Companies Still Invest in Gifts for the Holidays : Marketing: Generating goodwill among clients outweighs possible savings, experts say.
Over the next couple of weeks, about 40 cherished customers of BDS Marketing will be receiving a small chocolate box, imprinted with the company’s logo and filled with truffles. As gifts go, it’s simple, elegant and, at about $15 each, relatively cheap.
Last year, the Irvine promotions firm gave somewhat more lavish holiday gifts, such as big chocolate footballs tucked in gym bags. Then the economy went into a tailspin, and the company began looking for ways to cut back. Holiday gifts came under scrutiny, until executives decided that the benefits of generating goodwill among clients outweighed the costs.
“I think it’s a wonderful gesture to let (customers) know they are important to us,” said Debbie Wodarck, a BDS office manager.
Yes, Virginia, companies are still handing out the holiday freebies this year, both to business clients and employees. But just as shoppers are expected to buy fewer, more practical holiday gifts this year, so too are companies.
Companies use holiday gifts to show employees that they care and to foster relationships with customers and others. Despite the sputtering economy, U.S. companies plan to give more this year than last. A survey by the National Institute of Business Management, a business advisory service in Arlington, Va., found that 55% of U.S. businesses plan to hand out presents, up from 42% last year.
Some companies say they may trim the size of their Christmas lists to save money, while others plan to expand theirs because they view holiday gifts as important promotional tools. Many say they will cut back on some frills.
“People want more product. They want more bang for their buck this year,” said Leigh Souser, owner of Azhmere Chocolatiere in Dana Point, which supplied BDS’ edible gifts. “I really do think it’s going to be a ‘90s thing. I can feel it in my blood. People want more value.”
But few companies plan to eliminate gifts entirely.
“Even in a recession, it’s important that people keep those (business) contacts,” said Doris Maes, who operates a corporate-gift business in Cypress. “Use gift-giving as a way of saying, ‘I really appreciate you as an employee and as a customer.’ . . . You want people to feel appreciated when times are down.”
Exchanging gifts is “extremely important,” said Alladi Venkatesh, an associate professor at UC Irvine’s Graduate School of Management who specializes in marketing. “A gift is, culturally, a highly symbolic function. It expresses that the business relationship has a human side to it.”
Each of the 570 employees of Bridgford Foods Corp. in Anaheim will receive one of the company’s smoked hams. About 2,800 employees of Bergen Brunswig Corp., including 600 in Orange, will receive a stadium cooler in a canvas tote bag. Fullerton-based Beckman Instruments will be giving its 5,000 U.S. employees what may be the most welcome Christmas gift of all: cash.
Holiday gift-giving has given rise to a cottage industry of small companies that supply food baskets, engraved pen sets, foam key chains and the like. Some companies seem to try to outdo each other in terms of how creative they can be.
Judith Norton, who operates Judith Norton Designer Chocolates in Huntington Beach, recently created 3,000 chocolate pagers--using a mold of the real thing--for a Texas electronic paging company. The pagers, minted in dark chocolate with a white chocolate dial, will be handed out as Christmas gifts to clients.
Another company ordered pea pods made of chocolate that were in a box marked “peas on earth.”
“I thought it was kind of dumb at first, but it worked out real cute,” Norton said.
Ana Murray of Anaheim works as a legal secretary by day and a gift basket entrepreneur by night. She recently completed a gardening-oriented gift basket--filled with bulbs, work gloves and a watering can--for a realtor to send to clients.
Andrea Claster, a New York gift consultant and author of the book “Modern Living, Modern Giving,” cited some definite do’s and don’ts for corporate gift-giving.
Claster said gifts should be convenient, high impact and professional. But the corporate giver must be careful to make sure that their generosity is not misconstrued.
Never give art, pets or lingerie, she recommended. Liquor used to be a popular holiday gift but not anymore. Some companies are even shy about handing out bottles of wine.
Gift baskets have proven popular for solving the dilemma of choosing the appropriate gift. Most baskets are filled with food, though they can be stocked with virtually anything. At a cost of $25 to $200, food baskets usually are not so extravagant that they violate corporate policies for acceptable gifts. Plus, the recipient can share the contents with co-workers.
Lisa Hughes Anderson, who operates the Gift Basket Headquarters in Irvine, has been busy filling corporate orders for holiday gifts. In a showroom crammed with a dozen or more sample baskets, Anderson said her business has grown steadily over the past five years. She expects to sell $150,000 in baskets this year, more than double last year’s amount.
Maes said she tries to tailor gifts for particular companies. For a construction company, she said, she might try to arrange to have a set of tools cast in chocolate. For employee gifts, she might consider $25 crystal desk clocks or a gift certificate from a department store.
Some companies have discovered that the best gifts are those that “keep on giving.” Gloria Zigner, president of a Costa Mesa public relations firm, said she tried coming up with a fresh idea every year to reward clients.
After a while, Zigner said, she was running out of ideas for novel gifts. “It was always, ‘What will we give?’ and ‘What does it mean?’ ” she recalled.
One year the publicist gave away apple coring devices--practical, sure, but maybe not the most loved present under the company tree. She finally decided it was ridiculous to spend so much time trying to find apt Christmas gifts.
“We decided the nicest thing you could do is give to charity,” she said. For the past two years, Zigner’s company has made donations to the Children’s Hospital of Orange County on behalf of the firms’ clients.
Most clients, she said, write to say how much they appreciate the gesture.
Popular Corporate Gifts
Despite the slow economy, an increasing number of companies say they plan to give holiday gifts. Here are some popular choices:
* Silver Cross pen with corporate logo $35
* Engraved crystal box $24
* Swiss Army knife key chain with a corporate logo $8 to $35
* Gift basket (wine, cheese, crackers, olives) $35
* Southern California First Aid Kit $35
A box containing skateboard, swim fins, sailboat, starfish and replica of the state, all made of chocolate, jellybeans and plastic sunglasses
* Chocolate football (regulation size) $25
Source: Azhmere Chocolatiere, Dana Point
