A personalised gift can help establish a new business relationship or cement an existing one. Because business relationships are based on recognition and trust, reminding people of your existence on a regular basis is a good way to build recognition, but if you add to that brand recognition by giving them a gift that has value to them and is attractive and durable, you also create trust because they feel they can have faith in you.

Personalised business items can be used as part of a marketing strategy that gives you a competitive advantage over your rivals because recognition is greater when related to you than to them. A bag with your company name and logo is a good start, and for key clients you can take it a stage further by adding their own initials or monogram to the bag to show that it’s theirs and that you value them as an individual with whom you do business.

A quality bag also goes to build trust because it gets used on a regular, possibly a daily, basis and that means that not only does your client build a memory of you, but everybody with whom your client associates also sees the bag (and maybe asks about it) and is given a sales pitch about your company from this favoured client.

Bags are useful, practical and not too expensive, so you don’t end up embarrassing the recipient. They are also ideal vehicles for creative branding because they are perfect for carrying slogans, logos and company information. The most elegant bags are embroidered, but a simple bag with good printing gives a great impression too.

There are websites devoted to women and their handbags: the contents thereof, the style and design of the bags and whose been seen carrying which bag.  But before you dismiss this as pure frivolity – think again.

Your work bag tells the world a lot about you – it can actually determine your future.  Career prospects can be decided on what you carry your work gear around it.

The choices are interesting, depending on your industry. If you’re in design, computing or any green business, from eco-travel through to recyclable clothing, then a backpack or drawstring tote is your best choice. It says skater-dude, cool person and general planetary chum.

If you’re in accounting, auditing or other financial areas, it can be important to mark yourself out as a creative person, not just a boring number-cruncher. Colour and style are vital to getting the right impression over, so pick a red document bag or bright green one, and make sure that the styling of your bag is up to date.

Tote-bags are not so good if you’re low in the pecking order but brilliant if you’re senior. If you’re one of the masses, at least pick a tote that marks you out from the crowd, but if you’re an executive, you get the chance to reveal your down-to-earth side by choosing a casual bag to move your stuff around in.

A soft-sided briefcase works for almost everyone.  But a hard-sided briefcase is a sign either of a lawyer with briefs or a person with no sense of humour!

When you’re trying to persuade people to invest in you, or you product, you need to do something special for them: we’ve all been given enough keychains and post-it pads with brand overprinting to last us a lifetime, so how do you get people to feel that they are interested in you and what you do?

Ask them ‘either-or’ - If somebody shoves a can of some new fizzy drink in your hand, you’re likely to drink it, you might even enjoy it, but you haven’t really engaged with it. On the other hand, if the person handing you the drink asks you a question and stands ready to record the answer, your immediate response is to weigh the question against the freebie and work out why they’ve asked.  Take the soft drink scenario again, if you’re asked ‘Bees or Butterflies’ when you’re handed the can, you’re bound to wonder why. And when the brand promoter tells you that of their two new flavours, the elderflower one supports butterfly populations while the apple one is made from orchard apples that give bees the nectar they need … well, suddenly that drink is a lot more sexy. And if the brand promoter is wearing a butterfly-emblazoned T-shirt with a huge bee on the bag they’re pulling the cans from, the whole experience wraps you in an idea of the drink, the environment and your purchasing power changing the world for bees … or butterflies. It’s much more likely to grab the loyalty of the new drinker.

Catch people off guard – To get to people, try not to use the usual places. Railway concourses, airports and big shopping centres are all places that we get given freebies and we don’t really think about them. But a stall in a local high street, or a closed up shop that’s been rented just for the day, or a little stand by the bicycle racks are places where people have longer to linger and more time to explore your product and find out about your brand. And that gives them a greater investment in you. If you’re going to give away T-shirts, for example, hire a couple of therapists to give people a two minute shoulder massage before they get their T-shirt and use those two minutes to tell them about your brand. They’ll link the relaxation and being cared for to your products and that will encourage them to want more of what you offer.

Customise your offering with clothing – if you are selling something with a green pedigree, link it to hippy happy clothing styles, T-shirts with 1960s emblems on them and headbands. If you’re a slick, up-to-the-minute company, go for sleek modern styles and technical fabrics. Make sure you link the way you, and your staff, look to the brand because mismatch confuses the customer and confused customers don’t buy.

If you belong to any kind of trade body or association, or even just a networking group, you can use their meetings, especially trade shows, conferences and exhibitions, to promote your company in style.

The one thing that everybody takes away from these events, along with other people’s business cards, mini-shampoo bottles from their hotel room, and a sheaf of expenses to claim, is a bag, and if your branded bag is the most stylish on offer, it’s your bag that they will carry around with them for the next few months, maybe even for a year or more. For this reason, the return you make on investing in branded bags is superb.

Not only that, but whatever else people are handing out on the day, it will get put in your bag, so the bag is more valuable to the recipient than almost anything else they obtain.

Aim for the best quality bag or satchel you can afford, as durability is important and don’t forget to get your company name, website and logo printed or embroidered onto both sides of the bag so that whichever way they face they are an advertisement for you. And here’s a tip – if you have bags left over at the end of the show, offer them to the cleaning crew who clear up after the delegates are gone – these are people who go from business venue to business venue every week of the year, and they will carry your name with them, subconsciously informing people at other events about you, without you having to be present.