How To Use Memorable Branded Corporate Free Gifts And Merchandise To Boost Your Brand Identity

Branding is hugely important for businesses of all sizes, but it can also be an area of running your own company where you get to have some fun and be creative. As well as impressing your brand on things like your website, Facebook page, Twitter identity and any physical sites you run, you can also encourage people to develop a positive relationship with your brand in their minds by giving away some useful, interesting or fun branded items.

Here are some ideas about how to do this:

Where and When to Give Away Corporate Gifts

Corporate merchandise can be given away at any time when you connect with customers or potential customers, in theory. Bear in mind that these are not things you are going to sell, but things that add value to an existing purchase, or are just given away as free gifts that people will take home and use or see, reminding them of your company.

It can be a good idea to put together bags of corporate gifts that you give to people who visit you at trade fairs, or give them to people who visit your offices. If you run an online only business, you can give away free digital products, such as apps or eBook reports, or you can include a small token physical gift with purchases you send out. The idea is to give the customer the impression of additional value, as well as impressing your brand on them in a subtle way.

What to Give Away

Obviously there are some cost concerns when it comes to giving away anything for free. You have to consider the cost of your corporate gifts as part of your marketing, and include them in any calculations you do around the cost of acquiring new customers. How much you spend should be proportional to how much you expect the average customer to spend. If you are selling fairly low cost items, then look out for items that are very cheap to order in bulk. Classic options are things like key-rings, magnets, mugs, pens, mouse mats, and small children’s toys (if you sell something family orientated).

However, if you sell something more expensive, for example if you are an IT solutions company expecting the average client to spend thousands, you can go for something with more implied value. Things like leather document cases, high end pens, and branded memory drives are good if you are selling to corporate clients who can put these things to use at work. Whereas consumer clients can enjoy things like t-shirts, bags, kitchen utensils, beach towels, sports equipment – in fact anything that goes well with what your company does and works with a logo on it!

Brainstorm some ideas of good corporate gifts that may fit in with your budget and branding, and investigate companies who may be able to design and make them for you. For some items, a standard design in your colour scheme with your logo will work, whereas for others you may need to invest in having a professional design specifically for your item. You may also be able to use design assets you already have to create some things, like fridge magnets, mouse mats and t-shirts.

Attached Images:

•  License: Royalty Free or iStock source: http://pixabay.com/en/christmas-bag-santa-claus-17159/
•  License: Creative Commons image source 

 Today’s guest author, Jenny Wadlow, is a freelance writer and usually writes for Liquid Creativity, a firm that provides brand consultants based in Australia. Apart from writing, she enjoys reading and dancing for leisure.

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Tagged with: brand building • brand development • brand management • Business • business development