us which ones were durable and functionally easy to use. They also knew which water bottles were "cool" and therefore popular with the students at our school. They are the best! read more

Thank you so much for the great ideas, excellent service and ON TIME delivery for our mugs, pencils, and water bottles we ordered last year. We absolutely love the art you did for the new logo for our school. It's amazing that you were able to take the little black and white sketch our students made and turn it into such a dynamite logo. Thank you also for the boxes and boxes of high quality donated items that our students are currently sorting and arranging to deliver to worthy organizations who are in need of donations at this time of year, in this economy. You are an organization with a heart AND highly skilled and competent sales people and graphic designers. Thanks from all of us! read more

I have worked with Laura for the past 6 years and work in the East Bay. I have ordered on-line with her and sent materials directly to our branch in Deerfield for big events and everything arrived on time and in one piece. In addition, I use her for our July 4th parade's for some 5,000 flag fans each year which are always a hit with our town parade attendees and also we have shared them with the local Veterans Hall and Blue Star Mom's. I thought that when we moved from San Francisco we would have a challenge as we were in Pleasanton and not a short walk away to CMC. No problem, we do all our quotes and shopping with Laura on-line. Great service and follow through. read more

I have received exceptional service for over 6 years with Laura at CMC - always professional, patient, efficient, creative, and never dropped the ball. Absolutely flawless! read more