How B2B and B2C revenue leaders have refashioned the corporate gifting industry. Delve into the innovative ways companies are using to connect with staff, clients and colleagues through corporate gifting.
Fast-expanding, next generation businesses are redefining traditional corporate gifting with their innovative approaches to standard giving practices. With a new spin on gift giving, like tailored outdoor adventures, superior quality products and design-your-own packages; the industry is said to be growing on average 8.1% annually. This growth is expected to continue as more and more companies are looking for different approaches to honor motivated staff, manage remote workers and connect with prospective or existing clients.
Why This Matters:
- According to the book How Full is Your Bucket, the main reason employees leave their place of employment is because they feel undervalued.
- In fact, Deloitte has reported that companies who invest in recognition programs are more effective at employee engagement, with 31% lower voluntary turnover, when compared to those who do not.
- The $242 billion corporate gifting market is expected to reach $306 billion by the year 2024.
- 76% of employees prefer gifts they can share with either family or teams.
- More than half (52%) of gift recipients do business with a company after receiving a corporate gift.
- Nearly 20% of companies spend over $1000 on client corporate gifts over the holidays .
- Almost 68% of businesses say that brand awareness is their priority when corporate gifting.
The Plan and Purpose Behind Corporate Gifting
The basic principle behind corporate gifting is simple. It’s a show of gratitude – in the form of a gift – to employees, clients, colleagues, partners, customers and prospects. When done appropriately, corporate gifting can foster meaningful, and lasting business relationships.
Corporate gifting strategy isn’t merely a distribution of gifts, it is a deliberate and purposeful act that aligns with company goals, brand identity and business values. A well-calculated approach takes into account the intent, the recipient’s preferences and the desired outcomes.
A good corporate gifting strategy begins with a budget. Ensuring your gift aligns with your brand’s core values will help translate the message you intend on sending, but it is crucial to ensure you do not spend beyond your means. The other essential components of gifting to be mindful of include cultural sensitivities, conflicts of interest and legal regulations. By monopolizing the most important aspects of corporate gifting, you can create unparalleled junctures of connection and relationship.
The Frequency of Gifting Campaigns
The frequency of gifting can vary significantly among organizations as each corporation’s budget, specific needs and goals differ. Corporate gifts are often occasion-timed and based on an event. They can also be done on a regular basis as part of a wellness campaign, productivity boost campaign and so forth. Based on research of the corporate gifting industry, it has been found that 95% of companies send out a corporate gift at least once a year.
The landscape of corporate gifting according to a 2023 Giftpack Scaling Up Gifting report is shown as follows:
Relationship management: 42%
Celebration: 44%
Employee engagement and retention: 44%
Employee onboarding: 35%
Employee rewards and recognition: 35%
Trade shows and exhibitions: 26%
Customer satisfaction: 16%
Client onboarding: 19%
Lead generation: 9%
Holidays: 9%
Sales enablement: 14%
Surveys: 2%
Brand & Event promotion: 26%
Corporate gifting has undergone a makeover in recent years. Conventional gifts, like branded stationery and calendars are a thing of the past; making way for customized gifts, experiential offerings and the power of choice. Businesses are taking grip of the impact that personalization in gifting provides and using these strategies to make longer lasting impressions.
Leveraging the Power of Experience Gifts
The concept of doing rather than having is becoming more and more popular, not just among those who have it all, but for the average person as well. Experiential gifts are those that give the recipient an experience, such as sky diving classes, cooking lessons, concert tickets and so on.
As per a Retail Connections article; after the pandemic 58% of people in the UK felt as though they longed for the experience of being “out”. Real-life experiences create moments of joy in the build-up to the event, during the experience and afterward as a memory as well. Whereas material possessions can have fleeting happiness until the novelty wears off and the next new craze hits the market.
According to statistics by Consumer Reports, at least 60% of people – aged between 25 and 34 years – preferred to receive the gift of an experience rather than a tangible item. It is in this climate that people move away from materialism to experienced-based offerings, creating a specific niche for organizations to capitalize on. With Giftsenda branded email gift invites, these experience gifts can be shared via a custom-branded email; increasing the power of the delivery of a great corporate gift.
Unveiling the Hidden Consequences of Frugal Corporate Gifting
In business, managing your spend and counting costs is paramount. But frugal corporate gifting can have a backfire effect, which can ultimately damage your brand’s reputation and be counterintuitive to your approach.
A recent example of frugality saw the e-commerce giant Amazon in the news recently after the company was criticized for only allowing their employees to have half a bagel at corporate meetings. While it may have saved the business a few dollars, it saw staff feeling undervalued; resulting in backlash and negative PR.
In the U.K; the energy giant E.On made news early last year with a bad PR stunt of their own. The company sent socks to customers in a bid to generate awareness around saving energy. However, with customers experiencing difficulty with regard to the cost of living crises related to soaring energy costs, many thought the marketing gaffe was in poor taste. Had the company put more effort into the client gifts, the intent could have probably been better received instead of drawing negative backlash .
The good news is that you don’t necessarily have to spend a lot of money to make an impact when gifting. With a little use of your smarts, you can use your budget to make trendy approaches work for you. Key segments of corporate gifting, like sustainable products, e-Gift cards and personalized SWAG items, can help you strategically tailor your efforts to optimize market penetration and customer/ client/ employee engagement.
The Gift of Choice
Research shows that at least 68% of employees prefer choosing their own gift instead of having their employer do so for them.
Choosing a gift your recipient will love can be a mission in itself. There are sizes, colors, preferences, types and all sorts of other aspects to consider to make sure the item ticks all the boxes of a great corporate gift.
One way companies are responding to this challenge is by giving their recipient the power of choice. Giftsenda has made this approach easy through the use of shareable gift links. These automated links are shared through any messaging platform of your choice and are delivered to your recipient giving them access to a redeemable gift or collection of gifts from which to choose. They also provide their delivery details as part of the process. These are address-free and remove the need of prior knowledge when it comes to recipient delivery information.
The gift builder feature also enables you to create your own gift basket or box by choosing specific items to go in it. This is especially simple if you know of your recipient’s preferences and you are able to tailor a gift to their liking.
To Sum Up
As the corporate gifting industry continues to grow so too will the opportunities to leverage different approaches of fostering and strengthening professional relationships and enhancing brand recognition. Embrace streamlined gifting with Giftsenda and integrate your CRM with the platform for quick and simple gift campaign initiation, management, optimization and reporting. You can also automate your gifting with Zapier integration and automatically send email gift invites or direct gifts. Zapier also moves information via the popular web apps you’re already using allowing you to invest your time in more pressing matters.
