Who can give corporate gifts?
The term corporate gifts is fairly broad. It refers to essentially any type of gift purchased by a corporation, rather than a specific subset of gifts. In that respect, anything can be a corporate gift even if it is not branded or does nothing to expand the awareness or appreciation of the company. As long as the corporation purchases the gift, the gift is immediately placed into the corporate gift category.
Because of this broad definition, a corporate gift can be given to a variety of different types of individuals and other companies. Below is a small sample of the types of recipients of corporate gifts.
Corporate Gift Recipients
ˇ Potential Clients (Representatives) Perhaps the most common recipient of corporate gifts is individuals that represent a possible sale into another company. For example, a sales staff member may give a corporate gift to the head of the research and development department as a way of getting their brand appreciated by the individual, with further hopes of winning them over in order to get their company to purchase the product the purchasing company has to offer.
ˇ Potential Clients (Businesses) It is also not uncommon for one corporation to send corporate gifts to entire companies, with things that benefit the company rather than the individual, so that the entire staff of the company become more aware of the senders brand name.
ˇ Employees (Executives) Companies occasionally purchase corporate gifts which are given to executives to help show them appreciation for leading their companies.
ˇ Employees (Rewards and Recognition) Corporate gifts are also provided to individual employees as a way to either show them appreciation for a job well done or provide them with a reward for accomplishing a tremendous task.
ˇ Employees (All) It is also not uncommon for a corporation to purchase a variety of smaller, branded items which are there for the taking by employees of that company. Pens, umbrellas, water bottles, etc. are designed to be freely given away to all employees so that not only do they have something useful from the company, but they are taking their brand home with them.
ˇ Other Corporate gifts are provided for other reasons as well. For example, these gifts may be given away at a convention to anyone that passes a booth even if they do not represent a potential client. Or they may be given to speakers that visit a company. Or they may be given to new, current, and former clients to show them appreciation for using your companys offerings. They may even be used as incentives to hurry a project or contract early.
As you can see, anyone can be given a gift by a company, causing the definition of what constitutes a corporate gift to be fairly broad. However, as these gifts are almost always designed to help improve the way their company appears in the eyes of the recipient of that gift, these presents are useful for a company in all of those possible scenarios.