Nobody wants a 'bland brand' (try saying that 10 times fast!)
Which explains the trend of companies looking for corporate gifts that can be personalised or customised in some way.
It's a way of not only getting your brand in the forefront of your clients' minds, but a way to make them feel special by being recognised as an individuals.
What is a personalised corporate gift?
Well, it's a good question! When people speak of personalised corporate gifts they are typically looking for items that can be customised with the recipients name. In other words 'made personal'.
For example, imagine a hand written letter addressed to each of your customers personally by their first names - and containing a branded candy.
This for example would make a perfect employee appreciation gift.
So how does this compare to a custom corporate gift?
While there is some grey area, a customised corporate gift may be branded (with your logo or custom design) or custom made in some other way, but typically not personalised for each individual customer.
Many of the underlying products are technically capable of being both customised and personalised - with it being a function of cost and/or lead time as to whether a supplier can customise a corporate gift to the extent that it is personalised.
Well, now we've cleared up that confusion, let's take a look at our pick of the top 8 custom made and personal corporate gifts.
Socks
Who doesn't love a pair of free socks?
I honestly still have the ones I was sent about 5 years ago from Mailchimp. Invest in a good quality sock with a cool custom design and you're practically guaranteeing your clients will be "pulling up" your brand for a long time to come.
There are a number of companies that will brand these as a custom promotional gift, but we couldn't find any that would personalize them on a client by client basis. This makes sense as each individual design would need to be "knitted" separately, making the setup cost for personalised socks rather high.
However, there is always the option to add your own personalised cardboard tag - whether via the supplier or your own staff
Key Trackers
How many times a week do you loose your phone? If you're anything like me, too many times to count! But there's always the easy solution - get your partner to call it (yes my wife is a little fed up of this).
However, the solution isn't so easy when it comes to loosing your keys. This is a problem that most of your clients will also be wrestling with. And despite the fact that "key finders" have been around for years, they have gotten smaller, cheaper and these days can be easily activated with a simple Bluetooth app on your mobile.
So a custom key tracker with your companies brand on it could be a welcome gift. Much better than a key ring as it actually serves a purpose. What's more, when it works and allows the receiver to actually find their car keys in a moment of Monday morning panic, your brand will be there to the rescue - and surely be associated with good vibes.
Again, having these customised with a brand name is easy, though having each one personalised with a client's name may not be.
Glass Drink Bottles
Glass is always appreciated, it's ageless and carries an air of quality about it.
So glass drink bottles always go down well, will be grabbed off the dish rack before work or that gym visit and - when customised with your brand name - will remain in your customer's mind.
Research suggests that 85% of consumers prefer drinking from glass than plastic. So as long as you make sure you are ordering a thick, quality piece of glassware, it's unlikely to be tossed or thrown away for a very long time.
Plus, depending on how the product is manufactured, it could even be considered eco friendly and sustainable, another tick in the box.
Resistance Bands
Resistance bands are an extremely effective form of strength and flexibility training and far from a gimmick. They can be used in the home with minimal space requirements and they're also cheap as chips.
So if your brand image is aligned with physical fitness, resistance bands could be the perfect custom made corporate gift that will genuinely help your customers live a more fulfilling and happier life.
While the bands themselves can only be custom branded and not truly personalised, how about accompanying the bands with a personalised letter outlining the benefits of resistance bands, some exercises to try and a pointer to more resources?
We'd say that's practically guaranteed to get people talking (and stretching!) and your clients will want to give back to you due to the well known phenomena of reciprocity.
Hip Flasks
If you're keen on a whisky (or a brandy, or a rum, or...), there's not much more alluring than a good quality stainless steel hip flask.
Of course, you'll need to consider the demographics of your customer base to see if this kind of - alcohol inspired - gift will resonate with them. If you're a fitness or clean lifestyle brand, this may not be for you!
However there are plenty of brands for whom this could be a great choice and when laser engraved with your logo they can be produced as a custom corporate gift order.
True personalization would be difficult at the manufacturing level, although you could consider making up small cardboard tags to tie around the mouthpiece, addressed to each customer with their name!
Hand Held Torches
Is it just me that can never find a torch when I need one? Or if I can, it's inevitably broken or run out of batteries. Probably not, I suspect a good number of busy households suffer from this same problem.
Therefore one can never have enough spare torches, and a good quality hand held torch is very unlikely to be tossed but stowed away in the kitchen draw - when it will save the day at some unknown future point (possibly years ahead).
So consider these "slow burners" but when they are eventually used, your brand - embossed or stuck onto the handle - will be heralded as a savior, illuminating the way into the darkness. Not a bad spot to be.
Personalisation is once again limited by manufacturing constraints.
Protein Balls or Lolly Bags
It's hard to go wrong with sweet treats! These days you'll always find a subset of clients who are vegan, don't like consuming refined sugar, gluten free, etc. But now there's nothing stopping you from addressing these folks too, as healthier edible corporate gifts are now available (though more expensive than their sugary cousins).
For example, plant-based, sugar free, gluten free protein balls! There are even a few gourmet brands that may be willing to private label their products for you.
Of course, the food itself cannot be personalised, but the package its contained in presents a large range of opportunities.
A small package or bag could be branded with your logo with a blank area se taide for one of your staff to personalise the gift - by writing each client's first name in pen on the front.
Magic Beans
As you can see, it's hard to find cost effective corporate gifts that can be truly personalised. However, if you're looking for a way to get a personal message into your client's hands, then magic beans are where it's at!
Both the packaging and the beans themselves can be personalised to any degree, making them a rare example of a truly custom corporate gift.
For example, you could have a small pot of soil, with your logo and brand design on the side of the pot. Inside, you could have 3 beans. The first with your logo, the second with the word "Thanks" and the third with your customer's first name, let's say "John"!
The only limit is your imagination. And what's more, this gift will literally grow in your client's hands, revealing the personal message on the side of the plant as it grows. I'll bet your customers have never been given talking plants before!
If you'd like to talk to one of our bean engraving artisans about a quote on a personalised corporate gift or to see how your logo would look on a magic bean, just fill out our wholesale enquiry form.
