Without being aware of it, most employees are engaged in a daily brand-building exercise for organisations other than their own. Perhaps it's a desk calendar from a supplier. It might be the freebie pen you're writing with, the mug you're drinking coffee from, a logo-embossed diary or even the USB memory stick you use on your computer. 

    Offices are awash with corporate freebies – the promotional merchandise market is worth £1.2bn in the UK and $18.6bn in the US – and companies are seeking new ways to stand out from the crowd.

    Paul Stringer, a buyer for promotional merchandise at BT, says the company spends around a £1m a year on such goods, split evenly between high-end items such as digital photo frames and BT-branded iPods and cheaper everyday items such as pens and T-shirts. “If it's a significant customer we can go quite upmarket – when you go down the bespoke route, it can be almost anything.”

    Many organisations view merchandise as a way of supporting advertising campaigns. Sarah Walsh, team head of merchandising at the COI, the UK government's marketing and communications centre, says: “The great thing about these items is that they keep sending out the message long after TV campaigns are over.” 

    Gordon Glenister, director-general of the British Promotional Merchandise Association, says that the past few years have seen an explosion in the variety of promotional merchandise available, with hot areas being digital items such as photo frames, personalised goods such as calendars and eco-friendly items. Wooden jigsaw puzzles can be cut, trees planted and cakes iced with the corporate logo. There's even a company out there that will create corporate bling by etching the company logo within a large crystal. 

    Of course, it is important to ensure your merchandise reflects the standards of your company. Since most of these goods are made in Asia, environmental and ethical soundness has become a big issue. The branding on your corporate pen may besullied if it turns out to have been made by a six-year-old child in an illegal factory in China. 

    Make sure, too, that your merchandise is not a load of, well, corporate rubbish: getting your message across without being tacky can be difficult. “The key thing is to be as disciplined as you are with advertising campaigns,' says Bhanita Mistry-Russell of WhatIf, an innovation consultancy. “People do not separate the type of message sent by a cheap branded pen that doesn't work [from] the type they get from your advertising.” 

    For this reason, some prefer a more restrained approach. At a recent conference, Hewlett-Packard chose not to give out T-shirts and bags. “We have so much stuff coming at us,” says Satjiv Chahil, a senior vice-president for marketing. “People have to carry [these items] back with them and we discovered that we wound up with so many bags ourselves and all the clothes are the wrong size.” Instead, he says, the company gave away one of its own Ipaq mobile devices (although it did leave HP chocolates on delegates' pillows).

    Those who go upmarket with company gifts report that high-ticket items such as Cross Pens can prove surprisingly cost-effective. “The recipients know these are fairly valuable items based on their retail price,” says Ms Walsh. “But the company that is slapping their name on them will have bought them in bulk.” As a result, the company gets £20 worth of goodwill for less than £10.

    Clothes are widely viewed as the least loved of corporate freebies. Logowear is usually worn under sufferance at company events and thereafter creates a strong brand presence only when the wearer is washing the dog or clearing out the garage. 

    But there are exceptions. Caterpillar, the construction equipment maker, and John Deere, the agricultural machinery maker, have pulled off a merchandising coup: they have persuaded people to pay for the kind of goods other companies struggle to give away. 

    For less celebrated brands there's a reason for the enduring popularity of mugs and pens. Everyone uses them without thinking and, if people don't like them – well, at least biros are cheap.

    在毫不知情的情況下，大多數雇員每天都在為其它機構進行著品牌建設。這可能是來自供應商的一個臺歷，也可能是你寫字的免費水筆，你喝咖啡用的杯子，一個有著企業標識的日記本，甚或是你在自己的電腦上使用的U盤。

    辦公室中滿是企業的免費贈品——贈品市場在英國價值12億英鎊，在美國則是186億美元。而企業一直在尋求著鶴立雞群的新方法。

    英國電信(BT)的贈品采購員保羅•斯特林格(Chris Stringer)表示，該公司每年要花費100萬英鎊來購買此類貨物，高中低端分配比較均勻，高端商品如數碼相框和打上英國電信標識的iPod，廉價的則包括一些日常用品，如筆和T恤衫。“如果對方是一個重要客戶，我們可以購置相當高端的商品——在贈品目錄上，幾乎什么東西都有。”

    很多機構將贈品看作是支持廣告活動的一種方式。英國政府營銷與通信中心COI贈品部門負責人莎拉•沃爾什(Sarah Walsh)表示：“這些物品最大的好處就是，它們會在電視廣告結束很長時間之后還在傳遞著你的信息。”

    英國推廣商品協會(British Promotional Merchandise Association)會長戈登•格蘭尼斯特(Gordon Glenister)表示，在過去幾年中，市場上的贈品種類出現了一個大爆炸，熱門領域包括數碼產品，如相框；個人化產品，如日歷；以及一些環保商品。木質七巧板、盆栽及蛋糕都可以打上企業標識。有家公司甚至可以制作出相當璀璨奪目的企業贈品，方法是在一個大塊水晶內部刻上公司的標識。

    當然，保證自己的贈品能夠反映自己企業的標準，這是很重要的。因為此類商品大多數是在亞洲制造的，環境與道德方面的合規性成為了很重要的問題。如果制造者是中國一家非法工廠中的六歲兒童，一支水筆贈品上的品牌就可能受到玷污。

    此外，你還要保證自己的贈品不是一堆企業垃圾：要想在傳遞自己信息的同時又不顯得俗氣，是很困難的。“關鍵是你要和廣告活動一樣有章法，”創新咨詢公司What If的班尼塔•米斯特里•拉塞爾(Bhanita Mistry-Russell)表示。“人們會把一支沒法用的廉價水筆贈品所傳遞的信息與你的廣告所傳遞的信息聯系起來。”

    出于這個原因，一些人喜歡使用一種更謹慎的方式。在最近的一次研討會上，惠普(Hewlett-Packard)決定不派送T恤衫和包。“我們收到了如此之多的東西，”惠普營銷高級副總裁塞吉•查希爾(Satjiv Chahil)稱。“人們不得不自己把這些東西背回去，而我們發現，自己有著如此多的包，而所有衣服的號碼都是錯的。”他表示，取而代之，惠普送出了一款自己的Ipaq移動設備（不過，該公司也在參會人員的枕邊放置了印有惠普標識的巧克力）。

    那些采購高端企業禮品的人指出，高仕筆(Cross Pens)等高價商品非常管用。“根據它們的零售價，受贈者知道這些是比較貴的商品，”沃爾什表示。“但那些在商品上打上自己標識的企業是批發進來的。”因此，這些企業支出不到10英鎊，就可以得到價值20英鎊的商譽。

    人們普遍認為衣物是最不受歡迎的企業贈品。人們通常都是勉為其難地在公司活動場合穿上帶有標識的衣物。除此之外，也就是在為狗洗澡或是清理車庫時才會創造出強烈的品牌價值。

    但也有一些例外。建筑設備制造商卡特彼勒(Caterpillar)與農用機械制造商約翰迪爾(John Deere)成功地施展了一招妙計：它們成功地說服人們去購買那些別的公司送都送不出去的東西。

    對于一些沒有那么大名氣的品牌而言，杯子與筆的經久不衰是有道理的。每個人都會不假思索地使用它們，而且，如果人們不喜歡——至少，一支圓珠筆花不了幾個錢。