A highly professional approach over the years has ensured that business visitors at Giftex, the much awaited event related to the contemporary gifting industry, would be able to source the best possible gifts and stationery brands under one single roof. Top advertising executives, sales & marketing managers made it a point to visit the show.

No surprise, the previous edition of Giftex was an extraordinary success. As stated above, a host of high-profile visitors, essentially the lynchpins in the corporate decision-making process, thronged the exhibition venue to be part of this grand showcase event for the whole gifting industry.

Just peeping into the past, Giftex was started more than two decades ago. Since then it has truly been a fruitful journey, well reflected in the success of this highly prestigious event. Giftex, Trade & Technology Exposition Co. (India) Pvt. Ltd. has now established itself as a leading exhibition organizing company that hosts several events on different themes.

In due recognition of the importance of Giftex to the gifting industry, the India Trade Promotion Organization has provided the event with its seal of approval. The stupendous success of Giftex can be attributed to the fact that its organizers, namely Trade & Technology Exposition Co. (India) Pvt. Ltd., are steadfastly committed to a result-oriented platform. Their aim is to enable a meaningful exchange and interaction between exhibitors and potential corporate buyers.

Giftex occupies all the five halls of spacious Nehru Centre and yet at times this capacity is not enough to accommodate all the prospective exhibitors. At this exhibition bulk orders are booked, but no sales are permitted. In essence, you could find the products, which well fit your budget the best at the event for the purpose of gifting.

Giftex has emerged as a premier event for the entire gifting industry. The organizers are confident that the exhibition would be a huge success and offer exciting ideas for the corporate world this year, too!

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Corporate gifting has gained in prominence in terms of relationship building with clients, customers and employees.
Here are few useful keys to successful corporate gifting:

1. Create an occasion than waiting for some holidays when corporate gifts are expected, make corporate gifting a regular practice.

2. Identify the key dates of your clients. For example, send gifts to your clients on their birthdays, anniversaries or some important and special days.

3. One must remember that corporate gifting is a great way to say thank you and also to promote your business, products or services, to show respect, to express an apology, over all it helps to enhance companies image and reputation.

4. Choose an appropriate gift that suits the recipient’s taste and preferences and not yours. For example, contact others who are aware about the recipient. Ask them about favorite food, color preference, special interest, if they collect anything, favorite sports team, books, authors, musicians.

5. Write a personal note or a card to accompany the corporate gift. Hand written notes are much preferred. Send the gift through a reliable source.

6. Make sure your gift is distinctively packed. Promotional gifts packed in special boxes from prestigious stores creates high impact because of its status.

Festivals in India are just as vibrant as its cultural fabric. Companies treat festivals as the best occasion to reach out to their clients and employees. October marks the start of a long festive season, including Ganesh Chathurthi, Navaratri, Ramzaan, Diwali, Christmas and New Year.

It’s the best opportunity for companies to strengthen relationships not only with their customers but also with their employees. Most corporate houses use it to create a sense of bonding amongst employees. Festivals indeed can act as the best way for employees to connect with each other and the management. In a way, gifting as a concept has attained a whole new dimension in the corporate realm.

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One thing that will differentiate a sub-standard vendor from a quality one is the value addition the latter can bring to clients. The process is not just restricted to manufacturing, purchasing, or disturbing the gift. A winning and long-lasting association with the clients is possible only by striking a rapport and understanding their psyche. It requires a great deal of insight and sensitivity on part of the vendors.

An understanding of factors such as budget constraints, timeliness of a gifting plan, correct choice of occasion, relevant theme for gifting is essential. The success of a corporate gifting business is not merely about the “art of selling’. It’s more to do with discovering the ‘joy of gifting’ them. Packaging ideas also matter a great deal (not to forget ‘out of the box’ gifting products!)

A unique selling proposition will help to transform the gift into a motif of relationship-building. This again is never an easy task. First study what a bunch of business players around you are doing and think how you could do it better. Before you push forward with your gifting business plan, be clear about its focus. You then can sell the idea itself.

The logistical issues will then come into play as you will need to explore things such as distribution & partnerships, and work out establishing relationships with a host of corporate gift representatives to market and sell your product portfolio to their corporate clients.

It may not be always easy to approach end-users directly when you are likely to compete with an entity that has almost everything else on its side, including a strong sales relationship with your potential customer-base.  Before you make a move, get some sense of the market dynamics and what exactly you are up against!  This is critical to make foray into the domain of corporate gifting business successful.

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Corporate gift giving is undoubtedly a serious business. As part of a well-devised program, it can help in establishing or enhancing critical business relationships and, in the process, serve as a cost-effective mode of imparting an element of goodwill to your business. We shall consider the many issues and ideas relevant to the corporate gift program’s success.

There can be multifold reasons for conducting a corporate gift program. For example, you may wish to thank your long-standing customers for their contribution to your business or recognize efforts of a committed employee for working overtime to meet a deadline. Mostly, the idea is to affirm relationships and subtly enhance the personal connection between a gift giver and recipient. It’s important to understand that gifts are different from incentives.

Customizing is a critical element for the success of a corporate gifting program. We have already checked some basic guidelines to follow for corporate gifting during festivals. Of course, these may vary based on your company policy. It needs to be decided whether to go for personalized packaging with special notes inserted in them. A nice note accompanying the present can reduce a sense of obligation, if any, on part of the recipient.

Ideally, the gifts should be given sans a precondition or a hidden motive. Of course, it would be naive to believe that there’s no bottom-line benefit to be drawn from corporate gift giving, but that aspect should be secondary.  Even though it’s an integral part of marketing strategy, corporate gift program should be subtly aimed at building bonds and a sense of long-term partnership with valued associates to make a gifting program successful.

The whole exercise should be planned well in advance well before the festival season sets in. This will give you enough time to negotiate the price for the gifts you are looking for and also to avail of attractive discount offers. Inputs from experts are very essential in this regard.

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Underlining how the gesture of a ubiquitous gift has transformed into a dazzling and dynamic trend, a news report by Ravi Teja Sharma of The ET Bureau brings out some interesting facts as follows:

• Ten years ago, for someone to gift a luxury product would require him to travel abroad. Today, disposable incomes have risen and aspirations are high. The entry of several international brands makes it easier for the high-spender.
• The airport stores of luxury firm Swarovski, for instance, are doing brisk business. “Our stores at airports in Delhi, Mumbai and Hyderabad are growing at 20% a year as this is the best place to pick up such gifts,” says Sukanya Dutta Roy, director, consumer goods business at Swarovski India.
• The really high-value gifts are coming from industrialists, celebs, politicians and diplomats who are spending on gifting ultra-luxury cars and watches worth 5 lakh and even homes.
• About 10-15% of business for luxury firm Shreyans, that sells Ferrari, Maserati, Porsche and Ducati in India, comes from gifting, says Ashish Chordia, chairman of Shreyans.
• As part of personal gifting men are picking up iconic Alexander McQueen clutches that cost over a lakh rupees for their wives, girlfriends and others.
• Women are gifting 50,000 cufflinks to their men. Fathers-in-law are gifting entire wardrobe makeovers for their son-in-laws.
• Businessmen are buying expensive watches and pens to please the wily policy-makers.”We recently had a businessman gift two luxury apartments costing 5 crore and above to his daughters,” revealed the president (marketing) at Gurgaon-based M3M Group, Kunal Banerji.
• Most luxury goods sale happens during the festival season or on occasions such as the Valentine’s Day, as this is the time when people find a reason to splurge for someone he loves or wants to reward. According to executive director of Blues Clothing Company (representing brands such as Versace, Corneliani, Cadini and John Smedley in India) Abhay Gupta, there isn’t a doubt at all sales shoot up during the October-December period, which is the festival and wedding season.

Industry puts the share of the festival revenues to overall revenues of luxury good sales in India to as much as 70%.

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It always feels so much better and nicer to give than to receive, if you are relish the act of giving yourself. But then there is nothing worse than that act of ripping off colorful fine wrapping paper to unveil some gym socks, a ubiquitous CD box set of any kind or that oh-so-obviously re-circulated scented candles. Well, it can be just enough to make you seek a lump of coal, know why!

Of course, an array of online tools have long been there to let you cobble together a quick list of things that you would love others to gift you.

Pinterest

• As its name suggests, this service indeed acts as a virtual pinboard wherein users can save items that have caught their eye online.
• The site is developed with the basic understanding that  surfers in their zigzag across the online realm are constantly stumbling across interesting books, cute trinkets, pieces of furniture, iPad cases and other objects. It lets them save all these items and organize them into specific sets, including holiday wish lists.The service allows users to follow others’ lists to come up with enhanced gift ideas.

Evernote

• It’s a note-taking service that lets users add tags to the photos and notes they save. Adding a ‘holiday gift’ tag to those items will create a list of desirables.
• It has teamed up with ShopAdvisor that analyzes gift ideas in your account and searches the Web to look for matching products. It sends information about where to find them - online as well as offline.

HavetoHave

• HavetoHave allows people to clip and to save products from across the Web and then assemble them into handy shopping lists.
• The website allows members to find and to follow their friends as well as browse through the items that they have saved, either as a way to get gift-giving ideas or as suggestions to add to their own wish lists.
• As a bonus, it has put in place a built-in blue-light-special alert to tell people when an item they have flagged has actually gone on sale.

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In the west a food hamper is the most preferred gift and corporates choose their hampers with great care, it is usually a  and other accompaniments. Unfortunately this trend has not yet caught up in India given the fact that most stores such as Godrej – nature’s basket or RIL’s Fresh, shoppers stop and spencers do not cater to the corporate gifting market. There is an opportunity here for someone with an artistic ability to pack and put together a beautiful hamper that the receiver will cherish. What is important is the packing to give it the kind of panache it requires.

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Always remember word of mouth is the best method of advertising. Companies do not have control over consumers, especially in this era of social media.

Employees form the backbone of a company. If they are happy, the positive buzz is not going to be missed by your clients. And if they are disgruntled, the negative vibes are only going to be obvious. That’s why it becomes so important to keep your staff happy. Beyond applying the performance metrics and carrying out regular assessment, make it a point to appreciate their efforts. Do not make the mistake of underestimating or undermining them, at least publicly, at any point.

The idea on your part should be to build a creative and contrastive environment. Once you do so, you can leverage it to create a positive impact of the brand to your target audience as a whole. In other words, the process of brand building should start with your own people. In this context, this article will try to explain the importance of gifting to the employees.

As we discussed above, a favorable brand image or company identity is so very vital. Keep the basics of gifting to your employees in mind. If a firm is large, with people spread across departments and sections, it won’t be possible to customize your gifts.

Of course, budget is another key consideration. In such case, you may run a personality contest for them, or even institute an award for your best performing employees, asking them to choose a gift of their choice from the available options. This will encourage other employees to do well, making them feel a part of the organization.

As an offbeat idea, employee in a senior managerial role or with a higher designation should be allowed the privilege of visit to a health spa making him or her feel that the company really cares about the person’s physical and mental well-being, well realizing the need for a timely break.

Niche gift or promotional items, especially for your female employees sure would add a new touch to the whole program.

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There is no doubt about the fact that personalized gifts make a memorable and unique choice. However, the selection process and the ultimate act of choosing a gift that would appeal to the person cannot always be as simple as it looks.

In one of our recent posts, we focused on a unique venture of highly creative Nidhi Agrawal who makes gifts, which suit the receiver’s personality. As we found out, you just need to hand over a picture of your choice to her and she converts it into a dramatic present to reflect the person’s interests by applying her imagination.

There is another comprehensive resource more suited for corporate world when it comes to personalized gifting, merchandising and promotions. We are referring to ekco that stands out is their solid service and innovative ideas.

ekco implements entire product promotional campaigns for their clientele from across different businesses/ industry segments like FMCG, financial institutions, advertising agencies and pharmaceutical firms, among others on a turnkey basis.

ekco serves under the loyalty programs for which they work closely with right from the basic concept to the complete execution of the campaign all across India. Their specialization lies in providing innovative and concept-based gifting solutions.

They supply everything from chocolates, sweets, idols, designer candles, silverware to fancy Hampers. They also deal in items like windcheaters, umbrellas and diyas for various festivals like Diwali, Christmas and of course, the New Year.

Customization and personalization of gifting solutions is the forte of ekco. They undertake the gifting and promotional projects starting from manufacturing to personalizing products like T-Shirts, caps, mugs, clocks, watches, ceramic/ porcelain items, etc. They also execute customized print jobs like printing tattoos.

Some of the categories they deal in are Awards and Recognition; Branded Products; Eco friendly Products; Festival Gifting; Games; Handicrafts; Household Products; Office & personal products.

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For an added personalized touch to make your gift truly innovative and indeed unique, we suggest you one of its kind avenue! Gifted Lifestyles offers you a selection of mouth watering chocolates, jewelry or flowers to enhance the aura of your present.

Also on offer are wonderful wrapping services to enhance the beauty of your gift. Personal consultation is another value-add to the gifting service. Tarana Khubchandani, Kanchan Khubchandani, Armaiti Bhagwagar and Rashna Talati launched Gifted Lifestyles with the very purpose.

They all have combined their passion and professional skills in conceiving Gifted Lifestyles in November 2007. It’s a full-fledged boutique that has on offer a wide array of charming gifts that can be perfect for every occasion – social or personal.

Their collection of gifting items has been an outcome of proactive search and in-depth research done over two years after traveling to a host of fairs and events apart from visits to internationally acclaimed markets of Paris, Hong Kong, Florence, Barcelona, Dubai Milan, etc that has gave rise to this fabulous range of gifts.

Gifted Lifestyles is indeed a treasure trove of exciting gifts like mahogany desk boxes, silk mannequins, filigree lamps, golden fortune cookies and hand embroidered lap trays. What you get on the shelves of this cozy, captivating store is a range of exclusive home décor products and amazing accessories, as well as personal luxury items plus a distinctive display for men.

Another admirable aspect is the constant revamp of the extensive merchandise on offer to suit the different moods and seasons like Diwali and Christmas. The creative team gives inputs to come up with gift hampers, to match any occasion.

If you are searching for a unique gift that would suit your budget and also reflect the recipient’s personality and tastes, Gifted Lifestyles is your best option.

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