What was the last corporate gift that you received? Perhaps you attended a golf tournament and received a T-shirt with the host’s name and logo on it. Maybe you were invited to a conference, and received a memo pad advertising the virtues of someone’s brand. Would that message have resonated, or made a greater impact had it been accompanied by an Hbc gift card, with your name and their logo on it?

Each year, marketers invest millions of precious dollars in promotional gifts, direct advertising and other targeted tactics hoping to:

1. Build customer awareness and loyalty
2. Acquire and retain customers
3. Lift sales and drive traffic

Integrated, Frequency and Experiential marketing initiatives are being deployed more and more in an effort to achieve results.[i] What this means is that businesses are reaching consumers and corporate clients alike by rewarding ongoing desirable purchasing behavior, and delivering regular, consistent messages about their brand through multiple, innovative vehicles. “Communication that consistently reinforces a company’s message at every contact and creates a strong brand identity is the only way to build the relationships that grow a business“.[ii]

It is our theory that the marriage of these tactics is the epitome of 21st century marketing. When a brand achieves favorable awareness within its market and advertises to the right customers in the right way, success is imminent. “Good general advertising can shape a brand’s personality, but only direct marketing can build ongoing, durable relationships with consumers – and that’s where the profit is“.[iii]

The Hbc Gift Card featuring your logo and message is the ideal product to plug into this multi-level, tiered approach (which seems to be replacing traditional ‘above the line’ advertising such as TV, radio and print).[iv] Our product compliments Integrated, Frequency and Experiential marketing initiatives by:

1. Allowing you to align your brand with one of this country’s oldest retailers (Hbc appeals to Canadians from coast to coast)
2. Enabling you to reinforce the steady message you are trying to deliver about your products and/or services.
3. It’s convenient size, packaging and customizability render it a perfect giveaway for any experiential encounter.
4. Offering your customers the gift of choice – allowing them to select items which they will remember and make use of, from over 1 million products and services available at the Hbc family of stores (the Bay, Zellers, Home Outfitters and Designer Depot).
5. Serving as a virtual billboard for your brand, in your customers’ wallets!

[i]   White, Martha C.  Demand for Direct, Targeted Tactics

Grows  2006,  Motivational Strategies, Volume 10 Issue 3, p32

[ii]  Zogby, Lelia Modern Communicator, Share your Craft! Dec

­ Jan 2000-2001, Communication World  18:1, p29

[iii]  Wunderman, Lester  New Frontiers in Direct Marketing

Dec 1993,  Direct Marketing 56:8, p29

[iv]  White, Martha C.  Demand for Direct, Targeted Tactics

Grows  2006,  Motivational Strategies, Volume 10 Issue 3, p32