Getting your logo in front of your target audience is a huge part of using business gifts. Whether it’s to increase brand awareness in your own company or to draw attention to yourselves in a marketing exercise, using company gifts can make a big impression if used in the right way.
Deciding that you are going to use business gifts is one thing, but coming up with ideas for products that are practical enough to be used, cool enough to be desirable and meet your brand specifications is easier said than done, so where do you start when coming up with ideas for company gifts?
Consider Your Audience
Your audience are the people who will receive your business gifts so consider what items are going to appeal most to them. The success of your company gifts are going to be determined by the visibility that your brand receives from them and the effect that this visibility has on the people who interact with it, so using gifts that people are going to use and enjoy is an essential first step.
Consider Practicality
One of the main reasons that your gift will be visible is if it is practical as the more it is used, the more it will be seen by both your recipients and those around them. The success of promotional pens has hinged on this for years as people are less likely to throw away an item that will be useful to them, so even if you are looking for something with a little bit more to it than a pen, these principals still apply.
Practical items such as branded flash drives can be a good place to start if your recipients tend to carry data on the move, whereas desk items will give you added visibility if you are targeting office based individuals.
Consider Your Brand
Your brand is, after all, what you are using company gifts to promote and there are two main considerations to make, is the gift I am choosing relevant to the products, services or image of my brand and does the product that I choose make our company details noticeable enough.
On the first consideration, your brand does not stop with the logo that you place onto your gifts. The object itself needs to have connotations to your products and services or reference an aspect of your wider marketing and advertising to have the maximum impact on your audience. If you have a successful ad campaign or a distinctive brand image, use products that reference these to ensure that recipients do not need to spot the logo to know who it’s from.
If your brand isn’t as instantly recognisable then you will need to ensure that the position in which you can place your logo is instantly visible to those who are going to be looking at it. This is where clocks and calendars come into their own, acting as a highly visible advert for a brand when displayed on company walls.
When considering ideas for your company gifts, bear each of these aspects in mind and think how they can appeal to both your audience and your brand to achieve the maximum amount of success.
Posted by Alan Grainger
