By Lauren Melnick
Telling your story effectively is all about creating a lasting emotional connection to your brand. Whether you’re starting up, rebranding, moving, or looking for the perfect corporate gift, your customized products should inspire authentic gratitude and joy.
In order to achieve that emotional reaction, spend your customization investment wisely. Pear and pretzel towers get eaten, t-shirts get stuffed in the bottom of drawers, and branded tchotchkes end up chucked in the dustbin. Instead of choosing perishables or forgettables, tell your brand story with impactful products that are worthy of your company’s core values and vision. That means customized items that are beautifully designed, relevant to your brand, and useful long after the initial gifting is over.
As customization experts, we’ve provided storytelling solutions for companies from incubator startups to Fortune 500’s. Explore some of our solutions below:
The Challenge: Internal Corporate Gifting
The Solution: For the holidays, Sony/ATV wanted to give gifts that showed their employees how much they were appreciated. We worked with them to customize Metal Pens for each employee; these substantial, beautiful pens were destined for pockets, purses, and permanent pen cup status. By giving their employees a new favorite pen, Sony/ATV ensured their team got the warm fuzzies for their employer every time they signed a check.
The Challenge: External Corporate Gifting
The Solution: The Hivery, a startup co-working space, customized Card Cases and Soft Cover Folios for their new co-working clients. By giving gifts of use in the brand environment, they ensured they stayed top-of-mind while their clients were networking, giving investor presentations, and organizing their new offices.
The Challenge: Launching a Company
The Solution: Karhoo, a rideshare startup, customized products to generate buzz before their app was officially launched. By branding a large quantity of our super-affordable Flat-Top Pens and Soft Cover Notebooks, they had tons of product for guerilla marketing, launch events, investor meetings, and everything else they needed to get their business up-and-running.
The Challenge: Rebranding
The Solution: We’re currently working with three startups who are in the middle of a rebrand. By customizing products in the early phases of new look and feel, companies can confidently launch their new colors and logos to the public with gifts that immediately increase brand recognition. One of our clients is customizing a Zip Folio stuffed with a Signature Pen and Soft Cover Notebook in order to give their conference attendees a sneak peek at their new look.
The Challenge: Moving Offices
The Solution: After an office move, the rapidly-scaling brand Eatsa gave customized Gift Boxes to say “Welcome home!” Customized products help employees and clients alike feel comfortable and familiar in a new space—and show you appreciate them for helping your brand grow.
The Challenge: Employee Onboarding
Shutterfly customizes desk accessories for their ongoing new hire gifting program, which lets their investment work double-duty as an office-wide desktop branding initiative. By branding beautiful, durable products, Shutterfly shows their team they’re valued from the very first day…and every time they reach for their Stapler.
The Challenge: Events
The Solution: XO Group, Inc. customized Gift Box Sets for giveaways at sales conferences. The Gift Box Set contains a branded Notebook, a branded Pen, and a branded magnetic box, making a customized product that stands out from the crowd. By giving a product with both immediate and long-term utility, XO Group ensures their brand is at-hand long after the conference is over.
However you choose to tell your brand story, do it with customized products that reflect the hard work you’ve put into your brand. Designing branded gifts that people want to keep ensures you keep your brand top-of-mind—and see a return on your investment—for months and years to come.
Lauren Melnick is the customization solutions manager at Poppin where she helps companies apply their logos and branding to a variety of products. Explore poppin.com for additional ideas on how to tell your brand story.
