Selecting the perfect corporate gift for your company is not a task to be taken lightly. It requires careful consideration to ensure that they align with your stakeholders’ preferences, reflecting your brand values, and leaving a lasting impression. The other thing you will have to take a look at is the types of initiatives that your company is most engaged with.
There are many types of corporate gifts with an almost infinite number of variations, hence, it’s not such a straightforward process as one might think. In this article, we will explore certain key factors that should be taken into account when you’re planning for your annual initiatives, helping you understand the factors to consider when choosing your corporate gifts before signing up with your corporate gift supplier in Malaysia.
The 5W1H Of Corporate Gifting
As with most PR practices, we consider the types of information to include in our press releases in a structured manner before sending out our media pitches. While there are many variations in company processes, the basic method to creating a compelling piece is usually in the form of 5W1H (What, Why, When, Where, Who, and How).
While it isn’t conventional to employ such an elementary technique to make informed decisions, sometimes going back to basics gives us much-needed perspective into the matter at hand, especially if you’re a PR manager bogged down with a myriad of other tasks. The 5W1H of corporate gifting covers most aspects of your intended target stakeholders, and what you should decide on before engaging with a corporate gift supplier in Malaysia:
1) What
As we’ve discussed above, the types of corporate gifts which resonate with stakeholders differ from industry to industry. Amid endless deadlines and chasing that year-end KPI, many of us miss out on important questions we should be asking while preparing our business case. As such, for greater clarity, we will talk about this from the perspective of various industries:
- Banking/ Investment Industry – If you’re a part of the banking industry or an investment firm, your stakeholders would naturally expect to receive more premium items as corporate gifts. Items like leather-bound diary gift boxes, roller ball pens, and ceramic bowl gift sets are some great ideas for your stakeholders in this industry.
- Telecommunication Industry – Corporate gifts for telco industries are usually synonymous with being youthful, vibrant, and fun. Corporate gift kits within this industry can be similar to HR career fair kits, which include items like stress balls, sticky note pads, and magnetic bookmarks.
- Utility Industry – Utility service providers like water, electricity and sewage management companies are unique in the sense that public perception of their companies is highly dependent on their CSR efforts. This is usually because the governance of these organisations is highly regulated by the Department of Environment where they are expected to comply with specific environmental standards in their daily operations. Some great corporate gift ideas for this sector include eco-paper pens, cardboard-covered memo pads, and wheat straw coffee cups.
- Universities – Marcom activities for universities typically evolve to reflect the zeitgeist of the current epoch. While adopting the everyday slang in your marketing or PR practices may seem a tad overkill (iykyk), communicating with the younger generation by trying too hard or outright imitating them will lead to the opposite effect. With these being said, some of the great corporate gift ideas for this sector mirror gifts within the human resources profession, which are gifts that appeal to younger stakeholders. They are multi-coloured Muji-esque pens, felt document holders, pencil cases, and laptop bags.
2) Why
Similar to most company projects and initiatives, a clear justification for why something needs to be done is always required to prepare a compelling business case. While we are in essence one of the many corporate gift suppliers in Malaysia, solely iterating the benefits of corporate gifting would go against our value as a company, which is to provide value to our stakeholders. Hence, we would like to talk about the effects of poorly thought-out corporate gifting.
Corporate gifts are meant to instil a sense of happiness and exclusivity among your stakeholders. Ill-conceived corporate gifting, however, will have an adverse effect on your organisation as a whole. Below are some of the reasons why bad corporate gift planning can work to harm your organisation:
- Diluted Brand Perception – Corporate gifts that are of no relevance to your industry can dilute your stakeholders’ perception of your brand. When gifts feel generic or thoughtless, they fail to fulfil their intended purpose to leave a lasting impression on your company.
- Missed Connection Opportunities – Badly thought-out corporate gifts can miss the mark in establishing a meaningful connection with your stakeholders. When gifts fail to resonate with your target market, the opportunity for connection and rapport is lost.
- Wasted Resources – Remember seeing random corporate gifts being strewn all over your work desk? While corporate gifts can be an economical way to increase your brand awareness, the sheer quantity of low-cost branded merchandise can dent your annual budget. Investing in gifts that are impractical or lacking quality will fail to achieve the desired impact and also waste financial resources, time, and effort.
- Negative Brand Perception – Corporate gifts that are offensive, impractical, lacking quality, or inappropriate can reflect poorly on your company’s value and professionalism. Power banks that break after a few uses or pens that run out of ink within a week are some examples of corporate gifting we should avoid. Hence we should take this into consideration before partnering up with the right corporate gift company.
So, why do we need corporate gifts? Regardless of whichever industry you’re a part of, corporate gift suppliers have been an aspect of every organisation for many many years. From SMEs to conglomerates, corporate gifting has been instilled as a part of Malaysian culture.
Fun fact, the first recorded instance of corporate gifting in history was in 1883 when John D. Rockefeller, an American businessman and philanthropist gave his employees company calendars as a form of appreciation.
As a corporate gift supplier in Malaysia, we’d be more than happy to compel you to blindly purchase corporate gifts as a part of your initiatives, but the truth is, opting for corporate gifts are optional. E.g., if you only have the budget to choose between corporate gifts vs marketing and paying your staff salaries, always go for the latter.
But when you do have the budget for it, the pros outweigh the cons of missed opportunities to build relationships with your stakeholders. Allowing them to leave empty-handed can potentially leave a negative impression on your company.
In short, corporate gifting is a major aspect of every company in Malaysia. You should include some of the points below when you’re presenting your business case to upper management:
- The demographics of your stakeholders, i.e. age group, gender, sector
- The types of corporate gifts for your stakeholders. Ensure that they’re practical, relevant, and age-suitable
- Justifications relevant to your industry
- The quality level of your corporate gifts for your stakeholders, i.e., standard gifts, premium gifts, VIP gifts etc.
3) When
Based on your previous years’ event calendars, you should be able to draft up a pretty accurate timeline on when corporate gifts will be required. Remember to prioritise annual recurring events and initiatives rather than ad-hoc ones as you can always use your existing corporate gift stock for ad-hoc events and vice versa.
Your replenishment schedules should also be centred around your scheduled events to ensure that you don’t run out of corporate gifts for your stakeholders. Here are some of the factors you should consider before making a purchase with a corporate gift supplier in Malaysia:
4) Where
Where will your initiatives be taking place? Will your focus for the year be internal or external communications? Will they be located indoors or outdoors? Will there be any outdoor excursions down the pipeline? These may seem like insignificant questions to ask when preparing your annual plan, but they are one of the main factors to consider when choosing your corporate gifts.
If any of your planned events and initiatives are located outdoors or require physical activities, your corporate gift planning will have to be centred around outdoor-appropriate items like dry bags, microfibre shirts, and shoe bags. Of course, as PR practitioners, outdoor activities comprise CSR activities as well, and you will need to allocate a portion of the items in your inventory for these initiatives.
If your planned events are centred around indoor initiatives, you should be considering corporate gifts like stationeries, memo pads, and folders. The bottom line is, your gifts should always be reflective of the initiatives you’ve planned in your pipeline to ensure that they’re relevant for your stakeholders.
5) Who
Who will be the stakeholders for your initiatives? Based on an article we’ve written before, there are 3 distinct types of corporate gifts and a number of other variations based on your industry requirements. They’re what you would usually refer to as “kits” in your business cases. Here are some key questions to ask before signing that quotation:
- Will a majority of your initiatives for the year be benchmarking visits involving high-ranking officials?
- Will you be participating in a large number of tradeshows or career fairs?
- Are there any internal initiatives involving appreciation gifts for your employees?
The types of corporate gifts you should be sourcing from your corporate gift supplier in Malaysia depend on these factors. If a majority of your stakeholders will be VIPs, you should be stocking up on more premium items like metal pens, or stainless steel thermoses.
If you’ll be participating in a lot of tradeshows, disposable low-cost items are the way to go. For example, eco-pens, notepads and memo pads, or stress balls.
If a majority of your initiatives for the year involve internal employee appreciation events, some great gift ideas include anti-fall suction mugs, customisable canvas bags, or power banks.
6) How
Last but not least, the final question within the 5W1H of corporate gifting is, how will your initiatives be implemented? As we’ve discussed in the previous points for our list, you will need to consider the logistical aspect of your initiatives. Before making that purchase, most corporate gift suppliers in Malaysia are usually keen on discussing the types of corporate gifts and the material they are made out of.
Purchasing a large number of bulky corporate gifts like laptop bags will be a logistical nightmare for outdoor events, and having mostly glassware in your inventory of corporate gifts for initiatives which require transportation will almost certainly result in breakage. In essence, for highly mobile initiatives, you will require easily transportable and highly durable items, whereas bulkier items will be more suited for initiatives confined to the office space.
Conclusion
In conclusion, selecting the perfect corporate gifts for your company in Malaysia involves careful consideration of several factors. Partnering with a trusted corporate gift supplier in Malaysia is crucial, which can offer a diverse range of high-quality products that align with your brand image and meet your specific requirements.
As discussed in this article, don’t be afraid to use common techniques applied in other areas of your communication channels to create concise and relevant justifications for your need for corporate gifts. As always, don’t give up on branding opportunities because of a temporary mental block, because life is a journey, not a destination.
