Every year the same call comes in around the second week of November. A company has decided on holiday client gifts, wants them branded, and needs them by the middle of December.
Sometimes that works. Often it does not, and the reason is arithmetic rather than effort.
Working backwards from a December 15 delivery
Assume the gifts need to be in hand by mid-December so they can go out before offices empty. Here is what has to happen before that, in reverse.
- Shipping and distribution. A week, more if the gifts are going to individual addresses rather than one office.
- Production. Two to three weeks from an approved design for a run built here.
- Sample and approval. One to two weeks. This is the step that slips, because it involves someone on your side having a spare hour.
- Design and quoting. One to two weeks, including the back and forth on what actually goes on the piece.
- Internal approval on your side. Unknown, and usually the longest step of all.
That is six to eight weeks of work before anything ships, and it does not include the week your budget holder is on vacation.
Why September and not October
October is when everyone else calls. September is when the decision is cheap, because nothing is compressed yet and there is room to change your mind after seeing a sample.
There is a second reason specific to a workshop like this one. We are not a warehouse. A run is made, not picked, and the calendar fills in the order people commit. The last week of a quarter is not when to find out how full it is.
The overseas comparison
If the plan is to source branded gifts overseas, the timeline is not six to eight weeks. Overseas suppliers commonly quote eight to twelve weeks before shipping, and domestic suppliers six to eight. Add customs and the December date needs a decision in August.
Building locally shortens this to two to three weeks of production because there is no queue, no minimum order to reach and no sample crossing an ocean twice. That is the whole advantage, and it only helps if the design is settled.
What to decide now
Four things, and none of them require a final headcount.
- Who the gift is for. Clients, staff and prospects want different objects. A gift that works for all three usually works well for none.
- Roughly how many. A range is fine. Exact numbers can move later.
- What goes on it. A logo, a name, a year, or nothing. This is the slowest decision internally, which is why it should start first.
- Where it lands. One office, or two hundred addresses. It changes the packing and the timeline more than anything else on this list.
What we make for this
The pieces that work best as client gifts are the ones that sit somewhere visible and get handled daily. Trays on desks, flasks in drawers, mugs in kitchens. We covered the reasoning in corporate event gifts in Las Vegas.
Corporate activations and branded runs start at $2,500. To open a timeline, start at corporate inquiries and tell us the date you need them in hand.