Singapore is a major economic hub which has huge open trade flows. As an open economy with almost no natural resources, manufacturing base or hinterland, the island state is almost entirely dependent on trade.
To survive in the ultra competitive environment, businesses in Singapore compete for every single customer. This sets the backdrop of a lively and extremely competitive corporate gift industry in Singapore.
Part relationship building and part advertising, corporate gifting and awards is part and parcel of the budget of every firm which requires some form of promotional marketing. This would range from trophies, awards, plaques, gifts, hampers to even greeting cards.
The corporate gift industry in Singapore is highly fragmented with extremely low barrier to entry. As there is no indigenous manufacturing industry, the corporate gifts on the market are almost entirely imported. As such, it has led to a dearth of product diversity on the market.
In the realm of corporate gifts, the common offerings are corporate diaries, polo-tees, bags and leather products, mugs and drinkware, lifestyle electronic items to the more mundane pens. With common supply chains that are inevitably linked to china, the corporate gift industry displays an overwhelming boring homogeneity.
In the area of trophies and awards, the same situation applies where the standards of manufacturing and presentation vary widely across the industry. There are well established players who are leading suppliers with their own manufacturing capability, and the other outfits who simply exist on trading. There is a lack of real design and thought into the end product, partly due to the non-existent intellectual protection towards a designed product.
In this potpourri of trading, agents and wheeling and dealing, who are the reliable outfits? Who can be the innovative firms that can quickly rise and grow? As the 1st generation of manufacturers reach their retirement, is the manufacturing of gifts in inevitable decline? Corporate gifts. Are we all heading for the same mind numbing sameness, just like the retail scene in Singapore?
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