Small Scopes

Mr. Gresham's company designs customer-incentive and loyalty programs for banks. Like it or not, free gifts are a big part of those programs.

"We're not claiming this is more important than convenience and customer service, but it's the minimum you have to do to even compete," he said. "If you don't offer those things, you don't have a chance of retaining customers."

Free gifts even beat out cash in attracting customers, he said.

"What the consumers tell us is that cash was vaporware," Mr. Gresham said. "There's no association back to the bank with that cash.

"We use the gift as the tipping point to call them to action. There's a greed factor to every person, and getting something for nothing creates a call to action. There's a trophy value associated with a physical item that's given."

Mr. Gresham's company doesn't deal in cheesy items. We're talking Pyrex Portables, Bushnell binoculars and Mikasa crystal picture frames.