Alex
A QUICK INTRODUCTION ABOUT WHAT YOUR COMPANY DOES/YOUR VALUES/MISSION.
GiftAFeeling is a globally recognized thought leader and the #1 global R&D company in the corporate gifting and promotional giveaway products.
In today’s day and age, merely giving away promotional products isn’t enough. As the majority of brands, including local and small businesses, are leaving their promotional merchandise in their consumer’s offices and homes, it is becoming increasingly difficult for businesses to stay on top of their prospects’ minds. In fact, the number of impressions a given-away product or a corporate gift used to get has dropped significantly in the last few years. As a result, a majority of giveaway promotional products and gifts that are shared in Canada (worth 15 Billion dollars a year) and USA (worth 30 Billion dollars a year) are wasted, completely failing their purpose.
This is where GiftAFeeling, a globally recognized thought leader and the #1 leading R&D company in the gifting and giveaways domain around the world, can help you. With research performed in psychology in our Shared Secrets Lab (TSSL), we provide research-based products and services that not only increase the cost-efficiency of your promotional merchandise and corporate gifting campaigns, but also help you build stronger and longer relationships with your target audience.
Not only do we make sure that our products get the desired visibility, impressions, and better brand recall value, but also decrease the environmental footprint of promotional products along with saving you from spending a fortune on these!
TELL US ABOUT YOURSELF?
I moved to Canada as a 17 years old international student to pursue a diploma in computer programming. Along with studies, I worked part-time jobs in many different industries including manufacturing, food chains, and convenience stores until I secured a 2nd position in Canada and Top 20 globally in a programming World Championship organized by IBM. This championship got me an opportunity to intern at RBC where I later accepted a full time position; followed by working at TD bank as an IT Innovation team lead. During all these jobs, I observed gift-giving being a big part of a company’s culture. Companies give gifts and promotional products to customers, employees, trade partners, etc. for many reasons including building trust, loyalty, attracting and retaining employees, rewards and recognition on occasions like year end parties, trade shows, and product launches. It was a tech conference where I noticed people tossing out gifts, promotional products, and giveaways on their way out either in garbage bins or in the trunk of their cars. The more I observed, the more I learned how big this problem was. According to a study by PPAI, 63% of gifts and promotional products are given away, 23% are thrown away, and less than 10% acquire the desired results.
More than $30B are wasted every year on unwanted gifts & giveaways. At GiftAFeeling, we pick corporate gifts & promotional products that not only provide our customers with the desired visibility, impressions, and brand recall value, but also make sure that the products don’t get tossed out, ending up in landfill. We do this by providing research-based products from our psychology lab.
Promotional products and gifts together make a 75 Billion Dollar industry in Canada and USA. Moreover, studies show that more than 20 Billion Dollars were wasted by individuals in 2021 in unwanted gifts. This adds up to the multi-billion dollars that the companies waste in poor gifts. Furthermore, research has proven that poor gifts can hurt relationships; thus, they’re still failing their purpose ultimately. This was my inspiration to find a solution to help both individuals and organizations find the perfect gifts – not only to help them build stronger relationships, but also to save the environment by decreasing the landfill. I worked with researchers, professors, SME’s, and founded The Shared Secrets Lab with a goal to simply educate individuals and organizations in gift-giving via blogs, publications, podcasts, etc,. And soon, we grew to become the #1 R&D Lab in the world for gifts and giveaways research.
Finally, with the feedback from our audience, blog readers, and clients, I founded GiftAFeeling Inc., an e-commerce platform where both individuals and organizations can purchase research-based gifts and promotional giveaway products. Today, we have worked with over 10,000 customers in Canada, including individuals looking for gifts for their family and some of the biggest brands like Microsoft, Blue Jays, CIBC, McDonalds, University of Toronto, etc., who have bought their promotional products and corporate gifts from us. With the gift-recommendations based on research performed in our Shared Secrets Lab, now a child-company of GiftAFeeling Inc,. we have accomplished the highest success rate of 98.44% customer satisfaction in the industry. Moreover, in the supply chain business line, GiftAFeeling Inc. was also a one of a kind promotional products supplier company in Canada that fulfilled bulk promotional products orders within 24 hours!
IF YOU COULD GO BACK IN TIME A YEAR OR TWO, WHAT PIECE OF ADVICE WOULD YOU GIVE YOURSELF?
Being empathetic – if you see a kid crying on the street-side, go help them, don’t just call 911 and wait. Emotional Intelligence surely is highly regarded in today’s world, but I believe it mostly roots in actions through experiences. If you don’t believe me, try helping someone out today – anyone with anything, and see how it urges you to help more people; it’s a positive spiral!
WHAT PROBLEM DOES YOUR BUSINESS SOLVE?
According to a study by PPAI, 63% of gifts and promotional products are given away, 23% are thrown away, and less than 10% acquire the desired results. Promotional products and gifts together make a 75 Billion Dollar industry in Canada and USA. Moreover, studies show that more than 20 Billion Dollars were wasted by individuals in 2021 in unwanted gifts. This adds up to the multi-billion dollars that the companies waste in poor gifts. Furthermore, research has proven that poor gifts can hurt relationships; thus, they’re still failing their purpose ultimately. This is the problem we are solving, both for individuals and organizations, and helping them find the perfect gifts – not only to help them build stronger relationships, but also to save the environment by decreasing the landfill. We have a research lab, called The Shared Secrets Lab, consisting of researchers, professors, SME’s, and psychologists doing deeper research to find out the attributes that make a well-received gift or giveaway.
WHAT IS THE INSPIRATION BEHIND YOUR BUSINESS?
According to a study by PPAI, 63% of gifts and promotional products are given away, 23% are thrown away, and less than 10% acquire the desired results. Promotional products and gifts together make a 75 Billion Dollar industry in Canada and USA. Moreover, studies show that more than 20 Billion Dollars were wasted by individuals in 2021 in unwanted gifts. This adds up to the multi-billion dollars that the companies waste in poor gifts. Furthermore, research has proven that poor gifts can hurt relationships; thus, they’re still failing their purpose ultimately. This was my inspiration to find a solution to help both individuals and organizations find the perfect gifts – not only to help them build stronger relationships, but also to save the environment by decreasing the landfill
WHAT IS YOUR MAGIC SAUCE?
The Shared Secrets Lab (TSSL), consisting of top psychologists, researchers, professors, thought leaders and subject matter experts (SME’s) from all around the globe doing deeper research in gift-giving psychology for both B2B and B2C domains. We have worked with top Canadian institutions like University of Toronto, McMaster University, University of British Columbia, University of Western Ontario, etc. to perform studies and research not only on psychology, but also on certain important demographics like geographical segmentation, ethnicity, language, age, gender, and many more, to learn and apply how gift-giving ideas vary in different audience. All this research, studies, surveys, psychological evaluations, results, and data is managed in our massive database of customer attributes which are used to train our Machine Learning and AI models. These models are used by our sales team using a software on their desktop to recommend products to customers for their promotional giveaway or corporate gifts campaigns, based on their target audience’s location, gender, geographical area, etc. For instance, based on research, we can recommend what a 20-25 year old, 60% female and 40% male audience living in Vancouver and working in the Pharmacy industry would like as a gift or giveaway so that they actually love the product and use it for a longer time.
WHAT IS THE PLAN FOR THE NEXT 5 YEARS? WHAT DO YOU WANT TO ACHIEVE?
We work with over 260 local printers across all the provinces in Canada. These include family run businesses, sublimation and printing businesses, manufacturers of wooden products, etc,. During the pandemic, we saved 4 such family run businesses including a personalized wood carving store in London, ON, from going out of business. Our goal going forward is to partner with more such small businesses and provide our customers faster, more reliable, and local customer support for all their needs.
WHAT IS THE BIGGEST CHALLENGE YOU’VE FACED SO FAR?
GiftAFeeling was founded during the worst times for the promotional products industry, with sales falling by almost 82% according to PPAI, the organizations’ buying power for marketing and promotional products has had a freefall. Bootstrapping a business during these times, when even businesses with multiple decades in the industry had struggled to survive is not something that is seen often. Today, while there are still dangers of recession and companies reluctant to spend much money on promotional products and corporate gifts, GiftAFeeling has successfully acquired and retained more than 10,000 customers with 98.44% customer satisfaction rate. This does not only mean that the customers achieved their desired results from their campaigns due to our research-recommended products, but also that while the whole world was struggling with the supply chain disruptions, GiftAFeeling had no order delays or misprints; something that is extremely common in the promotional products and personalized gifts businesses.
HOW DO PEOPLE GET INVOLVED/BUY INTO YOUR VISION?
You can simply send visit our website: www.GiftAFeeling.com to learn more about how we can serve your needs including providing products recommendations based on research.
Alternatively, you can simply send us an email at hello@giftafeeling.com
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