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.

    在毫不知情的情况下，大多数雇员每天都在为其它机构进行着品牌建设。这可能是来自供应商的一个台历，也可能是你写字的免费水笔，你喝咖啡用的杯子，一个有着企业标识的日记本，甚或是你在自己的电脑上使用的U盘。

    办公室中满是企业的免费赠品——赠品市场在英国价值12亿英镑，在美国则是186亿美元。而企业一直在寻求着鹤立鸡群的新方法。

    英国电信(BT)的赠品采购员保罗•斯特林格(Chris Stringer)表示，该公司每年要花费100万英镑来购买此类货物，高中低端分配比较均匀，高端商品如数码相框和打上英国电信标识的iPod，廉价的则包括一些日常用品，如笔和T恤衫。“如果对方是一个重要客户，我们可以购置相当高端的商品——在赠品目录上，几乎什么东西都有。”

    很多机构将赠品看作是支持广告活动的一种方式。英国政府营销与通信中心COI赠品部门负责人莎拉•沃尔什(Sarah Walsh)表示：“这些物品最大的好处就是，它们会在电视广告结束很长时间之后还在传递着你的信息。”

    英国推广商品协会(British Promotional Merchandise Association)会长戈登•格兰尼斯特(Gordon Glenister)表示，在过去几年中，市场上的赠品种类出现了一个大爆炸，热门领域包括数码产品，如相框；个人化产品，如日历；以及一些环保商品。木质七巧板、盆栽及蛋糕都可以打上企业标识。有家公司甚至可以制作出相当璀璨夺目的企业赠品，方法是在一个大块水晶内部刻上公司的标识。

    当然，保证自己的赠品能够反映自己企业的标准，这是很重要的。因为此类商品大多数是在亚洲制造的，环境与道德方面的合规性成为了很重要的问题。如果制造者是中国一家非法工厂中的六岁儿童，一支水笔赠品上的品牌就可能受到玷污。

    此外，你还要保证自己的赠品不是一堆企业垃圾：要想在传递自己信息的同时又不显得俗气，是很困难的。“关键是你要和广告活动一样有章法，”创新咨询公司What If的班尼塔•米斯特里•拉塞尔(Bhanita Mistry-Russell)表示。“人们会把一支没法用的廉价水笔赠品所传递的信息与你的广告所传递的信息联系起来。”

    出于这个原因，一些人喜欢使用一种更谨慎的方式。在最近的一次研讨会上，惠普(Hewlett-Packard)决定不派送T恤衫和包。“我们收到了如此之多的东西，”惠普营销高级副总裁塞吉•查希尔(Satjiv Chahil)称。“人们不得不自己把这些东西背回去，而我们发现，自己有着如此多的包，而所有衣服的号码都是错的。”他表示，取而代之，惠普送出了一款自己的Ipaq移动设备（不过，该公司也在参会人员的枕边放置了印有惠普标识的巧克力）。

    那些采购高端企业礼品的人指出，高仕笔(Cross Pens)等高价商品非常管用。“根据它们的零售价，受赠者知道这些是比较贵的商品，”沃尔什表示。“但那些在商品上打上自己标识的企业是批发进来的。”因此，这些企业支出不到10英镑，就可以得到价值20英镑的商誉。

    人们普遍认为衣物是最不受欢迎的企业赠品。人们通常都是勉为其难地在公司活动场合穿上带有标识的衣物。除此之外，也就是在为狗洗澡或是清理车库时才会创造出强烈的品牌价值。

    但也有一些例外。建筑设备制造商卡特彼勒(Caterpillar)与农用机械制造商约翰迪尔(John Deere)成功地施展了一招妙计：它们成功地说服人们去购买那些别的公司送都送不出去的东西。

    对于一些没有那么大名气的品牌而言，杯子与笔的经久不衰是有道理的。每个人都会不假思索地使用它们，而且，如果人们不喜欢——至少，一支圆珠笔花不了几个钱。