Don’t let the name “Corporate gifts” fool you, corporate gifts have been, in fact, used as a marketing tool all over the world. And in major business hubs like Singapore, unique corporate gifts are often one of the best marketing tools of businesses.
Image source: dekassa.com
How so?
Corporate gifts, unlike traditional marketing tools like advertisements, banners, or posters, are a lot more mobile, and a lot more “up close” when it comes to their exposure to your customers and potential customers.
For example, let’s say you run an herbal tea business, and you decided to make 1,000 mugs as corporate gifts. The very common practice is, a logo of your business will be on every mug. Regardless the style of the design; the logo can be very centered, or very subtly placed at the corner, but there is a logo.
And now, your recipient happens to be in need of a mug and starts using your mug around the office or at home, that means that mug with your logo on it will be seen by a number of people – the recipient’s colleagues, family members and friends. All those people now at the very least recognize your logo. And just like that, your brand recognition is now improved.
Although brand recognition is a pretty important part of any marketing strategy in just about any industry, but the marketing power of corporate gifts does not have to stop here.
Beyond Brand Recognition
Getting people to know the name of your brand is already a success as far as corporate gifts go, to take it to the next level, you would need to intrigue the potential customers and even make them get to know you.
Can you do all these through giving out corporate gifts?
The answer is yes.
Remember, anything with your logo on it is a representation of your business. That mug you made as corporate gifts? It says more than just “happy holidays!”. The quality and design of the mug represents who you are as a business. Are you going for an elegantly designed mug or a very unique or edgy mug? Are you putting a great deal of colors and graphics on the mug or are you keeping it simple? What messages are you putting on the mug?
All of the above can affect how people think of your brand. If you find this hard to believe, just think about how most people are being judged by the way they dressed in both personal and professional life. Yes, we all know we should not judge a book by its cover, but the reality is, we all do. In today’s society, fashion style has become a personal statement; how people express themselves and a telltale of who they are. And this is exactly why the design and style of your corporate gifts matter. Corporate gifts are more than gifts, they are a statement, a representation of your business.
Okay, but how do I get customers to want to get to know my business more just by seeing my corporate gifts?
Have you ever seen an advertisement, be it print advertisement or TV commercials, and you thought to yourself: “Whoa, I don’t know what this brand does but this is a very cool ad and now I have to google this brand to find out what the business is about.” ?
Corporate gifts have the potential to do just that, too!
With proper design and strategic planning, your corporate gifts can attract both eyeballs and the curiosity behind those eyeballs. This could be achieved by either a very unique design, or a very unique gift along with the right amount of wits.
Related (What to Look for in A Corporate Gifts Supplier)
For example, if you HAVE TO make calendars your corporate gift for the season, make sure it is a very unique calendar. Maybe featuring your employees in each month, making them Mr. and Ms. September and all the other months? (This might seem corny, but let’s be honest, everyone enjoys looking at people that are easy on the eyes.) Or, maybe a calendar in a shape of something funny or relevant to current pop culture trends?
Remember, no one ever google anything that is ordinary.
Just to see you smile
American country singer Tim McGraw has a hit love song: Just to see you smile. Describing how a guy would do anything to see the smile of the girl he loves. A good strategy in romance, and also a great strategy in corporate gifting.
Incorporate some humor and wits in your corporate gifts, it can be a funny quote, a funny image, a funny anything, as long as it puts a smile on your recipient’s face. Your recipient will likely then, without realizing, associate the joyful feeling with your logo (Don’t forget to put your logo on the corporate gifts, too!), making your brand all more likable!
The Three Standards of Corporate Gifts Giving
/in Customised Gifts/by Simplicity GiftsBefore you pull the trigger on ordering your first batch of corporate gifts, you might want to be more well-prepared than “Ok, I’m going in.”, Corporate gifts are more than just gifts, they are also a marketing tool, hence, an investment. In almost every part of the world, including Singapore, customized gifts have been a standard practice for companies in all industries. But just because it’s very common, doesn’t mean that you can do no wrong when it comes to corporate gifts giving.
Image source: imimg.com
And if you are doing it because “Everyone else is doing it” – it is even more important that you try to maximize the benefits of giving out corporate gifts and avoid mistakes that will make this investment worthless.
If you don’t know where to start or where to avoid in your corporate gifts planning, then you’ve found the right place. Here are our three standards of corporate gifts giving, hope to be helpful for your corporate gifts giving planning!
It’s a gift, not a bribe.
Avoid anything too flashy or expensive, especially if your customers include government organizations or bribe-sensitive industries like finance, pharmaceuticals or healthcare. Just because you would have no problem giving your friend an iPad as a gift doesn’t mean you should be giving iPad to your customers and potential customers. Most large companies have their own guideline when it comes to the value cap of corporate gifts. If your business does not currently have such guideline, an experienced corporate gifts vendor should be able to advise you based on industry standard. You don’t necessary have to follow big companies’ restriction of the value of corporate gifts, but being around the same range would be a safe play, and this is exactly the kind of matter that it’s best to play safe with.
It’s not about you, it’s about your recipient.
Yes, corporate gifts can be a powerful marketing tool. And yes, you should definitely put your logo on the corporate gifts you are giving out. But no, you absolutely should not make it all about you.
This means that in the design and planning stage, you should have your recipient in mind, don’t focus on how big your logo can be or how many messages you can squeeze in to promote your service or product. Nobody likes a gift with agenda (Or, obvious agenda.) and this can backfire easily, causing negative reaction from your recipient.
Be subtle, be elegant with your marketing, market with moderation. Don’t give out a T-shirt that is filled with your business logo or has a big, oversized logo of your business right in the front and center. The best case scenario, it would never be worn. But the worst case? It could end up being used as a mop in a dirty bathroom somewhere near you. Nobody wins there. Except the bathroom.
The more mobile it is, the better.
You can always give out gifts that will stay at the recipient’s office desk, but in order to maximize exposure for marketing purpose, the more mobile the gift is, the better. You want the recipient to bring it out with them so other people can see it. For example, a USB flash drive would be more likely to be seen by other people than a desk notepad.
Related (Corporate Gifts as A Marketing Tool)
Another reason why it’s always better to choose a corporate gift that is more mobile is that, in all likeliness, your recipient’s entire office is probably already familiar with your product or service. Sure, you can always try to strengthen your brand image or recognition in that office, but your corporate gifts will probably have more marketing value when it’s being seen outside the office, generating brand recognition from potential customers.
After reading our 3 standards of corporate gifts giving, we hope that you now have a much better idea in your corporate gifts planning. Other than the aforementioned 3 standards, it also goes without saying that corporate gifts should always be sensitive to different cultures and avoid anything provocative.
If you are still not sure where to start with your planning even after knowing the what-not’s, not to worry, you can always speak to a couple different corporate gifts vendors to get an idea of what is appropriate for the occasion or the latest trend.
And it just so happens that we would love to speak with you and help you get a better idea! Don’t be shy, give us a call now and we would be happy to answer your questions!
Corporate Gifts as A Marketing Tool
/in Corporate Gifts/by Simplicity GiftsDon’t let the name “Corporate gifts” fool you, corporate gifts have been, in fact, used as a marketing tool all over the world. And in major business hubs like Singapore, unique corporate gifts are often one of the best marketing tools of businesses.
Image source: dekassa.com
How so?
Corporate gifts, unlike traditional marketing tools like advertisements, banners, or posters, are a lot more mobile, and a lot more “up close” when it comes to their exposure to your customers and potential customers.
For example, let’s say you run an herbal tea business, and you decided to make 1,000 mugs as corporate gifts. The very common practice is, a logo of your business will be on every mug. Regardless the style of the design; the logo can be very centered, or very subtly placed at the corner, but there is a logo.
And now, your recipient happens to be in need of a mug and starts using your mug around the office or at home, that means that mug with your logo on it will be seen by a number of people – the recipient’s colleagues, family members and friends. All those people now at the very least recognize your logo. And just like that, your brand recognition is now improved.
Although brand recognition is a pretty important part of any marketing strategy in just about any industry, but the marketing power of corporate gifts does not have to stop here.
Beyond Brand Recognition
Getting people to know the name of your brand is already a success as far as corporate gifts go, to take it to the next level, you would need to intrigue the potential customers and even make them get to know you.
Can you do all these through giving out corporate gifts?
The answer is yes.
Remember, anything with your logo on it is a representation of your business. That mug you made as corporate gifts? It says more than just “happy holidays!”. The quality and design of the mug represents who you are as a business. Are you going for an elegantly designed mug or a very unique or edgy mug? Are you putting a great deal of colors and graphics on the mug or are you keeping it simple? What messages are you putting on the mug?
All of the above can affect how people think of your brand. If you find this hard to believe, just think about how most people are being judged by the way they dressed in both personal and professional life. Yes, we all know we should not judge a book by its cover, but the reality is, we all do. In today’s society, fashion style has become a personal statement; how people express themselves and a telltale of who they are. And this is exactly why the design and style of your corporate gifts matter. Corporate gifts are more than gifts, they are a statement, a representation of your business.
Okay, but how do I get customers to want to get to know my business more just by seeing my corporate gifts?
Have you ever seen an advertisement, be it print advertisement or TV commercials, and you thought to yourself: “Whoa, I don’t know what this brand does but this is a very cool ad and now I have to google this brand to find out what the business is about.” ?
Corporate gifts have the potential to do just that, too!
With proper design and strategic planning, your corporate gifts can attract both eyeballs and the curiosity behind those eyeballs. This could be achieved by either a very unique design, or a very unique gift along with the right amount of wits.
Related (What to Look for in A Corporate Gifts Supplier)
For example, if you HAVE TO make calendars your corporate gift for the season, make sure it is a very unique calendar. Maybe featuring your employees in each month, making them Mr. and Ms. September and all the other months? (This might seem corny, but let’s be honest, everyone enjoys looking at people that are easy on the eyes.) Or, maybe a calendar in a shape of something funny or relevant to current pop culture trends?
Remember, no one ever google anything that is ordinary.
Just to see you smile
American country singer Tim McGraw has a hit love song: Just to see you smile. Describing how a guy would do anything to see the smile of the girl he loves. A good strategy in romance, and also a great strategy in corporate gifting.
Incorporate some humor and wits in your corporate gifts, it can be a funny quote, a funny image, a funny anything, as long as it puts a smile on your recipient’s face. Your recipient will likely then, without realizing, associate the joyful feeling with your logo (Don’t forget to put your logo on the corporate gifts, too!), making your brand all more likable!
What to Look for in A Corporate Gifts Supplier
/in Corporate Gifts/by Simplicity GiftsCorporate gifts, arguably one of the most iconic symbol in business culture around the world. The corporate gifts of your company represents your company value, company culture and who you are as a business. And to ensure the message and the image get across through the corporate gifts perfectly, selecting a corporate gift supplier is essentially the anchor to it all. The question is, what should you do to make sure you have the right corporate gift supplier? In a busy business city like Singapore, corporate gifts are everywhere and so are the suppliers, how will you select the right vendor to supply you with the corporate gift that represents your business accurately?
Source: jobzella.com
We hear you and we have a few tips for you. Let’s take a look at the top 3 factors that we think matter the most when it comes to selecting the right vendor to supply you with corporate gifts.
Creativity and passions over experience
You might think that you can do no wrong with going with an experienced corporate gifts provider. That is not entirely true. When it comes to corporate gifts, it is almost always better to have something unique, appropriate for the occasion or current social trends rather than something on the traditional side. And this is where creativity and the passions for corporate gifts come in.
A creative vendor will be able to help you find the most unique gifts, unique gifts make a much longer lasting impression, which strengthens your corporate image. The passion of the vendor will allow them to find the best quality products suitable for the corporate gifts, and remember, the quality of your corporate gifts is, inevitably, associated with the quality of your service and products.
Of course, if you could find an experienced, creative, and passionate corporate gift supplier, that would be the best case scenario. But if you just happen to have to choose, make sure you remember that creativity and passions will go much farther than experience.
Related (5 Tips for Maximizing Corporate Gift Giving)
Relationship skills matter more than you think
A good corporate gifts supplier is great at being likable and maintaining relationships. To be great at these things, one must first “care”, in fact, one must cares a lot and care just about everything. A vendor who cares about your experience with them will go extra mile for you in order to deliver the best customer experience possible, and a vendor who is willing to go the extra mile, by extend, will do a lot to make sure that you are happy with their services and product.
If you have a pleasant experience working with a vendor, the chance is, so does the vendor’s supplier and business partners. Naturally, people do not purposely give out an inferior product or service to the people they have a good relationship with, in fact, people often choose to provide better products and services to the people they enjoy working with or having a relationship with.
And when your corporate gifts supplier is receiving better products, services or even perks from its supplier, this means you are also getting higher quality products and services.
A highly organized operation and process.
Being organized means that there is a standardized process for every operation, this process is often, if not always, tested and improved to fit the operation. A well designed and tested process can minimize errors significantly, saving both parties time, energy and resources.
And by being organized, it would make things a lot easier if and when there is a mistake made somewhere during the process, making the whole operation highly efficient.
But it doesn’t just stop there, not only should a vendor be organized in the production process, the administration process should also be organized to minimize process time and improve efficiency.
Remember, it might be cool to work with a vendor that is heavily on the “artistic” side and doesn’t care much about the “other stuff”, but in real life, working with an unorganized business could be time consuming and might even create the lack of accountability when things go wrong.
Now that you know our top 3 factors in choosing a corporate gifts supplier, we would like to remind you that you should always do your own evaluation before committing to one or any supplier. And avoid relying on “words of mouth” entirely or too heavily. After all, “words of mouth” are often, if not always, accountability free and extremely subjective. Come up with your own process or create a list of criteria to rate all your options to get a clear picture if you’re having a hard time making a decision on vendors.
5 Tips for Maximizing Corporate Gift Giving
/in Corporate Gifts/by Simplicity GiftsImage Source: videohive.net
With Christmas cheers in the air and festive decorations everywhere, we have officially entered the holiday season, and similarly, corporate gifting season. Almost every business gives out corporate gifts around this time of the year along with holiday greetings.
If you work at an office in a business that has business relationships with other businesses, the chance is you have received one of these before, and, more likely than not, some of them didn’t even make it to your handbag nor office desk before being immediately forgotten in a dark corner somewhere, or even worse, in a trash can. Especially for a major business hub like Singapore, unique gifts are the only ones that really survive the holiday seasons and do its job, which is leaving an impression. However, having an unique gift is not the only thing that will help you reach this goal – Let’s look at a few tips we have for your corporate gift giving this year.
Customise your corporate gift
If your business is ordering hundreds of the same gift for all your customers and business associates, it is difficult to make each gift special or different from another to make the recipient feel special. However, that doesn’t mean it can’t be done. Have your sales force and liaison staff hand write a short greeting for each recipient, and only do it for the recipients they interact with throughout the year, let the recipients know that they ARE special and your business is taking time to appreciate the working or business relationship you share.
Either that, or you customise your corporate gift. The main idea is to make each recipient feel special.
Hand deliver it
Instead of sending out boxes of calendars, have your sales force – even yourself visit your clients’ office to hand deliver your corporate gifts. If you’re giving out a large number at one specific company, at least make the effort to see your main contact window at the company and give them a big smile when you hand over those boxes of gifts. Every business can spend money on gifts, but the ones that also spends time on it says a lot more about how you value the relationship between you.
‘Tis the season to smile
No matter how busy someone is, she or he will always have just one second to bare for a smile or even a good laugh. Incorporate something funny in your gift – perhaps a short joke, a funny picture of your own staff, or even a funny picture of yourself. If there is no way you can put that on your gift, make sure your gift comes with a card and aim for a smile when you put something in that card.
Related (The Art of Corporate Gift Giving)
Set the priority straight
While it is important to get your brand or business noticed with the gift, remember that a corporate gift in Singapore is meant to make the life of the recipient easier or make the recipient happy. So before you order a batch of low functionality gifts covered in your enlarged logo, ask yourself if you’d even take a second look at the gift if you were the recipient. And remember, a bad gift can always backfire. Just ask every woman and their boyfriend! (And my high school boyfriend would have a lot to say about that!)
Build anticipation
A business, generally, wants to let its customers and potential customers know that it is here to stay. If you’re tired of spending all your brain juice on coming up with a unique, personalized gifts every year, then sometimes being predictable is the best strategy.
Now, I know being predictable is often associated with boring, but it doesn’t have to. You know what else is predictable? A tradition. Pick something that is useful and stick to it every year – like a calendar, a champion of corporate gift every year around the world, but put a little twist on it.
For example, instead of pictures of random scenery, why not make it fun by coming up with your own corporate hotties calendars? The Mister or Miss September never gets old. Not your style? How about a funny graphic or cartoons about your company for each month? When all else fails, there’s also the good ole “year in review” or “this time last year” you can put on the calendar.
After all, if you give people something to talk about, they will be talking about it. Let your corporate gift be the talk of the town and get people excited about the next edition!
The Art of Corporate Gift Giving
/in Corporate Gifts/by Simplicity GiftsWith 2015 coming to an end, many might find yourself reflecting on the year and setting up your plans and goals for next year. And if you’re a business, it is time to put some serious thought on your corporate gifts if you haven’t already. In Singapore, corporate gifts have always been an important part of corporate cultures, especially this time of the year – Tis’ the season!
The chance is you’ve probably printed out many calendars as corporate gifts in the past, how about something a little different this time? Nothing makes a better impression during the holiday season than a unique gift for your clients, associates or employees, so before you pull the trigger, take some time to think about what will make you stand out most and take a couple of things into consideration.
Here are a couple things to think about for your corporate gifts:
Out of sight, out of mind
Although it is always fun to make your gifts seasonal (for example, summer theme, Christmas theme, new year theme…etc), let’s not forget the timeless wisdom of “out of sight, out of mind.” – corporate gifts is essentially a form of marketing, a reminder of your brand or service. Instead of giving out something that’s unlikely to stick around long, consider giving out something that is practical, even office essential to have a place in the office or the recipient’s daily life. For example, USB hubs and note pads are both practical and likely to stay on the recipient’s desk for a long time.
Uniqueness, not advertisement
Although some companies have their own regulation when it comes to the size and position of company logo on their gifts and gimmicks, one thing to keep in mind that a gift is not an advertisement, at least not openly.
Yes, you are trying to get people to think of you and leave an impression, but it is still a gift. That being said, the logo placement should be as subtle as possible if it can’t blend in with the design. Corporate gifts in Singapore are more likely to be kept around and talked about (hence enhanced the impression) if it’s unique and well designed. You can either build a series of design around your logo and make it look fun or unique, or just leave the gift alone and let it remain its own design, note that this is not to say you just give out corporate gifts with your company logo nowhere to be found, a logo is essential, but don’t let it be the first thing that people notice when they look at your gift when you don’t have an entire graphic design built around it.
Which brings us to the next point.
Design matters
Yes, your corporate gifts should ideally be very practical for your recipients to be using it and keeping it around for a long time, but a unique, chic design can take your corporate gifting game to a whole new level. A unique, interesting or elegant design will make your corporate gift the talk of the town. People will be showing the gift to their friends and associates, and that is pretty much free branding!
It’s not me, it’s you
Last but not least, one thing that most people tend to forget when ordering corporate gifts is that the gift is about the recipient, not about the company that gives out the gifts.
Think about what you’d like to receive, not from a company you have a business relationship with, but from a colleague or even your own friends. And this is how you will stand out from all the other companies that are also sending out corporate gifts. Make sure your gift is something that is nice to look at, practical and even make the recipient’s life easier!
Sometimes some companies are a little too focused on making the gift relevant to the business or the products or service the company is offering but forget that a gift is a “keep me in mind” – not an actual advertisement. There are many other forms of marketing approach to mention your products and services, leave the gift alone and let it be just a gift, this might seem like a small thing, but it will be that one small thing that get you closer to the recipient.
And that is exactly what gifting is all about.
Contact Simplicity Gifts for a free quote now.