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In the corporate gifts space, which buyers are most likely to give handmade or artisan gifts at scale (100+ per quarter and $100+ per gift), and what trends will influence this in 2017-2018? (Consider - industry, company size, location, role, annual earnings, other data points as applicable)
Hello! Thank you for your question about which buyers in the corporate gifts space are most likely to give handmade or artisan gifts and which trends will influence this in 2017-2018. The short answer is that larger companies headquartered on the West Coast with annual revenues of more than $50 million and that employ more than 49,000 people are more likely to purchase handmade or artisan gifts for their employees and clients. I have given you a deep dive of my findings on the attached spreadsheet.
METHODOLOGY
I began my research by reading the two sources you provided. I found that a market for handmade and artisan corporate gifts definitely exists. For instance, the study cited in "The Results of Our 2016 Corporate Gifting Survey… and Boy, Were They Surprising" showed that "7 out of every 10 people would like to receive a gift that has been uniquely picked based on their interests" and "70% [of participants surveyed] firmly believe that a uniquely picked gift will encourage them to do business with a company." Commercialized gift baskets and corporate swag aren't memorable and in fact, "corporate swag would discourage 11% of people to do business with a company." Companies that are looking to stand out among their clients or are looking to retain top talent have to do more to impress their gift recipients and one way to do this is by gifting handmade or artisan products.
The second source you provided, the "2016 Corporate Gift IQ Survey" indicates that as companies are realizing they need to provide their employees and clients more memorable gifts that have some personal meaning, they are spending more per gift. The study showed that "the number of respondents who say their firms give out the most expensive corporate gifts -- those costing $1,000 or more -- more than quintupled, from 1.3 percent to 6.2 percent, between 2015 and 2016. Gifts in the $300 - $999 range are up almost 30 percent, from 4.8 percent to 6.2 percent." In many cases, "handmade gifts cost more money than the store-bought versions of the same item," which could mean that one of the reasons companies are spending more on gifts is because they are choosing to purchase handmade and artisan products more often.
After I thoroughly analyzed the sources you provided, I set about finding examples of companies that have given handmade and artisan gifts to their employees and clients. I was able to locate case studies of United States-based corporations that purchased these types of items for various purposes. Once I had a list of companies, I then researched their market details using Owler, Manta, and Hoovers to provide you with a general profile of a company that would be likely to purchase handmade or artisan corporate gifts. Finally, I put the results in a spreadsheet.
LIMITATIONS
Although I was able to locate case studies of corporations that have purchased handmade or artisan gifts for their employees and clients, none of them provided a cost per gift or a total amount spent. However, I researched the average retail cost of each item to give you an idea of how much the corporations spent. Unfortunately, none of the products purchased as corporate gifts had a price point of $100 or more. The highest average cost was $75. I decided to use these companies for the basis of my analysis anyway because they have shown their willingness to buy handmade or artisan items as corporate gifts.
A second limitation to my analysis is there was no information on the buyer's role in any of the case studies, so I left this category off my report.
REVENUES
An analysis of the 16 companies for which I found case studies shows that the most likely corporations to purchase handmade or artisan products for corporate gifts are large companies with multi-billion or multi-million dollar revenues. The top five companies on the list according to annual revenue are:
GEOGRAPHY
The corporations purchasing handmade and artisan gifts are also more likely to be located in California, with five out of the 16 companies headquartered in San Francisco, Palo Alto, Emeryville, Davis, and Menlo Park, California. The top two companies, McKesson and Hewlett Packard are both located in California. Moreover, there are two other companies located on the West Coast in Washington and Oregon.
WEST COAST
MIDWEST
NORTHEAST
SOUTHEAST
SOUTHWEST
NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES
The size of the company based on number of employees also appears to be a factor as to which corporations choose handmade and artisan gifts, although not as big of a factor as revenue. The top four companies all have $49,000 employees or more:
From there, the number of employees per company drops off precipitously with the number 5 company on the list, HarperCollins Publishers, only having 933 employees.
INDUSTRY
Industry does not appear to be a big factor in whether or not a company purchases handmade or artisan gifts for its employees or clients. There is no real pattern to the industries of the 16 companies on the list. For instance, there are two educational institutions, two insurance companies, two advertising and marketing companies, and two investments/banking/financial companies. This represents half of the companies. However, the other eight corporations on the list are from eight different industries. There are no duplicate industries in the top five companies according to annual revenue.
CONCLUSION
The three main factors that appear to be critical in a corporation's decision to purchase handmade or artisan gifts are:
1. Annual revenue (the higher it is, the more likely the company is to buy these types of gifts)
2. Geography (companies located on the West Coast are more likely to buy these types of gifts)
3. Number of employees (companies with high numbers of employees are more likely to purchase these types of gifts).
Industry does not appear to be a factor.
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