Selection of Corporate Gifting

How to choose a corporate gift?

Choosing the right corporate gift is not an easy task. It is a great way to show your concern towards your clients and employees. It is even better when your gift says something about your company. It is important that you give a gift that enhances your corporate image and is appropriate and distinctive. Take your time to select the right gift as it is likely to impact your business relationship with the recipient.

Start down writing the values you want to project to your clients. Like gifting a t-shirt creates a different impression than gifting a key chain. Let’s look at the points that one should keep in mind while selecting the appropriate gifts for employees as well as for clients.

1. Giving appropriate gifts

The first thing to do is to familiarize yourself with the recipient. The gifts may be for clients, employees, or customers. As the purpose behind the gift is to enhance your corporate image therefore care should be taken that you send the right message and choose your gift with care. A good corporate gift will reinforce your image as a truly professional company and strengthen your relationship with the recipient. Giving appropriate corporate gifts is an important tool for building business relationships.

2. Watch your budget

Once you’ve found out about the recipient, estimate your budget. You don’t want to go overboard and hand out ridiculously expensive gifts to all your employees or send a cheap gift to an extremely important client. Your gift should be impersonal and elegant. The gift you send will affect your reputation. It is your responsibility to make sure that the impact is positive rather than negative. Make sure you take the process seriously as it is all part of the business. Select a gift that is within your range and you can proudly send to promote your company.

3. Personalize your gift

Personalizing a gift ensures that the recipient will be remember it for a long time. Add your company name or logo to the gift whenever possible. However, don’t over-promote your company when sending out a gift as it can put off the recipient. If you are ending gifts to business associates or executives, make sure that the gift has a personal touch. You can give corporate gift baskets, gourmet chocolate, or engraved items. No matter what your gift is, it should serve the purpose of building stronger relationships and enhancing your corporate image.

4. Get expert help

In case you are unsure of what to choose, you should get expert help rather than sending an inappropriate gift which may send a wrong message. There are many online services providing great advice on how to choose the right gift. These services also provide a wide range of gifts which help to portray the right corporate image for your company.

5. Conveying the corporate identity

The most important thing to keep in mind is to make sure that your gift conveys your corporate identity effectively. The main reason behind sending corporate gift is to build business relationships and show appreciation to your employees, clients, and associates. A carelessly chosen gift is likely to damage your corporate image. Whether it’s a paper weight or a gift hamper, it should enhance your corporate identity and image.

6. Try to eliminate less useful products

Corporate should avoid the kind of gifts that are rarely used by the clients like wall hangings or something kind of gifts like show piece etc as these are less used gifts and people forget it easily and instead a gift that is useful then people remember it for a long time. Narrow your selection by eliminating unwanted gifts .Gifts like watches, t-shirts, pen drives etc helps people in remembering the companies through the gifts unlike show piece gifts.

7. Differentiate between gifting employees and clients

Most of the firms fail to distinguish between the kind of gifts they must provide to clients and to their employees. There is a fine line between the two. Employees and clients both are important to the firm, while the former helps in achieving the efficiency factor and the latter helps in building goodwill.

You can give the employees gifting responsibility to the Human resource department and they can decide what kind could be given to employees.

While the responsibility of gifting the clients could be given to the Marketing department and let them do this in their own way of promotion.

8. Choosing from the event perspective

If you are giving gifts at any event then choose the type of gift on the basis of the theme of the event. However if your sole motto is to increase the reputation of your company then go according to that helps to keep you within your motive

9. Taking different culture into your perspective  

Every company includes people of different religion and It might be possible that by giving gift that is inappropriate for their religion might offend them which you are obviously not looking for. So this must be taken care while providing gifts

Like in some culture, wrapping gift with white paper is a symbol of bad luck as it symbolizes the colour of death and that are other beliefs also which should be kept in mind while gifting

Great tips that help the organisation to do the gifting process appropriately :

1. Think yourself as in their place while giving

2. Set the difference between giving gifts to clients and employees

3. Plan according to your budget

4. Give gifts according to the event

5. Take always branded products for gifting

6. Analyze the effect of previous gifting

7. Reach to the expectations of clients

8. Consider the needs of the clients

9. Avoid unnecessary gifting

10. Appreciate employees by giving gifts publicly in case of promotions

Conclusion: There are several things that should be kept in mind while gifting and by considering each and every point a firm would be able to complete the gifting process more appropriately and hence will able to reach to its target more soon. By adopting this process continuously it would be able for the firm to keep their clients and employees happy.