How to select a corporate gift

Corporate gift

I have been selling promotional products for many years now, and have seen various products come and go — this change is just a part of life. Marketing and business managers always ask for suggestions on what the best promotional product is to give away for a corporate gift and how they should make their selection. My answer, still to this day, has not changed! Selecting a promotional product for your clients must be based on the likes of your specific target market and making sure it supports the values that represent your company. There is simply no one size fits all when it comes to distributing a corporate gift, even though I know many promotional product resellers who would like you to think differently. There will always be those products that are generally more popular, but that is absolutely no guarantee that every client you give this gift away to will be equally happy or satisfied.

I would suggest to any business owner considering to select a gift for an upcoming promotion to ask their marketing team, or sales team to brain storm on some of the likes and dislikes of their specific target market. This will give you a better indication of what will, or what will not work.

One recent example I have of a business that did a similar brain storming session was an education facility. They were looking at selecting a corporate gift for their graduate students to encourage them to complete post-graduate studies. After much discussion, they divided the target audience up into 4 categories based on age, sex, and some psychographic features (attitudes, aspirations etc). The end result was a clearly defined vision of who their students were and what their day to day activities look like. From that exercise the short list of promotional products to give away as a gift was selected. They were basically looking at executive pens, mugs and promotional USBs. Glad to write the final decision was a silver polished promotional USB, with their logo nicely laser etched, and the end product packaged in an executive box.

The gift was sent out to the students with a well crafted letter congratulating them on their current achievements, and inviting them to attend a seminar on future post graduate study options. The end result was high attendance (an almost packed auditorium) and stronger relationships created between the faculty and the past students.

In the above illustrated case, the corporate gift included an invitation to attend a meeting, but I must explain that giving away a corporate gift must primarily be about giving, and less about receiving something in return. It is the same principal that goes into giving a gift for someone that is special to you. If people sense you are giving them something and are looking to get another thing in return it will naturally resort in feelings of resentment. Nobody likes to be manipulated or felt pressured. The number one reason for your gift should be to put a smile on their face. You can always include an invitation to an event or to possibly try your product, but try not to sell, sell, sell!

So next time you are in the market for a promotional product to give away as a corporate gift, put yourself in your clients shoes and ask yourself, would I like this as a gift?