A Look At Our Two Most Popular Customers
While the tradition may have its roots firmly planted in military history, challenge coins are popular throughout all walks of life. Some of our biggest customers here at Signature Coins come from the corporate world, and while their coin designs are based on many of the same principles as traditional military challenge coins, there are some inherent differences. This is due in part to the separate worlds that our corporate and military customers live in, but it also comes down to how they use their challenge coins and what guides their design choices.
So, while there are overlaps in the way challenge coins are used by our corporate and military customers, there are also differences that we think each customer can learn from. They may come from different worlds but our corporate and military customers each have something to offer the other.
What Are the Similarities?
Getting the similarities out of the way is easy. If you have a general understanding of challenge coins or if you have received a challenge coin, then you know what they are intended for. Traditionally, challenge coins are handed out by a superior or colleague as a symbol of trust, gratitude and honor. The designs are custom and the message is clear: Thank you for your service.
This applies to both military and corporate customers. In the military, a soldier will often receive a custom coin by means of a firm handshake before deployment overseas or after completing an important section of training. Similarly, corporate employees will often receive a custom coin from their boss to commemorate a promotion or to celebrate closing an important deal. The intention in both cases is to show recognition for service.
Where Are Things Different?
While there are always exceptions, one of the main differences between these two types of customers comes down to why the coins are being designed, and who is actually responsible for the design process. Our corporate customers always have a clear purpose for their coins. Sometimes they are used to recognize years of service, to reinforce ideal qualities in staff members, to fundraise for a certain cause or to raise awareness for corporate initiatives and programs. The point is that our corporate customers usually expect a strong return on investment after the coins are made, whether it be through a boost in employee engagement or social awareness or some other corporate goal.
The who in charge of designs like these is often a committee or small team within the corporation. Since the coins are intended for a specific purpose, the committee works on crafting a design that matches the company’s goals for the coins. Many of the designs include the company’s brand to increase brand awareness, as well as references to the program or department the coins are used for.
When it comes to creating coins for our military customers, the projects are often paid for out of pocket by the soldiers who will be receiving the coins. For things like commander coins, an officer will contact us and design the coin for themselves. For military unit coins, everyone on the team usually has a say in the design and gets to help with revisions before the coins are ordered. The focus is not on a possible return on investment, but rather on capturing the team’s unique sense of camaraderie and character that sets them apart from other teams in the service.
The big difference here is that corporate challenge coins are designed to celebrate what brings everyone together in a business (shared missions and values), while military unit coins are made to celebrate what makes a team different from the rest of the corps. And this makes sense when you think about what the coins are for and who is funding the projects. It’s a subtle difference but it changes the approach to making custom coins. We see incredible designs made by our corporate customers and military customers all the time, but we wonder what ways the two customers might benefit from learning from and adopting some of the qualities of the other into their challenge coin orders.
What Can These Customers Teach Each Other About Challenge Coins?
For our corporate customers, a simple idea that can add another layer of personality to a set of coins is getting more staff involved in the design process. One of the things that makes challenge coins in the military so special is that the soldiers get to take part in designing their own coins. In the corporate world, getting staff involved in the design process can help promote interest in challenge coin programs before they start, and also give your staff a chance to exercise a little creativity.
Budgets are also important to consider. Since a team of soldiers all pitch in to fund a project on their own, the investment is usually pretty low for each person. This sometimes results in truly incredible designs with interesting sizes, shapes and all sorts of custom options. For our corporate customers, there are easy ways to keep costs down on an order while still creating beautiful, high-quality designs. The important thing is to make sure you don’t sacrifice quality just to meet a budget.
For our military customers, something to take away from the corporate side of things is a sense of openness and freedom. Challenge coins are a longstanding tradition all throughout the military, and the process of designing and ordering them is an almost rigid practice at times. Corporate customers are, comparatively, much younger members of the challenge coin world, and you can see that reflected in their openness to experiment with designs and try new things with their coins.
Without a longstanding challenge coin tradition, corporate customers aren’t bound by any seeming obligation to the past. Sometimes all you need to do to make a coin a little more special is to change up what’s included in the design and how the coins are used in different programs and places.
The most important thing for any of our customers to remember is that a challenge coin should be personal and meaningful. No matter where you come from, creating a beautiful design is just a matter of keeping an open mind and collaborating with your team. And if you need a few new ideas, take a look at how the rest of the world is using custom coins. You may learn something new!
