You might think that giving someone a nice bottle of wine will make a great corporate gift idea.
Wine seems so… flexible.
There’s a varying price range so it fits into all budgets.
There’s a wide arrange of styles and flavors that can appeal to all palettes.
And wine is accessible. You can get it almost anywhere.
Sounds like the perfect gift, doesn’t it?
After reading this article, we hope that you’ll reconsider your idea to gift wine as part of a marketing campaign.
There are far better options for you that will have a much bigger bang for your dollar.
Benefits of Corporate Gifting
Before I share the reasons why wine makes a bad corporate gift, I want to share the reason why you’ll want to send a corporate gift in the first place.
Helps You Build Relationships
A strategic corporate gift will help you build and solidify relationships with people who are going to move the needle in your business.
For instance, they may be prospective clients who are going to sign million-dollar annual contracts, or they are star employees who you want to make sure know how much they mean to you.
But this can only work IF the gift is used.
For instance, if your recipient is not able to drink wine for medical reasons, or personal health reasons, then the gift will not be used – and your purchase will go for not.
High ROR
We don’t use the term ROI as much as we use ROR, Return on Relationship.
Here’s why.
A solid ROI requires a return as quickly as possible. If you put $1 into a marketing campaign, you need to see $3 right away.
With a ROR, we are looking to build relationships over time. When we put $1 into a relationship campaign, we are going to see hundreds of dollars paid out over the course of years!
The 7 Keys to a Great Corporate Gift
1. Practical
Make sure your gift is beneficial to the recipient. A gift that can be used daily (or at least 3-5 times a week) is unquestionably more valuable than a gift that gets consumed and cannot be used once completed.
2. Personalized
To stand out from the crowd, create some personalization in your gift. This can be done with an origin story for the gift or by giving it some sort of personalized branding.
3. Best-in-class
You absolutely can not compromise the quality in any way. So, try getting a product of the highest quality within your budget. Longevity should be your topmost priority in this case. You want to make sure their grandchildren are able to use the gift.
4. Luxury
To find an appropriate gift for customers, browse their social accounts to determine their interests and hobbies. Perhaps get them something they wouldn’t buy for themselves but would appreciate a lot if given to them.
5. Handwritten Notes
Don’t underestimate the value of personalizing your message by hand-delivering it or penning a handwritten note clarifying your intentions. Notes are always a way to add a special touch to anything.
6. Including Inner Circle
Another point to remember when you’re giving a gift is how you can make it useful for the recipient’s family.
We can’t tell you how many clients’s have come to us and said “my wife is your biggest sales advocate. She absolutely loves the gift that you sent us!”
7. Create Continuity
Try to create a theme or pattern with your gifts. In this way, you can make sure that the customers are looking forward to getting your gift. Multiple gifts can snowball an emotional impact on the customers.
3 Reasons why Wine Corproate Gifts are a Terrible Idea
Not Practical
While wine seems practical, by our definition, it is not. For us, practical means that the person is going to use the gift 3 to five times per week.
The problem with a bottle of wine is that if it’s “used” 3 to 5 times in a week, the wine will probably be gone.
Over time, the person is going to forget all about the gift that you gave them.
Compare that to a beautifully designed glassware set that can be used every single day, multiple times per day.
Every time the recipient takes a drink from a glass, they will know that you gifted it to them. And they will think of your relationship fondly – thus winning over their hearts and mind over time.
No Continuity
One of the best reasons gifting works so well as a marketing strategy is that it gives you the ability to follow up.
Here’s what I mean. Let’s say you gift a person a nice piece of luggage – say a carryon bag. The second gift can be the personal bag or “under the seat” bag. And a third gift could be the large check in bag to complete the set.
When you gift wine, there’s no real reason to follow up. Sure, you give someone a nice bottle of Pinot Griggio, but then what?
There’s no really good excuse to follow up – there’s no “set” to complete.
These follow up touch points not only keep the momentum of the relationship going, but make it even stronger.
Not Best-In-Class
Last but not least, wine is not a Best-In-Class product.
No matter how much money you spend on the bottle. No matter what vintage – by our definition, wine cannot last forever.
When we define best-in-class, we ask ourselves one question: will their great grandkids be using the gift?
Think about luggage – it gets passed down generation to generation.
Or a cutlery set – it gets passed down generation to generation.
But wine is a consumable.
Once consumed, it’s over and done with. The great grandkids will not be drinking it
Final words…
Unfortunately, wine can seem like great corporate gifts, but after further analysis, I hope that you can see that you wouldn’t want to 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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