Keeping a cohesive brand means making sure your employees, not just your clients and customers, "get" what your organization is all about. Corporate gifts compliment your promotional marketing efforts perfectly. They can also be given to your preferred clients and partners. Use these gifts to ensure your employees and friends get as enthusiastic about your company as you want customers to be!

What kind of promotional product will cut it as a corporate gift? It depends on the approach you want to take with it. One route to take is to approach this like any other promotional opportunity. The same considerations that would apply to something you'd be handing out at a trade show should be applied to the gifts in this case. Keep it functional and something that has a purpose, but also be something that will be present in their daily life. An imprinted calendar, for example, would be a good idea if your employees don't already have them (in the promotional industry, we get more of these as presents than we could ever use). Bring the theme of your brand that you're presenting to the world outside your offices into the office. Whether you are pushing your low carbon footprint or championing cancer awareness, promotional products are available to you! Name a topic and there'll be something there.

Instead of approaching this like a plain old marketing opportunity, an alternative is to take a more customized approach Regardless the number of employees, offices will always quickly develop their own look culture. Make your employees feel appreciated by tapping into that culture! Giving away a corporate gift that shows you're in the loop, and not aloof or insulated from the rest of the group. Perhaps make separate gift decisions for each department in your office...a general office culture can still have little niches. Get everyone who would bear the moniker of "boss" is involved, because someone closer to the source will probably have a better idea of what to get. Especially if you have to deal with very separate departments.

So what does bringing a personal touch mean? It means bigger rewards but the potential of backlash if you pick some bad gifts. Hand out foam baseball bats for everyone no problem. Nice and safe and generic! Insulated wine sacks are more personal and you run the risk of annoying people who don't drink wine. An employee in a winery is probably not going to have an issue, though, which illustrates how important knowing the office culture is. Every company has its own culture, so the most effective corporate gifting will be from someone who knows the shape of it. Its shape comes from the employees, managers and product or services involved. Unless you're confident that you really get how your employees think, it may be best to stick to the internal marketing approach.

It doesn't just end with your office, either. Make clients happy with smart corporate gifts while you're at it, and you've got pretty much all your bases covered. Happy clients and happy employees will mean happiness for you all!