The Promotional Gifts Blog

It must be nice being a celebrity. Putting to one side for a moment the constant press attention, you can’t argue that earning vast sums of money AND having people giving you free stuff all the time isn’t a good thing. The celebrity gift pack is a preserve of movie premieres and awards ceremonies across the globe, with each one trying to outdo the other with ever more lavish gifts to the lucky celeb of the moment.

This peculiar existence of being ridiculously wealthy but being given everything you could ever want for free is one of the perks of a celebrity lifestyle (and may explain why so many celebs spend all their extra cash on such weird things as this article from The Sun shows).

The celebrity experience is something that many people desire, though for most the closest they’ll get to it is a birthday announcement in the local paper. This can be very beneficial in the world of business however, and giving people just a little taste of the celebrity lifestyle can make a powerful impact.

Of course, not every company can afford to lavish employees and clients with costly gift packs, and in many cases it isn’t appropriate. But used in the right way, corporate gift packs can be a powerful promotional tool.

The first rule of using corporate gift packs is to make sure you use them in an appropriate way. Many businesses don’t accept gifts from clients in case it is interpreted as a bribe, so gauge the situation carefully before deciding on your corporate gifts.

 When used in a sensible way however, corporate gift packs can be an extremely important part of marketing. They are especially effective when used for a special occasion, such as a product launch or awards evening. When people are arriving in their finest suits and most glamorous dresses, a corporate gift pack can add just a touch of the celebrity experience to an evening.

This can be very effective, as it will make people feel valued by the company and will also provide them with a pack full of personalised items that will remind them of the company who gave it to them. Choose the right promotional products that reflect the requirements of the company, and a corporate gift pack could easily provide the recipient with a number of quality corporate gifts that will be used and displayed, giving the business much needed visibility.

Choose your own corporate gifts at www.corporate-gifts-co.com and ensure your promotional event has a touch of Hollywood glamour.

Ok, so maybe they wouldn’t have helped. Last week I blogged on the positive affect that a good World Cup run could have on the British economy. With a gloomy budget and negative headlines everywhere you look, a good World Cup run, beginning with a win over Slovenia, could have been the pick-me-up the nation needed.

So much for that. Who would have a predicted a sneaky win against the smallest nation in the tournament, followed by a thorough thrashing by our good friends from Germany? Let’s just hope that beating the Aussies in the cricket followed by a good Wimbledon for Andy Murray makes up for the disappointment of a shocking World Cup.

Anyway, with that rant over with, let’s try and make sure we don’t all make the same mistakes in the workplace that Fabio Capello made with the England squad. Much has been made of his hard, disciplinarian approach, and for years business gurus have argued the benefits and drawbacks of the carrot or stick method of motivation.

It is fairly obvious which side of the fence Mr Capello favours, with strict discipline and a culture of fear the preferred method of motivation chosen by “The Squadfather”. There were certainly signs of his icy exterior melting towards the end of the tournament, when he offered the squad beer the night before their sole victory against Slovenia. But while it wasn’t the beer that lead to the victory (although you never know…) having a break from the strict regime and being given a reward certainly goes a long way towards improving morale.

It is the same in business. A motivated workforce who feel that their efforts are being rewarded will always produce more results than one that lives in an atmosphere of negativity. Although there will always be the argument that discipline has to be enforced, especially with a camp of multi-millionaire playboy footballers, in the real world employees respond better to incentives and rewards. With a motivated workforce being driven by positive management, discipline takes care of itself.

Corporate gifts and awards can provide fantastic motivational tools, and their affect on motivating a workforce cannot be ignored. Whether corporate gifts are used as sales incentives or as rewards for good performance, corporate gifts can improve team morale and lead to a happy and efficient workforce. In these slightly chastened financial times, when awarding big bonuses isn’t always an option, corporate gifts can provide an affordable way of keeping hard working staff motivated.

To see what corporate gifts can do for you, visit www.corporate-gifts-co.com. It might be too late for Fabio Capello, but don’t make the same mistakes that he made.