Best Occasions for Giving Corporate Gifts

Presenting corporate gifts to clients and business associates is a good way to strengthen relationships and improve brand recognition. Gifts are also a good way to reward employees for achievements and recognize career milestones.

When selecting corporate gifts it’s important to choose items that are practical and thoughtful. If a client is an avid golfer provide them with imprinted golf balls or club covers. If employees love to BBQ provide them with logo grilling tools or a personalized apron.

Everyone enjoys receiving a considerate gift that shows the gift-giver is aware of their hobbies or lifestyle. While presents don’t have to be expensive they should be of good quality so recipients can enjoy them for a long time.

There are many occasions that are perfect for corporate gift giving. Some of the top reasons include: welcoming new employees, clients, or business associates, employment anniversaries, career promotions and achievements, thank you gifts, birthdays, and holidays.

Welcome gifts: Providing presents to newly hired employees, business associates, and clients is a good way to strengthen relationships. Popular items include custom USB drives, screenprinted T-shirts, imprinted pens and notepads, eco-friendly tote bags and drinkware.

Gift baskets make ideal welcome gifts. They can be stuffed with gourmet food items; coffees, teas, and mugs; branded clothing; writing pens, notepads and desk accessories; or computer accessories such as a personalized mouse pad and thumb drive.

Recognition gifts: Rewarding employees with gifts that recognize their efforts and achievements is a great way to create strong bonds. Not only do employees appreciate having their efforts acknowledged, gifts can also motivate other staff members to be their best.

Recognition presents can be provided for all kinds of employee achievements. A few of the more common reasons include setting sales records; exemplary customer service; and solving troublesome problems. Providing corporate swag is an affordable way to show appreciation.

Thank you gifts: Expressing thanks with business gifts can go a long way toward building lifelong relationships. In today’s competitive market it’s more important than ever to express appreciation for a job well done and customer loyalty.

It’s a good idea to add company logos, slogans, or contact information, but don’t go overboard. Keep branding to a minimum and make an impact by providing something unique and practical. Recipients will be proud to show off their gift and use it on a regular basis.

Holiday gifts: Handing out presents during holidays is a long-standing tradition. Companies often give the traditional holiday gifts of fruit baskets, sweet treats, gourmet foods and desserts. The problem is a lot of businesses give fancy food baskets, so stand apart from the crowd and present unique items.

Corporate gifts are generally reserved for special occasions and shouldn’t be used as a promotional item. While it’s best to keep branding to a minimum, it’s a good idea to imprint your company name and logo in a visible area. That way when recipients show off their present they perform marketing for you.

Corporate Gifts

Greeting people with gifts has been a part of tradition in all societies and countries. It is a necessary practice as well. You feel happy and elevated when you receive a gift. It is not just about showing your love but also making other person feel important. Exchanging of gifts has not just remained confined among friends or relatives but has also extended among corporate circles, colleagues and business partners. These are in the form of corporate gifts with the beauty lying in their tendency to bring in more closeness among the business counterparts and their associates. These can be in the form of promotional gifts and even advertising products.

Corporate gifts can be exchanged on many occasions, be it during festivals or during the time of launching of a new product or a company. These could be considered as ‘regular corporate gifting’ which is linked with the launching of the product or promotion of a specific brand. Other types are cheaper promotional gifts like stationary items but have a great value. Now companies are making their bit of extra effort to produce variety of gifts in terms of designs, shapes and styles and of course in a limited price range. Generally the most popular gift item during the launch of a product is a miniature replica of an original product that is of a great aesthetic value and is in the form of the advertising products.

Companies generally place order for the gifts in bulk so as to distribute them among its whole circle of business partners, colleagues, customers, and staff members among others. With the ordering in a large quantity, they can have the products at comparatively cheaper rates. It also makes the manufacturing process easy, making it very convenient for the suppliers to come up with the deal for a much lower value. These gift items no doubt cost less and so have lesser rate also for e.g. telephone diaries, pen holders, mini card holders. These gift items are generally bought in bulk for you to get considerably better items at a lower rate.

Corporate gifts are different and exclusive according to the occasions and purposes like special gifts for felicitation function and for foreign delegates. These gifts are also presented to please superiors, clients or business partners either for increase in pay scale, or for getting the work and projects or just for an obligation. Whatever may be the purpose of the gift, they play the most important and contributory role in the brand’s position and hence the growth of the business.

Many of the corporate gifts small or large are presented as a sign of warm welcome to the new clients to appreciate and acknowledge them. Whether these are in the form of promotional gifts or advertisement gifts, they add value to the business propositions. It shows your personality and the kind of person you are and may this small gesture of yours become a greener pasture for you in the future.

Building a strong business relationship and developing a good tie is the biggest motive behind many companies to give corporate gifts. This relationship builds an environment of trust and confidence which is the core value of the corporate world.

Thoughtful Gift Ideas – Why Gift-Giving is an Art That Can Be Mastered

Every year, we are faced with numerous occasions that force us to be truly creative and think up some unique gift ideas, whether for our family, friends, colleagues or party hosts. From birthdays to Christmas – there are at least a dozen days each year when we want to make someone feel special, say ‘thank you’ or just show our general appreciation for them. And sometimes it might just be an act of politeness, something we ought to do because tradition or custom dictates so. Regardless of the reason behind it, we want to get it right.

For most people this is not an easy task, even – or maybe especially – when we know the person we are giving to quite well. This might be surprising at first but according to psychologists and anthropologists it is very ‘human’ to struggle when it comes to adequately meeting our gift-giving obligations. The reasons are manifold: firstly, we are concerned about communicating the wrong message. A bad choice of gift could upset the receiver or even risk the relationship with him or her. Secondly, we are worried about what the gift might say about us. Too much could be seen as over-the-top or arrogant but too little could be perceived as cheap, or simply mean that we don’t care enough about the receiver. And lastly, most of us are perfectionists and just don’t like to get it ‘quite right’ and expect everything to be perfect.

So with all that pressure upon us, it is clearly difficult to be inspired and creative when searching for thoughtful gift ideas. The closer the receiver as a person, the more important the relationship – whether business or personal – is to us, the greater the pressure on us and the harder we find it to pick the right gift.

This reoccurring dilemma can be solved, however. It is possible to get the message we communicate through our choice of gift spot on and to ensure the act of giving strengthens the relationship, rather than putting it at stake. Panic clearly is not the solution here, rather we have to make a little effort and thoroughly think about what it is we want to say, who we are saying it to and in what context, and how much it is worth to us – not just in monetary terms.

The Scottish author and poet, George MacDonald, put it quite nicely: “If instead of a gem, or even a flower, we should cast the gift of a loving thought into the heart of a friend, that would be giving as the angels give.”

How then do we put the ‘loving thought’ into our gift choice?

First of all, we need to decide what we want to say. Let’s call it our script and entails much more than a “Happy Birthday” or “Merry Christmas”. Is it an expression of love and affection (“You mean the world to me, I love you”), an expression of encouragement (“Don’t worry, things will get better, I’m here for you if you need me, my friend”) or just to say we care (“Thank you for your friendship, you are a great person and I appreciate you”).

Once we know what the message should be, we should think about the type of relationship we have with the receiver. This is about the language of the gift. Is it professional only? Is it a close relative, a lover or a distant acquaintance? The closer the relationship, the more personal the gift should be. Very intimate gifts should be reserved to those relationships that are based on love, while professional relationships clearly require more conservative gift choices.

Lastly, the occasion, event or reason will give us the setting. Some gift-giving occasions will have traditional gifts associated with them, such as silver gift items for christenings, in which case you can opt for a ‘safe choice’. In most cases, however, you are required to be a little more creative and come up with your own idea – but you can definitely look at the occasion itself for guidance as to what to give.

So far the theory but let’s work through an example to demonstrate just how easy thoughtful gift-giving can be with the right preparation.

The script:
“Do not despair: Life is just about to begin! I care a lot about you and I’m looking forward to spending more quality time with you, now that you have entered the next phase in your life. I’m here to share that experience with you”.
The language:
Close family (father), loving and open relationship. Has a good sense of humour.
The setting:
Retirement is the occasion and the gift will be presented privately, over a family dinner to celebrate the occasion.

The outcome: thoughtful retirement gift ideas
– A Guide to Retirement, providing useful advice on what to do once you hit that milestone. Whisk away any concerns and listen to the advice and experience of others that have been there before you.
– A Breakfast Gift Basket to share with the family: Now that time is not a constraint anymore, you can indulge in luxurious breakfasts with the family.
– A special event or outing, such as a hot air balloon ride – life is not over yet, go and do something new and exciting, or fulfill a long-held dream.

If you follow this simple three-step guide, you should be able to approach your next gift-giving occasion much more calmly, and who knows – you might even enjoy it!