Corporate Gifts Create Goodwill,
But Be Sure to Avoid the Pitfalls

It’s important, however, to avoid the pitfalls that await those who rush to get the job done without considering corporate gift etiquette. Here are some of those pitfalls:

• Buy the wrong gift and you may have created bad will rather than goodwill, or you may have achieved nothing of what you hoped. At the least, the money will have been ill spent. At the worst – well, what’s the price of lost business or prestige?
• Buy a gift for someone whose company forbids such exchanges and you will come off looking insensitive at best.
• Spend too much and you may appear to be unethical. You do not want to be perceived – ever – as offering a bribe or a payback.
• Present a gift in the wrong context and you may make things worse, rather than better.

How to Steer Clear of Corporate Gift Mistakes

• Think carefully about what you hope to achieve with your corporate gift, because you can bet that the recipient and others who know about the event will make their own assessment of your motives.
• Never provide a gift during a bidding process, lest you be accused of bribery. Typical appropriate occasions include birthdays, retirements, holidays, weddings, and celebrations of promotions, new positions or office openings.
• Ensure you know the rules of the company you’re dealing with. If gift giving or receiving is forbidden, stay clear of it.
• Consider how much spending is appropriate to the relationship you have with the person or persons. Gifts in the $50 range are not uncommon, though they can go higher or lower depending on the situation and your budget. If you spend more than $150 on someone, be sure that everything lines up: the right occasion, the right person, the right rules.
• Ensure that the gift matches the position and profession of the intended recipient.
• Ensure you know the recipient well enough to avoid giving offense because of cultural or religious views. Avoid intimate gifts. You don’t want to be perceived as someone becoming too familiar.
• Be clear on what corporate gifts are appropriate to the situation. Typically, the more personalized the better. If you know the interests and tastes of someone, you will make an impression by matching those with a gift.

Humorous gifts are a danger area. Not that there’s anything wrong with them. There’s a lot that’s right. But you must ensure that the humor will be well received because it is tasteful. Gag gifts are more appropriate to social occasions.

Corporate gifts come in three basic varieties:

• Office gifts: for those within your own place of employment.
• Business gifts: for those outside your place of employment.
• Executive gifts: for higher echelon individuals inside or outside your organization.