Building Stronger Corporate Relationships with Business Gifts

4 minutes

April 18th 2022

Building Stronger Corporate Relationships with Business Gifts 1

Veronika Mikec is a full-time student, writer, and future revolutionary.

The art of gifting is as old as humanity and is still the best way to show friendship, respect, gratitude, and forge interpersonal bonds. The idea of business gifts was also based on this tradition. With a business gift, the company indirectly determines the place of the business partner on the value scale in relation to them, so this is a very sensitive area to which we must pay more attention and creativity.

A suitable business gift is an expression of affection and thus says a lot about the company: gifts primarily express its values, culture, vision and goals. It is therefore a matter of special communication between business partners, of consolidating, deepening and also supplementing business relations, and at the same time a component of business protocol and etiquette.

The most typical business gifts given at the end of the year are calendars, notebooks, pens, T-shirts, USB sticks, all printed with the logo and company contacts. These are usually small gifts. It is best if business gifts reflect an organizational or national identity.

Don’t Go for Expensive Gifts

The purpose of these gifts should be to deepen the relationship, both personal and business, so it should not be too expensive, otherwise it could act as a bribe. Reciprocity is the feeling that we are obliged to return a gift, if not directly, then in the form of a different service. The more expensive the gift, the more the recipient feels a reciprocal feeling.

Business gifts cannot be divided into good and bad gifts. A purely ordinary pencil can be a nice gift for some, but completely inappropriate for others, it all depends on who gives a gift to whom and on what occasion. However, most companies are not aware of this.

Before embarking on planning, shopping and gift-giving in a company, keep in mind that a business gift should also still have a distinctly personal touch. The more time we spend on choosing a gift, the more the recipient will enjoy it, the more they will remember us.

Biggest Mistake: Forgetting to Take into Account Intercultural Differences

There are other specialties for each country that we must adhere to when choosing a business gift. Those companies that have partners in other regions, countries or continents should be aware of this. For companies trading with such partners, it is extremely important to consider differences in culture, business customs, norms, values and religion. It is understandable that we will not give alcohol to a Muslim, for example.

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Individual countries therefore differ in their gifts. In Scandinavia, modest, imaginative gifts are desirable; in Switzerland and Austria, these are gifts based on quality, precision and perfection; in Italy, France and Spain, home craft gifts; Hungarians, Czechs and Poles value gifts related to the country’s cultural heritage the most.

The Chinese attach great importance to gifts as they help them build contacts. In Thailand, the value of a gift is not important, the gesture is important; it is quite different with Americans, who feel uncomfortable when they receive a gift of no value. The Japanese are great aesthetes, appreciating superior workmanship and handiwork.

We should also distinguish whether the gift is intended for a man or a woman, but this does not mean that there are strictly female and male gifts; we must differentiate between the sexes, especially in the donation of cosmetics, perfumes, T-shirts and fashion accessories. But for many, such gifts are too intimate and thus almost unsuitable for business gifts.

New Year Is Not the Only Opportunity

In many countries, gifting is still seasonal, associated with the Christmas and New Year holidays. With the general gifting hysteria, we forget that there are a bunch of other occasions on which our gift would have a greater impact. We can surprise people with a gift on on other occasions, such as when signing a contract, during a work meeting or when concluding a new deal.

Reasons for gifts can also be personal, such as promotion in a company, as well as personal celebrations such as birthdays, the birth of a child or retirement. Concerning the last few tactics, it is important to know that many people do not like to mix business and private life. That is why it is better to limit gifts on such occasions to business partners and employees with whom the company has long-term business and personal contacts.

Charity in Place of Gifts

Due to the crisis, many companies have decided to save in recent years and do not give gifts to business partners, customers and employees (any more). More and more of them are donating money to charity instead. This is a beautiful move that brings much more joy and (social) benefits than a pen and lighter with the company logo. Hopefully, this trend among companies will continue and that money will be allocated to all vulnerable groups, as help is needed, both among the youngest, the slightly older and those whose years and illnesses have already left their mark.