In business regimes, gifts are an exceptional way to help your clients, employees and the public perceive your brand positively. Customised corporate gifts and promotional gifts are popular marketing tools that are used to achieve this. Although these two terms have widely been associated with each other, promotional and corporate gifts have very distinct differences. They are believed to be the same but are actually not identical.

Knowing the difference between these two type of gifts will help you choose one that fits your marketing strategy. This articles aims to highlight the difference between corporate and promotional gifts using three qualities – Price, Quality and Purpose.

Corporate gifts to nurture goodwill

Gifting customised corporate gifts creates goodwill to the ones receiving them. Corporate gifts are used to show appreciation and nurture your corporate image amongst clients, employees and key stakeholders.

Price – Gifts under this category are usually higher in value, bought in smaller quantities and given to recipients to acknowledge a specific event. As corporate gifts are intended to show your recipients how much you value them; more thought and personalisation is required to be successful.

Quality – Corporate gift items are of exceptionally high quality. They are made from leather or electronic items that help to show recipients how worthy they are to your company.  Items chosen are few, so quality is the main focus.

Purpose – Corporate gifts are offered to clients or employees, who are either business prospects or have been with your business for years. They are the best way to show your appreciation for the work they have accomplished. These gifts will be able to motivate employees as well as spur potential businesses with existing clients.

Corporate gifts are gifts of gratitude, they are more personal gifts. Once you have determined that this is indeed the gift you are looking for, you will need to know how to choose the right corporate gift. The target market of corporate gifts, as you will soon find out, is very different in comparison to promotional gifts. Corporate gifts have value and quality because they aim to create brand awareness amongst recipients of same calibre. Cheap corporate gifts will ruin the brand image.

Ideas – These gifts are slightly pricier but they bring your brand to the next tier, however, the corporate gift that you have chosen should also be practical and elevate your company rather than bring it down. Gifting of practical, highly usable gifts such as Silicone Collapsible Cup Printing would be well received. Usable by the receiver and anyone in their household, a Microwavable Stainless Steel Lunch Box can also be a unique and thoughtful corporate gift from the company. Apart from functional everyday items as corporate gifts, you can also consider simple but efficient USB Pen Printing that is both practical yet sophisticated.

Promotional gifts for brand awareness

The main objective of promotional gifts is to create awareness about your brand through a lot of exposure. Promotional gifts act as ongoing ads, to capture the attention of the masses. Unlike corporate gifts, promotional gifts aim at a wider audience. Therefore, custom printing these gifts with your brand logo or a tagline will usually suffice. However, it is necessary to choose the right one for the intended event.

Price – Promotional gifts are generally inexpensive items as they have to be distributed in massive quantities at expos, conventions and other events.

Quality – The quality of promotional gifts is generally lower than the corporate gifts. They exist to serve as branding tools to let your company’s name be heard. Therefore, they come in from a ‘quantity over quality’ perspective. Such items are stress balls, plastic pens and lanyards etc. Promotional gifts are manufactured in vast quantities for masses, so less personalization is needed.

Purpose – The primary goal of promotional gifts is to market company goods and products. They are also promotional engagement tools that allow you to strike a conversation as soon as you have handled the gift to them. These are given out to audiences at events or trade shows as thank you gifts for visiting your booth or inquiring more about your brand.

Ideas – Cheaper gifts do not mean that they should or would get thrown away once the event is over. The selection of practical and affordable gifts should not be difficult! For example, a Custom Non-Woven Bag can be packaged as a secondary corporate gift, this minimises the use of plastic and shows your client that you care about your environment. An Eco Cutlery Set Printing with your company branding is ideal as more and more companies and clients are going green! Another affordable and useful corporate gift that you can go for would be a simple Custom Eco Ball Pen. Handy and highly usable by all ages and industry, these corporate gifts can be customised with your company branding or your preferred designs!

In order for promotional gifts to be at their full potential, they need to be practical items that are used daily so as to gain more exposure. That is the only way your recipients can remember your brand. Promotional gifts are usually items that are very handy. A good example would be plastic pens because they are small, cheap and hold high practical importance.

The Takeaway

While it is clearly visible that promotional and corporate gifts serve different purposes, both of them have equal value. It boils down to the goal that your company wants to achieve. TREA provides custom printing services for corporate and promotional gifts, catering to your requirements.