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Supplier Spotlight - RB Fabrication, Inc.

Custom shapes, colors, and all made in the USA. That's what sets RB Fabrication's acrylic awards apart from other manufacturers. For more than 30 years, Randy and his staff have been creating high quality artistic awards made of acrylic out of their Orange, California factory.

Check out our short video interview with Randy Baker, owner of RB Fabrication!

RB's acrylic awards are some of the most popular awards that we sell, and it's easy to see why.  These clear awards have the look of glass or crystal, but the durability of plastic, at an affordable price. They come in a variety of shapes and sizes, with one for virtually every award occasion.  They also come  with colored wrinkled reflective bottoms, which radiate color throughout the awards.

RB is one of our suppliers we rely on when creating custom awards, as they have the ability to create acrylic awards in any size or shape imaginable!  And if a customer has a color logo or picture they would like to put on an award, then RB's products are our go-to choices.  Their awards are the perfect blank slate for color photos, company logos, or other custom artwork.  Check out our color imprint page to find out more.

We are so grateful to have suppliers such as RB Fabrications, who provide us with high quality products!

Cheers,
Jessica

Check out our video interview with Nik Meller

Imagery.  That's the inspiration for Nik Meller's line of designer Crystal Awards.  Whether the deep blue waters of the ocean, the clear blue sky above the Alps, a bee's honeycomb, or a spider's intricate web, Nik uses nature's architecture as the foundation of his designs. An international furniture designer and artist, Nik has lived around the world and uses his experience to inspire his creativity.  His work is infused with artisty that comes from a global perspective yet appreciation for the world's beauty.

See Nik's collection of crystal sculptures here.

Click here for our video interview with Chien.

Fashion.  That's the inspiration for Chien J. Wang's collection.  Chien's story begins in Taipei, Taiwan, where his father worked for a textile mill.  Young Chien saw all of the latest fashions before they went to market, and he dreamed of one day becoming  a fashion designer.

After immigrating to the US at 11 years old, Chien worked hard , studied business at USC, and opened his first awards company at age 22.  Not until age 40 did he begin designing crystal awards.  The market had gone stale and lacked originality.  Using his fashion design aesthetic, he began creating awards that elicit an emotional connection; you either love them or not.  His designs appeal to a more sophisticated customer, interested in awards that make a design statement.

See Chien's Collection of fashion forward designs here.

We are proud to offer such beautiful and artistic awards to our customers!

Cheers,
Jessica

We are members of a great organization called Recognition Professionals International. I recently read these FAQs on their site regarding budgeting for a recognition program.  I think you’ll find them helpful.

 Q. What is an average budget for a Recognition Program?

What is the goal of your Recognition Program?

This varies by company.  I would recommend benchmarking what other companies in your industry or other companies of your size are doing. Any award program vendor should be able to provide benchmarking data like this.
Greg Boswell, O.C. Tanner, Inc.

This varies on what each company is establishing as its ultimate goal of the recognition program, the size of the company and its demographics, that is the beauty of recognition it can start small and grow with time and measurements of success!
Sandie Hodel, United Airlines, Inc

Very hard to answer. Ours is approx. $100 per person per year, but this includes funds for an annual recognition conference that only 500 attend each year.
Steve Richardson, Royal Bank of Canada

According to the benchmarking research I've seen, this figure can vary wildly. Some companies invest up to 2% of their payroll, others feel that .05 of 1% is sufficient. Some invest very little. One of the goals of RPI is to help establish some guidelines or standards but that data will have to be gathered over a period of time. A confidential format for sharing this information may make it easier to obtain.
Dee Hansford, Dee Hansford Consulting

Q. What factor is the basis for most Recognition Program budgets?

It really depends on your program objectives. Once again, consider what you'd like the program to accomplish and then work towards that goal.
Greg Boswell, O.C. Tanner, Inc.

Per capita.
Steve Richardson, Royal Bank of Canada

Smart companies are investing in recognition that drives performance and behaviors that further the mission and goals of the organization. Consequently, they are seeing bottom line results. I can tell you that while at Disney during the 25th Anniversary celebration, we saw a 15% increase in the Cast's satisfaction with day-to-day recognition by their immediate supervisors; an overall improvement of 32.6%. We saw correlating Guest satisfaction scores that were very high and showed a strong intent to return, which directly impacted the bottom line. After working with CalPERS for two years, we have seen their recognition scores improve 19%; productivity is increasing, as are customer satisfaction scores.
Dee Hansford, Dee Hansford Consulting

Why should new spring trends be just for fashion? Trophies and Awards have exciting new trends as well, and we’re seeing many similarities between 2013 Fashion Trends and what’s hot in awards. Our awards experts have rounded up the top must-have award trends for spring 2013!

Trend #1: Pop of Color

We’ve seen a huge trend in color this year. Colorful Art Glass, color in resin trophies, and even colored clocks are huge this year. I love the combination of leather and color on this Howard Miller clock! Electric Blue meets snakeskin – fashion, function and recognition collide!

Trend #2: Black and Silver

One of the hot fashion color trends this spring is Black & White; in awards it’s Black and Silver. Plaques, crystal pieces, and clocks with this classic combination of colors have a modern, edgy look.

Trend #3: Modern Florals and Plaques

Floral prints have been around forever, but this spring they’re updated in fresh, new colors and prints. Wall plaques are the floral wallpaper of the trophy industry.  A little dated, and been around forever.  What's exciting this year is that plaques are being revived with new colors and options.  Stand-Up Plaques  are a huge trend, as many offices have little wall space. Many new plaques come with easel backs that can be hung or can stand up. Another plaque trend is new materials being used, such as crystal and acrylic. I love the beautiful new Art Acrylic Plaques because they are unusual, colorful, and look like a piece of art instead of being just another walnut plaque!

One new plaque innovation is the use of magnetic plates in perpetual plaques, which don’t require screws to attach. The customer can simply pull the plate off the plaque to move it around or to get it engraved. Why didn’t we think of this sooner!

Trend #4: Peek-a-Boo Pieces

Logocut is the hottest trend! Create a custom, colorful, 3-D award in the shape of your logo!

In fashion, it’s hot to have pieces with a little tummy showing here, back showing there. For awards, we have an amazing process, called Logocut, that creates custom, 3-D awards cut from acrylic. What we do is create a unique shape out of a company’s logo, and then layer other graphics in front or behind, for a peek-a boo effect. The finished award looks completely unique and modern, fully customized to the company’s look. Fantastic and eye catching!

Mix things up with your awards this year by picking a trendy piece! Just like with your wardrobe, adding just one fun new item can really jazz up your awards program!

Cheers,
Jessica

Our customers are always telling us great things.  They like our products, they like our engraving, they like our delivery, and they especially like our customer service.  We love it when they give us feedback.  Who wouldn’t?  It makes us feel good, that we are really helping people.

You see, we believe in the Power of Recognition, especially Meaningful Recognition. We wrap our vision and values and everyday work ethics around these beliefs.  We don’t normally toot our own horn, but today, I really want to.

Here are 8 things our customers tell us they love about us!

Something for ALL your award needs.

#8  Product Availability:  We have an amazing number of awards.  We truly have something for every need.  From plaques to acrylics, crystal to art glass, we try to provide you with any level of recognition product you may need. Every year we attend our industry trade show to look for more products. We want to keep up on the trends so you have the latest and greatest.

#7  Turnaround:   We work with our suppliers to make sure we can get the awards you want, when you want.  On our website, when you see our production time is 3 days, that’s real.  We can get your product, engrave it and have it ready to go out the door in 3 days or less.  Of course some items take longer to get from our suppliers and we note that in the award’s description.  Our customers love our turnaround!

#6  Reliability: We pride ourselves in our reliability.  We’ve been doing this a long time and our experience has taught us what we can and cannot do.  This experience is why we can have Guaranteed Delivery Dates based on the Service Level you need.  We’re here for you and you can rely on that.

#5  Flexibility: Yes, we have established Service Levels and Guaranteed Delivery Dates, but we all get busy.  If you have an urgent award need that doesn’t fit our normal schedule, call us.  Our customers tell us that they love our flexibility and our rush capability when it’s needed.

Mika makes getting your awards easy!

#4  Quality and Price:  We love that our customers notice this.  They tell us they love the quality of the products we offer AND they love our prices.  Great quality and great prices do not have to be mutually exclusive.  Thanks for noticing. And speaking of great prices, our engraving, including logos, is included in the price of your awards.  We don’t count characters.  That’s not a great use of your time or ours. And if your order is over $50 we offer free email proofs so you can see exactly what your engraving will look like before it’s done.  Our customers love this!

#3  Reputation:  When a company has #4 through #8 going for them, #3 isn’t far behind.  Because of everything I’ve already mentioned, our customers also tell us that they come back to us because they have a great history working with us and that we are so convenient to work it.  We’ll hang onto all your order information in case you want to do it again next quarter, or next year.

#2  Customer Service:  Everyone says they have excellent customer service, don’t they?  This is the cornerstone of everything we do at Trophies2Go and our customers tell us all the time how much they love our service.  From the person who engraves your award, to the one who packages it, to the one who answers your phone call or email, we all focus on how we can make this an amazing experience for you.

#1  Bottom line, our customers tell us all the time that we Make It Easy.  We’re happy to make it easy for them, and would love to have an opportunity to do the same for you.

Blessings, Anne