Is there anyone who isn’t delighted to receive a gift, especially if it’s unexpected and it hasn’t been given for a birthday, anniversary, achievement, or a special occasion that would normally be celebrated or commemorated, possibly with the exchange of presents? Moreover, who doesn’t enjoy receiving something for free?
Numerous promotional events and press shindigs take place in South Africa’s most economically active province, Gauteng. It’s pretty much the “done thing” for the hosts to hand out goodie bags, loaded with free gifts and promotional products, provided by several sponsors. With goodie bags in hand, no one thinks of the fact that the sponsors of the contents are corporate concerns, handing out branded corporate gifts. Just observe the anticipation and delight as goodie bag recipients delve into their baggies to discover the surprise free gifts that nestle within.
No Expectations
Fundamentally, a gift is an item which is given freely by one person (or group) to another, without the expectation of getting something in return. It may be seen as a gift of goodwill, congratulations, commemoration, or appreciation. Although branded corporate gifts are undoubtedly promotional and marketing tools, they are nevertheless presented freely.
If the giver were to have a hidden agenda, expecting some type of favour in return, such a present might be seen as a bribe, indicative of an underhand motive or a hidden agenda. For these reasons, some corporate entities in Gauteng have strict rules in place, company policy which forbids the concern’s employees from accepting presents, thereby removing any hint of suspicious, undercover dealings.
Check Company Policies
However, on condition that the present is a smaller, less expensive, and practical item, such as a branded pen, stationery item, flash drive, desk clock, T-shirt or sport-related item, the gift is usually not regarded as a bribe and doesn’t contravene company policies about accepting freebies. The fact that the present is branded may help to dispel any hint of bribery, illicit dealings, dishonesty, and corruption.
Nevertheless, if the corporate gift is to be somewhat substantial, it’s best to check the recipient’s company policies first. Inadvertently placing the person to whom you’re giving a token of goodwill in an awkward or embarrassing position – having to decline your branded corporate gift, albeit innocently given. This is the last thing you want to do or achieve since it’ll have the exact opposite result. You want to ensure that you promote your organisation and foster goodwill in a sound, transparent, and above-board business relationship.
Promotional Products in Gauteng
Promotional products – branded corporate gifts – are part and parcel of marketing initiatives in large business centres and cities like those that are located in Gauteng, the collective financial, business, and commercial hub of South Africa.
In a way, it seems fitting that Gauteng’s principal city, Johannesburg, also known as the City of Gold, possesses this status because it’s a sprawling metropolis, and urban jungle, which owes its existence to the discovery of gold in the latter part of the 19th century. The “urban jungle” term refers to the proliferation of trees, within the city’s metropolitan area, which is so dense and plentiful that the greenery is visible from outer space.
One might say that in Gauteng, gold was the province’s very first and most exceptional promotional product, because once it became known that this precious golden metal could be found in abundance here, people streamed to the area from near and far, from distant parts of this country and from farms, towns and cities across the sea. Everyone wanted a piece of the action, preferably in the form of a heap of gold, which was there for the taking, beneath the Highveld soil.
Gold was the brand and the gift, the attraction, the product that promoted Johannesburg, and the reason for the establishment of a city, which would grow from a dusty, tented camp to a world-class metropolis, branded the City of Gold – gold being its ultimate promotional tool and product, all linked and intertwined.
Modern Corporate Promotional Ideas
At Best Clothing and Gifts, we don’t include gold in the promotional products which we supply, but we do constantly strive to set the gold standard in our competitive industry, within southern Africa and beyond.
We have various specialities with which we help to elevate and promote your organisation. This includes the manufacture and supply of top-quality corporate clothing, workwear, uniforms, and sportswear, custom-made and customised clothing, a variety of in-house branding solutions for all the products we offer, plus extensive ranges of corporate gifts, which we likewise brand in-house, according to our clients’ specifications.
We also offer a superb design service for clients, who wish to create their own corporate brands from scratch, rebrand and refresh existing logos and emblems, or upgrade and improve upon their current insignia. However, let us begin by giving you a few ideas about the gift ranges on offer at Best Clothing, which we’ve categorised broadly in the index of our online catalogue.
- Hot new products
- Gift sets
- Mobile technology
- Memory sticks
- Bags
- Outdoor & recreation
- Drink & lunch ware
- Writing instruments
- Highlighters, stationery and memo pads
- Notebooks & folders
- Home & living
- Promotional giveaways
- Key holders
- Tools, torches & knives
- For the car
- Awards & medals
- Executive gifts & travel
- Sports & wellness
- Lanyards
- Personal care & pamper
- Umbrellas
- Clothing & headwear teaser
If you take into account that each category that appears in our above-mentioned online catalogue’s index consists of extensive ranges of individual items, it quickly becomes apparent that we at Best Clothing offer an enormous selection of options. All are well-suited for effective, eye-catching, and useful corporate gift purposes.
Promotional gifts help to create a somewhat more personal association with one’s target market – current and potential new clients.
Powerful Promotional Branding
In today’s challenging business environment, it’s not enough to set up a company, manufacture and supply great products, and provide your customers with exceptional services, without actively and constantly marketing and promoting that which you bring to a highly competitive Gauteng marketplace. If no one knows who you are, what you do, and how your offering can be of benefit to them, the picture looks bleak, and your venture may be doomed.
Traditional advertising is expensive, especially in Gauteng, where the cost of living and doing business tends to be relatively high. For advertising to be effective, a business should run its ad campaigns regularly and frequently, for extended periods. An occasional one-off ad is hardly likely to do the trick by fulfilling your promotional requirements and aspirations.
It’s vitally important to be seen, noticed, and remembered, and this can only be achieved if your name is out there, in as many places as possible, in order to become familiar, like an old friend, and top-of-mind when your services may fit the bill. You must promote your organisation and its products and services to stand out from that of your competitors and to be noticed, remembered, and trusted in your quest to become the first choice.
Benefits
Branding is one of the most essential, enduring, and cost-effective promotional tools that play a major role in securing and maintaining a successful endeavour, creating an enduring brand of choice in a wide Gauteng market. The more your brand is encountered, the more power it will have, and the more attention it will get from existing and new potential clients.
Since corporate gifts for businesses in busy Gauteng are typically bought and branded in bulk batches from and by companies like Best Clothing, they are of great quality, enduring, and particularly cost-effective. Promotional presents may also be regarded as possible or partial alternatives to traditional business cards, because their branding may include a contact number. One will certainly pick up and use a writing instrument more frequently than one would handle or look at a business card. By branding your corporate gifts before giving them to others, you allow clients (recipients) to interact with your products and associate tangibly with your company and its products. This has a number of benefits, including the following statistics:
- 86% are able to recall the advertiser
- 83% are inclined to do business with the advertised concern
- 81% on average, indicated that they retain their promotional items for more than 12 months
- 80% find out more about the business
- 70% favour promotional products as preferred form of marketing
- 53% indicate that they use personalised promotional items frequently – in excess of once weekly, some up to 50% daily
Each and every time your logo is seen, your company’s products, services, and presence is advertised – at no additional charge to you, since your initial cost or investment keeps on delivering results – maximum, repeated market exposure, for a one-off mere fraction of traditional advertising and marketing costs. It also enables you to build customer loyalty, a normally challenging task in a metropolis and big city operating conditions and atmosphere in which time is money.
Corporate Branding Techniques
Before you appoint a company to attend to your branding requirements, you should ensure that they employ well-trained, responsible, and skilled personnel, who’ll undertake such precise tasks, because you are entrusting a vital part of your corporate image – the depiction of your corporate logo – to them. If a logo, in its entirety, is not 100% correct in every detail and aspect, it’s wrong. It’s as simple or complicated as that.
Best Clothing and Gifts has a division which specialises in a variety of branding techniques, in-house, so there’s very little chance of anything going wrong or items going missing since we also supply a wide range of corporate gifts and other merchandise, suitable for bearing company insignia, from which you may make your selection.
Equipped with state-of-the-art equipment, devices, and techniques with which to ensure that our branding is achieved accurately, cost-effectively, and professionally, Best Clothing is one of the best one-stop corporate gift wholesale vendors in Gauteng.