Category Archives: Gifts

What Makes the Best Gift – Flowers or Gift Baskets?

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Picking out a gift for someone is a very personal decision. You have to make sure your chosen gift is both appropriate for the type of relationship you have with the other person, as well as being appropriate for the occasion.

There is a time when giving flowers is the way to go, and there are other times when a gift basket is more appropriate. Flowers are great for many occasions, be it a birthday, graduation, funeral or just letting someone special know that you care. When choosing the flowers, it is important to keep in mind the other persons preferences because this can have a marked effect on how they perceive the gift. If the flowers are going to a friend rather than a significant other, it is best to keep them understated. This prevents them from getting the wrong message, and keeps things from becoming awkward later on. It is also important to keep in mind what the occasion is, for example giving someone a dozen roses at a funeral is not the best form.

If giving flowers seems a bit too risky, a gift box is always a wonderful option. The great thing about gift boxes is that you can make them as personal or impersonal as you desire, giving you total control over the message you are trying to send. It is still important to choose items for your basket that are appropriate for the occasion.

Gift baskets are also appropriate for a much wider variety of occasions, and there is less chance of it being misconstrued into something it isn’t by the recipient. The best gifts are the simplest, so keep that in mind. Most of the time it is a great idea to come up with a theme, such as a certain brand of food, and then fill the basket with items that fit with that theme. Just remember not to go too far, you want the basket to be big enough to be appreciated, but stay within reason. A good medium sized basket should do the trick.

To wrap things up, both flowers and a basket are wonderful ideas for a present. Which one you choose depends on the occasion, the taste of the recipient and your own budget. Whichever you choose, it is important to keep the recipient and the circumstances in mind and choose the appropriate gift accordingly for it to be the best it can be.

Catch the Attention of Your Clients With Promotional Gift Items

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We all love to get and distribute promotional gifts to customers and trade counterparts on conventions, exhibitions, shows and parties. After all, who does not like to receive a free, utilizable and quality gift? Your targeted customer base will be impressed on receiving promotional gift items from you. Handing out promotional items is bedrock in your company’s advertising and branding plans and helps grow your business considerably. A business can establish its identity by making a mark on the hearts and minds of its customers. The best way in which you can touch your customer’s heart is by giving them attractive corporate gifts.

Promotional gifts should be picked according to the nature of your business. It is a brilliant marketing strategy if you know how to go about it in the right manner. Imagine you are running a baby products business and you’re handing out glassware as gifts. Why not go for something that shows what exactly you are into? Maybe a free baby products voucher or a baby chair with your company logo on it would be a better idea. The basic idea behind promotional gifts in USA is to create brand recognition or luring customers to try your newly launched products or services.

Promotional gift items are not difficult to afford

Promotional gifts are absolutely easy on the pocket, especially with a little preparation. If you buy them in bulk it may save some expenses, rather you could avail big discounts. Before you use and select promotional gifts it is vital to know how to cope with the shifting market. A variety of promotional gifts fulfill different objectives. Some of the admired and generally used promotional items are,

•Promotional pens: This one makes a perfect gift! Pens are very popular and commonly distributed advertising gifts. If you are low on budget then go for simple yet promising gifts like promotional pens. Get them etched with your business name, slogan, message and logo. Pens can be used any day, at anytime.

•Gift Calendars: Almost all small businesses distribute promotional calendars every holiday season. They really are least costly gifts. The main benefit of gifting calendars is that it can be seen every day by the customer and your company name logo and message is flaunted for a whole year!

•Computer accessories and other office supplies: When a business intends to deal out promotional gifts, the first thing that comes to mind is computer accessories. Bargain packages of computer accessories mainly include pen stands, custom-made sticky notes, mouse mats, and clocks. These are usually placed right next to the calendar and computer on the desk and hence, ensure great visibility.

•Printed gifts: Coffee mugs, t-shirts, umbrellas etc make amazing printed gifts. Logo printing on t-shirts and coffee mugs is very useful to win your customers hearts and create brand awareness.

Promotional items are record favorites! People go crazy when they receive free gifts of utility. So, plan some unique and attractive gifts for your customers and storm into their hearts!

What Was the Most Memorable Gift You Ever Received?

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It’s that time of year when many thoughts focus on gifts; finding the perfect one; finding “the” one someone has asked for as “the only thing I want this year;” just finding anything to get it over with.

So, with all this energy being expended to shop for, pay for, wrap, and deliver all of these gifts, we sort of started wondering just what does it all mean to an individual.

We conducted a very informal and limited survey and asked our friend Ellee about her gift memories because we’ve heard some of her stories about gifts from her husband who has pretty much been let off the hook for gift buying. Ellee says they’ve been married so long that if either of them want something for a special occasion like birthday, anniversary, Christmas, or just because they got up feeling healthy in the morning, they just go out together and get it.

Sometimes, though, he still has an idea about what he wants to buy her or them and sometimes he still just does the selecting and buying all by himself. For their twenty-fifth wedding anniversary it was an ATV. Last Christmas, a dune buggy. This year it was a Wii system purchased early. All of these were so their children and grandchildren would be bribed to visit them as often as possible.

But, gifts haven’t always been for such an extended group.

For their anniversary a couple of years ago, he got her a new weed trimmer. She was having too much trouble starting her old one which had been a Christmas gift a few years earlier. Neither of these weed trimmers was the first weed trimmer Ellee had gotten as a gift.  She reports that she bought herself the first one for Mother’s Day a dozen years before he got the idea to get her one when it started being difficult for her to start. So a replacement weed trimmer seems to be an easy solution to his ongoing dilemma about what to give her every few years.

Ellee says that at this stage of their lives together, he really isn’t expected to buy her anything.  “But I do enjoy the memories of some of his gifts,” she says

“He’s given me three gold necklaces-all 18 inches long. He bought me three watch pins with little characters dangling from them at a book fair they had where he works and he got me a paper stapler that doesn’t use staples. He isn’t, however, totally lacking originality. Once he gave me a unicycle.”

Sometimes his gifts are excessive. One Christmas he gave her 100 dish towels because he’d gotten one out of the drawer and it was stained and tattered. At least that seemed to be a sign that he’d gotten to be more perceptive than he was when they first met.

The first Christmas they knew each other, they shopped and shopped for a radio for his grandmother. He kept asking her what style, size, and features she liked. They found the perfect radio and he bought it. She was certain he’d observed that she must surely be the only college kid on earth who didn’t own a radio. “Imagine my surprise when he gave me a bathrobe and his grandmother really did get the radio,” she says. “But, he didn’t forget it. Years later, he gave me a replica of an antique radio for Christmas.”

He’d already made up for it over the years, though. She got one of the first bread makers on the market because he saw an ad for it in an in-flight magazine. He’s given her  a short wave radio, a boom box, her own CD player, a tape recorder, and all sorts of other electronic gadgets. Some of those she accepts that he selected selfishly, but some were just for her. One Christmas she got a talking teddy bear telephone; another occasion a talking Mickey Mouse telephone. In fact, he bought her first teddy bear for one of her birthdays.

For an anniversary he gave her a nifty scale that weighs something as light as a postage stamp and she says it makes a great conversation piece.

When he earns a gift at work for years of service awards or something similar, he always chooses something for her. She’s gotten a watch, binoculars (twice), and most recently a digital camera. Her first computer was an anniversary gift.

He once bought her a car for Valentine’s Day but decided it was too good for her to drive 500 miles a week to work. He took it back and drove it himself for 10 years.

Her biggest surprise yet, however, was a maid service, but he decided he didn’t want a stranger in the house among their “things” and canceled the service before the first cleaning.

His intentions had at least been thoughtful and it makes for a topic of conversation comparable to the one about her coincidentally finding a wooden Indian at a garage sale-on his birthday-and buying it as a gift for him.

Ellee says they’ve had a lot of fun finding and giving things to each other, but it’s the no-occasion gifts that say he really knows who she is. Those are the ones she truly treasures; like the pine cone he brought her from the biggest pine tree he’s ever seen. Or, the seeds he brought home from a business trip that turned out to be…let’s just say she has a continuing need for a good weed trimmer.

Do you have a gift memory to share? We’d love to hear from you. After all, gifts have the ability to keep on giving and giving, especially if they have a lot of entertainment value.