Achieving Good Balance in Choosing Corporate Gifts

Modern corporate gift-giving is becoming an object of interest for many companies and businesses in the world. In Singapore, corporate gift giving has become both an art and a science.  But even at its bare essential, business gift-giving has also become a major part of operations since they function as non-traditional means of public engagement and image-building. Or as some business guru may put it, gift-giving has become an integral component of modern-day ‘branding’, a crucial element of establishing desirable image and therefore improving good standing with clients, partners, employees and a broad mass base. 

Due to this, many Singapore companies exert significant efforts and spend considerable resources to provide employees, clients, suppliers, individual consumers and other business partners with the best kinds of corporate gifts and other giveaways that are both functional, symbolic and can help reinforce better public perception of the company, its brands, products or services. 

Determining the Appropriate Gift

In terms of symbolic value, corporate gifts are just like any other gift—they are expressions of goodwill, recognition and shows the recipients value to the giver. But for many companies in Singapore, corporate gifts are generally gestures of appreciation for loyalty and patronage. In terms of functions too, corporate gifts emphasizes functionality rather than aesthetic, symbolic or sentimental value.

As such, the most appropriate corporate gifts are items that are or can be used regularly and routinely by those who receive them. This is why pens, cups, memo pads, USB, shirts, jackets, umbrella, clock, earphones, chargers, and other office items are the most common corporate gifts.

Gifts of Value and the Value of Gifts 

It helps that a gift item is ‘pricey’, or are premium corporate gifts, because this implies that companies are willing to spend for their patrons and employees which by itself is good for public image. But this can be very costly especially if done many times during a year. As such, corporate gifts need not be expensive.

But they must also not be too cheap especially if by being cheap, we end up with poor quality items that are not durable or aesthetically pleasing.  This is bad for public image.

In terms of price then, the critical key is balance. There are reasonably priced items, sometimes referred to as promotional corporate gifts in Singapore that have competitive quality and aesthetics. Going for average brands that are not cheap and has reasonably good quality offer value-for-money corporate gift ideas. This means looking for premium items that are not too expensive but can still offer relative quality especially in terms of durability especially since the items need to be used for a long time too.  

And yes, it also helps to be creative. The price of corporate gift items can be augmented by ingenuity.

Customizing gift items is a sure-fire way to increase the value of any gift and make it more relevant and therefore meaningful to the recipient. Home gift-items can also break the monotony of receiving office items over and over. Home decors for display can be effective in which case, uniqueness rather than price is more important factor. Family-oriented corporate gifts such as fruit baskets or home decors for the household signifies ‘values’ or ‘virtues’ and valuing of family is obviously a very common value that a company can share with any client, partner or employee without spending too much.

Good packaging can also help improve any gift’s value. Corporate gifts pleasingly wrapped in novel gift boxes and well packaged presentation can be more meaningful since it shows additional effort on the part of the company.