Ideas for "Free Gift for Bringing a Friend"

[Jamie Gaffney]

I am new at this and I have read many flyers and invites that say "if you bring a friend receive a free gift". What kinds of things do you give as the free gift? Does the person bringing the friend get the gift, the friend, or both?

 

[GourmetGirl]

I have done twixits, but that gets expensive. So now I am giving them recipe cards. My idea is to tie up 3-5 with curling ribbon. It looks pretty and is fairly inexpensive. I give to both the guest and guest-bringer

 

[susanr613]

i bring a gift bag filled with gadgets like the mini-whipper, can strainer, citrus peeler, and older seasons best. you can get everything but the seasons best from a supply order. i have both the guest and her friend pick.

 

[laurichef]

I give an inexpensive ($.50) magnetic notepad, 2 twixits tied together, blank recipe (index) cards, or notecard 8-pack, to the person who brought the friend. All in a basket to choose from. I raid the $1.00 section at Target when it is 50% off, or the clearance at Michael's or AC Moore. They leave happy, and I have fulfilled my promise of a free gift w/o breaking the bank. I usually save this for when I am doing checkout -- and most times, they ask "what do I get?".

 

[paigev71]

I have the smaller mixing bowl with citrus peelers, pan scrapers and twixits. I had quikut knives in there one time but they were the first things to go and are more expensive. Last night at my show, one of the guests who had been to one of my other shows said to a guest bringer (before I could say anything) "hey you get to dig through her goodies for bringing a friend."

 

[Lisa/ChefBear]

I give a FREE Cookbook........yes, a SB!!

I've even ordered on a hostesses order with discount and get commission back, so it makes it more worthwhile, lol.

HTH,

Lisa

 

[Lisa/ChefBear]

I've had hostesses ask me about doing some kind of incentive for RSVP'ng.......I've been thinking of putting something on the invites, saying get entered into a drawing for a prize if you RSVP to hostess by X date (2 days before show??) so we can plan better.

What do you think??? I'd probably just have hostess tell me names and use some kind of tickets and put names in prep bowl or batter bowl and have someone pull out name and then give them ?? Not sure what?? That's what I'm at a loss. Must be present to win!!

I've had more people say, I know people are busy, but common courteous to reply would be appreciated.


What do you think???


Lisa

 

[chefann]

I give retired SBRCs to both the guest-bringer and the guest. Why a retired one? So that if they like it, they're likely to add the current one to their order. It also cuts down on other guests wanting to copy recipes from it instead of purchasing a new one (yes, that has happened to me a lot).

 

[pamperedlinda]

I'm cheap! I give twixits.

 

[Jenni]

I just write feel free to bring a friend at the bottom of my printer style invites... No free gifts! Maybe I should try the bring a friend/gift thing. My Director does bring two friends who place and order and get a free cookbook of your choice! She adds it to the hosts order I'm guessing...

 

[jbdowd0798]

I have my basket like others with stuff from the supply order and I usually put one of the current SB and hide it amongst retired ones to see if people find it. I do put the knives in. I let the bringer and the new person pick as my way of saying Thank You/Welcome. I did this at my last show and EVERYONE wanted the basket even though only 2 people got to pick. They love free stuff and sometimes I've given away free shipping for a game or activity and people are happy with that too.

 

[tlag1986]

I love the idea of free shipping for a prize on a game. You might offer free shipping for a buying friend, and $10 off your future order if you friend books a party.

 

[pamperedharriet]

I give old Season's Best that I have leftover to those that bring a buying guest and to the guest just like Ann with the theory to that if they like it they can order the latest one we have and more for gifts.

For other things I put out whatever I have extras of like twix-its, citrus peelers.

 

[aPamperedBride]

I give gifts to both the invited guest and the friend. I've varied how I do it...having actual gift bags w/ our popular inexpensive items (quikcut paring knife or citrus peeler, pan scraper and twixit), letting them pick between two items, giving recipe bookmarks (take recipes in old catalogs, glue to colored paper and laminate..voila! You have a bookmark!) or the Season's Best...I plan to try the 'goodie basket' using my new Bamboo Bowl to help generate interest in the bowl at my next live show.

 

[JAE]

I print "RSVP by - - -, and get a gift" then I give recipe cards. I also print "bring a friend, get a gift" and give twixits or citrus peelers, sometimes Quikut paring knives.

 

[Grandmarita]

Thank you for the ole catalog recipes as a bookmark idea. My local grocery store will
laminate small items for 25 cents. That would be less expensive than a SBCK. I also
give a spice sample which I have described before with my business card attached. However, that goes to every guest, as well as those who submit outside orders. I have
been using appropriate sized TXIX Its to close the order bags, when I pack the orders for my hostesses. I do that selectively, especially for career women and repeat hostesses.

 

[stacywhitlow]

For the guest & bringer (that really sounds funny) I let them choose from the stainless mixing bowl of prizes...citrus peeler, recipe card, nylon pan scraper, twixit. I give a retired SB as the doorprize. I give the host a prep bowl filled with candy, recipe card, host kit credit coupon in a gift bag.

 

[jillbean]

I've had hostesses ask me about doing some kind of incentive for RSVP'ng.......I've been thinking of putting something on the invites, saying get entered into a drawing for a prize if you RSVP to hostess by X date (2 days before show??) so we can plan better.

What do you think??? I'd probably just have hostess tell me names and use some kind of tickets and put names in prep bowl or batter bowl and have someone pull out name and then give them ?? Not sure what?? That's what I'm at a loss. Must be present to win!!

I've had more people say, I know people are busy, but common courteous to reply would be appreciated.


What do you think???


Lisa

Sounds good


I give twixits- two tied together with a ribbon, old Season's Best (I also give one to the host), or other small items. I have given recipe cards, a group of 4(one for each season) tied together with a ribbon, and I have even put candy canes and clearance candy from the grocery store.
A little bit of everything. Just remember it doesn't HAVE to be a Pampered Chef item. Magnetic grocery lists are great!

 

[MissChef]

What a bunch of great ideas!!!! I love the idea of the old sb cookbooks. I love the idea of a few recipe cards tied with a ribbon! And I LOVE Stacywhitlow's entire post! What great ideas and I love the host ideas! Any other host gifts ideas that you all give? I would love to "kick it up a notch" without going broke!! And after 9 years, I get bored with the same ole, same ole, and I'm sure my hosts think the same thing!
PLEASE KEEP THE IDEAS COMING! :thumbup:

 

[jillbean]

As I said I do the old seasons best...let the guests all sign it. I have also played a Life Savers game where the guests get to give money saving tips, time saving tips, cooking tips, cleaning tips all that good stuff. They pass around a basket filled with individually wrapped Life Savers (usually the Great Value version) they get one out each time they give a tip. There is no order whomever yells out "I got one" gets the basket. The one with the most candies at the end of the game (I usually set a timer for about 8 minutes) wins a prize. I then take all of the great tips and put them, along with the recipe that we do at the show and a couple others, in a tiny keepsake book...you can find them at the Dollar Tee...and give that to the host. They love it!
I will be having my first bridal shower in a couple of months and plan to do this for the bride in a nice scrapbook. I'll add some pictures from the shower and then give her the book to finish filling with her "wedding preperation" photos.

 

[PamperedCaniac]

I order the mini bamboo spoons too and seperate them into one spoon and tie a ribbon around the spoon. People love a spoon! LOL Then I do a lot of the SB Books, a few recipes with the spoon tied all together gets lots of ohhhh and ahhhhs too!

 

[jillbean]

It's been a while but I do the spoons too. They do go over well.
I gave several of the mini servers from the outlet as well as the little appetizer forks. People Love them!! I ordered the max on the measuring spoon from the outlet and I'm planning to use those.
I bought several of the hot pad combos (the cheaper set) and rolled a ribbon around the individual hot pads for gifts for the host.

 

[DebbieSAChef]

I give a free SB, if their friend places an order I give the friend who invited her FREE shipping in place of the SB. I make it funny like "Will you take the SB or what's in envelope number 1" I use the same envelope even if there are several people with friends they invited. They most of the time say I'll take what's in the envelope. In RED Marker I have the words "FREE SHIPPING ON TODAY'S ORDER!"
Maybe one time I had a person keep the SB but I opened it up came close to her, showed it to her and then went to the front to ask again. She picked the FREE shipping instead. It was funny, she pretended to be surprised when I opened it up for everyone to see.

Debbie

 

[Teresa Lynn]

I only give to the guest who brought a friend (because I was in several groups where they all brought their kids or hubby or mom or frail granny & then purchased very little and of course the "friends" bought nothing but BROUGHT chaos if they were children).I buy the inexpensive cellophane bags to match the season I have an assembly line around my dining table. (I usually have 3 or 4 designs at a time and fill about 50 so I don't do it real often) .
Per Bag:
vista print magnet (randomly give either the business card or a recipe one)
I give 4-6 pieces of candy (starbursts, livesavers, jolly ranchers etc. no chocolate)
4 or 5 of the older recipe cards (a new one goes in the catalog)
my business card with a recipe on back (a different one in the catalog so, they'll have an extra to share or will keep because of the recipe)
then 1 of the following: a twixit, quick cut knife, soap or lotion sample, (I used to do sink fizz but now i'm stingy & keep them for myself, pan scraper, citrus peeler, PC emory board from a few years ago,
In my bag I also have a choice of retired SB or a spice packet I made. (I only do 1 spice packet per show)

 

[smilebug]

I am new to this all. I have only done 7 shows but I have tried a couple of things out. I have gotten little buckets from the dollar spot at target and put the mini bamboo spoon, paring knife, and a recipe book in the bucket. Then given that to the hostess and say this is my extra little gift for hosting a party with me. THe ladies want the items for free so they are more willing to host a party for even more free stuff. I then use the same items to do a door prize and that person gets to pick one item. I have done a catty party also and did a game that the hostess picked 2 items out of the catty and if the guests ordered one of those items they would get name in drawing for a free gift also other ways to get in the drawing were to book a party or by getting orders in by x dates.