Corporate Merchandise
6I am on the events and budgeting committee where I work and we're trying to find a gift to give the employees. The company used to do this quite often but with corporate restructuring and economy downturn that kind of went away. It will of course be branded but I'd like to do something that the employee can actually use, not just a marketing gimmick. I think water bottles or Tervis tumblers would be a good gift. We have a problem with waste (i.e. paper cups for coffee and water) and I think a good water bottle would help alleviate things when I announce the plan to reduce all the waste. I have also considered leather portfolios, headphones, and umbrellas. I need more ideas, even better if it comes with an affordable source. (a $15 custom Camelbak bottle for everyone in our office would cost us almost $1000 with shipping and everything)
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What if you just gave them cash?
@Kevin They don't complain about their pay, they complain they don't get stuff anymore. Odd how that works...
@Kevin So here’s the issue: gift giving (non-cash gifts) is often a potential source of what economists call deadweight loss. According to the theory of consumer choice the consumer (i.e., the receiver of the gift) knows more about what will maximize their utility than the gift giver does. Accordingly, if we really care about allowing the receiver of the gift’s ability to maximize their utility, we should only give cash as a gift.
@connorbush BUT never take romantic or gifting advice from economists--we flounder at interpersonal relationships.
@connorbush full article: http://coffeetheory.com/2012/03/30/the-economics-of-gift-giving/
@RedHot don't just give them cash and walk away. Get creative and make it like you're paying a tribute fee, kind of like how mobsters do. Put it in an envelope or shoe box. Make it an experience they'll remember.
I love my Camelbak water bottle. I think with your waste idea it works well. The company I worked for did the same. You could also do a nice aluminum coffe mug. Can you customize it cleverly? For the money you are talking - poor quality headphones and portfolios - meh on those.
@mfladd $1000 isn't our budget. The point is to get something useful that can be enjoyed or used in a professional manner. If we went with portfolios we'd spend more than we would on a water bottle. They'd be taking those to client meetings after all.
@RedHot I have been given portfolios and any number of things you can imagine. I still prefer the water bottle I was given.
http://www.justtoiletpaper.com/customnew.shtml
@Moose as long as it is hung over, not under.
Alternatively, you can give everyone the hot new toy for summer: Ollie by Orobotix
@Moose Pretty sure that would lead to the safety police banning them and me having to deal with more near miss reports in a week than I have the last 2 years. I'll consider it more if you can get the company logo on there somewhere.
@RedHot
(You knew it was coming, right?)
my company gave us pretty nice umbrellas, which I still use all the time. Nice polo shirts too.. They gave us coffee mugs, but it was a part of a "green initiative", and they stopped with any foam or paper cups.. So that was an overall negative, since it limited our options. Most people preferred ceramic even when foam was available, but for some things like hot chocolate it was nice to have the option not to make your nice mug get all nasty..
@kadagan I really don't mean to do away with the paper cups but no one should be using upwards of 6 in a day.
@RedHot I'm not close to "green", but I can agree that using more than one or two per day is overkill!!
Coffee mugs. Solid old school ones. Rustic cowboy type camping ones.
I vote bottle/mug. Pretty much the only swag-type things I actually see people using, ever. Occasionally tote bags, but… bottle beats bag any day.
How many bottles and mugs do yall need? I have a drawer full and prefer the water bottle I bought (32oz) over the crap with the company name on them. Not everyone drinks coffee so those stainless mugs just sit in the drawer. I vote Polo shirt...I wear shirts to work daily.
@tightwad understood. I also have many that I will never use - junk. But my Camelbak bottle is the bomb! So is my OXO stainless coffee container. If it is higher end container it is so much better.
@tightwad No matter what you choose, someone is going to hate it. Giving me a corporate logo polo shirt is about the same ask giving me a box with a curious scented turd in it. No polo shirts. EVAR.
@porkchop I'd take a good waterbottle or a mug though.
@porkchop So what do you wear when you're playing polo at the company picnic?
I think the best thing we've gotten was a first aid/preparedness kit with flashlight and other basic stuff. It came in a nice lunchbox sized zipper case. Handy for work/home/car. Solves your safety police problem as well.
There are lots of promotional options on Google.
This site has lots of options, including flashlights in all price ranges. http://www.motivators.com/Promotional-Emergency-Products-109.html.
Disclaimer: I don't know anything about the company.
nice water bottle is good. fleece/sweatshirt is also good in case you have folks who complain about the office being too cold (that's me!).
@Lotsofgoats OOOO yes. My last company got us fleece jackets because it gets cold in Chicago--or so I am told. I was a remote worker out of California and I have yet to use my fleece. BUT it is really nice.
This guy next to my cube, at work, just got a mug after 6 years of service. He was BLOWN AWAY with joy.... I vote mugs, again.
@connorbush I take it he doesn't get out of the cube much ;)
@mfladd nailed it. No lol, there are only a handful of mugs floating around our entire company. to have one is incredibly special. lol.
@connorbush 6 years is all it takes and there aren't a lot around? Lot of turnover in your industry?
@JerseyFrank Oh no, no. I can see how my comment was misleading. Only a few of the old-old timers from the companies birth have the mugs. It is not customary as a six year gift or anything. I guess he has been asking for one since he started here. So just as a solid, HR found him one to have.
Recently, we received Volleyballs for work, that was cool. For my 10 year anniversary with our company, I received engraved "old fashioned" glasses -- I use them as vases for the flowers the kids pick for me.
@mikibell
a good vase these would not make
I think one of the coolest branded giveaway item I ever received was a pair of socks.
@Teripie very mediocre socks.
If you're trying to push a greener/reduce waste initiative, then some drinking container is a great idea. I'm a fan of Polar Bottles, and I think you can customize them in several options.
For a lot of custom stuff for cheap, check out discountmugs.com
@Thumperchick I hadn't considered Polar but I'll add them to the list. Thanks! I'm just trying to stay away from crappy give away type items.
Don't know what industry your in, but as a hacker/coder I find myself at conferences every few months. Water bottles are probably the most popular giveaway I have seen, though keychains might still be more common & I tune them out. I don't get it. Yeah, waterbottles are useful - but I think at this point anyone who wants one has one.
@MrGlass I'm a civil Engineer,it varies but most of us are engineers. If I do a water bottle it won't be a shitty promo thing it'll be a good one. Ideally I'd like something they could coffee or water out of and it not feel or look weird with either. Yeah, you can drink about anything out of any cup shaped object but no one puts coffee in their Nalgene.
@RedHot I do love my Zojirushi mug http://thesweethome.com/reviews/best-travel-mug/ Good for hot or cold. Would probably take a nice etching in the side.
If you go with water bottles or travel mugs, don't cheap-out. People won't use them and you just created more crap for landfills.
Oh and if you do travel mugs, and the office has single-serve coffee machines, make sure the company mugs fit the company coffee machines. :-b
@nadroj I was hoping to do Nalgene or Camelbak, those were my first thoughts at least.
Just because somebody was doing Office Space earlier...
Monogrammed.
@PocketBrain I love it. I once had to go to HR after stealing all of the staplers from the sciences group. Apparently there was a "stapling emergency" . I only wish I would have been there to see them realize no one had a stapler
We got insulated lunch totes. I still see a few every now and then, and this was at least 10 years ago.
@Pamtha I hadn't thought of that. My father-in-law works at Ethan Allen and they did those and rain jackets not too long ago.
Stay away from electronic items, unless you're just going to pick something out of WireCutter and order on Amazon. Most of the stuff corporate gifts sites have is junk.
A mug or cup is good. People like the toiletry bags that are given out here.
Our company had Tervis tumblers made with our company logo in the wall and handed them out to everyone at a company crab feast. Everyone loved them, good for hot and cold and they look nice.
Last year our local MLB team was in the playoffs and as a surprise they had t-shirts made incorporating our company logo and the team logo and then the shirt was also in the team color. When they had games we all wore them (and we are not a casual dress office so people thought that was fun).
@tinkertime Any idea where they had them customized?
@RedHot I'm pretty sure Tervis does customizations.
@RedHot We are a commercial real estate company in MD and we use a company named White Star Promotions out of Baltimore (whitestarsales.com). I just spoke to our marketing person, she sent them a mock up of our logo, they sent us a proof, then Tervis did the rest. I don't know if it's any cheaper to go thru Tervis directly or not. We've ordered logo umbrellas, pens, beer cups, portfolios & golf balls from them.
A few years ago my boss gave out Tervis tumblers and everyone loved them. The best part was that they were not corporate branded, but did have a message on them, something like My Boss Thinks I'm Something Special.
Nice sentiment, work related, but without pushing the corporate logo. The boss saved money by going with stock sentiment phrases from Tervis rather than paying extra for corporate customization.
I still use my tumbler pretty much every day.
We have 'hospital week' every year and there's a new gift to be had. This year's gift was surprisingly well received by most everyone. A custom printed lipstick battery charger for our phones. While I have nicer, stronger ones, tossing this little guy in my pocket for free is pretty cool. In the past we've received umbrellas (still use it), insulated lunch totes, drawstring bag/backpacks, a car sun shade, water bottles, etc. For water bottles, check out Liberty Bottleworks http://www.libertybottles.com/ They do customer printed bottles and according to their info, they're the only 100% recycled metal bottles to be made in the USA. Always a selling point. I have a few I got from a friend in a schwag box from her company. Great bottles!
@cinoclav You located in Tampa/Clearwater?
@Bingo Nope. Live in PA, work in NJ. But the hospital I work for is owned by a mega company that owns numerous hospitals in Florida (along with about 28 other states.)
@cinoclav Interesting. I work in a hospital chain but we are only here in Fla. And we did a lipstick charger this year. And in previous years did every single thing you rattled off.
@Bingo Maybe there's some secret hospital gifting gang that we don't know about. The system I work for runs 199 hospitals. Needless to say, it's 'for profit.'
Let's see, last year we did those Bubba Keg mugs, the 32 oz. ones, branded, and they went over like hotcakes. This year we're doing a nice insulated lunchbag/mini cooler, and I have high hopes for that as well. Tote bags (the nice ones, not reusable grocery bag style) have always been popular, as well as flashlights and umbrellas.
I agree with everyone else saying quality. Cheap crap is disposed of at Goodwill if we don't like it at our house, but we're still using stuff from companies people worked for over 10 years ago that was quality and a thoughtful, useful item.
@koalamoo Any idea on what the price for the lunch bag/mini cooler things is?
@RedHot We paid roughly $12 a bag for them. Honestly, my recommendation is for you to find a nice, local promotion items company, and work with them. The good ones will tell you what's popular, what's quality, and will get you a great deal so you'll use them again.
Almost forgot, one of the more useful items we received is an insulated grocery bag. They're reasonably priced it seems and super useful. Definitely helps keep the Ben & Jerry's from melting on the way home! http://www.4imprint.com/product/106542/Therm-O-Tote-Insulated-Grocery-Bag
@cinoclav my Trader Joe's insulated grocery bag is one of my top possessions. Good idea.
@cinoclav I like that idea too. That one is big enough and the zipper closing is a good idea.
An insulated picnic/grocery bag just big enough for a six-pack (or some ice cream) was the pick-of-the-litter swag at the last trade show I went to.
Socks. Errybody wears socks.
I have held these Sweda 12oz can coffee tumbler in my hand they are nice and cool, you don't see them everywhere. You have to get the sweda brand, I ordered a sample without looking and it was a generic Chinese knock off and it was awful all the edges were "sharp" very unpolished product compared to the sweda. http://www.swedausa.com/main/default/ProductsDetail.aspx?id=642
So I work in the financial industry. They tend to give us stuff, and give stuff out for marketing purposes. Some of the better things on both sides was a rain coat from LL Bean with the company logo on it, LL bean canvas bag. For other misc good ones were little suction cup type Cell phone stands something similar to this
Light up wands, Hand sanitizer, cloth mouse pads that have the company logo, (they were great but got grungy quick the new style smells really bad however)....
Some of the things that weren't the best, Pens that made noise, USB cell phone chargers (due to the fact that they were cheap and didn't give good output and I thought they may overheat and explode... not the best thing to have your name on,) Sun screen lotion (they explode.. way too much,) Mints of questionable nutrition facts (no label other than our company logo makes me wonder what they actually are made of,) mouse pads while they were great for some mice, others it made it very very quirky, so that it would jump across the screen.)