The gift of complaint!

But what are the standard complaints that seem to come up over and over again even at the best organisationally managed events. It is the gifts. We often get referrals from guests or speakers that go something like this: "Please go speak to Company Y, they ran a function last year and the gifts were awful, boring, an afterthought or not appropriate.

Actually with a lot of companies the gifts are an afterthought, because there are so many items can make or break a function to consider, that the gifts are often not top of the priority list. We book speakers, audiovisual equipment, venues and caterers in advance because they are perceived to be limited in their availability. This is not the perception with gifts although the industry also has stock and production time limiting factors.

Belle Regalo often receives calls from companies a week or so before a function that the company has been planning for months. Sometimes the gifts actually have to be delivered on the day of the function and we have to bring in staff to assist with placing the gifts because they were ordered so late. This detracts from the professionalism of the event and affects the impression of the guests of the company who is hosting the function. This ultimately affects the image of the event coordinator or public relations company handling the event.

When organising gifts for your client you have consider various factors - some of these are timing, relevance, budget and the decision to outsource.

Timing and branding go hand in hand. Nearly all clients want to have their branding on the gift. In most cases our branding companies will have to generate artwork, get an artwork approval completed and then book the items into production. Lead times are only valid after sign off.

We have a set of preferred suppliers that will give us the quality and service that will help build our reputation, but because they are trustworthy, they are also in demand. This means that there is a queuing system. Companies that can do the job in a shorter time for us, are either new and on the look out for customers or the quality is not the same as the preferred supplier and their lack of demand allows them more available production time. Which supplier would you prefer to be doing your client's branding?

Gifts have to be relevant to the theme of the function, the status of the recipient and the image of the company. Last year, we were commissioned to supply gifts for a conference that had the theme "Differentiate or Die. Differentiate implied change, being on a different wavelength or station to competitors. We did a radio, which represented change in a positive format - fine-tuning until you get the correct station. The "or" part of the theme represented a threat, a superior's threat that if you did not step up to the plate that you would be in the hot seat. For this we did a hot chilli sauce with customized label for the client. The final aspect was the death aspect. Part of our corporate responsibility to supporting a development programme for women who are trained in crafts. We did a hand beaded dagger key ring to represent the final death portion of the theme. As you can see relevance can also be a creative word in our industry.

When budgeting, how do you calculate what you need to spend on gifts? An often overlooked but crucial aspect of the gifting budget is the life long value of the clients. What will the client's real or potential value be to the business over a period of one year, five years and the hopefully extremely long life cycle of the company? The fact is that your guests will know if you have scrimped on the gifting budget. In fact it is better to not give gifts at all than to give poorly thought out gifts.

The final aspect to consider is whether to outsource. There are a number of companies that allocate a staff member to handle the gifting aspect of the function. Although it seems a practical and feasible option, in reality when allocating a staff member you are taking the income generating potential of that employee out of your business, which is why we recommend working with a specialist corporate gift supplier. Corporate gift suppliers are meant to do the sourcing, budgeting, creative component, packaging, branding and delivery of the product.

In my years of in classical marketing I was responsible for purchasing gifts for the firm in which I was employed and together my executive assistant and I would gift-wrap the gifts for functions. At the end of the day this was a loss in productivity and a waste of salaries to have a manger and executive secretary do manually orientated work. The real productivity of your staff is allocating them to do what they do best. You may not see the results in the profitability of a single function, but in your ability to handle a greater number of functions and increasing your professionalism and therefore ultimately affecting the long team profitability of your company.

Creating a good mix with timing, relevance, budget and the decision to outsource will positively affect the impression that you create with your client and their guests at the function.