Is There An Ethical Consideration In Corporate Gift Giving
Corporate gift giving is a touch impersonal than when we give gifts to friends or loved ones. Fundamentally, when we give gifts to people we know, we tend to consider if the recipient will be pleased with what we have given them. In corporate gift giving, however, this consideration is usually absent.
These gifts are expensive things and they normally do not have any role to play in marketing the products or services of the organization, which means that they do not have any reference to the company. However, businesses often do promotion through distribution of merchandise like pens, mouse pads, USB drives, and other gifts to the workforce and prospective customers.
At the time of giving a corporate gift, it is nevertheless critical to keep in consideration the interests of the individual to whom the gift is being presented, and attempt to customize it accordingly. Business gifting should always be chosen with the recipient in mind. There is no point giving a gift – particularly a corporate gift – to an individual who will not appreciate what we have gifted. We should be looking to create a ‘WOW’ wherever possible.
The effect of the corporate gift on the rapport with a customer or an employee depends on how expensive the person perceives the gift to be. Before giving a corporate gift, you should enquire with your legal department regarding any constraints that may have been imposed by law on this act.
It’s important to prepare for corporate gift-giving beforehand by setting a budget, planning the number of gifts to buy, and hunting for volume discounts with retailers. The preparation is more important with respect to employee gifts, even more so if your organization is a mid-sized or large corporation. You should procure the correct number of gifts so that no employee whom you wish to appreciate is missed out.
Finally, corporate gift giving, if accomplished within ethical limits, is a great way of keeping favorable relations with the staff and of strengthening the bonds of partnership between clients and the company. Just keep two things in mind – the law and your expenditure.