There’s nothing better than a swanky leather accessory to make you feel the business at work.

The Corporate Gifts Company supply their high quality range of premium leather bags, luggage and accessories to retail outlets and online to consumers in the UK as well as to the promotional market for corporate gifts and premiums.

Obviously the buying criteria and mindset are totally different for each market but there are obvious crossovers and synergies.

There is always room in the market for different styles and price points and The Corporate Gifts Company (CGC) are particularly good when buyers are looking for the design and quality of a big brand but don’t quite have the budget. Flexibility is key, and amendments to existing products and totally bespoke solutions at very small production runs and virtually no development costs are possible. Interestingly, during the credit crunch, customers have actually requested even more exclusive and quality items.

CGC’s most popular leather item across all markets; wholesale, retail and promotional, is our laptop bags  – both the ladies Brescia style and the men’s classic Messenger style. One of the keys to its success is the ability to accessorize the bag with coordinated pieces from the rest of the range, from business card holders to passport wallets, and A4 folders to key fobs.

Branding quality leather goods can actually reduce perceived value, unless done discreetly; on small leather goods it is normally straight forward, but on larger more expensive and prestigious pieces it can be problematic.

This is where GCG’s flexibility really works; often advising on how best to translate a logo as there is a tendency for “corporate logo police” to insist on colours and sizes that are not appropriate. Thankfully, good sense and taste usually prevails and a discreet representation will then enhance the perceived value of the piece.

Any parade of winning sports stars always has one thing in common; they’re showing off their medals and trophies. While the medals themselves are worth relatively little in monetary terms, winners have described them as coming second only to family and friends in terms of what they mean to them.

The same is true of any trophy or award – again, the trophy itself was worth relatively little – it’s what the award means to the recipients that really counts. Nothing says well done more than a publicly received award.

While traditional trophies are still popular in some sectors, new technology and materials mean that the market is much broader and buyers are guaranteed to find something that fits their event and brand.

Those tasked with organisation recognition awards need to think about who will be receiving them and how they might be displayed, but also,  more importantly, about their own brand and what the trophy says about them.

As with a lot of product areas in the promotional sector, there is a definite swing away from “off-the-shelf” solutions. With 20 years experience we have seen many changes in the market. A decade ago there was a definite move away from expensive, high cost, long turn-around time, proper bespoke trophies and awards in favour of more off the shelf solutions. Amazing to think that at that time it was difficult to find a glass award anywhere; now you can’t walk round a promotional trade fair without knocking over an imported laser engraved oddly shaped bit of glass on every corner. Like a lot of Far Eastern solutions to UK products previously manufactured in the UK, the sheer size of the options and the unbelievably low cost has provided so much choice it successfully replaced the need to come up with an original idea. However, as they say, it goes around, it comes around – and now the popularity of “off the shelf” solutions seems to have waned. Recently we have found a real hunger for something a bit more special and different, and we are once again being approached for bespoke solutions.

So how do The Corporate Gifts Company go about creating a bespoke solution to an award or trophy? Here are a few basic scenarios to give you an idea;

SCENARIO 1

A county cricket award for a new one-day tournament requires a traditional, but modern trophy that will become the centrepiece of this prestigious new event

What would be great here would be a 3D lifesize cricket ball cast in metal and silver plated then mounted onto a marble or slate column. The combination of silver and marble will give a traditional quality feel. The design of the base would need to reflect whether the cricket clubs wanted traditional or modern and this is where The Corporate Gifts Company’s free design service would come in; as a matter of course we would design a number of options and present as visuals by email. The column would take an engraved plate with a space for individual plates or names to be added each year.

SCENARIO 2

A company wants to recognise its top 50 salespeople with something small that they can display in their homes. The gender split is 50:50 and the majority of recipients are in their 30s and 40s.

A corporate gift suitable for someone to display in their home is a difficult thing to pull off . If the award itself is prestigious enough, no matter how bad the design, then it will be used as intended (if you’ve ever seen an international footballer’s display cabinet of caps in a front room you’ll know what I mean), but generally if you want your award to be displayed at home, it will have to work a lot harder than normal. Here, then, something relatively small but precious would work; ie sterling silver, perhaps a contemporary modern design dish, bowl or salver with engraved details and most important displaying a feature hallmark to emphasise the value of the piece (this could be backed up by an official hallmark card from the assay office explaining the hallmark). Also, for relatively little extra, we can register the hallmark in a companany’s name and use its own hallmark to promote its own brand values.

SCENARIO 3

Awards for music journalists. The majority of recipients will be men in their 20s and 30s.

Unlike the first two, this award needs to be cutting edge and contemporary whilst still promoting quality and recognition; something like the  Codemasters (the computer game company) Award presented to their game designers. Made from solid acrylic, the main body was clear with a thin strip of blue acrylic at the back. This and the black base meant the award appeared translucent with the colour gradients changing from deep blue at the base to almost clear at the top. The unusual shape and laser engraved detail made this a very successful award extremely well received by the recipients.