Reciprocity is the act of receiving something in return for a gift that you gave out. The person receiving the original gift is compelled to act and return the favour. This term has been somewhat of a fascination for me recently. Why? Well other than the fact that at its core it is something essentially I do every single day in working with custom branded gifts. What makes reciprocity even more fascinating though is that this simple concept is at the heart of community and human nature. If you think about it a lot of what we do everyday revolves around giving and receiving. Its what we do to survive. Therefore if you are in a business having this awareness is definitely a good thing from everything you say and every piece of marketing you do. There have been countless social experiments on reciprocity and the result is always the same no matter what culture or country you are in. One of my favourites is an experiment by an Englishman who sends out 600 cards to random people in a phone book. The cards were Christmas cards with a small photo and a short message. A staggering 200 people sent back a Christmas Card of their own. Some of which included personal photos and messages. In fact some people kept on sending yearly Christmas Cards after 15 years.

Experiment for you!

Don't believe in reciprocity? Give this a go. Next time when you are going for a walk, say hi to a stanger and chances are they will say hello back. To really test this theory out.... next time you are walking when someone says hello to you please ignore them. Now think about your emotional state. Does it stress you out? Maybe it makes you feel uncomfortable, or simply just the fact that it made you think twice. This is what reciprocity is all about. It is a compelling human urge to return in favour!

Now back to branded gifts and merchandising. This same sensation is exactly why using custom gifts is such a powerful medium. In a tradeshow setting, or simply as a little gift when a client has made a purchase a little gift goes a long way. Keep in mind these 5 things when your are organsing your little branded gift:

1) Giving something does not guarantee you will get anything back at all. However not giving something will not hurt and better still increases the chances dramatically that you will get something back.

2) A little gift goes a long way in making you memorable. So even if you do not get anything in return directly you never know if word of mouth has been passed on about you.

3) People are always attracted to generous companies. It gets back to the reciprocity thing!

4) Giving is great. Giving something that looks and feels more expensive than what you actually paid for it is even better! (that is where Cubic Promote would definitely help of course!)

5) Crowds in turn attract people. Have you ever noticed how a crowded restaurant tends to not only get more heads turned in their direction but that the queue for it gets even longer? I mean check out the line for simply entry into the recently opened TopMan store in Sydney below:

The queue goes all the way up the street! This is what makes reciprocity special. It draws people in and when there are more people it draws in an even bigger crowd! So be generous, reciprocity works. It does not need to be a product you give yout, even if its just a smile or a thank you it always is simply a nicer way to go about doing things!