Musical Corporate Gifts
As you are looking to select your corporate gifts,
one of the options that you may find is customized CDs that you can provide
to your potential clients. Customized CDs are an interesting choice. On the
one hand, giving someone music has a variety of benefits. But customized CDs
can also be a risky choice. Here are several of the benefits and weaknesses
of giving customized CDs as a corporate gift.
Benefits
Music touches people in a way that nothing else
can. Good music has the ability to vastly adjust moods, bring back fond
memories, and make one feel warm. Since corporate gifts are designed to
associate positive impressions with your brand name, these warm feelings can
be a tremendous benefit. They can make your name bring out positive feelings
of warmth, something that is invaluable for closing sales.
CDs are also easily customizable, and come with
multiple brandable parts. The CD, the CD case, and the CD insert are all
available for customization, so a single CD has multiple ways to remind
someone of your company.
Weaknesses
Unlike most corporate gifts, music has the
potential to ruin your chances as well. Bad music will cause people to
associate negative feelings with your company, and since everyone’s musical
preference is different, you have no way of knowing in advance which
preferences the recipient enjoys.
Music is also very personal to people, and as a
result it can appear to be TOO personal a gift – one that crosses the line
between professional and unprofessional. You never want to make your company
look unprofessional to anyone, so this is a very prominent weakness.
Finally, customization options are fairly limited.
Most music corporate gift companies only supply you with holiday music
(Christmas music, etc.) and relaxation tapes. The relaxation tapes are
fairly useful, but with Christmas music, you may be alienating those that do
not celebrate the holiday.
Overall Thoughts
Though there do appear to be more weaknesses than
benefits to using music as a corporate gift, it is still a fairly strong
choice that can improve your standing in the eyes of the recipient
companies. Music’s strength is that it is able to provide positive feelings
and impressions, and these feelings will easily promote greater brand
awareness and positive thoughts related to your company.
It is important that you recognize the risk that
comes from providing these types of items. You can associate your company
negatively, and you are limited in your choices of music (which in turn may
cause you to send bad music). But relaxation CDs, and other types of music
are fairly innocent, and do provide a good feelings that you want associated
with your company. The multiple parts are also a plus.
Overall, music as a corporate gift is a risky move,
but may be beneficial for many people. Just make sure you are careful about
the music you select and who you are going to be sending it to.