Selling to companies for gifting: a short catalogue for a consumer products maker

A company gifting its clients or staff before a festival is not a shopper. The person buying has a budget and a list of names. The boxes must reach reception by a fixed date, and a manager has to say yes or no. A consumer products maker can serve that buyer with a short catalogue. It lists five or six gift options and price slabs by quantity. It says what branding is possible, how a sample is sent and the last date for an order. That page opens a second route beside your retail sales.

Who is the buyer, and what do they need to decide?

In a small or mid-sized company, the person is often in administration, HR or the owner's office. In a larger one, a procurement team asks several vendors for quotes. In both cases the buyer is judged on two things after the festival: did the gifts arrive on time, and did anyone complain. So the buyer wants evidence that you can do the quantity and keep the date.

What they need to decide quickly:

• Is the gift appropriate for clients, staff or both?
• Does it fit the budget per head?
• Can our name or logo go on it?
• Can we see one before we order?
• Will it arrive before the festival?

A retail catalogue answers none of these. A corporate one answers all of them in a single page.

What goes in the one-page catalogue?

Build it as a layout, not a brochure. Work down the page in this order.

An illustrative slab layout, with made-up figures: Set A, ₹650 each for 50 to 99 boxes and ₹600 each for 100 and above. Two slabs are enough. More makes comparing harder.

Give a delivery date only if production can really meet it. Leave out your whole retail range, which hides the six sets you want chosen.

For example: a Channapatna toy maker

Imagine an invented toy maker in Channapatna who sells at craft fairs and through a marketplace. A Bengaluru software firm asked about two hundred wooden toy sets as client gifts. The owner replied with the full catalogue of forty items and a verbal quote. The firm's admin team could not work out which sets fitted the budget. They never saw a sample, and the quote said nothing about branding. They bought from a seller whose page was clearer.

The maker then made a one-page corporate sheet. It showed four gift sets, each priced in two slabs. It said the firm's name could be printed on the box lid from fifty sets, and that a sample was available with the buyer paying courier. It carried a last order date that suited the workshop.

The next enquiry came from a Mysuru company. The admin officer forwarded the sheet to a manager, who approved a set the same day and asked for a sample. Branding, sample and date were already answered, so the buyer's questions were about colours and quantity, not about whether the maker could do the job. The order was 120 sets, not 200, because the budget per head was ₹550 and the maker would not go below ₹600 (figures invented). It still needed a month of production, which the last-order date had allowed for.

What can go wrong with branding

A logo on a box is the step that causes the most late nights. Ask for the artwork as a vector file, send a proof of the printed lid for approval before the run, and keep the buyer's written approval with the date. A wrong spelling of a company name on two hundred lids is expensive and avoidable. If the buyer works in a regulated line of business, ask them to confirm what they may give and print. Rules differ by company and by body.

Should you chase this route at all?

It suits you when your product looks good in a box, can carry a logo or a name, and your workshop has slack production time before festivals. It also suits you if your festive retail season is crowded and corporate orders come earlier.

Skip it in three cases. Each piece may be made to order by one craftsperson and cannot be scaled to hundreds. Your packing may not match across a lot. Or you may be unable to commit to a date. A company that is promised a date and receives gifts late has little reason to return.

Where do the first buyers come from?

One question to ask any early buyer is when the gifting budget is fixed, since that, not the festival date, is when a catalogue must already be in their inbox. A separate brand is not needed: use your own name, with a separate catalogue and price list, so a company can put its own name beside yours. Start with companies that already know you. Think of retail buyers who mentioned their office, local firms in your town, and contacts in your network. A short message with the one-page sheet attached, sent early, is enough. Who decides inside a company, and how to reach them, is covered in winning a company's festival gift order early.

Your first task

Pick the four sets you can make in a hundred, price two slabs for each, and ask one company you already know when their gifting budget is fixed. That answer sets the last-order date on your sheet. Makers of everyday goods will find the wider picture on our page for consumer products manufacturers. If the sheet itself is the sticking point, brochures, catalogues and marketing materials covers it, and you can tell us what you need.