Using Gifts as a Marketing Tool

Gifts are an important part of the business world. Often, corporate gift-giving consists of more than just giving a gift to celebrate an event or express appreciation. Executive gift giving is an important tool in staying connected with your business partners, clients, and employees. This type of gift can help to build and solidify business relationships or improve company morale by showing your employees how much you appreciate their efforts.

Corporate gifts can also be used as a marketing tool. When giving corporate gifts, you can keep your name in the front of your client's and business partner's minds with attractive and unique gifts. With your logo or message on the right gift, your company will stand out from your competitors as well as follow-up or cold call on potential clients.

What to Use as Gifts

You can use an assortment of things as gifts for marketing. They can be given to specific individuals for better results, or to the whole company if cold-calling. Some of the more popular items to put your logo, mission statement, or a personalized message on include:

• Golf balls
• Pens and pencils
  
• Mugs
  
• Letter openers or desk sets
  
• Chocolates or candies with specialized wrappers
  
• Cigars
  
• Gourmet coffees
  
• Gift Baskets
  
• Travel accessories
  
• Passes to sporting events

Things to Keep in Mind
There are certain ethics and etiquette considerations to keep in mind when giving corporate gifts:

• Do not give executive gifts just to win over potential clients or smooth things over with a difficult boss. Instead, give them as a way of saying thank you or Happy Holidays to current clients that you already know.
  

• If using gifts as a marketing tool, make sure your logo is used discreetly and tastefully. In addition, don't hand out gifts in mass. Address them to a specific individual in order to ensure a better response.
  
• Try not to give gender-specific gifts. While your intentions are good, in this day and age they could be seen as sexist. For example, don't give pink roses to the women and football tickets to the men. It's also important to be aware of and steer clear of corporate gifts that may be considered racist to a certain group.
  
• As a general rule, it is best to stay away from humorous gifts. Not everyone may have the same sense of humor as you, and crude humor or jokes in poor taste can damage your business relationships.
  
• Just to be on the safe side, don't give gifts that include alcohol, cigars, or other items that may go against the religious beliefs or health habits of a person. These items are appropriate, however, if you know the person well or have observed them drinking or smoking before.
  
• If you're considering giving a gift basket that contains meat, as many do, make sure that the recipient is not a vegetarian. Although your intentions are good, this could leave a bad impression and be a waste of money! Also, make sure your recipient is not allergic to nuts or chocolates before you give them a gift that includes those things.
  
• If you're going to use the company logo, make sure it is discreet and tastefully done. This is a time to thank them and solidify business relationships in a tasteful way.

When used correctly, gifts are an effective way to market your company and services.