72 Reading: Gifts and Bribes
Gift-giving in business is commonplace and contentious at the same time. Business gifts are usually seen as an advertising, sales promotion, and marketing-communication medium.[1] Such gifting is usually practiced for the following reasons:
- In appreciation for past client relationships, placing a new order, referrals to other clients, etc.
- In the hopes of creating a positive first impression that might help to establish an initial business relationship
- As a quid pro quo—returning a favour or expecting a favour in return for something [2]
In global marketing it becomes one of the most challenging ethical issues, since the cultural norms in other countries can be at odds with standard ethical practices in Canada. For this reason, gifts and bribes warrant a deeper discussion, especially with regard to B2B marketing.
In considering appropriate business gifts it is helpful to think about the content of the gift, the context of the gift, and the culture in which it will be received. Let’s examine one of Microsoft’s promotions that included a gift.
Case Study: Microsoft’s “Gift” to Bloggers
When Microsoft introduced its Vista operating system, the launch included a noteworthy promotion. During the 2006 Christmas season, Microsoft sent out ninety Acer Ferrari laptops, loaded with Windows Vista Operating system, to approximately ninety influential bloggers.
Different bloggers received different machines, but the lowest model was worth around two thousand dollars. Michael Arrington, editor of TechCrunch, shared the message that accompanied his gift:
This would be a review machine, so I’d love to hear your opinion on the machine and OS. Full disclosure, while I hope you will blog about your experience with the PC, you don’t have to. Also, you are welcome to send the machine back to us after you are done playing with it, or you can give it away to your community, or you can hold on to it for as long as you’d like. Just let me know what you plan to do with it when the time comes. And if you run into any problems let me know. A few of the drivers aren’t quite final, but are very close.[3]
Clearly, Microsoft was hoping to encourage reviews of Vista and wanted to make sure that the bloggers experienced Vista on a high-end machine that would optimize performance. Did they also hope to influence the bloggers’ opinions of the company along the way?
Sending the gift to bloggers was a risky marketing tactic even without the ethical question. Culturally, bloggers are a highly influential group of people with strong opinions, which they share openly with a wide audience. Many of the recipients reacted to the gift by sharing the news of the promotion and their opinions about it. A broad range of ethical issues emerged from the surrounding discussions in the blogosphere. Below are several excerpts.
The Gifts Diminish Trust in the Reviewers
Now that I know these guys (any gals?) have access to a tailored laptop, preloaded, etc., I know t