Have you gotten all of your employees, clients and volunteers a gift yet? If not you are probably contributing to the feeling of frenzy around the office. At this point in December, if you have not found a suitable corporate gift idea for your recipients, you may be considering giving gift cards to everyone on your list. Beware! Gift cards are declining in popularity as corporate gifts in 2009 for a number of good reasons and unique corporate gift ideas are available to companies still looking for a corporate gift solution.
An Associated Press article from the end of last month discussed two recent studies showing that gift card sales are down this year and predicted sales of gift cards are expected to remain much lower than previous years. Could it be that enough people have felt the backlash from receiving gift cards that they no longer want to provide gift cards as corporate holiday gifts?
Here are 5 good reasons that gift cards should **not** be given as corporate gifts:
1. Gift cards force recipients to make a trip to a retailer and find something they might want, all for something that is supposed to be a present.
2. Gift cards lack a personal touch and the face value of the card is always known to the recipient.
3. A person is very likely to spend more money than the face value of the card since gift cards tend to be given in .00 denominations.
4. As if expiration dates, activation fees and ongoing charges are not enough to sour a person on using or giving gift cards, lean inventories and bankruptcies can render a gift card defunct.
5. When a person spends a gift card, there is often no way for the company who gave the card to find out what it was used on or even if it was used at all.
With the end of the year quickly approaching, and all of the drawbacks of gift cards, what is a person to do? Here are 5 easy steps for planning your last minute holiday corporate gift program:
1. Select a price point of award merchandise for each person on your holiday gift list. By giving a merchandise based gift, the value of the item remains unknown to the recipient.
2. Select a gift booklet cover and greeting card and decide on a personalized and customized message to include in your holiday gift packets.
3. Contact us to order your holiday gift packets-in most cases orders are shipped the same day the order is received or within 24 hours.
4. Personally present each gift booklet to your recipients. Depending on employee preferences and the structure of your organization, you may want to hand out the holiday gift packets at an annual ceremony, in private or possibly individually mail the packets.
5. Recipients may redeem online, by fax or via mail. We can provide you with gift status reports so you can find out what everyone ordered.
It is not too late to give your company’s employees, clients and volunteers a holiday corporate gift that will leave a lasting impression and provide a much more rewarding experience than cash or gift cards.
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