Corporate Gifts – When Can You Afford to Give Then?

Giving corporate gifts are a great marketing tool but it must be used carefully as mistakes cost a lot.  Here are 5 questions that will help.  

Corporate gifts can be anything that will make a good impression.  Corporate gifts don’t have to be personalized, but they can be.  People have short memories, your competitors are bombarding them with their message.  I assure you that, should you send me a brand new Ferrari or Alpha Romeo (any Ferrari or Alpha Romeo), you’ll have my ear for a long time even if you don’t put your logo on it. Heck, you’ll have my wife and kids’ ears too.

Any takers?

No?  I didn’t think so.  Sigh!.. How about a simple Camry?

After Enron, there aren’t that many expensive corporate gifts anymore.  As a matter of fact, the vast majority of companies, according to a recent study, have caps on how much their employees can receive or give.  Most of them put the cap on receiving gifts at $65 or less, some go as high as $110.  They’re even stricter with the costs of gifts they allow their employees to give.

For some companies the cap is $65 a year, for others is $65 per gift.  

Which means that you first should know what kind of cap the company your recipients work for has.  Or, if you’re smart, it means you try to learn as much about the recipients so that you can make a profound emotional impact.  Yes, when you cannot give a lot of money, you’ve got to give a lot of love, attention.

If you don’t know much about who you give the gift to (and there’s no legal, non-cost-prohibitive way to find out), you do what you have to, you give a corporate gift that offends no one yet no one is nuts about it: a personalized pen (I’m not talking about a $47,000 Omas, of course, but they should be sufficiently expensive, but they cannot be cheap.)

But it’s best to know something.  I said something, not a great deal.  Something could be: they like French wines, they like to golf, they collect books by Thai novelists in their mid-30’s.  

If you don’t go for very expensive items and do match gift to recipient, your gift will have greater chances of working, fewer chances of being perceived as a bribe.

So, pretty much, you have to ask yourself the following questions (and have good answers to them):

1.    Why am I giving the gift?  (Are you thanking someone for some heroic sales act, are you thanking their whole organization? Are you trying to bring about them closer with a view of future transactions?  Are you thanking some conference attendees while trying to get them to push your name the next time their company’s looking to buy/partner with a company like yours?)

2.    How much can I afford to spend per gift? (And this is in relation to the money in your coffers and the value to you of the recipient.  Sounds cold, I know.  So, I’ll rephrase it: it also depends on how much you like the recipient.)

3.    To whom do I give it? (What do I know about them? Ideally, you know something that’s personal – but not too personal, sport they play on weekends, trips they like to take, etc.)

4.    Is it impressive enough on its own or do I have to put a logo or something on it? (If you choose to put your logo on the gift, you have to worry about the colors not clashing, aesthetics).  About recipients not liking your logo on their fancy pen or golf clubs.

5.    How do I deliver it? (Do you have to have a speech to go along with it or a thank you note or a letter? A video?)

Gifts given at trade shows are going to be different in pretty much all respect than gifts giving to someone on his 30th year with the company, his 5th year anniversary as Sr. Vice President of Sales.

So, corporate gifts can be risky on several levels (your gift is perceived as a bribe, you bore the recipient, you come across as cheap, you spend too much, etc.).  However, if done properly, it does work wonders.
And, it’s done properly if they affect the recipient emotionally (your corporate gifts clearly show you’ve put some thought into them).  

You can afford best to give them if you know the individual you’re giving them to and the rules about gifts at the company they work for and what you’re trying to accomplish and why.

Additional articles about corporate gifts

About the author

If you’ve done your homework, corporate gifts will help you strengthen relationships and that will help your bottom line. And that’s true whether you rely on technology like promotional USB drives, apparel (caps), sporting items (golf clubs), food, or any kind of promotional product.

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