It’s that wonderful time of the year for showing gratitude to our most valued VIP clients and contacts. But in the business world, the art of gifting can straddle a fine line between fostering relationships and avoiding impropriety. We’re here to help! The CMO’s 2024 Holiday Gift Guide to Discreetly Thanking VIPs provides a literally tasteful selection of SFW gift ideas. You’ll find a spectrum of discreet largesse: coffee aged like fine whiskey, chocolates if Vincent van Gogh had been a chocolatier, and caviar recast as a superfood.
Nothing on this list should put you on the radar of the compliance officer. But if so, you can easily claim it was all in the name of research. Each recommendation is accompanied by brand specific marketing strategy. Your gift giving, you’ll accurately be able to tell Ms. or Mr. Compliance, was all in the name of market research. If the client is happy with the gift, then the brand delivers on promise!
Wake Up with a Dram: A Coffee Lover’s Sip-Worthy Start to the 2024 Holiday Gift Guide
It only makes sense to begin our 2024 Holiday Gift Guide with The Morning Dram, a coffee brand starting mornings with a fine whiskey tasting. Sort of.
An avowed tea connoisseur, I never cared for coffee until a 2022 trip to Colombia revealed I’d simply been drinking the wrong kind. The Morning Dram, with its specialty beans aged in freshly emptied bourbon barrels, took me back to the rich, comforting brew discovered during that rather unsettling trip. It’s coffee, yes, but designed with the same reverence of a whiskey-crafting master distiller.
That reverence stems from its founder, Tommy Tardie, owner of New York City’s Flatiron Room and “Best Whisky Bar in America,” according to Whisky magazine. As restaurants remained shuttered during the pandemic and free time lingered, Tardie began experimenting with a roaster, the whiskey barrel in his office and bags of green coffee beans. After creating his first batch of barrel-aged coffee, he later fine-tuned the process with experienced roasters and secured enthusiastic feedback from Master Distillers. The Morning Dram was officially born.
The name reflects Tardie’s approach to coffee: “When you drink a fine bourbon or Scotch, you take the time to savor it. The Morning Dram is a coffee worth taking time to savor too. We hope drinking The Morning Dram gives you a reason to pause and savor the moment.”
The marketing takeaway here? Experiential branding matters. By targeting spirits drinkers and aligning coffee with the ceremonial experience of sipping a fine dram, The Morning Dram created a brand extension with the required daily caffeine fix as a selling point. And in combining two unrelated indulgences, Tardie identified a niche overlooked by his competitors — particularly with a cross-category appeal bridging coffee lovers and whiskey enthusiasts. Blending audiences produced an entirely new market.
Cheers to Clever Snacking: Lessons from Nuts.com for Our 2024 Holiday Gift Guide
Speaking of blending audiences, Nuts.com did the same with their own collection of alcohol-infused nibbles. Their Cheers to You Gift Box includes spirit-infused snacks paired with non-alcoholic rosé for the VIP who appreciates a subtle buzz disguised as healthy snacking. We’re looking at you, bourbon pecans and wine-infused gourmet popcorn.
For marketers, Nuts.com points out the value of understanding your audience’s aspirational identities. Eating dried apricots and strawberries after gorging on Prosecco gummy bears makes any sugar addict feel like they’ve exercised some level of restraint. Never mind the gift box only providing one bag of gummy bears forces that restraint.
The VIP 2024 Holiday Gift Guide Gift Baking Nostalgia Into Every Bite
Fairytale Brownies and its signature brownies are a throwback to childhood bake sales, reimagined for VIP grown-ups whose sweet tooth never grew up. Co-founders and childhood friends since kindergarten, Eileen Spitalny and David Kravetz turned their shared love of baking into big business with a 25-year old secret family recipe perfected over generations. By using rich Belgian dark chocolate, farm-fresh eggs, natural butter and eliminating trans fat, preservatives and artificial colors, every bite of each sensory delightful brownie will take your VIP back to a simpler time.
“Brownies are a happy food,” said Spitalny. “When you think of a brownie, cookie, or blondie, it brings a smile to your face. You think of childhood, home, family, fun – all good memories. Our mission is to spread joy through brownies and treats.”
Marketing lesson from this 2024 holiday gift guide pick: stay true to your origin story, including the childhood legacy behind the business launch. Fairytale Brownies has built a devoted following by remaining loyal to their original recipe and ethos. In observance of the company’s early catalyst, they’ve donated more than $670,000 and thousands of brownies to help build safe, kid-designed play spaces across the country through their partnership with the national nonprofit KABOOM!
For the VIP with Taste: Artistic Confections in the 2024 Holiday Gift Guide
Before we continue to these next two 2024 holiday gift guide recommendations, let me share my qualifications as a chocolate connoisseur. Every international trip I’ve taken over the past 14 years always involves a return with several months’ worth of chocolates packed in my carry-on. That’s 31 countries and counting, including serious chocolatiers Switzerland, France, Peru and Colombia. Having given up on finding unadulterated chocolates in the States, I keep my cabinets fully stocked with exotic variations of this ancient food of the Mesoamerican gods.
The Artful Appeal of Daniel Corpuz Chocolatier for the 2024 Holiday Gift Guide
Awaiting delivery of my Daniel Corpuz Chocolatier order, I was skeptical of its description as “art,” assuming more style than substance from any chocolate within the highly regulated American industry. I soon discovered Daniel Corpuz is no average American chocolate maker. A graduate of the Culinary Institute of America, Filipino-American Corpuz gained national attention as a finalist on Netflix’s School of Chocolate, meteorically rising in the world of haute chocolate. He brings to his craft a precisely measured calibration of his Filipino heritage, global flavors, technical training and artistic vision.
Both my eyes and palate were pleasantly met with jewel-like finished bonbons and boundary-exploring flavor pairings, such as the zesty yuzu caramel and smoky mezcal-infused ganache. Add the freshness level was clearly un-American with its absence of preservatives. By the third day of leaving the box on my kitchen counter, I had to choose between finishing it or refrigeration. I regret nothing in my final decision, except that I wish I had another delicate lavender honey truffle bite at this moment.
The marketing brilliance in this 2024 holiday gift guide selection lies in quiet storytelling through design. Daniel Corpuz isn’t selling chocolates: he’s selling a very personal and bespoke emotional experience with every delicate brushstroke on each truffle. In considering the passionate pursuit of luxury for a VIP client who you can’t ethically gift a Hermès scarf, Daniel Corpuz’s chocolates are a powerful reminder every touchpoint counts — the visual impression, the tactile experience, and ultimately, the taste itself.
Award-Winning Decadence: Mostly Chocolate’s Place in the 2024 Holiday Gift Guide
Where Corpuz’s creations can best be served as an accoutrement for the head-to-toe Chanel VIP client, Mostly Chocolate would be treasured by the Ralph Lauren VIP as this chocloatier focuses on the classics, perfected. Think Grand Cru flavor layered chocolate bars, gold-dusted truffles and chocolates embedded with candied flowers. Not to say there isn’t something for the more adventurous Polo Sport-type VIP. Delight their senses with pairings of Black Truffle Honey, Rosemary & Olive Oil, Goat Cheese, and Orange Blossom Pistachio.
Mostly Chocolates is a Houston-based artisanal chocolate and catering company founded in 2004 by David and Rina Kamkhagi, the Lebanese raised head chef. The husband-and-wife team recruited their son, Dany, into the family business in 2011, naming him Head Chocolatier in 2015. His various apprenticeships under multiple New York master chocolatiers brought refined innovation to the family business, choosing quality over quantity with small batch productions and exploring unconventional flavor profiles.
For marketers, Mostly Chocolate underscores the importance of honing the fundamentals. The new and novel are often buzzy for the moment, but true loyalty is earned by consistently delivering on a promise. Authenticity, attention to detail, and unwavering commitment to quality never go out of style.
And of my hesitation for typical American chocolates? To land in this 2024 holiday gift guide recommendation, Mostly Chocolate’s three Dessert Grand Champion Buckle Awards from the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo’s Best Bites competition and Dany’s First Place Gold award in the International Chocolate Awards America’s Competition and Second Place Silver in the International Chocolate Awards World’s Competition gave credibility to what my palate easily verified.
Champagne Dreams, Caviar Realities and Imperia Caviar’s New Luxury Standard in the 2024 Holiday Gift Guide
Once reserved for the elite, caviar is making a comeback as a nutritional superfood. Imperia Caviar is leading the champagne wishes and caviar dreams renaissance by offering ethically sourced sturgeon roe for as little as $23 an ounce. Advancements in aquaculture and sustainable farming techniques, combined with sourcing from carefully managed sturgeon farms while also supporting environmental conservation efforts have made Imperia Caviar a guilt-free extravagance that avoids the “environmentally harmful” label associated with the caviar industry.
Pricing strategy meets education is Imperia Caviar’s marketing brilliance. Caviar, traditionally priced between $75 and $225 per ounce, has historically been a wealthy excess. Imperia’s pricing model and educational outreach, however, reimagines caviar as a health-giving investment rather than an indulgence. The company emphasizes caviar’s abundant omega-3 fatty acids, B vitamins, and antioxidants, sure to appeal to your health-conscious VIP while the gift of caviar will make your client feel very much like Robin Leach. And the company’s prices will meet the approval of your CFO.
Take note: accessibility doesn’t have to dilute the allure of a luxury product. Instead, reach new demographics with educational messaging to demystify a competitor’s opposing narrative. Accessibility, sustainability and edification can allow a premium product to enter the mainstream without losing prestige.
A Noble Legacy in a Bottle for the 2024 Holiday Gift Guide: Brother Justus Whiskey and Your Formidable VIP
When you’ve spent too many nights with your hardy VIP to know spirit-infused chocolates and gummy bears will be received with the same enthusiasm as a gift of expired coupons, followed by a mental reclassification of your relationship, our 2024 holiday gift guide final pick, Brother Justus Whiskey, will ensure those purchase orders keep coming.
The Minnesota-based spirits brand was named after a Benedictine monk who helped poor grain farmers distill quality whiskey during Prohibition, proving even bootlegging can be turned into a noble pursuit with the right PR. Brother Justus believed whiskey, though illegal, was not immoral. He helped build stills and taught how to turn dodgy moonshine into high-quality Minnesota 13, a whiskey of legend.
Staying faithful to its heritage, Brother Justus draws on Minnesota’s natural biomes to shape the character of its spirits. Limestone-filtered water from the Mississippi River’s headwaters ensure an ideal pH balance; barley from area tallgrass prairies is malted locally at Rahr Malting, one of the largest malt houses in the Western Hemisphere; and ancient peat from Minnesota’s expansive bogs is utilized through the company’s patented Cold-Peated® process, which preserves delicate botanicals for a more nuanced flavor profile.
The marketing lesson here is how innovation based on locality and a bit of good, old-fashioned rebellion can deliver a legacy. Embracing your roots doesn’t have to mean forgoing progress. And with its patent-pending Cold-Peated® method, Brother Justus creates a straightforward differentiation model in a marketplace full of distinguished whiskey.
The Final Wrap On The 2024 Holiday Gift Guide
VIP gifting, much like marketing, is an exercise in understanding your audience and the nonnegotiables that can jeopardize the relationship. As you’re making your list and checking it twice with your compliance officer, here’s a recap of what can be learned from the selected brands:
- The Morning Dram and the power of clever crossover to tap into new audiences. (I’ll see myself out with that pun.)
- Nuts.com and the art of promoting nutritionally healthy restraint with mischievous indulgence.
- Fairytale Brownies and the enduring appeal of the origin story.
- Daniel Corpuz Chocolatier and the mastery of sensory storytelling focusing on all touchpoints.
- Mostly Chocolate and the importance of always refining the fundamentals even while exploring modernization.
- Imperia Caviar and the democratization of luxury without diminishing prestige.
- Brother Justus Whiskey and the balance of locality and invention to honor heritage and craft.
These 2024 holiday gift guide selections are meant to inspire your holiday gifting with a side of brainstorming your 2025 marketing strategy. Each will suggest to your VIP, “I see your sophistication, and I match it without overstepping.” They’re subtle, intentional, and will slide under the radar – unlike the next gift guide in this series, which is purely for the competitive CMO who wants to claim the crown for the most legendary gifts ever.