Shining and sizzling silver has an uncanny knack of adapting to every fashion trend - traditional to bold and dramatic; classic to contemporary. Silver signifies faith and purity as a color, and is as glamorous as gold. The metal is not looked upon as a mere luxury symbol world over. The Chinese, for instance, believe a silver locket around a child’s neck would drive away any evil spirits, whereas the Incas of Peru have called it ‘the tears of the moon’.

You can make your choice from a wide array of designs, and even personalize your jewelry and accessories in silver. While going for a gorgeous gift for your loved one, you can buy cufflinks, buckles, hip flasks, collar stays or key rings that make a perfect fashion statement.

Gifting of silverware is an idea that jells perfectly with Indian tradition. Silver thalis are now a must-have at ceremonies. Cute silver boxes are there for holding mouth fresheners and silver coins are now commonly presented in embroidered bags. While silver watches, belts and jewelry are more suitable as generic presents, utensils in silver are ideal for traditional or festive occasions.

The mellifluous metal signifies status and wealth. It is perceived to fetch good luck. Importantly, it can indeed get cool and fashionable. An elegant pendant, opulent choker, or handsome hair ornament of traditional white or pastel colored pearls set in sterling white metal will make a fashionable gift to suit one’s tastes, style quotient and sentiments. Attractively colored pearls set in sterling silver will make an exquisite, glittering gift! Even the men’s jewelry is now getting popular. New-generation uber-cool men now flaunt to love accessories! For men, you may also consider stick to watches, silver coins or a silver household object.

One indeed is spoiled for choice here!

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There is a definite link between festive corporate gifting and tangible increase in business. Should this proposition be enough to give you the confidence to make specific RoI (return-on-investment) projections in your marketing plan? Well, several surveys conducted on corporate gift giving indicate that vendors who come up with innovative gifts were twice as likely to enhance their chances of being contacted by customers as those who didn’t have a well-thought gift program.  In this context, here are some key aspects of a festive corporate gift program that are often overlooked:

Understanding the “Occasion” and “Theme”

Creative ideas are desirable when it comes to the “theme” and the “occasion” of gifting to clients, employees and trade partners. It becomes imperative for the vendor to develop innovative themes and packaging ideas that not only suit to the occasion but also encapsulate the corporate identity.

Based on a peculiar scenario, a manufacturer/vendor automatically makes some assumptions like:
a. The gift cannot be perhaps too expensive if the recipients are large in number.

b. The target audience has focused domain knowledge; therefore give something that would help the receiver in his or her work.

c. It has to be something really meaningful as stakeholders are evangelists of the firm in question.
To put a logo or not?

Many businesses prefer customized gifts, which carry a logo, hoping to create a lasting impression in the minds of recipients. When the item is a utility one likely to be used on day-to-day basis like a calendar, or coffee mug, there is a tackiness quotient to consider. The customized items with a logo may make great trade show premiums or perfect leave-behinds, but they could never be considered deeply heartfelt gifts. It makes sense to indulge in blatant self-promotion.

Make it a ‘personalized’ present

One simple thing you can do is composing a nice personalized, ideally handwritten note or card. It will create an impression that it’s personal gift, and not a generic one! This gesture can be as meaningful as the gorgeous gift itself, since it conveys to the recipient your genuine, non-business-like intentions and also the sincerity of your gift giving act.

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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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Specific rules and norms are set by respective advertising standards authorities in different countries. The same are monitored by committees that keep a tab over advertising practices that can often be misleading. These bodies are independently administered and serve like a watchdog.

For example, Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) functions as a self regulatory voluntary organization. The role and functioning of ASCI encompasses addressing complaints received from consumers and industry against advertisements and claims that are considered as false or misleading. It is important in this context that we consider the difference, albeit subtle, between a prize (awarded to a lucky few winners) and a gift (available to all or a majority of entrants to a promotion irrespective of the fact whether they win or lose).

This distinction should always be made amply clear to consumers who are being targeted or approached through promotional offers. If all or almost all participants are entitled to an award in a promotion, it should not be termed a prize. In such a case, it may preferably be denoted as a ‘gift’, ‘reward’, ‘award’ or a similar such term as long as the context does not get misleading to consumers.
For example, promoters should not make a claim that respondents will get to ‘win’ a ‘gift’ because the terminology is improper, confusing and inconsistent. Rather state they would get to ‘win a ‘prize’ or will be ‘given a ‘gift’. Let’s take a practical case. A few years ago, the UK based Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) mulled over a peculiar promotion that involved the promoter offering several prizes and gifts.

The promoter considered that since recipients got one of two or three gifts on offer with no single gift going to ‘all or most’ of them, each gift could well be described as a prize. However, the authorities stipulated that since the vast majority of respondents would get one of two or three low-value items, they should be termed as gifts. The promoter thus had to withdraw the claim that these were rather prizes and not gifts.

So make sure that you promote the program in a proper context so that it is not perceived to be misleading consumers. In other words, drawing a fine line between a gift and a prize is vital.

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The occasion is celebrated across the world in the memory of Saint Valentine. But who exactly is this mysterious man? We are sure you would be curious to know as why we celebrate this day. We take this opportunity to dig into the history of Valentine’s Day and throw light on the patron saint who is associated with the day.

The Valentine’s Day, as we perceive and celebrate it today, carries vestiges of ancient Roman as well as Christian tradition. According to a legend, Valentine was a priest who happened to serve in Rome some time during the third century. When Emperor Claudius II theorized that single men made better warriors than the family men, he outlawed marriage for youths – his crop of would-be soldiers.

Valentine fought the unjust invalidity of the decree. Defying the Emperor, he secretly performed marriage rituals for young lovers. When the actions were discovered, Claudius instantly ordered the death penalty. Some other legends hint that Valentine was killed for trying to help Christians escape from Roman prisons.

According to another story, Valentine sent the first ever ‘valentine’ greeting. While in prison, Valentine fell in love with a young woman, probably the jailor’s daughter. He is said to have penned a letter to her, and signed ‘From your Valentine,’ an expression in use till date.

The different legends about Valentine’s Day only emphasize his appeal as a heroic and romantic figure. Let’s know about some more curious facts about Valentine’s Day:

• Today, at least three different saints named Valentinus or Valentine are recognized by the Catholic Church. Incidentally, all of them were martyred.
• Some think that the day is celebrated to commemorate the anniversary of Valentine’s burial or death that probably occurred around 270 A.D. Others claim that the Christian church may have decided to celebrate Valentine’s feast day in February to ‘christianize’ the pagan Lupercalia festive celebrations.
• In the UK, the day began to be celebrated on mass-scale around the 17th century. By the middle of the 18th century, it became common for lovers and friends in all social strata to exchange tokens of affection or handwritten notes.
• Americans probably started exchange of hand-made valentines in the beginning of the 18th century. Esther A. Howland. Howland created the first commercial Valentine’s Day greeting card in the 1840s in the US.

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Signifying the link between opulence, luxury and the gifting industry, an insightful news report points out that industrialists, businessmen and celebs are lavishly spending on a spate of ultra-luxury gifts. In fact, almost 60% of all the luxury items sold are essentially gifts, it asserts.

The news report by Ravi Teja Sharma of The ET Bureau starts off by stating: “Opulence has no limit. You can be happy with your hardworking employees and dole out a bonus for them, or you can bring in some style.” Here are the instances of the above trend, revealed as a matter of case study:

In one company, the management gave away gift vouchers of 1-2 lakh to a bunch of top performers to buy bespoke suits.

Last year, Shah Rukh Khan gifted Tag Heuer watches to all members of his Kolkata Knight Riders cricket team, when it reached the last four of the Indian Premier League.

An industrialist gave the select employees Versace mobile phones, each costing 3.5 lakh, as one top industrialist recently did to six of his senior execs for clinching a difficult deal

These gestures of generosity, as the writer mentions, may not muster support in these difficult times, but they come as a fresh lease of life for many luxury brands in India, who are now planning to expand their business. Gifts made up for 60% of luxury goods sales in 2011, as mentioned above.

The general manager at Genesis Luxury (that represents brands like Canali, Jimmy Choo and Bottega Veneta and also has a joint venture with Burberry in India), Roasie Ahluwalia, has been quoted as saying: “While many Indians have started spending on self, there are many who would still prefer someone splurge on them. It may be a matter of family bonds, which still run deep in the Indian society.”

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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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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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Women are increasingly dominating the corporate world and gradually taking over the reins from men at the workplace, which is indeed a healthy trend. According to experts, they are doing exceedingly well! In fact, gone are those days when having a female ‘boss’ was considered an oddity. As is evident, more and more women are leading the charge in every sphere of life.

There was a time when men felt apprehensive of their being pushed to the sidelines, but this perception has changed with the greater acceptance of the women march into the professional arena. Along with the changed scenario, the context of corporate gifting has changed too. Just to elaborate, there are certain unspoken rules or norms for gifting a female boss simply because women are different from men.

One doesn’t necessarily have to give them anything that is gender-based; the defining aspect is the utility of a gift. For instance, consider a classy leather purse that has more compartments. Women like to compartmentalize everything and have a special place for their lipstick, pens and hand sanitizer. So go for a sleek handbag that packs a punch.

On eve of her birthday politely ask your female colleague/ boss what kind of tastes they have and the kind of hobbies they pursue. Surf the net for new trends and buy an appropriate present accordingly. There are many snazzy options to select from as leading brands aptly ‘feminize’ their products.

Decorative objects and works of art with women-centric themes can also be a great idea. Something like a personalized coffee mug, white tea for health, flower infusions for relaxation, flavored teas, aromas and perfumes for the trend-conscious will also be perfect. Tall elegant floor vases for her office cabin will also a good gift.

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Gifting can prove to be an effective public relations strategy, if employed creatively, even refusing it, at times. Though you have decided not to accept a gift, make sure that the person knows the reason for your doing so. This will avoid any misunderstanding. In case, you are thinking to decline a gift, do so in a courteous manner. Here’s why and how:

• Accepting overly generous gifts is not usually the proper thing to do. And if there are certain unavoidable circumstances under which a gift needs to be returned, there is a way to do it. For example, write a tactful note to the person acknowledging his or her gesture even while refusing it politely.
• If receiving a costly gift makes you feel uncomfortable or you think it can cause a potential damage to a business relationship, it is correct to refuse the gift. Doing so is perfectly acceptable. Accepting gifts as favor from clients is among the most sensible things to do. Refusing generous giving, however, must be done in a respectful way.
• Approach your ‘generous giver’ in person. If the person might feel offended, try to sooth his or her frayed nerves by writing a letter. Thank the giver for his or her gift. Though you are refusing it, still thank the person for the kind gesture.
• Explain carefully your position to convey why you are refusing the gift. If it is your company policy to not to accept expensive gifts, have a copy of the same on hand or incorporate that part of your company policy statement in your letter.
• Express your regret in a genuine manner for refusing the gift. This is important if you need to maintain a continued business relationship with the person so the latter does not feel awkward.

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