Many consider a bottle of wine the perfect holiday client appreciation gift as it celebrates the festive nature of the season. But advisors should note that, as with almost anything in the corporate world, presentation matters.

The traditional dinner party hostess gift — a bottle of hastily chosen plonk thrown into a
paper gift bag — is rarely done in the corporate world, according to Haven Bey, account manager for corporate promotions company AdCentives in Delta, B.C.
Instead, companies are taking the “presentation is everything” route and packaging wine in reusable bags and boxes printed with the company logo.

“The biggest thing is that it should have some staying power,” Bey says of the client appreciation gift. Some advisors may choose to print special bottle labels so that their offerings are not lost in the holiday gift-giving shuffle; the problem is that the bottles will eventually be sent to the recycling bin. “It’s a nice touch but, if you can incorporate the business aspect of it by branding properly, it lasts,” she says.

For example, by presenting the client with a five-piece wine kit — with corkscrew, thermometer, wine stopper, foil cutter and wine spout — along with a bottle of wine in a tasteful and reusable package such as a velvet-lined rosewood box, an advisor is ensuring that the gift will stick around long after traditional wrapping has been tossed
and the wine consumed.

This usability factor is important because it means that the client will be reminded of the advisor over the course of the year. “It’s like the icing on the cake,” she says. “It helps strengthen the relationship and keeps your company name in front of your client.”

There are many options to encourage a client to use a gift more than once. Including a wine carafe and glasses with the bottle — again, handsomely packaged in a velvet- or satin-lined box — means a client may pull the gift out at his or her next social gathering.
Bey says these crystal add-ons can be etched with a company logo, if an advisor chooses.

The effect, she stresses, should be very subtle: “It’s a constant reminder without being too aggressive.” In fact, “discreet” is the name of the game these days, she says. “For people to truly use the gift in their homes or present it at a dinner party, it needs to be elegant.”

Another benefit of this strategy is an increased potential for referrals.

A further option is packaging the wine in a reusable leather or canvas tote bag.
AdCentives, for example, offers quality Cutter & Buck wine totes, complete with a discreet customized logo.

Not all gifts have to be extravagant. For lower-tier clients, Bey recommends simply attaching a laser-engraved drip ring or wine opener to the neck of the bottle, to the tune of less than $20 per client, including the wine.

And how you get a gift to your client is part of the presentation. Bey recommends hand-delivery whenever possible, which will ensure that your client actually receives the gift and that it isn’t lost in transit. “Take a day or two, and drive around and play Santa Claus and hand over the gifts. This a very strong relationship-builder, and the personal touch is great,” she says.

A hand-delivered gift definitely stands out, according to Carey McBeth-Cooper, director of business and social etiquette consulting firm Essential Etiquette in Vancouver. If an advisor is meeting a client for a holiday lunch, it’s nice to end the meal with the gift, she adds. However, handing out a number of gifts at a larger holiday gathering is also acceptable, as long as the right person is in charge of the task. “You don’t want your secretary handing out the gifts to your top clients,” she says.

McBeth-Cooper says advisors need to know their clients well before giving something as potentially off-putting as liquor. Because Canada is a multicultural country, it is important to understand that liquor may cause offence to people of certain cultures, she says. Muslims, for example, are prohibited from drinking alcohol.

That doesn’t necessarily mean the gift will offend — some secular Muslims may be happy to pass it along to someone else — but advisors need to know their clients well enough to make this judgment call, she says. One of her corporate clients chose not to deal with this issue and instead gave beautiful compasses that determined the direction of Mecca to its Muslim clients. “It was a very special gift,” she says.

@page_break@Other cultural taboos must also be respected when considering gifts of wine, she says. Add-ons, such as fancy cheese boards, can be great relationship-boosters. However, it would be completely inappropriate to attach a cheese knife if the gift is intended for a client from South Korea. “It would mean that you’re severing the relationship,” she says.

Advisors also need to pay attention to how wine is packaged for clients, she says. Although presentation is key — “It’s all about the packaging at this time of the year” — certain colours may be deemed inappropriate for certain cultures. For example, blue-and-white combinations, which are not unusual for holiday wrap, can offend people from certain cultures, including those of Arab and Chinese descent. (For the latter, white, blue and black are associated with funerals.) Embassies and consulates are good sources for information on culturally appropriate gifts, she adds.

David Enns, co-owner of Laughing Stock Vineyards of Penticton, B.C., says a themed wine gift has the most impact. A theme can be tongue-in-cheek (the winery’s Portfolio brand, which features a ticker-tape label, plays up the founders’ background in investment research, for example) or make an affinity statement (for instance, wines that are better when aged require the same patience as long-term investments).

Regardless, he recommends advisors have a variety of wines and packaging available to accommodate clients’ varying tastes. “Planners, advisors and brokers segment their clients,” he says. For corporate gifting, they should be doing the same thing.

One way to ensure that a wine gift stands out is to host a wine-tasting party during the holiday season for top-tier clients. It could have a theme such as Old World/New World wines or a focus on a particular region, Enns says. Clients could check off their favourites on a card and then, a few weeks later, they would receive a bottle for their
personal enjoyment.

Enns also recommends that a wine, particularly if it is given to an aficionado, be packaged with a note telling the client why that particular vintage was chosen. In addition, he says, it’s critical that advisors respect the client’s attitudes toward alcohol:
“You really have to do your homework.”

There is a good way to manage the negative connotation some people hold for wine, however, and that, too, can be included in the holiday greeting. “Offset the gift by adding something that has a degree of philanthropy to it,” Enns says. A promise to donate to a charity of the client’s choosing, for example, can alleviate any negativity.
IE