To get the biggest bang for your buck, you need increased ROI, but not many people know how to get it right. In fact, 90% of business leaders don’t know what to send as corporate gifts.
When you’re running a business, you wouldn’t want to send your customers stuff that won’t remind them of you whenever they use it. Neither would you want to give them things they won’t use at all.
Unfortunately, a Patagonia corporate gift kind of falls within the two criteria mentioned above.
What’s Wrong with a Patagonia Corporate Gift?
Yes, we appreciate all that Patagonia’s doing for the environment, which includes giving customers the option to resell their used clothes to reduce wastage. Unfortunately, that doesn’t make Patagonia a practical gifting strategy.
Here’s why:
They Only Sell Clothing Items
Clothes might make the best gift for a regular person, but we’re talking about buying an item for dozens of clients or employees here. There’s a high chance you won’t get their size right. Yes, you could ask for their clothing size beforehand (provided they don’t get offended by it and actually tell you the correct measurements).
However, that beats the purpose of surprising your clientele with something nice since they’ll pretty much expect some article of clothing from you. You don’t want your customers to predict your next move. If they do, you won’t be in their minds when you do send them that gift.
Not to mention, think about the paperwork of asking dozens of people their clothing size, shipping the correct product to the correct person, and getting it all out on time. A logistical nightmare.
Moreover, one customer has left a negative review on Trustpilot, saying how the size of their order wasn’t correct and how poor Patagonia’s customer service is.
No, you don’t want to take that risk when you have a potential customer to impress. These can be ignored when you’re gifting just for the sake of it, now when you’re doing so as a vital part of your marketing strategy.
Most of Their Products Are Made for Colder Climates
Let’s say you somehow do get the sizes right for each client. Without mentioning the fact that that’ll be a lot of numbers to deal with, are you sure all your recipients live in cold climates?
We think not. Yes, they might experience changes in the seasons every few months in a year, but what will you do about the clients who live in Florida, Georgia, Texas, or LA? Those folks barely see any climate changes all year round.
Yeah, you could always get them the summer wear from Patagonia’s shop. But that too has its downsides, as we’ll see in a second.
Their Products Come With Their Logo
Now, this is a major problem. You could get your clientele t-shirts, sweaters, pants, whatever clothing piece you could think of from Patagonia, but they’ll all bear the company’s logo.
And you cannot get rid of it. Meaning, you can’t customize your gifts if you choose to shop with Patagonia. If your gifts aren’t personalized, it loses that feeling that lets your client know you were thinking of them.
Only some of their most basic tees don’t come with their logo, but we reckon they won’t be a great gift idea.
Moreover, let’s say your clients did wear the clothes you got them. If it has a Patagonia logo, they won’t even remember after a while that it was your company that got it for them.
Instead, if they end up liking it, they’ll always think of Patagonia and what a great company it is while you eagerly wait for their response. The same goes for the basic tees, only this time they won’t remember Patagonia, either.
Their Products Are Not Made for Your Inner Circle
Here at Giftology, we believe that the best way to win your client’s heart is to give them stuff that even their family members can use. Examples include personalized crockeries, leather bags, and so on.
Patagonia does sell some of these products, but once again, they come with the Patagonia logo.
But more importantly, there have been complaints on Trustpilot that the colors tend to bleed.
How to Choose the Right Corporate Gift
Choosing the right corporate gift takes a lot of practice. Luckily for you, there are quite a few gift fulfillment services available that will send out corporate gifts in your stead.
Like Patagonia, most of these services include their own logo in the products they send out, while some of them are crazy expensive too.
At times like these, Giftology can come to your aid, but we’ll get to that later. For now, let’s discuss what should be in a corporate gift box.
Get Them Something Personalized and Practical
We’ve mentioned this before, and we’ll do so again. Your gifts NEED to be personalized. Customized items have their own charm, whether it be a corporate gift or a personal present.
Your personalized item could be anything, as long as it’s also practical. What do we mean by a practical present, you might ask? This should be something that the receiver uses 3 to 5 times every week.
Practical gifts are the way to go because whenever your client uses them (which in this case is at least 3-5 times a week), they’ll be thinking about you. Imagine how good of an ROI you’ll be receiving if this holds true!
It could be an engraved set of knives that your client will use every time they cook dinner, or it could be a tie that they could wear to meetings with their name engraved at the back.
While you’re at it, you could even engrave their family name on it so that it seems more like a family heirloom than a gift. This way, your gift will also include your customer’s family, which is an incredible marketing strategy.
Get Them Something They Would Want But Won’t Buy Themselves
In other words, your gift should be a luxury item. Whether you’re sending it to your employees, or your clients, the product should be something they would love to have around the house.
You could even get them handcrafted items, of course, after making sure it’s from a reputable store and is of good quality. This goes hand-in-hand with our previous point.
If you’re not sure on what to get them, rely on us to get the job done for you. Simply schedule a call with our gift fulfillment service and sit back and watch the ROIs rolling in.
Gift Giving works Best In Continuity
Gift giving could be of two types: continuity and on-off. We highly recommend the former because it lets you maintain a constant flow, meaning you’ll constantly be in your customer’s mind and you allow the relationship to grow over time.
You could surprise them out of the blue one spring morning with something you know they’d cherish and then send another gift of maybe the same material or from the same brand a few months later. Oh, and while we’re at it, we beg you not to wait for Christmas to come around before you start sending out your gifts.
Our laser calls can help you with that. You can schedule a call with the Giftology Laser Call team for free. We won’t take up too much of your precious time. Within 15-20 minutes, we will work our way through all the issues and queries you might have regarding corporate gifting.
If you wish, you can even hire us to choose the right gifts for your clientele and send them out to them for you. And don’t worry! We don’t include our logo in the gifts we send out.
Just so you know, Giftology is not only made for sending gifts to your clientele; it is for everyone – even your employees.
To boost your team morale, we would suggest you adopt the on-off gift method for your employees. Maybe there’s some issue with your assistant watch which he scratched on the way to work one morning. You could get her a new one as a reward for her hard work, and so on.
Send a Hand-Written Note With Your Gift
One final thought, including a handwritten note with your gift adds an extra layer of intimacy between you and the receiver. Make sure the note is not something as generic as “Thank you for hiring our services,” though.
To get this part right, you should take some time and compose a short heartfelt note, thanking your clients for their support. To take it a step further, you could even add a backstory to it to let them know how much their participation means to your business.
Of course, you don’t have to write different versions of the same note for every client. However, we would still advise you to go that extra mile for high-priority clients and customers who have connections with famous people.
Final Words – Patagonia Corporate Gifting
Patagonia corporate gifts do not have the most important attributes essential for a complete gifting strategy. These fatal flaws – lack of personalization, impractical, and lack of continuity – can make your gifting strategy futile and waste your money.
But if you’re looking for a fulfillment service that has ALL that and more, get in touch with us, and we’ll help you craft a gifting service that caters to your business needs.
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