Monday, August 25, 2008

Business Gifts- Want to know what the other guy is doing?

In 2006 PPAI (Promotional Products Association International) conducted a survey among sales and marketing executives to learn more about how they make decisions regarding their annual business gift giving. Some of the findings were most interesting and insightful.

The definition of a business gift, for instance. 96 percent of the respondents agreed on the following characteristics:

Merchandise and gift certificates bestowed for the purpose of achieving customer and employee goodwill and relationship retention, given with the sponsor’s identification either on the item or accompanying it, presented for the personal use of the recipient or a limited class of people.

Two-thirds of the respondents say price is a criterion in choosing business gifts:

29% think the price should be in the $10 - $24.99 range

35% felt the $25 - $49.99 range to be more appropriate

20% plus believed the cost should be $50 or higher

The popularity of business gift giving is on the upswing, with the more recent survey results indicating 84% of U.S. business organizations participating, versus only 48% engaged in the practice in a 1991 University of Florida survey.

The most popular reason for giving gifts? To thank customers (70%). The other top business gift applications:

To build goodwill (65.9%)

To develop business (49.6%)

To recognize employee performance/longevity (49.6%)

To generate referrals (31.3%)

The preferred choices for categories of business gifts were:

Office/business accessories (47%)

Gifts for the home (18%)

And, finally, when is the best time to give a business gift, according to the survey? Year-end holiday time. Second choice was special occasions/events.

And, personally, I think the best part of the survey results was this: The number one preferred source for business gifts: the promotional products distributor (28%)!

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