FROM YOU TO ME - GOTY 2021 ENTRANT
Product Description
Journals of a Lifetime® ... Inspiring generations to explore and share special moments and memories, capturing handwritten stories from every step of life to be treasured forever.
Forget Me Not Books® ... Unforgettable and entertaining colour illustrated books for adults and children of all ages to explore and read time and time again.
Tell us about your business
FROM YOU TO ME is the authentic creator of beautiful and emotive gift books and journals. Gifts to celebrate special occasions, inspire people to reflect on, capture and share priceless memories and stories, create cherished moments and bring people closer. We are a family-run company with family at the heart of everything we do.
What can you tell us about your entered products?
FROM YOU TO ME Journals of a Lifetime are memory books helping loved ones to capture their own life story & aspirations in handwriting. Gifts to celebrate special occasions, inspire people to reflect on, capture and share priceless memories and stories, create cherished moments and bring people closer.
With designs for all the family and friends, these award-winning gifts make a keepsake to be treasured forever. A gift with a twist that you give and then receive back full of real-life stories, anecdotes and history.
We first launched Journals of a Lifetime in 2007 as a small range of 2 products. Their instant sales success saw the range quickly expanded to 7 for all the family and friends. Within a year of launch, the range won the 2008 Gift of the Year Award and, since then, the Journals have been available across many types of gifting and book outlets.
The design has been continually adapted to make the journals more design-led and contemporary, now with colour fabric case-bound hardback covers with printed front papers and gold foil blocking including a ribbon book mark.
Through the world’s greatest recession and, now a pandemic, the Journals have provided much needed solace for people who want to spend their well-earned money on a meaningful gift. Journals of a Lifetime have also proven so popular as a gift for the person who is ‘hard to buy for’ or who ‘has everything’.
Consumer feedback has been powerful with people often in tears as they describe these journals as the first item they would grab in a house-fire. The memory prompts guide the journey to recollect stories to share and, when complete, the journals truly bring people closer.
Why did you choose to enter Gift of the Year 2021 and has the competition helped boost your brand in the past?
We are a strong supporter of Gift of the Year after it gave our own new business the kick-start we needed back in 2008 when we won.
We remember the awards being given out before the Spring Fair closed one evening, so as a sole representative on our stand, the first our Managing Director Neil knew of the win was a queue down the corridor to get to our stand!
We now often choose to enter as we know the power the awards have to help market the products to both the trade and the end consumer. It adds a real credibility to the marketing.
It is also great to be involved with other companies in the gift market to see and hear what is going on and to learn from everyone.
Why did we enter in 2021?
Well, we believed that everyone needs some good news after this horrendous year of the virus and our Journals of a Lifetime have really hit the mark during lockdown. They have now sold over 1 million copies and we wanted to try to give the range the recognition that it, as well as our design team, deserved.
Has your business been affected by Covid-19?
Like everyone, the answer to this question is a simple 'yes'.
As a team, we have not seen enough of each other as we have all been working from home. Zoom calls excepted, we had not seen each other at all for around 6 months as we had not been in our offices together.
But we did think about what we needed as employees as well as individuals away from work. Things were different and our needs were definitely different. We have cared about this and spent time on it.
Our products have provided much needed solace for people who have been unable to see their family and friends and we have been quick to support customers whether they are the users of our products or the retailers who sell them.
What changes have you made as a result?
As a team, we have spent time looking at the big picture and what is truly important for us, for our products and for our customers. We worked on sorting out the little issues that sometimes stop the important things from happening.
We have also worked hard on our strategy and done many things that you normally seem to struggle to find the time to do. Some of these initiatives have already freed up even more time, so we have really engaged in supporting our customers during these strange times.
We recognised that our bricks and mortar retail customers around the world were suddenly thrown into a very difficult position where they were unable to trade and many, unable to pay their bills. We have cared and extended credit terms for them and then worked to help them offer our products as either drop-ship items or print on demand through their own developing websites.
We have managed our business with care in order to be able to continue to trade throughout Lockdown. We have juggled the business to drive some areas whilst other areas reduced to nothing. Having a diverse business model has helped us to focus on the right areas.
What other products have you brought to market for 2020, can you share them here? We are always focussed on investing for the future and new product development is a key aspect of that.
We have just launched a number of new titles of journals and children's books with some being perfect for this Christmas.
Meaningful gifts are key during these strange times and our new titles all help the buyer to feel closer to the receiver.
Watch out for these new books on a shelf near you any moment now:
* Promises for you
* My Wish for Christmas
* A Tale for a Sleepy Bunny
* Wow Birthday Books
The full range can be seen in our NEW trade brochure available now or on our website.
Where can your products be purchased? Our wide range of products are available across all gifting outlets. Independent and high-street multiple gift shops; bookshops; garden centres and online retailers.
They can also be purchased for consumers and through trade accounts at our own website https://www.fromyoutome.com/
