The Prize Is Right

If you want it, they’ve got it. Everything from fishing gear to peanuts to dinner for two and a movie to just about anything else under the sun – or moon. No matter what level of incentive you want or who gets the reward – the whole team or just the weekly winner – scan this list of the top 75 incentives and you’re sure to find just what you want, need, or can afford to give. Keep this article on hand for the holiday season. It’s just around the corner.

Gift Cards and Certificates

Applebee’s Neighborhood Grill and Bar is the world’s casual dining leader, with over 1,600 restaurants in 49 states. An Applebee’s gift card is sure to please. www.applebees.com

American Express Incentive Services offers Gift Cheques ($10, $25, $50, or $100) and Reward Cards ($25 to $500) valid at a million stores in the U.S. Amex also offers expert incentive consulting. www.AEIS.com

Bass Pro Shops has gift cards for as little as $10, but also for much higher values, to give sporting winners a chance to sample the highest quality equipment for fishing, hunting, or just taking the family camping. www.bassproshops.com

Best Buy Gift Certificates give winners access to cell phones; desktop, laptop, and notebook PCs; video games; digital cameras; and the latest in HDTV. Certificates are available for $5 on up to essentially unlimited values. www.bestbuy.com

Blockbuster Entertainment has videos, movies on DVD, and video games. Its Night Card buys two movies and cokes, plus popcorn, for $11.50. Individual entertainment and movie cards go for $6 and $4, respectively. www.blockbuster.com

Burger Bucks Gift Certificates from Burger King get you beef, cokes, fries, and everything else on the world-famous menu. The certificates come in booklets of five $1 certificates, good at more than 8,000 Burger Kings. www.burgerking.com

Crate and Barrel offers the finest furniture, accessories, fixtures, and ornaments for your home. Gift Cards come in varying amounts and can be tailored for sales incentive programs. www.crateandbarrel

Darden Restaurants offers gift cards for anywhere from $5 to $250 that let winners eat as they please at more than 1,300 Red Lobster, Olive Garden, Bahama Breeze, Smokey Bones Barbeque & Grill, and Seasons 52 restaurants. www.darden.com

Dave and Busters provides video games, billiards, shuffleboard, and food and drink with its gift cards of $25 to $50. The chain’s Million Dollar Midway is complemented by a fully stocked bar and fun atmosphere. www.daveandbusters.com

Domino’s Pizza corporate gift certificates yield a large one-topping pizza plus two liters of coke, a retail value of $14, customized and discounted to $10.75 or lower according to volume. www.dominos.com

The Gap has stylishly simple clothes for men, women, and the wee ones, with GapBody, GapMaternity, GapKids and babyGap. Its affiliate, Old Navy, also offers sturdy apparel for every size. Gap cards go for $10 to $200. www.gap.com

GiftCertificates.com is a leading provider of comprehensive incentive solutions to corporations and small businesses and has its own universal gift certificate, good at hundreds of famous stores. www.giftcertificates.com

L.L. Bean gift certificates, ranging from $5 to $500, can buy outdoor clothing for men, women, and children, and luggage and equipment for leisure travel and camping – all redeemable online or at stores. www.llbean.com

Lowe’s Home Improvement offers appliances, sinks and faucets, patio furniture, fencing and lumber, and plenty of tools for making your own improvements. Lowe’s gift cards vary from $5 to $5,000. www.lowes.com

Metromedia Restaurant gift cards buy great food at more than 700 Bennigan’s, Bonanza, Ponderosa, Steak & Ale, and Plano Tavern restaurants. Discounts vary up to 15 percent for a total value of $10,000. www.metromediarestaurants.com

Omaha Steaks Gift Certificates come in both paper and digital forms in values of $25 to $100 that buy the best filet mignons, hamburgers, lasagna, sirloins, pork chops, hot dogs, and steak burgers. www.omahasteaks.com

Quantum Loyalty offers Reward Currency such as Hollywood Movie Money, co-branded movie tickets matching your company’s marketing, and You’ve Got Money certificates, good at 85,000 retail locations for DVDs, music, and games. www.quantumloyalty.com

Regis Corporation gift cards purchase salon and hair products at more than 6,000 Regis salons in the United States and Puerto Rico. Cards come in denominations of $1 to $500, personalized with company messages. www.regiscorp.com

Safeway gift cards can be purchased for $10, $25, $50, $100, or higher values and can buy anything that Safeway offers at 1,500 stores, from produce and meats to flowers, photo processing, and banking services. www.safeway.com

Starbucks Coffee cards come in denominations from $3 to $500. They can purchase the simple pleasures of great coffee and bakery products or, in higher values, espresso makers, drip brewers, and carafes. www.starbucks.com

Target gift cards offer everything for the home, plus clothes for men, women, and children, as well as sporting equipment, toys, and electronics. Target cards are available for amounts up to $1,000. www.target.com

VIPGift offers gift cards that can be redeemed for gift certificates at brands such as Land’s End or Target, for prepaid Visa or MasterCard, or even at VIP’s own online catalog. The cards are valued at $25 to $250. www.VIPGift.com

Wal-Mart stores have just about everything anyone really needs in life, plus a lot of pleasing luxuries. Wal-Mart business gift cards are valued at $5 all the way up
to $2,500, a nice grand sales prize. www.walmart.com

Food And Drink

Brinker International serves up fine food in a casual atmosphere at its 1,500 Chili’s Grill & Bar, Romano’s Macaroni Grill, On the Border Mexican Grill & Cantina, and Maggiano’s Little Italy restaurants. www.brinker.com

Hard Rock Café offers tasty food and much more. HRC is the world’s leading collector of rock ‘n’ roll memorabilia, with 60,000 items rotating on displays through 40 countries at 120 HRC restaurants. www.hardrockcafe.com

Harry and David can please sales winners with gourmet gift baskets, holiday gift baskets, fruits, chocolates, health foods, and flowers. For customers, there is also the Thank You Basket of fruits, truffles, and mint chocolates. www.harryanddavid.com

Panera Bread now has more than 800 bakery-cafes in 35 states making fresh bread from scratch using only natural ingredients and complementing luscious loaves with sandwiches, salads, and soups. www.panera.com

Schaul’s Signature Gourmet Food has a complete selection of gourmet food, including tender Angus steaks, jumbo shrimp, lobster tails, hickory-smoked hams, salmon filets, pork chops, and smoked turkeys. www.schauls.com

Smithfield offers a wide variety of gourmet foods, from genuine Smithfield ham to Virginia hand-cooked peanuts. Gift cards are available in various amounts and can be presented in customized greeting cards. The gift cards have no expiration dates or service fees. www.smithfieldincentives.com

Virginia Diner is a 75-year-old diner known locally for home-style cooking and around the world as “The Peanut Capital of the World.” If your winner is unhappy with the Diner’s nuts, it will even “shell out” a refund. www.vadiner.com

Electronics

Crutchfield offers the best in electronic systems for homes and cars, plus plenty of support in picking the right equipment and making it work perfectly throughout its full service life. www.crutchfield.com

Canon USA has the latest in digital cameras, a remarkably great sales prize due to the very wide price range and the cameras’ universal appeal to just about any salesperson, young or old, male or female. www.usa.canon.com

Circuit City has the best in consumer electronics, from the most expensive home theater systems to computers and software to digital cameras, camcorders, cell phones, music, games, and movies. www.circuitcity.com

Fuji Film’s latest digital cameras give film-quality pictures, with natural lighting and quick shutter speeds for stop-motion shots. And the newest gear has longer lasting batteries for vacation fun. www.fujifilm.com

Panasonic Premium has a wide range of digital cameras, suited for very different budgets. One of the most popular models is a 5-megapixel camera with 12-power zoom and fast auto focus for $429.95. www.panasonic.com

Pentax Imaging makes a wide range of digital cameras and also supplies optical sporting goods, for example binoculars, rifle scopes, and telescope lenses. The Optio A10 digital camera costs just $350. www.pentax.com

Radio Shack offers incentive managers a wide range of digital cameras, personal computers, computer games, and all the other electronic items that make the office more productive and leisure hours more fun. www.radioshack.com

Sony is a legend around the world for its electronic, game, music, and movie products. The company has just introduced a Single Lens Reflex (SLR) digital camera called the Alpha and plans to market it aggressively. www.sony.com

Merchandise

Barnes & Noble is a top retail brand and a much-admired presence in online bookselling. B&N now runs the second-largest chain of coffee houses in the U.S. Overall, the storied firm sells more than 445 million books each year. www.barnesandnoble.com

Bath & Body Works has bath lotions, body-care bags, romantic gift boxes, fragrances of all kinds, and in general just about everything you would need to pamper your body after a bath or shower. www.bathandbodyworks.com

Bulova has been making fine timepieces for a century. Accuracy, beautiful design and materials, and excellent craftsmanship characterize every Bulova, from the Marine Star Collection to elegant diamond watches. www.bulova.com

Eddie Bauer has rugged outdoor clothes and boots for men and women, a solar-powered radio, five-in-one binoculars and pretty much everything else you would want to wear or take with you in the wilderness. www.eddiebauer.com

Foot Locker now has 1,400 stores in the United States and another 600 around the world, catering particularly to the needs of 12- to 20-year-olds for the best in sports footwear, ladies’ shoes, and camping shoes. www.footlocker.com

Hammacher Schlemmer caters to people who are looking for something unusual and a gift that is unusually fine. The 157-year-old retailer sells “the best, the only, and the unexpected” for every taste. www.hammacherschlemmer.com

Home Depot has great deals on appliances such as lights and fans, plus a Garden Club with expert tips and a full line of outdoor power equipment, including mowers, trimmers, blowers, and tractors. www.homedepot.com

KB Toy Stores has fun stuff for kids of all ages, from babies to late teenagers. There are books, electronics, educational toys, movies and videos, party supplies, computer software, video games, and much more. www.kbtoystores.com

Linens ‘n Things is a leading retailer of home textiles, housewares, and decorative home accessories with 500 stores in 47 states and six Canadian provinces. Broad selection, high quality, and exceptional value are the chain’s hallmarks. www.linensnthings.com

Macy’s West gives you some of the broadest shopping choices at a major department store. Macy’s caters especially to high-end shoppers and always emphasizes the latest fashions in all its clothing and furniture. www.fds.com

Mont Blanc offers fountain pens called Meisterstück, famous for their style, status, and distinctive taste. The firm also has watches, including the Star collection, flawlessly Swiss in quality. www.montblanc.com

Movado has been pursuing “the art of time” for more than a century, with a clean, spare, and elegant look in watches that carry the Movado dot, just the punctuation point for the wrist of a sales champion. www.movado.com

Pier 1 Imports has 1,100 stores just chock full of hand-crafted cabinets, exotic home furnishings, and the brand’s specialty, distinctive imported treasures, which give a global touch to a home. www.pier1.com

Sears Roebuck offers some of the best values around in home appliances, automotive equipment, sturdy apparel, computers and electronics, jewelry and watches, plus sporting goods, tools, and toys. www.sears.com

Seiko makes the kind of watch you might see at an Olympic time trial, with dials telling time, day, hour, and split seconds from the start. A Seiko timepiece guarantees function, usefulness, and precision. www.seikousa.com.

Serious Magic has created the next generation of visual communication tools, including Visual Communicator, which lets nontechnical users make their own stunning videos and presentations to dazzle audiences. www.seriousmagic.com

Sharper Image always stocks the best in personal electronics, from MP3 players and noise-cancellation headphones to superb stereos and the latest in HDTV sets. Pricing ranges from $20 to $5,000. www.sharperimage.com

Swiss Army has been equipping travelers, adventurers, campers, hunters, and fishermen for a very long time. You can get the best and most ingenious gear for a lot of ordinary business uses from the clever Swiss company. www.swissarmy.com

Terryberry can offer sales championship rings with diamonds for a few hundred dollars. The rings increase in value as precious stones are added with further sales success. For female winners, Terryberry offers stunning tennis bracelets. www.terryberry.com

TJX sells apparel and home fashions at TJMaxx, Marshalls, Winners, HomeGoods, TKMaxx, AJWright, and HomeSense stores. Whatever your incentive tastes, there is bound to be wide choice and a location nearby. www.TJX.com

Williams-Sonoma has some of the finest items for preparing food and drink in your home. For example, there is the Breville Espresso Maker that forces hot water through the ground coffee to make velvety espresso. www.williams-sonoma.com

Travel

Chateau on the Lake in Branson, MO, welcomes groups of salespeople who have won relaxing vacations. The Chateau has 300 beautiful rooms and is the only four-diamond resort in the area. www. chateauonthelake.com

Continental Airlines flies the latest Boeing jet, the 777, to Europe, to the South Pacific, to Latin America, and across the U.S. Continental’s hubs in Newark, Cleveland, and Houston connect you to the world. www.continentalairlines.com

The Greenbrier in West Virginia has fine guest rooms, plus individual estate houses, excellent sport facilities, and 6,500 acres of countryside for biking, fishing, rafting, and horseback riding. www.greenbrier.com

The Homestead in Virginia offers sales winners luxurious accommodations with mini-bars, three golf courses, ranges for sport shooting, six tennis courts, eight bowling lanes, and several swimming pools. www.homestead.com

Maritz can help you choose just the right travel or vacation reward for the demographics of your salesforce. They can put together an incentive program that gives nonwinners an incentive to sell better as well. www.Maritz.com

Marriott Hotels and Resorts offer a variety of vacation incentives, including Stay Awards that are good for one night, Weekend Awards for a couple of relaxing days and Anytime Awards that allow for flexible travel. www.marriotthotels.com

Walt Disney Parks & Resorts offer the most entertaining travel experiences, including the flagship Disneyland in California, 10 theme parks on three continents, and two luxury cruise ships. www.disney.go.com

Incentive Tools

Bigby Havis & Associates can help you mix incentives with training and career development for your reps with its team of psychologists, consultants, software designers, and service professionals. www.bigby.com

Callidus Software provides Enterprise Incentive Management (EIM) systems for major banks, insurance companies, and telecom companies. Nearly a half-million reps, brokers, and channel employees are paid using TrueComp EIM by Callidus. www.callidussoftware.com

Hallmark Insights, formerly the Gift Certificate Center, specializes in incentive solutions through its Premiere Choice Award program. In partnership with its parent, Hallmark Cards, the company also offers consumer gift certificates. www.hall markinsights.com

IncentOne integrates reward, recognition, and incentive solutions to save you time and money in getting the biggest bang for your incentive buck. The firm also offers gift cards valid for purchase of merchandise and travel. www.incentone.com

SalesDriver.com, a division of Carlson Marketing, automates incentives, letting managers promote different products in different markets, tweak incentive designs, and both launch and communicate incentives rapidly. www.salesdriver.com

Synygy offers EIM systems that help a salesforce align, measure, reward, report, and analyze employee performance. EIM is the modern way to maximize your incentive effectiveness. www.synygy.com

SVM has been a gift card leader since 1997, handling sales, marketing, and distribution of cards for most major gasoline companies, as well as famous retailers such as Banana Republic, Borders, Kmart, Pizza Hut, and many more. www.svmcards.com

Tsys provides the technology infrastructure that makes gift cards popular, easy to administer, highly flexible, and fun to use. Tsys solutions are integrated into the programs of card vendors or users. www.tsysprepaid.com

UpsellUSA is a full-service incentive firm that offers prizes from its own online catalogue, helps companies design incentive programs, and implements the programs online, from delivery through support. www.upsellUSA.com