Why Customized Gifts
Who doesn’t love receiving gifts? That’s the underlying consumer psychology that corporate gift-giving taps into. From wholesalers and retailers to manufacturers and distributors, they all understand the power of giveaways as a great publicity strategy. That’s why more and more corporations are turning to their corporate customized gifts store as a viable marketing resource.
However, while gifts are a powerful sales and marketing tool, they are also responsible for representing the company’s brand and image. As a result, well-produced corporate gifts go a long way in creating favorable brand acceptance. But if those gifts are in poor taste, or if they are poorly manufactured, your company’s image can take a serious hit. Instead of a marketing coup, badly designed corporate gifts often turn into marketing nightmares!
Avoiding gift-giving nightmares
Working with a seasoned customized gifts-producing firm will ensure your corporate gift-giving strategy meets its aims and objectives. In addition, the right manufacturing partner will help you reduce costs and improve the quality of your gifts.
So, how do companies ensure their corporate gift-giving initiatives produce favorable results? Well, although there is no single answer to that question, companies may take several steps to make sure their gift-giving strategies end in success.
Some of the ideas to consider include:
- Always consider ordering customized gifts in bulk. In the long run, this results in the consistent quality of gifts and reduces the overall cost of the gifts
- Put plenty of thought into designing your gifts. The size, shape, and color of the gifts matter. That’s because gift recipients typically relate a gift to the company from whom they received it. If the color and dimensions of the gift, therefore, do not meet the receiver’s expectations, they may view your company negatively
- Finally, companies can avoid marketing nightmares through their choice of gift manufacturing partners. A seasoned producer of corporate gifts is the safest bet that your gifts will always meet the high-quality standards that properly represent your brand. There are cheaper alternate producers out there. However, if company image is what matters to you, experienced gift makers are the way to go
We’ll speak more about each of these best practices in the subsequent sections of this post. The point, however, that we shouldn’t lose sight of in this discussion is this: Using bulk customized gifts as a means of marketing your products and services is a great idea. The more high-quality gifts that circulate in the market, which associate your company with them, the greater their positive impact on your company’s image and brand.
Why consider wholesale customized gifts?
Clearly, when launching a custom-made gift-giving program, you need to give it a lot of thought before you order the gifts. As well, to benefit from economies of scale, it is best practice to order these gifts in large quantities. Why? Because:
- Large orders typically bring down the unit cost of a gift. That’s because manufacturers find it more economical to produce 100% customized gifts in bulk. Because of fixed overhead costs, 10,000 units of, say, a Bluetooth gift set cost less to manufacture than 500 units of the same gift
- Bulk orders cost less to ship: Say you order 500 units of a custom-made gift set, and it cost you $10 in shipping. When you re-order another 500 units, in 2 or 3 months, you’ll pay another $10 in shipping. After ten orders, you’ll have paid $100 in the shipping cost for 5000 units. However, ordering 10,000 units the first time may have cost you $75 in shipping.
That one-time cost is less than the total for 10 orders – PLUS, you received twice the quantity! The reason for that is, bulk orders require just one-time handling, they need less effort and materials to pack and transport. As a result, overall shipping costs decline with larger orders
- Manufacturers save on making dies and setting up personalized production lines for custom bulk gifts. The fixed cost of creating new dies, winding up prior production lines, and then setting up and winding down new ones is staggeringly high. However, if customized gift manufacturers spread those costs over 10,000 items, instead of 500, they find it more economical to do so
When all’s said and done, gift makers significantly reduce the cost – to them – of producing larger orders than smaller ones. As a result of these cost-savings, they pass on the benefit to their customers in the form of lower unit costs. So, if you’re wondering why you might place an order of 10,000 customized USB Flash Drives as opposed to 500, the answer is this:
Would you rather place an order of 500, at a price of, say, $5 per unit, instead of an order of 10,000 at a unit cost of $2.50?
And that’s the tradeoff corporate gift-givers make when deciding whether to place a single bulk order or to place multiple smaller orders. It’s all about cost-savings – to both, manufacturers as well as gift-givers!
What really matters: Shape, size, and design
So, when you’re planning to order customized gifts wholesale, what really matters in terms of the types of gifts you should consider? Are there any specific guidelines to keep in mind to design the gifts? Should you be using trending icons or images to create your gifts? There are so many questions, and all of them are critical to the success of any corporate gift-giving campaign.
Before we explore the answers to these important questions, there’s one thing that corporate gift-giving program managers must understand: Customized gift manufacturers like OYI Gifts have no restrictions on the types of gifts they manufacture.
Their only mission is to deliver exactly what the client wants! And that’s what they are good at. However, since they have been in the personalized gift-making business for a long time, here are some best practices they advise their clients to keep in mind when planning customized gift-giving programs:
- Colors: The one thing to remember is that items in your customized gifts store or corporate gift catalog represent your company. So, when you plan a gift idea, it’s always good practice to consider using corporate color schemes for the gift items too.
A great example might be a company gift from the world’s leading courier company DHL. Their corporate color is mustard yellow. All their delivery trucks, vans, and cars are of the same color. Even DHL’s fleet of airplanes bears the same color and branding. So, when the company’s corporate gift-givers decide on a color scheme for corporate gifts, guess what color makes sense: Mustard yellow!
- Shapes & sizes: When it comes to designing the shape of your corporate gifts, once again, the sky’s the limit. However, since these gifts are representatives of your corporate identity, the shape and size of the intended customized gifts should reflect that identity too!
Consider the case of global soft-drink manufacturer and distributor, Pepsi. When designing a gift-giving campaign that includes a gift set containing Bluetooth and Wireless consumer items, the choice of a can of Pepsi makes an ideal gift. Sure, the company may have chosen any shape for its gift – including wine glasses, champagne bottles…or even airplanes. However, none of those shapes directly represent the corporate brand like a can of pop.
While there are no hard and fast rules that say you can’t do otherwise; the best practice is therefore to choose gift shapes that are close to, if not identical, to company products and services.
- Branding: If you ask any marketing expert what sets a company’s products and services apart from the competition, they’ll likely answer “Branding”. In fact, branding is what the company is all about – at least in terms of universal recognition. When brands, like Pepsi, IBM or DHL think about customizing their gifts, one of the first questions that they probably ask is: How will the gift reflect on our brand?
As a corporate gift-giver, when you are preparing to order customized gifts in bulk, your concern too must be around branding. And the best way to protect that brand is to only work with bulk gift manufacturers that have a proven track record of working with companies to authentically represent and reproduce your brand.
It might be cheaper to work with a gift manufacturer with a year of experience. They’ll probably create gifts that mimic your brand closely enough. However, when it comes to your brand, “close enough” is not good enough! That’s why the best practice is to always work with a manufacturer that knows the gift-making business.
It’s important to also remember: Once substandard gifts representing your brand get out into the market, your image will take a serious hit! Poorly designed gifts draw bad publicity. Retailers, distributors, suppliers, and other business partners, who deal in your products and services, will distance themselves from your company’s brand.
And, if you ordered large quantities of customized gifts wholesale, and they are all poorly designed and produced, you’ve now got another big problem on your hands: You’ll have to destroy all those products because they distort your brand. Think about the loss that will generate! Wouldn’t it have been better to pay a slight premium and have an experienced gift manufacturer produce your corporate gifts?
- Themes and events: Seasons and traditions also have an impact on the types of gifts you order. Everyone loves a corporate-themed Bluetooth speaker. During ordinary times, a speaker set, with a charger and cables, bearing your company logo and brand, might be a welcome gift to hand out. However, what about during special seasons – like Christmas or New Year?
Well, best practices in corporate gift-giving suggest that special events call for special gift-giving considerations. Why not celebrate the occasion with appropriate gifts. Be it a religious or non-denominational holiday, or be it a national event or a company-specific milestone – your gifts tend to have better reception, from the receiver, if they match the event or the season.
When you work with a professional gift maker, however, there’s no reason why gifts can’t celebrate the season or occasion, while also projecting your brand. For example, Christmas-themed gifts, incorporating colors or bearing resemblance to company products, are a great idea. And because gift receiver feels especially nostalgic during seasonal holidays, gifts bearing your brand and image will receive greater than usual approval.
When it comes to marketing your company, gifts are an ideal technique to use. The idea behind considering and following gift-giving best practices, when ordering wholesale customized gifts, is to ensure that you give some thought to those gifts when designing them. These best practices will also guide your decision when picking a partner to manufacture them. And, finally, adhering to the best practices outlined above ensures that your target recipients receive the gifts in a positive spirit.
Build your customized gifts strategy now
When you decide to embark upon a corporate gift-giving program, it’s important to plan it out to the last detail. Whether you are a retailer, wholesaler, or distributor. And whether you are in the manufacturing, reselling, or sales and servicing business; gifts are a great sales and marketing tool to use. It doesn’t matter what types of gifts you give, but when you do plan on designing one, keep in mind that the gift represents your company.
And because corporate branding is everything these days, be mindful that your custom gifts store only carries items that accurately represent your branding. And that’s where your choice of gift manufacturing partner comes in. If there’s a single point of failure in gift-giving strategies, it’s the manufacturer of those gifts.
Specialized gift maker OYI Gifts has been producing custom bulk gifts for many years. With dedicated plants and manufacturing facilities, staffed by experienced designers, technicians, and sales advisory staff, we can help you choose the gift you should offer to your clients.
So, if you have a gift idea you’d like to see come to fruition, why not contact us and discuss it with our team of experienced corporate gift designers? Because we’ve been manufacturing wholesale customized gifts for so long, chances are that we may be able to share some ideas with you, that’ll supercharge your gifts and make them even more popular with your audience.