The Promotional Gifts Blog

As we have discussed in detail in this blog before, the most successful corporate gifts will be those that are practical and relevant to both the recipient and the company that handed them out. Whether it’s for staff or for clients, these factors are two of the most important if your gifts are going to be held onto, giving your brand a boost in recognition and getting people to order from your company.

With this in mind, it seems strange that often it is the same corporate gifts that are used by companies regardless of what they do or who they are giving the gift to. Retirement gift? The good old carriage clock. Company anniversary gifts? The old faithful photo frame.

While these are great gifts, there are occasions where a little more imagination is involved, especially if your gifts will have a marketing motive in mind.

So what gifts are out there that will really leave a lasting impression?

Unusual corporate gifts will certainly grab people’s attention, so here are a few ideas from The Corporate Gifts Company that are sure to leave a lasting impression.

Silver Plated Weather Station

Comprising a clock, thermometer and hygrometer, the silver plated weather station is a great gift idea for maritime institutions or metrological companies. It is a desirable item that will have relevance to specific industries, making it a more meaningful gift than many alternatives.

Getting a gift that will mean something is the key to a successful corporate gift, and the weather station is a great example of an item that will make an impression on people in a specific industry.

Golf Gifts

Some things never change, and the relationship between golf and business continues to thrive. Whether it’s meetings on the course or blowing off some steam at the driving range, golf continues to be an integral part of the executive lifestyle.

This makes golf a great subject for your corporate gifts. They will work either as a relevant gift for staff or to promote a golf related product of service and their popularity and statement of personality will ensure they get prime position on the desk of your recipients.

Standard Gifts…with a Difference

Another way of distinguishing your gifts from those of other people is to use traditional corporate gifts with a slight twist. Items like our Wobble Desk Pen take a rather traditional corporate gift idea and give it a contemporary twist, turning a day to day item into a fun desk toy.

Getting your gift seen, used and kept is vital if your corporate gifts are to be considered a success, so consider using unique corporate gifts to ensure they make the right impression.

Click for our Range of Corporate Christmas Gifts

How is your company marking the end of the year? Christmas party? Awards ceremony? No idea yet? Christmas and the end of the year offers companies a fantastic opportunity to reward hard working staff and boost team morale heading into the new year.

While gloomy economic headlines are still dominating the newspapers, injecting a bit of cheer into the workplace will give your staff a much needed boost, so making the most of the opportunities afforded by Christmas will ensure you enter 2012 on a high.

So are you still deciding how to recognise your staff at the end of the year? Well fear not, you still have time to decide.

Christmas Corporate Gifts

Corporate executive gifts offer you a great way of rewarding your staff with a high quality, high demand gift item. Rather than going down the bottle of wine or box of chocolates route, corporate executive gifts give you something a little more special to offer your employees.

The motivational benefits of giving corporate gifts at Christmas cannot be overlooked, so offering your staff a beautifully wrapped, personalised gift will really show that their efforts have been noticed over the past year.

Choosing a gift and personalising it with an engraving shows that you have gone to a lot of thought over which gifts to buy, buying a bottle of wine shows that you were short of ideas so went to the supermarket. Make the most of this opportunity to really show your staff how important they are.

Recognition Awards

The end of the year also offers an opportunity to take a look back over the past year, and recognition awards can be a fun way of rewarding employees. How you choose to implement it is entirely up to you, and you can choose from the informal handing out of awards in the office or arrange a more formal occasion with which to recognise your winners.

Whichever way you choose to go, giving out recognition awards at the end of the year is a great way of rewarding your employees and showing that their efforts have been noticed. Whether they are awards for the top salesperson or something a bit more informal, they give you the chance to show your team that they are noticed and appreciated.

Christmas is the perfect time to show your staff that their efforts have been noticed and appreciated, so use corporate Christmas gifts to help motivate your team into the new year.

Click for our Range of Corporate Christmas Gifts

Click to See our Range of Corporate Christmas Gifts

Now is the peak season for Corporate Christmas gifts, with companies worldwide looking to boost their marketing effectiveness by using branded corporate gifts. But how can corporate gifts bearing your logo help to make your marketing effort more effective?

Let’s take a look at how you can make business gifts work for you this Christmas.

Bond with your Clients

When times are as tough as they are now, showing your gratitude to your best clients will go a long way towards making sure they keep coming back to you with future business. Your corporate gifts to clients should have a marketing edge but above all be high quality, well presented items that will leave a lasting impression on your recipient. It is this impression that will make them remember you, the branding is merely something to jog their memory.

Be Picky

The good old days of firing out gifts to your entire client database at Christmas are long gone, but maybe this isn’t a bad thing. As discussed above, quality gifts will have more of a long lasting effect, so choose the best clients whose custom really matters to you to send a gift to.

Think about the gifts you send to friends and family, you wouldn’t give all of them the same low to mid-priced items, you would give those that mean the most to you the best gifts and then apply a lower budget to others further down the line.

It is the same in business, so choose only your best clients to give your finest gifts to, and send something slightly less premium to those down the list.

Purely Promotional

Of course, there will be companies out there who are looking to actively promote their business at this time of year. These might be seasonal companies that are looking to capitalise on the festive season so if this is the case, visibility is the key.

In order to boost marketing effectiveness, choose less expensive but higher visibility items where your brand will be on full display. If getting noticed and driving new custom you way is what is important, use gifts that are relevant to your audience as well as your brand and plan as wide a distribution as possible to the people that will have an interest in your services.

Christmas is an important time for marketing and whether that is promoting your company or recognising your best clients through premium corporate gifts, now is the best time to start thinking about how you will use them to your advantage.

Click to See our Range of Corporate Christmas Gifts

Click for our Range of Personalised Corporate Gifts

The Corporate Gifts Company specialise in personalised corporate gifts, but with so many ways to personalise your business gifts it can be difficult to know where to start.

There are many different branding options, bespoke ideas and personalised packaging, so what should you be looking for from your personalised corporate gifts?

Let’s take a look at the options.

Branding

The Corporate Gifts Company specialise in diamond engraving, where your logo or text will be etched into the metal using a diamond point. We find that this gives our corporate gifts a distinctive finish and an appearance of quality.

If you need a little colour in your logo then there is of course the option of printing. We have a selection of flash drives that we print in house that are proving to be very popular among businesses of all sizes. Options like our credit card flash drive can be fully printed on both sides to give your logo maximum visibility.

Packaging

The personalisation of your corporate gifts does not have to stop at the products themselves. The packaging that you use can also be made fully brand consistent with options such as embossing the gift box and printing your logo on the ribbon all available. You can call us to discuss any special packaging that you might require.

Bespoke Options

This option is only available on a small selection of products such as corporate jewellery and flash drives but it can be an extremely useful way of making a strong brand impression. Some of these products can be custom made to your own specifications, giving you a fully bespoke product that is made not only in your colours but in the shape and design of your choosing.

Personalisation is vitally important when it comes to corporate gifts. Whether you want a product to have the recipient’s name on it or you need it to be fully brand consistent, personalisation will dictate the products you choose and the way they are presented.

At The Corporate Gifts Company we are experts at personalisation and have a knowledgeable in-house team that has years of experience in the engraving and printing industry. Whatever your requirements, give us a call to discuss how we can make your corporate gifts as personalised as possible.

Click for our Range of Personalised Corporate Gifts

Click for our range of Corporate Gifts for Clients

Buying corporate gifts for clients can be a tricky concept to be successful at and often calls for a subtle blend of marketing and creativity. Behind every gift for a client is an element of marketing nous, and providing a gift that will be used and enjoyed has to be subtly mixed with ensuring that your client returns to you with future business.

So how do you get that elusive mix between a great corporate gift and a successful marketing strategy?

The Gift

The gift should be something that has a touch of the wow factor. Items such as a bottle of wine or a box of chocolates have been done to death and while they may be gratefully received, they do not possess the longevity required to fulfil your marketing needs.

Gifts should be well presented, serve a purpose and most importantly of all retain visibility. The most successful corporate gifts for clients are those that are branded with your company details and are practical or desirable enough to be frequently used or achieve pride of place on the workspace of your recipient.

The Marketing

As we touched on in the previous point, visibility is everything when it comes to fulfilling your marketing aims with corporate gifts. Branding is a must as it will forever associate your gift to your company and ensure that they have your details to hand the next time your services are required. Subtlety is important however as using your corporate gift as a billboard for your brand is going to take some of the shine off the reception that you gift receives.

If you’re a recognised brand then just your company name should suffice, while if you are trying to increase your reputation then a line with your web address or phone number should ensure that your recipient can contact you the next time your services are required.

Mixing marketing into your corporate gifts can be a great way of making a lasting impression with your clients. While it may be tempting to plaster your company details all over them however, a more moderate, subtle approach will ensure that you strike a natural balance between a practical and desirable gift that people will use and a product that is purely there as a marketing technique.

Remember, the best received gifts at Christmas or on birthdays are those that are well thought out and relevant to the recipient, and these rules are the same here. Get the gift item right and you will increase the chances of it being used more frequently, giving your branding the chance to shine.

Click for our range of Corporate Gifts for Clients