This week, I have been tasked with
a rather special assignment, which is to collaborate with my colleagues in preparing
some corporate gifts for a visiting guest.
Typically, there are 5 steps in the
making of a standard corporate gift.
Step 1: Choose the gift
We need to consider the kind of gift
appropriate to the recipient within the allowable budget. According to our
manager’s recommendation, the gift should reflect the traditional culture of
Malaysia or Sarawak as our guest was a foreign one. So after some research, we
chose three souvenir shops to go to, which include the Miri Handicraft Center
where ethnic arts and crafts were readily available.
Step 2: Find the gift
At the shops, the gifts that suited
our needs were photographed for further discussion. Prices were compared and enquiries as to discounts
for bulk purchases were made.
Step 3: Purchase the gift
Our manager finally helped us to choose
a carved hornbill and a wooden Iban shield. The Hornbill was chosen as it truly
represented Sarawak, which has been notably known as “the Land of the Hornbills”.
Furthermore, its people have been called “Kenyalangs”, the native name for the
Hornbill.
The Iban shield reflected the Ibans
as the largest native group and majority population in Sarawak. They make up about
29% of the population. Thus, the Iban
shield represents both the Iban as well as Sarawak.
The Orang Ulu population may not be
large, but they have the most graceful of dance movements and their decorative
and colorful traditional costumes make them stand out as one of the most unique
and interesting native groups in Sarawak. So we used to give Orang Ulu ear rings
as a corporate gift before.
That week, we purchased 10 to 20 of
each item and they were delivered on consignment.
Step 4: decorate the gift and
design the packaging
Once we received the gift items, we
began to design the background with the inclusion of the Curtin Logo and
formulated the necessary wording to describe the gifts.
Here is the quote for the gift of a
pair of “Orang Ulu ear rings”.
Quote:
WITH
OUR COMPLIMENTS
Curtin
University, Sarawak Malaysia
Personal
adornment is very much evident among the Orang Ulu of Northern Sarawak. One of
the most fascinating ornaments used is a heavy brass earring, worn by the women
and men to elongate their earlobes. Elongated earlobes symbolize great beauty
among the community, hence enhancing their looks. Traditionally, parents would
perforate and stretch the earlobes of babies just a few months old by hanging
circular brass rings or other ornaments. As their earlobes stretched, more
rings would be added to stretch them further. When they reached adulthood the
rings would often be replaced by pendulous earrings like these. This
tradition is now rarely practiced by the younger generation and brass earrings
are now used more as decorative ornaments.
Photo: Corporate gift giving (a pair of Orang Ulu ear rings)
Step 5: Framing the gift
With all the back ground information
gathered, appropriately worded and attractively displayed in some form of design,
we sent the gifts together with wording and design to the framing shop. It will
normally take a few days to finish the framing depending on the quantity
required. Once this is finished, the gift is
ready for presentation.
In performing the above task, I
have not only learnt the significance of giving meaningful corporate gifts, on
what constitutes an appropriate gift to the recipient but also the step by step
process in creating them, which I could never have learnt from the books.
The corporate gift is part of PR etiquette
deemed essential to show respect to visiting guests. They are not necessarily expensive but are often very
meaningful to the recipients.
Besides that, our corporate
communications department also makes other small souvenirs such like T-shirts,
mugs, cup coasters and an assortment of stationery for various categories of visitors.
Here are some more ideas on how to
make different corporate gifts (gift cards, booklets, toys, fridge magnets, etc.)
from a Hong Kong company.
Zou Dan Ting
14963841
Miri
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