Off the Cuff: Artistic Holiday Gifts

This holiday season, send creative gifts to clients to show off your talents.
Nov 21, 2008

By Mark L. Venit, MBA, Contributing Writer

Planning on sending holiday gifts to your customers? Thinking now — and fast — about what to send can pay big dividends in impact, recognition and response.

Wondering what companies in our business send? I can report that slightly more than half send nothing at all — not even cards. That half would like to send something, but they put it off until it's too late to send anything.

Do customers miss not getting something from their friendly apparel decorator? Not really, unless another vendor sends a holiday gift. At this point, it might appear that your company doesn’t love them anymore or cares only about getting their money.

Gift Wish List
For shops that do send something, most send a Christmas card signed by the owners, everyone in the shop or the appropriate account representative.

Some companies send cards and gifts, ranging from fruit and gourmet food, to a variety of promotional products (calendars lead the list), to a decorated garment. Certainly, these gifts show the recipient that the sender values the relationship and cares enough to express it once a year, and customers do appreciate the thought. 

Usually, these gifts are decorated with the decorator’s logo and copy. 
  
While an embroidered wearable usually is a thing of beauty, its wearability is limited in many ways — to certain persons, certain times and certain circumstances. For some companies, this is just fine, as their primary objective is just to be “seen.”  

And while most will wear an item embellished with his or her own initials, how many folks really want to wear your logo or mine? And how often? 

While an embroidered garment is a nice gift, an embroidered and/or printed work of art will say and do much more for your company. By creating and sending out a framed example of your work, you’ll maximize the appreciation and awareness of your creativity and technical prowess, gain much more recognition for your artistry and provide a year-round reminder of your company. (And subtly remind your customers that you’re only a phone call away). 

It’s a one-size-fits-all solution that costs no more than a garment and likely less (including the cost of a mat and frame), but will be seen every business day. 

Some of your work-of-art options include: 

1. A small, detailed work. Design it to fit a stock-sized 4" x 5" or 5" x 7" frame (visit your local dollar store). 

2. A larger work. Use an 8" x 10" or 16" x 20" frame — say, with embroidered highlights done over a screen printed or heat-transferred background. A one-color printed background or cone via a transfer should cost no more than 50 cents per unit (plus set-up).

Here are a few ideas to get you started:
• a subdued background of a forest, country landscape or mountainscape, highlighted with an embroidered elk, birds, sun or flowers
• an undersea-scape highlighted with fish, whales, dolphins or other marine accents
• a seascape with highlighted sailboats, divers, a lighthouse, etc.
• a background of Jerusalem, the world or a pastoral scene with embroidered symbols of the major world religions
• a winterscape with secular Christmas designs such as a spectacular Victorian Santa Claus (there’s a classic from Balboa Threadworks), wrapped gifts, tree ornaments, etc.
• a nautical patterned fabric highlighted with the client's initials embroidered in nautical flags over it
• a screen printed calendar wall hanging (available as a stock item) highlighted with an embroidered highlight pen

For more ideas, glance through some magazines, look through Christmas card catalogs or leaf through a few books. And be sure to peruse your stock embroidery catalogs — they have a wealth of ideas and great designs.
     
3. Material. Linen, satin and broadcloth give you lots of creative room.  

4. Getting more. Want to blow a few minds? Consider creating a mixed-media work and embellishing it with hand-sewn or spot-glued attachments such as buttons, ribbons, toothpicks (they make great dune fences!), miniatures or whatever strikes your fancy. A visit to the local craft store will provide lots more in the way of ideas and inspiration. While many designs will look best under glass, some look better simply au naturel. 

5. Attribution. Should you put your company’s name and/or the artist’s name somewhere on the design? My opinion is no, but if you insist, make it as small as possible (more easily accomplished with screen printing or a heat transfer). Or consider delicately hand writing the information on the mat, and perhaps adding serial numbers, which typically is done on other fine limited edition renderings. 

While delivering the gifts in person is a nice touch, if this is impractical, you should ship the item properly protected with bubble wrap and peanuts. The gift should be accompanied by a card and, where appropriate, a short explanation of the design along with credits to the artist, digitizer, technicians and anyone else instrumental in producing the finished work. You also can affix this information on the back of the item for future reference. 

Some companies discreetly embroider or print the year on the design, a particularly good idea if you intend to make this effort an annual ritual. Years down the road, many recipients will proudly display them all.

Several of my clients have sent these works of art for many years. Their customers learn to look forward to them.

Should every customer who places an order receive your annual, limited-edition gift? The answer generally is yes, though marginal buyers probably don’t warrant your investment at this level. And some large clients might warrant a more substantial thank you gift. 

If you’ve got scads of active customers, consider establishing different tiers for different levels of customers. The tiny ones (purchasing less than $500 a year) might rate a calendar and/or a card. Customers who purchase, say, $500 to $3,000 annually, get a card, calendar and your limited-edition framed artwork, while major corporate accounts might get the above items plus a food gift, theater tickets or some other higher-ticket gift commensurate with the value of your relationship.

This year, your company can stand out in the crowd of traditional, predictable offerings by showing off your talents. Why settle for conventional gifts and conventional results, when you can wow customers with your wizardry.

Mark L. Venit, MBA, is president of Apparel Graphics Institute Ltd., Ocean Pines, Md., which provides management and marketing consulting and proprietary research to apparel graphics companies throughout the Americas and Europe. He also is the chairman of ShopWorks Software LLC, a provider of industry-specific business software. Venit teaches pricing, strategic marketing, salesmanship and other business management topics at the Imprinted Sportswear Shows. You can reach him at markvenit@cs.com.