Finding a gift that will keep giving: the right gift can leverage loyalty in the long run, business owners say.

• Author: Ross, Ian
• Position: Corporate Gifts & Events Planning

Anybody who has spent a lifetime in the corporate world can fill a warehouse full of complimentary ball caps, t-shirts and key chains from their clients and customers. But a few companies have ideas on some unique value-added gifts tailored to charm business professionals.

For Dawn LaPierre, co-owner of Superior Sales Agency in Garson, east of Sudbury, picking out gifts of clocks, calculators, Swiss Army knives or packs of tea, cookies, soaps and fragrances varies around a range of price points depending on the value of the customer.

Her company sells heating and ventilating equipment for the industrial and commercial market. They are Northern Ontario manufacturers' representatives handling 15 to 20 product lines.

As representatives, they often receive requests from different companies for gifts for golf tournaments or other planned events and purchase gifts on behalf of the company and sometimes the manufacturers.

For mixed events such as a golf tournament, LaPierre hits the gardening and patio aisles of the hardware store to pick out items like moonbeam lights.

If it is primarily a men's event, she goes for power tools and large coolers.

Unquestionably, complimentary gifts are intended to generate some good will, she says, despite many companies being more bottom line-driven than ever before. Yet LaPierre still believes thoughtful ideas can leave a lasting impression to leverage some loyalty down the road.

"You hope there is some good will there. You hope that it will help you get a little bit of a foot in the door."

Like many of their contemporaries, Equipment World in Thunder Bay has given away promotional products emblazoned with the company logo on hats, sweatshirts and pens, but the industrial supplier has added a cultural flare to gift-giving by supporting northern artists.

Each year the company commissions a run of 50 prints from an original painting or sketch by local artists and wildlife painters Jane Grann and Bob Baron.

"The gift just seems to be a better perceived value," says Equipment World vice-president Lyle Knudsen. "We have customers that come to us and are involved in charity fundraising or a community project ... and this provides something that is totally unique that can be used as a giveaway or prize table, but also as a charity fundraiser for customers."

On the back of the print there is a certificate of authenticity and a profile of the artist.

The practice began when the company celebrated its 25th anniversary...