Most companies and organisations fully appreciate the benefits to be gained from placing corporate gifts and business promotional products within the heart of their marketing and communication activities.
Creating a true match between the promotional element and the perceived value is always essential. The gift will often be for professional business use, but sometimes a more informal, off-duty accessory might be the answer. Gifts might range from a compendium for conference delegates to an umbrella for distribution to key customers. Equally, these might be constant use items, such as notepads, noteflags and letter openers. The value is in their usability; the promotion in their visibility when used.
Choosing effective corporate and promotional gifts
When making this choice, the giver will consider their own company and its image, and seek gifts that tie in with that starting point. They will then look to equate this with the status and operational ethos of those receiving them. Therefore, a fun gift such as stress balls might be wholly appropriate in some of these matches, and simply unacceptable in others. To make the choice, it’s important to understand the gift, giver, and recipient – and the relationship between all three. Then, when choosing, four key factors bear careful consideration:
- Make corporate gift giving and the use of promotional products a structured element within a year-long budget plan. Appreciate that, while there may be specific moments when gifts are traditionally supplied, the marketing element is also about keeping your name or message front-of-mind at all relevant times.
- Understand the response you require. Apart from the keys mentioned in the previous point, a gift may also have a specific purpose, apart from as a reminder. It might be to prompt an instant visit to your company website or business premises, to sign up for a newsletter, or to request a service quote. Having set a clear objective, the choosing of an appropriate gift is made much simpler.
- Appreciate the reaction you wish to gain, and the use the item will then be put to. When receiving a promotional item or business
gift, the recipient will have an instant reaction. As with your objective, consider also what you want this ‘second’ response to be. It might be simple excitement at the receiving of an unexpected token, a smile when receiving a stress ball, an acknowledgment of constant usefulness for a key ring or coffee mug or an appreciation of the future use of a cooler bag or esky. The perceived usefulness will always be a key response point in the mind of the recipient.
- Seek a mix of both specific targeting and maximum exposure. At one end of the scale might be a gift for members of a loyal customer base – showing them that they are always appreciated. These should be of a value level where the receiver appreciates the thought without feeling it is a crass attempt simply to buy their loyalty. At the other end, a mass distribution of an item exposes the message not only to those receiving it but others who then come into contact with them. In either case, the value gained is expected to be far in excess of the investment made.
Effective presentation of the corporate gift message
It’s not unknown for a company to focus so hard on delivering the appropriate promotional gifts that it then neglects to make sure a clear, important, and vibrant promotional message is part of the finished item! Again, if you consider where it will be kept, and how it will be used, then you can ensure the ‘call to action’ can be clearly seen and appreciated. In this way the creative impact is maximised and the brand identity clearly established.
This might be no more than making sure the phone number, logo, and web address are clearly visible; alternatively it might be to clearly identify staff members or guests at an official event. It’s vital to make sure that a ‘promotional’ item or business ‘gift’ always works effectively at both of these levels.
Corporate gifts work!
Most organisations or companies accept that the effective choice and use of corporate gifts must be part of the business promotion campaign activities they undertake. No matter the status of the recipient, or the cost of the item, it’s human nature to be appreciative of a gift.
This might be to introduce the recipient to a company or message, reward current customers for their loyalty, even bring lapsed customers back into the fold. Another often-neglected possibility is in the use of internal corporate gifts as a motivational and thank you tool. These gain a positive reaction from people within an organisation and their use, either inside a company or outside, helps maximise your promotional messages.
A corporate gift supplier will be able to help across all of these areas, using their experience to make recommendations. They can show how best to maximise on the investment made, and advise on key pitfalls to be avoided.
One final point: corporate gifts and business promotional items should always be ‘sold’ to those receiving them, rather than simply doled out. Just like any purchase, much of the appreciation comes from an understanding of the value or usefulness, or the thought
