Why Corporate Gifting Should Be Designed Backwards

 

Gifting is more than just a courtesy in today's competitive marketplace. Gifting has become a way for companies to communicate their brand's values, priorities and relationship with their customers. However, many companies still start by selecting the product and then determine the purpose of it. By doing this, companies typically end up with items that are visually pleasing, but provide no real value. 

Instead of selecting gifts based on what looks good, companies should select their gifts with a clear understanding of what they want to accomplish. This change in mindset will allow companies to transform corporate gifting from a transactional process to a meaningful brand experience.

When designing your gifts backwards, begin with clarity. Ask yourself, what emotion do I want to evoke? What action do I want the recipient to take? Do I want to build loyalty, enhance engagement or increase daily productivity? When these questions underpin your decision making about corporate gifts, you'll create functional assets that meet both emotional and practical needs—eliminating the need for decorative gifts.

Understanding Backward Design in Gifting

The backward design methodology is a principle that arose from the fields of education and product development that is based on determining your desired outcome before selecting your methods/tools. In regards to gifting, this means determining what success looks like for a gift before you decide what to give someone. 

Therefore, instead of asking, "What should I give?" when thinking about corporate gifting, companies should ask, "What impact do I want this gift to have?" This mindset ensures that business gifts are selected for relevance and purpose, not just appearance. The result will be much more appropriate, meaningful, and enjoyable gifts if companies are clear about what they want to achieve.

Typically, when people think about giving gifts, they think about giving items that look nice or have some type of perceived luxury. In reality, these types of gifts do not work most of the time because they are not relevant to a recipient over time. By using a backward design approach, companies will select corporate gifts based on how well they fit within the lifestyle or work habits of each recipient.

The Emotional Outcome Comes First

The strongest business gifts create a sense of emotional connection and communicate genuine appreciation. Gifts that evoke emotions like appreciation, acknowledgement and trust create long-term loyalty and engagement with consumers. 

Therefore, if you design your gift programme backwards, the emotional connection becomes the basis for all your corporate gifting decisions. This means that your corporate gifts will send a message of sincerity rather than just obligation.

For example, if your corporate gift goal is to express appreciation, the appropriate gift will be one that reflects your buyer's personality and shows them that you are taking the time to consider their individual needs. Alternatively, if your goal is to reinforce a partnership with another organisation, the gift you choose should demonstrate how you work together, as well as the benefit of the partnership for both parties, and the long-term value of that relationship. 

As a result of using emotion-based strategies to create corporate gifts, you will create a strong emotional connection with your customers and, therefore, have a much greater chance of developing loyalty to your brand.

Functionality as a Measure of Success

Gifting something is only valuable if they're used and enhance someone's day-to-day life. Companies who adopt a backward design approach evaluate the usability of each corporate gift by determining if it's truly going to have any substantial benefit in someone’s daily routine rather than selecting based solely on popularity. 

By designing through this lens, corporate gifting becomes a value-added benefit for both the giver and the receiver, as well as providing value through productivity, comfort or organization.

Functional Value transforms a corporate gift from being an ornament to being a tool that enhances one's work environment. Corporate gifts can be functional for the recipient in a variety of ways including electronics, wellness products and supplies that optimize the workspace, and add value through usability.

Branding with Subtlety and Purpose

Creating a strong brand image often leads to the devaluation of gifts. The idea behind backward designing is that branding reinforces a brand's value rather than advertising that value, which allows branding to be done in a subtle and tasteful manner when the outcome is the recipient's perception of this brand's clarity, trust, or gratitude. Therefore, corporate gifting will appear authentic.

Quality corporate gifts portray an organisation's professionalism when a brand is integrated into the design of the product and does not overpower the design elements. 

Recipients appreciate gifts that are designed with their comfort and usability in mind rather than the products' promotional value.

Aligning Gifting with Organizational Values

All gifts demonstrate the values of the company that gives them. Gifts made using backward design typically illustrate those values. Because the value of the corporation is taken into consideration, the corporation’s overall identity is enhanced when gifts are based on the corporation’s values.

Likewise, the use of purpose-led gifts demonstrates to employees and clients alike that a corporation is aware of and respects its social and environmental responsibilities. This type of alignment establishes trust and credibility within both groups.

Measuring the Impact of Backward-Designed Gifting

The success of a corporate gifting program must be evaluated by the recipient's long-term use and interaction of the product, rather than time of delivery. Has the recipient been able to use the gift? Does it provide additional value to their employment experience? Are they able to build a stronger connection to the brand? These indicators reflect genuine effectiveness in corporate gifting.

Tracking corporate gifts enables organisations to continue refining their engagement, retention and satisfaction strategies for the benefit of recipients and organisations alike. Impact can be accurately measured through backward design.

Avoiding the Pitfalls of Traditional Gifting

Most gifting programs have little success due to the fact they were conceived from assumptions. They create a generic item with no real-life connection to the recipient from either an emotional viewpoint or from a requirements perspective. 

Backward design, on the other hand, will ensure business gifts are picked out by the designer with all the necessary knowledge of the recipient’s lifestyle and preferences.

Additionally, thoughtful corporate gifting solutions reduce costs, improve value relative to perceived value, and create sustainable and impactful gifting programmes.

The Strategic Advantage of Backward Design

Using backward design as the basis for gift-giving creates a competitive edge in the business world, resulting in enhanced relationship management, improved brand retention, and increased brand loyalty. By using this approach, organizations view gift-giving as more than just an expenditure, but also as an integral part of their corporate communications strategy.

By using an outcome-based approach to corporate gifting solutions, businesses can establish a clear, concise and focused gifting strategy.

Gifting as an Experience, Not an Event

The concept of gifting does not simply end at the time of handing it over. With the support of backward design, gifting transitions from a 'once-off' activity or happening to a part of your ongoing work-life routine. Through this process, gifting becomes a gift that you give regularly, and your relationship with the gift continues over time.

In creating these types of experiences, you establish deeper levels of emotional connections that develop trust and engagement with your customers for the future.

Final Thoughts

When a company designs a corporate gift from the back of the gift forward, it moves its focus away from products, costs, and looks, and toward people, value, and impact. 

A company that creates corporate gifts using this process takes into account the emotional, usable, personalized, and aligned with organizational values of the recipient and creates a more strategic, memorable, and effective gift. By starting with an outcome-focused approach to designing gifts, companies are able to create more effective gifts.

How Dausto Makes Backward-Designed Gifting Effortless

Dausto provides organizations with the opportunity to implement gifting programs that have purpose, with the ability for businesses to buy products in bulk and provide a full range of customization options that will support outcome-driven planning and development. 

Companies wishing to focus on branding, personalization or functionality will find Dausto simplifies the entire gifting process, allowing them to focus on other areas of their business.

Businesses can make use of Dausto's vast selection of curated items, create customized gift experiences, and manage large scale gift campaigns with the same level of quality and consistency. 

With Dausto, businesses are able to take their thoughtful gifting ideas and bring them to life, establishing Dausto as a prime partner for creating meaningful and professional corporate gifting programs.