Corporate Christmas: What Are You Actually Trying to Say?

Every year, businesses reach roughly the same point in the calendar and somebody asks the question: “What are we doing for Christmas?”

Usually that means cards, gifts, chocolates, calendars, hampers or some form of branded merchandise. Then the catalogues come out, budgets are discussed and somebody starts working out how many customers are actually on the list.

There is nothing wrong with any of that. We produce plenty of Christmas items at Soar Valley Press. But before choosing the product, we think there is a more useful question to ask: what are you actually trying to say?

Not every customer needs the same thing

A Christmas gift is a piece of communication. It might be saying thank you for a year of business, we value the relationship, we would like to stay front of mind next year, or simply we remembered you.

Those are slightly different objectives, and they do not necessarily need the same product.

A long standing customer who has spent a significant amount with you may warrant something personal and considered. A wider customer list might be better suited to a good quality card. Staff gifts have a different purpose again. And if the real objective is to keep your brand visible into next year, something useful may make more sense than something that disappears before Boxing Day.

The Christmas card is not dead

We live in a world where sending 500 emails costs almost nothing, so it is tempting to think a printed Christmas card has had its day. I am not convinced.

Precisely because so much communication is digital, a physical card can feel more deliberate. Somebody chose it, wrote it, addressed it and sent it. If it contains a genuinely personal message rather than a printed signature from “the team”, it can do something an automated email struggles to do.

It is also one of the simplest options. Not every Christmas communication needs to arrive in a presentation box with three layers of tissue paper.

Chocolate has one obvious advantage

People tend to like it. We have produced personalised chocolate items, including branded Chocolate Orange boxes and Advent calendars, and they work because the branding forms part of something people already understand and enjoy.

There is also room to make the presentation do more of the work. A standard product in a cleverly designed sleeve or box can feel much more specific to the recipient without turning into an enormously complicated project.

The only downside is that the marketing lifespan can be rather short if the chocolate is good.

Useful gifts stay around

This is why notebooks, bottles, mugs, umbrellas and similar products continue to be popular. A useful branded item can sit on a desk, travel to meetings or get used every day for months.

But useful really does need to mean useful to the person receiving it. There is little value in buying hundreds of something simply because the unit price looks attractive. If it goes straight into a drawer, it was cheap rather than good value.

Think about the recipient. What sort of work do they do? Are they office based? Travelling? On site? Would they appreciate something practical, something edible or something more personal?

Presentation changes the perceived value

Two gifts can cost almost exactly the same and feel completely different when they arrive.

A printed sleeve, personalised card, branded box or a bit of thought about how the items sit together can turn a collection of fairly ordinary products into something that feels considered. This is one of the reasons it helps to think about print, packaging and merchandise together rather than ordering each from a different supplier.

Consistency makes a difference. It also makes the project considerably easier to manage.

Do not put your logo on something just because you can

This may be an odd thing for a company that sells branded merchandise to say, but not every gift needs a huge logo on it.

Sometimes subtle branding is much more effective. Sometimes the packaging should carry the brand and the gift itself can remain relatively understated. And sometimes the personal message is more important than the logo altogether.

The question is how you want the recipient to feel when they open it. If the answer is “appreciated”, design the whole thing around that rather than around how large we can print your company name.

Start with the budget, quantity and recipient

There are thousands of corporate gift options, which can make choosing one surprisingly difficult. We normally get to a sensible shortlist much faster if we know three things: who it is for, roughly how many you need and what you want to spend per person.

From there, we can suggest ideas that fit rather than sending you into a catalogue containing several thousand products and wishing you luck.

It is also worth starting earlier than feels necessary. Popular products sell out, personalisation takes time and delivery gets busier as Christmas approaches. The project is much more straightforward when nobody is asking whether 200 personalised gifts can be ready by Friday.

Of course, Christmas marketing does not have to stop at gifts. A few years ago we put together a guide to some of our favourite Christmas marketing ideas for small businesses, covering everything from festive competitions and Christmas cards to direct mail, catalogues and customer thank you campaigns. It remains one of the most read articles on our website, so if you are looking for a bit more inspiration for this year, you can have a read of our Christmas marketing ideas here: https://www.soarvalleypress.co.uk/post/christmas-marketing-ideas-for-small-businesses-3

So what should you send this Christmas?

There is no universal answer. For one business it might be a beautifully printed card with a handwritten message. For another it could be a useful branded item that stays on a customer’s desk all year. For somebody else, personalised chocolate may be exactly right.

The product matters, but the thought behind it matters more.

If you are starting to think about Christmas cards, gifts or branded merchandise, have a browse through our product brochure here: https://www.soarvalleypress.co.uk/pmb

And if you would rather not browse thousands of options, tell us who you are buying for, how many and your rough budget. We will happily come back with a few sensible ideas.