Corporate Gifts - What Goes Into Picking The Right Ones?

Mine is probably not the first article about executive gifts you’ve come upon.  Maybe not the first one that deals with perfect executive gifts.  You’ve probably read that corporate gifts intended for the general buying public are easy while corporate gifts intended for executives are hard as you have to think about what item to choose and its price and other similar reasons.

I disagree.  You have to think about the promotional product you choose no matter who you give it and for what reason.  The reasons will be different and that will affect what you choose to give but you have to give some thought to what promotional product best represents the image of your company you want to create/maintain, what promotional product best fits the occasion and your budget every time you give away corporate gifts.

It’s easier to find out what a handful of executives like and match your promotional gift to their likes.  It’s harder to do so with hundreds or thousands of prospects.  But that doesn’t mean you cannot give it a try, that you can not find something that will appeal to a large number of them. 

You’d run in trouble if you were looking for the perfect corporate gift, the perfect executive gift.  Odds are you’re not, you just want one that will create good will and be used for a while, so as to increase the chances that the recipient’s good will becomes long lasting.

The best thing to do is figure out why you want to give out corporate gifts.  I mean, in depth. I know you want to increase your revenues. I mean, why choose this way of doing it (beyond the fact that you’ve read it’s an inexpensive way as people have a better opinion of a company after they receive a promotional gift from it than they did before they received the gift).  In other words, do you have a good occasion for giving them (any occasion can be good, if handled correctly)? Do you have a message that fits (easy to come up with one if you know your product and the recipients)?  Do you have good ways distributing your promotional gifts?

Once you have the answers to those questions, you go online and check out what kind of promotional products you can obtain easily.  And their prices. 

I could, like many others, suggest personalized coffee mugs or caps or desk tops, etc. as the best corporate gifts.  But when it comes to corporate gifts, best is in relation to several factors I know nothing about. Personalized coffee mugs, caps, desk tops are great corporate gifts in some cases not so great in others. 

Instead, I suggest you think about who you’re giving the gifts to.  Find out about them, about what they like, about hobbies they have.  If you’re giving promotional gifts to prospective clients, you need to know what your current clients have in common and find a gift that speaks to that.  For instance, if coffee drinkers are more likely to buy your products, then you find a gift that speaks to that, a personalized coffee mug, perhaps.  If one of the relevant things about your best clients is that they’re new mothers, then you have to come up with something that addresses that, perhaps a set of personalized baby bottles might be the right thing.

Just think about how you feel when you get gifts.  Gifts that show the giver’s put some thought into choosing the gift please you more than gifts that show the opposite.  The same is true of corporate gifts.