Corporate Gift Marketing Readies for Year-End

Corporate holiday gift-giving lies ahead, including the food and wine gift baskets and promotional products offered by many AccuList clients. So what are major factors for corporate gifting in 2019? Corporate gift buyers and gift marketers will want to consider some essential issues affecting gifting success, as cited in a recent The Balance Small Business blog. To generate the desired client response, corporate gift givers should keep in mind 1) organizational policies, which may limit the dollar value of gifts or even prohibit gifts; 2) the personal preferences and needs of the recipient (note that today’s customer expectations of personalization apply); 3) any cultural/local differences (for example, a white-wrapped gift may not be well-received in Asia where white is the color of death); 4) the perceived quality of the gift and its packaging (although gift value should be proportional to client value so that a $200-a-year client doesn’t get a $300 gift); 5) today’s preference for a personal touch, such as a handwritten note or in-person delivery; and 6) IRS deductions (business gifts in the U.S. are tax deductible up to $25 per person for the tax year, although rules differ by business structure). What type of gift will meet most businesses’ requirements? The American Express Semi-Annual Small Business Monitor survey found that today’s top corporate gifts include cards or calendars (49%); gift certificates for retail or restaurants (26%); company-branded items (23%); a fruit/food basket (18%); a charity donation (18%); flowers/plants (10%); and wine/liquor (10%). For more ideas, a 2019 Hubspot post listed 23 gifts rated as likely to keep clients thinking positively about a company throughout the year. Most fell within the general categories noted above, but six gifts involved a food and/or beverage basket. In choosing that basket, gift buyers may want to consider the 2019 ratings just out from Top Ten Reviews. The reviewers tested baskets from the top 11 gift basket companies for taste, presentation, pricing/value, payment and delivery, customer support, number of basket types and special options (such as Kosher). Harry & David’s Founders’ Favorite Gift Box was rated “best overall,” while Wine Country Gift Baskets’ Gourmet Choice Gift Basket received “best value” for the amount and selection of foods for the price. For more details on Hubspot recommendations and food gift basket ratings, go to https://www.acculist.com/corporate-gift-marketers-buyers-ready-for-year-end-holiday-push/

Market Trends Bolster Food Gifting Growth

One of AccuList USA's areas of specialization is the food and wine gift market, so we keep an eye on emerging trends. In fact, food gift sales will approach $20 billion in 2018, up 4% over last year, per the “Food Gifting in the U.S.: Consumer and Corporate” report for 2018-2020 by research firm Packaged Facts. Marketing dollars will naturally focus on year-end sales, since, while consumers and businesses are giving food baskets across a wider variety of occasions today, Christmas is still the food and wine gifting mainstay. More than half of the 130 million consumer food gifters purchasing in the last 12 months bought during the winter holiday season. So how can food gift marketers keep overall sales growth going strong? One key factor will be continued innovation that creates exclusivity and artisanship, avoiding the commoditization that drains profit with discounting, notes the report. To support that kind of brand power, marketing efforts will need to embrace the kind of story telling that creates a sense of authenticity and uniqueness and builds a gourmet brand image. Food gift marketers also need to continue expanding gifting occasions beyond holidays, not only for consumers but also for the lucrative corporate market, by pushing work anniversary and thank-you gestures as examples. Finally, while the food gifting market is heavily dependent on older, high-income consumers, tapping into millennials will require a more omnichannel approach that takes into account millennial ordering preferences, stresses the Packaged Facts report. An omnichannel wooing of millennials will combine direct mail/catalogs with e-mail, social media and e-commerce strategies. While traditional direct mail continues as a workhorse, a strong online presence and SEO strategy is especially essential. Luxury biscuit gift company Biscuiteers provides an example of how it matters: The company increased their website traffic from new customers by 90% and SEO revenue by 77% in 6 months by optimizing category landing pages for different types of food gift buyer and season. E-commerce goes hand-in-hand with a good e-mail strategy. For example, the venerable Hickory Farms brand decided to improve the quality of its customer data and create a more agile e-mail campaign process to trigger consumer journeys and automated e-mail sends. E-mail inbox placement this year rose to 94%, almost 10% above industry standard, plus e-mail list growth improved. Hickory Farms CMO Judy Ransford explained to CMO magazine that the smarter list management "helps us deliver e-mails at the frequency customers want, and to make sure the content quality is better. This year we’ve seen a huge improvement and not such high attrition rates as a result." Social media also has become a must-have for food gifting via leading platforms like Facebook and Instagram for consumers and LinkedIn for corporate prospecting. For more, including Top Ten Reviews' ratings of the best gift baskets of 2018, see the full post at http://www.acculistusa.com/new-marketing-trends-bolster-food-gifting-growth/