Personalized Corporate Gifts
One way to get the attention of someone you’re giving a corporate gift to is by personalizing it. This makes it stand out from the other gifts that someone’s being given – in the business community, people get a range of gifts every year, ranging from cheap junk to highly expensive and tailored gifts specific to the person. Most people will have a budget, and they’ll want to give gifts somewhere in between. The trick is making the gift seem like it belongs in the “expensive” category, even when it doesn’t. How do you get more credit than you deserve? One good way is to go with personalized corporate gifts – a gifting strategy that comes in a couple of varieties, but when successfully used will make your effort far more effective.
You can personalize a corporate gift in a couple of ways:
A Well-thought Out Gift – This is the most effective and most advisable form of “personalization,” but it only works on a small scale. Essentially, you try to make your gift something unique that you know the recipient would enjoy. This will only work if you can find some interest or hobby of the recipient that is a good target for this kind of gift. For example, suppose a colleague is a fan of a particular sport or team – get them memorabilia. You can often get signed items for pretty cheap on e-bay – frame a signed pennant, baseball card, or poster for display and you’ve made a great gift customized to the person who’s getting it. Be creative and innovative – you want to think of something unusual that will stand out from everything else they’re getting. Rack your brains for conversations you’ve had with the person that might suggest their interests. You’ll have to come up with something on your own – start with a list of interests you think the person has. Then think of items or services that are for sale in that field, and try to find one that “fits” them.
Engravings – This is a good method of “mass” personalization. If you’ve got to give a lot of gifts, you can customize them to each person with an engraving. There are all kinds of items you could do this with – wallets, mugs, cuff links, pens, jewelry boxes – many of these look extremely classy and make a good gift, even if you have dozens of people on your list. The biggest, most important risk here is a spelling error. Whatever you do, avoid this – check your list several times, and physically check the gifts when you get them. Don’t ship directly to the person – you want to see it with your own eyes first. If the gift is apparel, you can go with monogrammed clothing of some kind. However, don’t be too familiar if your relationship doesn’t justify it.