Posts Tagged ‘promotional item’


STERLING SILVER

 Tuesday, September 1st, 2009

STERLING SILVER
The hallmark of quality; how often you heard that phrase? So why is the hallmark synonymous with the concept of quality?
Hallmarking precious metals was one of the very first instances of consumer protection in history; devised in Birmingham, England as a means of verifying the quality of the material goods were made of and protecting consumers from unscrupulous traders – not much has changed has it?
As silver plate is essentially a thin layer of sterling silver on top of a base metal such as brass or zinc alloy, it is difficult for the layman to tell the difference. The hallmark therefore, is indisputable proof that an item is made from sterling silver or another precious metal.
The hallmark is made up of symbols that denote; the year it was made, the assay office it was verified at, the maker, and the grade of precious metal. Most common are 925 silver, 9ct, 18ct and 24ct gold.
The Corporate Gifts Company have a comprehensive collection of sterling silver promotional items from business card cases to bookmarks and from photo frames to paperweights. All can be diamond engraved using our in – house engraving facility. We can also design special commissions and bespoke items in sterling silver and solid gold such as; cufflinks and corporate jewellery or keyrings and personal accessories. Our in – house design team can supply FOC visuals – just ask the sales team.


Why trust the Corporate Gift Company

 Thursday, August 13th, 2009

Trust is very topical this year at home and abroad whether it’s the MP’s expenses or who really won the election in Iran. In a recent report by the Bar Standards Board, not surprisingly policians and estate agents polled as the least trusted profession with journalist not far behind. Among those most trusted were lawyers (perhaps surprising) and accountants.
Buying online is a far more common place now than even a couple of years ago, but not a week goes by without some scam or other being reported. So trust is a big issue when buying from a website, and if you’re sourcing corporate gifts or promotional items, then there’s enough wrong to worry about with hitting deadlines, getting branding right, and quality issues, without worrying about whether you can trust the website.

Here are some reasons why you can trust The Corporate Gifts Company
1) we’ve been supplying promotional items since 1991
2) we have been ISO9000 accredited for over 10 years (the international quality standard)
3) we’ve been members of the BPMA for more than 10 years
4) we hold the Investors in People standard
5) we have thousands of the satisfied customers – check out our testimonials
6)   stock is held in our warehouse and branding is done in  house so we’re always in control

And furthermore our friendly and professional staff will always be on hand to answer any queries and will keep you informed throughout your order every step of the way. You can trust The Corporate Gifts Company with your promotional gift requirements – call today on 0845430 2902


How to get ahead in business – with Corporate Gifts!

 Thursday, August 13th, 2009

Having a face for a radio – or even average looks – may hold people back in the workplace more. A report from the University of Florida have found that while we may like to think that we get paid for our abilities, the sad truth is good looks and a winning smile count for more.

Alarmingly, the research shows that preferential treatment based on attractiveness begins with the behaviours of the mother and other caregivers towards children – meaning that those with better looks are likely to have more confidence instilled in them. By the time they reach the workplace their combination of good looks and self – assurance has a good chance of winning them a better job and salary. Various studies have argued; one in four female executives would consider cosmetic surgery specifically to boost their career progression, over half of women having a better body and being more attractive would help them climb the career ladder. Good looking, slim, tall people earn 5% more than their less attractive colleague’s on the other hand overweight people get paid 30% less than their more slender colleagues.        

Although this may seem a bit “tongue in cheek”, legislation for “lookism” (no really) already exists in the USA and is coming to a workplace near you in the UK!
So the rather tenuous link into this jaw dropping insight into workplace preferences is that The Corporate Gifts Company has probably the best looking selection of desirable premium incentives and business gifts on the web. In fact, if Carlsberg did corporate gifts, this would be their website! From fantastic desk accessories like the sleek Desk Set, to beautiful ladies gifts like the Handbag mirror, the Corporate Gifts Company is the best website for drop dead gorgeous promotional items. After all we now know a good look gets you further in business, don’t we?


Marketing to Niche Markets

 Wednesday, August 5th, 2009

In today’s difficult economy many companies are seeing their traditional revenue streams shrinking. If there is one challenge to the sales promotion industry it is how to reach minority markets, currently estimated at about £400billion. Conventional marketing and promotional methods are not enough to capture those hard – to – reach minority markets This is made up of a range of markets including ethnic minorities, seniors and the LGBT community. A lot of the organisations have been unsure how to respond to these changes, opting instead for a, “one a size fits all,” generic approach.

During the recession, businesses should be investing in marketing strategies that target these diverse, groups through targeted products and messages.

An advantage of the promotional merchandise industry is that it provides the perfect platform for this short of approach to our increasingly diverse, cultural society. Promotional products and services can reach and engage with hard to reach audiences.

In terms of cost, promotional items and corporate gifts, can reduce wastage and maximise efficiency. According to the Office of National Statistics and Brand Choice;

1) Disposal income in the U.K ethnic minority market is access of £90 billion.

2) 18.7% of the U.K population is 65 and over.

3) 8% of the population in the U.K are ethnic communities.

4) 1/3 of businesses are owned and run by members of ethnic minorities.

A number of major brands already communicate well with ethnic groups in the U.K as part as their marketing, and PR strategies, such as Tesco and HSBC. They, have conducted specific very successful campaigns and built brand loyalty and revenue. Niche products tailored to meet specific needs, are also doing well.

In the good times, when budgets are generous and targets are perhaps less important, sales campaigns often are characterised by a scattergun approach – throwing spaghetti at the wall and hoping enough of it will stick. Obviously in a recession every marketing pounds or dollar needs to count and promotional items and corporate gifts can prove highly targeted and cost effective; different products can be chosen for each and target market with a range of branding techniques; from jewellery to keyings and flash drives .


Promote youself, get the edge over your competition

 Wednesday, July 22nd, 2009

With the huge rivalry between companies online, it is hard to differentiate yourself from the throng. An area internet marketing people fail to utilise fully is with business giftware.

Corporate gifts are products that are branded with your company logo, URL, contact information or a different message you want to relay.

Normally the 1st item that comes to mind is branded pens or T-Shirts but in actuality there are thousands of a different items you can use all you need is a bit of creativity to make yourself stand out from the crowd.

Promotional product giving points:

1. Promote Your Website
• This is the one of the first things that comes to most people’s minds once they think of how they should use business giftware. Every product you choose to promote your business you should include your URL on it.

2. Niche Promotional Gifts
• You can find products that compliment your type of business items.
An example is, if you sell handbags, it would-be be a great idea to include a handbag hook for table that has your brand on it.

3. Motivate the consumer to purchase more – the upsell!
• You can use promotional gifts to incite your customers to buy more products than they would normally, this is called up selling. This can be easily achieved online by bundling multiple products on with a promotional item.

4. Affiliate rewarding
• Thanking your best affiliates by giving them a business gift. it shows that you appreciate that they promote your company. You could send gifts to your partners once they reach a pre-determined goal, or you can simply surprise them with a present. In doing this you are building a stronger relationship. And they will be more likely to promote your business more and make you more money in the long run.

5. Thank Your Customers
• Just like saying thank you to your affiliates, it is always worth considering thanking your clientele. The most effective way to do this is with a tiered giving approach. Give your top clients a high perceived value products and then decrease the value of the products for the preceding tiers. You can have as many tiers as you want.

6. Get a competitive benefit
• Because of tough online competition, it’s harder than ever to compete for business online. But promotional gifts can give you an advantage. If your competition aren’t utilising this essential marketing technique then steal a march on them!


UK vs FAR EAST

 Wednesday, December 31st, 2008

When the Corporate Gifts Company started in business almost 20 years ago, all our promotional items and corporate gifts were either made by us, or other UK manufacturers. As with a lot of industries, we found we couldn’t compete with Far Eastern imports and reluctantly hung up our manufacturing boots, so to speak, and joined the masses importing from the Far East. We ensured we only worked with quality suppliers and the range of our products grew and grew.
With recent “reversals” in currency exchange rates (from an importers’ perspective of course) and soaring costs out of the Far East, suddenly “Made in the UK” is now less of rose tinted view of past times and more of a reality.
We at the Corporate Gift Company are only too happy to grab the opportunity of manufacturing again in the UK, and we are currently working on lots of new ideas to launch in the new year. There are lots of benefits that will directly effect the service and product we can offer.
1. Made in the UK means a vastly reduced carbon footprint – no shipping a promotional product from one side of the world to another.
2. Although we always strive to work only with ethical suppliers (as you can see from our Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) policy, manufacturing ourselves or with well known UK companies means that ethical issues are even more assured.
3. Faster turn around times. Obviously when we have an item in stock our turnaround times for plain or branded promotional items are second to none. But the time for replenishing stock from the Far East is becoming longer and longer. Items made in the UK will be faster.
4. Bespoke Items (awards, trophies, plaques, corporate jewellery) will become even more flexible with more options and faster turnarounds.
So, watch this space. There’ll be loads of new and exciting product launched on the website in January.


New Products Coming Soon

 Saturday, December 27th, 2008

Here at the Corporate Gifts Co we are always working to develop and expand our product range, and despite all the economic doom and gloom, we are striving forward with some really exciting new promotional product ideas for 2009. After all, promotional activity is essential to drive your company forward, whatever the economic outlook, and when it’s this bad, you need new and cool incentives and premiums to drive new sales.
So what are we working on?
Well, we are developing a range of eco-friendly, ethically sourced awards which will be available in standard models “off the shelf” and also bespoke options using our free design service.
My favourite is a new innovative range of promotional aluminium folders and office accessories manufactured in the UK. Again, these will be available off the shelf and as special bespoke orders. These will be great for promotion of documents and product launches and, well, the list is endless.
More Sterling Silver; our current range of sterling silver promotional items is proving so popular we are working hard on significantly expanding the range.
That’s just a small selection of the new promotional incentives we’ll be launching next year. Some are already available so if you’re particularly interested in any of the above, give our promotions sales team a call. As they say, watch this space!


www.corporate-gifts-co.com – New look with a clear message.

 Friday, December 26th, 2008

The Corporate Gifts Company have totally revamped our home page and templates to do justice to our unique collection of quality design-led corporate gifts.

We tried to put ourselves in the buyer’s shoes and immediately felt sorry for you guys out there sourcing your corporate incentives. Why? Well, there’s a lot of very “samey” looking corporate and business gift websites out there. ; how do you decide which website to contact? Not only that, with the bewildering choice of product they feature, how do you wade through the promotional products on there to find something that is suitable for your promotion?

Now, the Corporate Gifts Company are not trying to be all things to all buyers (to be honest, I’m not sure anyone could honestly pull that one off) but we have a very specific quality design-led range of promotional items and we felt that our site needed to tell you that from the very first millisecond that you viewed the home page. And we wanted to make it a bit Chritmassy too.

Hope you like it; www.corporate-gifts-co.com


Corporate Gifts for the Credit Crunch

 Saturday, December 20th, 2008

Just like every other office, I guess, here at The Corporate Gifts company we have jumped on the chance to talk about something other than the credit crunch and we’ve boarded the bandwagon to put our twopenneth worth of ill informed opinion about the the BBC’s recent unpleasantness. Well, whaddaya know, seemingly like the rest of the country, our office was definitely divided along age lines (gosh I hope that isn’t an ageist remark!).

Basically, the over 35 disgusted of Tunbridge Wells type were…well, disgusted, and the our resident Y Generation upstarts couldn’t understand what all the fuss was about.

Afganistan, Iraq, USA presidential elections, world recession, etc, etc and we in the UK are obsessed with a schoolyard prank gone too far! I’m sure this “scandal” is just like a sorbet course of a really expensive meal; refreshing the palate so that we can really get stuck into the main course of how far the world will tip into recession in the next few weeks, months and even years.

What Jonathon Ross and Russell Brand need is a bit of positive PR. For the 35,000 (and counting) disgusted of Tunbridge Wellsians, a sensitively chosen corporate gift engraved with a message of heartfelt contrition drop shipped directly to their door is just what the spin doctor would order. The Corporate Gifts Co could do that for them (cyinical I know, but we’re always looking for sales opportunities). 

Anyway we decided to call for ideas in the office as to the most appropriate gift.

How about;

This photoframe to put a picture of a proper radio presenter in (Terry Wogan perhaps?) http://www.corporate-gifts-co.com/acatalog/corporate_gifts_photo_frames.html

A pen – so they can write more complaints http://www.corporate-gifts-co.com/acatalog/corporate_gifts_milan_ballpoint_in_a_chrome_box.htm

Notebook – to write more….yes you guessed it http://www.corporate-gifts-co.com/acatalog/corporate_gifts_pocket_notebook_pen.html

Put a cork in it and have a drink instead (my favourite) http://www.corporate-gifts-co.com/acatalog/corporate_gifts_cone_wine_bottle_stopper.html

See how good we are, and we weren’t even trying really. If you’d like us to suggest an appropriate corporate gift or promotional premium for your company or promotional event, please give our expert sales team a call!!!


Corporate Social Responsibility

 Monday, December 15th, 2008

The Corporate Gifts Company are delighted to publish our CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) on our website.

The Corporate Gifts Company are members of SEDEX; The Supplier Ethical Data Exchange which aims to provide transparency in supply chains to the standards of the ETI base code (the internationally recognised standard for ethical trading). Check out our policy at;

http://www.corporate-gifts-co.com/acatalog/corporate_social_responsibility.html

This is an ongoing process and The Corporate Gifts Company will soon be able to guarantee ethically sourced product clearly labelled on the website – watch this space!

Of course, a lot of our product is already responsibly manufactured and sourced. For example; sterling silver items are made in the UK so carbon footprint is lower than imported items, any waste material is recycled, and the products themselves can be recycled (if anybody would actually want to do that with one of our sterling silver gifts). Check out our range at;

http://www.corporate-gifts-co.com/acatalog/corporate_gifts_sterling_silver.html

Leather is a natural material, the waste or offcuts are made into smaller leather items or can be recycled into bonded leather (as can the finished items themselves). See our exclusive range of leather promotional items at;

http://www.corporate-gifts-co.com/acatalog/corporate_gifts_leather.html

And if you’re looking for an award with a conscience, why not try our slate or marble options; 150 million years old, UK quarried and manufactured. The look fantastic too.

http://www.corporate-gifts-co.com/acatalog/corporate_gifts_bespoke_awards.html

For any enquiries about specific products or recycled, recyclable, or ethically sourced options, please call our sales team.