Giftex 2012 is your chanced to grasp the trend in the domain of gifting. As the event testifies, corporate gifting has been transformed into an art. If a company gifts too little it can be perceived as cheap and if it gives too much it can become a bribe. Gift the wrong thing, and it’s considered bad taste.

A truly thoughtful gift is the one that strikes a chord with the receiver; the one that reflects that you have taken efforts in selecting, packing and presenting it. A gift’s worth cannot be judged by its price tag alone. What indeed makes it valuable is your genuine emotions attached to it. A ubiquitous item can be blended with the tastes and choice of the person you are going to present it. Your thought behind the whole exercise should reflect through your gift to make it a meaningful gesture.

For example, if your friend or colleague is a youthful, upcoming and dynamic executive who loves looking sporty and sleek at work, you can opt to pick ready-to-wear line that will perfectly suit him or her. You may buy a gift that will help one in one’s daily life like contemporary clothing or something like a CD of soothing songs or challenging puzzle game that will help him or her unwind. It will come in handy for the purpose of recreation or relaxation.

Take some effort to find out what your friend or colleague has been keen on buying. This well might be a book title or a favorite music CD, currently lacking from his or her collection. If the person is a ‘do-it-your-self’ type, get a mechanical or electronic utilitarian item.
If you want to shower your friend or a close colleague with something valuable, Giftex 2012 is your opportunity to get all the great ideas to build and strengthen personal and professional bonds.

If ever there is an event to seek exciting corporate gift ideas for your most valued and prestigious customers, business associates and partners, it’s now. It’s Giftex 2012!

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A successful organization thrives on high-performance, dynamic culture. The key is to build a base of people, at all levels that will critically scrutinize their own practices and voluntarily ask themselves if they are doing all they can to their full potential. The mindset needs to be changed, though! But how to make this happen, you must be wondering! This is where gift certificates come into play.

If you want to encourage loyal and hard working employees and are keen to hold onto them, you need to increase their motivation levels and learn to recognize performance with timely presents like gift certificates.

You may consider the following types of incentives and rewards for your employees:

• Create an attractive incentive structure. For example, give an opportunity to your employees to win a gift certificate equaling a certain percentage of their total sales achieved.

• Set up a ‘points’ ladder, which allows them to win certificates of higher value for increased levels of sales.

• Offer gift cards as part of yearly bonus rewards plans so all team members will encourage each other to improve their productivity. For instance, announce that the team that records the most sales, manages to get the highest customer satisfaction index rating, and completes the most projects on time will get large denominations of gift certificates to the store of their choice.

• Give gift certificates to those employees who exhibit effective leadership skills, brainstorm outstanding solutions on key projects, go an extra mile to help a co-worker or come up with a money saving strategy for the company.

Let the employees select what gift certificate they want to keep from a variety of gift cards options from bookstores, music stores, shopping malls or restaurants. The customized and personalized format of the giveaways will sure motivate the staff to contribute valuable inputs to its growth.

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Now there are a host of online platforms are perfect to make a last-minute holiday list. However, they will come in quite handy year-round especially as online registries for a number of special or generic gift-giving occasions. Prime among them Amazon.com, is one place to compile a list of DVDs, coveted books, and whatever else under the sky.

While Amazon.com is a great resource for the users who already are well aware of exactly what they want, it tends to fall short in terms of turning up interesting and unique items you perhaps not have thought of otherwise, like a military lace-up boots pair trimmed in fur, a vintage Polaroid camera or a high-tech juicer

Wantful is a site that serves just like a virtual personal shopper, which is assigned to skillfully pick a selection of items for each visitor on your exclusive holiday shopping list. Here’s how it works:

• After signing up, shoppers will answer queries about the individual they are seeking a present for, describing the recipient’s gender, tastes as well preferences, like whether he or she enjoys cooking or reading. The relationship to a gift recipient is also considered.
• The website generates 16 items in your specified price range it thinks might well be appropriate gifts; it will print a physical book listing the items and also mail it to recipient of the gift. (Those last-minute gift givers in a hurry can also send their catalogs by mail.)
• The recipient then will choose a gift from the list; the giver is charged. Wantful has populated its lists by teaming up with various vendors and merchants. It offers hundreds of gift ideas; the lower-end ones starting around $30, whereas the most expensive topping out around $500.

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It may be that one of your friends or family members have burnt their fingers in the stock market meltdown. Can you provide them with some succor? Do you want to suggest them an alternative avenue to park their hard-earned money to safeguard and grow it? Is there a way to assured wealth building in these uncertain times? Well, you need not harangue them on risk-free investing.

What you need do is just buy a nice piece of art, and gift it to them. It’s bound to fascinate them. Then draw their attention to the fact that many high net worth individuals and non resident Indians are putting their money in art! Here are some artists to consider:

Chintan Upadhyay: He often explores the iconography of Pop to convey his subject matter. His paintings carry references from media, advertisements, Bollywood and even the traditional miniature paintings.

Baiju Parthan: His fascination for technology, blended with his passion for mythology is palpable in his practice. The artist views them as symbiotic, as he thinks both mythology and technology feed off each other.

Riyas Komu: His oeuvre refers to the paradoxes of the urban situation that he paints with cynicism and compassion. The artist strives to archive the times, as well as reflect our immediate concerns – both localized and globalized.

Jagannath Panda: In his Panda’s work, a routine event or any commonplace object gets imparted with symbolic stature that is oriented to represent collective aspirations or sometimes rigid dogmas.

T.V. Santhosh: Drawing on images and news reports from the media, he combines pointed text and repetitive sculptural forms to make a statement on both the persistent nature of violence and the way it gradually becomes the norm, through recurrence.

Sunil Gawde: His tools often include sophisticated paint materials and implements like trowels and scrapers for achieving a layered depth in his pigments. This results in textured surfaces - dynamic and dramatic in nature.

D Ebenezer Sunder Singh: The paintings of Paul Cézanne and his principles of Art influenced me immensely. The human figures (the central element of his pictures) shift time and space to locate the psychological characteristics and the principles of life.

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Below are the vital factors that are extremely essential for chalking out a corporate gift program:

1. Determine your budget first to get a clear understanding of your corporate gift program. Once you set your budget and scope, next you should define the exact purpose of giveaways.  This will depend on what domain you are and your end user.  Your budget will though, will largely dictate how much you should allocate for the gifting program.
2. When deciding how much to spend, key thing to take into account is the intrinsic value of your business relationship. Based on it, you should make sure you give an ‘appropriate’ gift. Also, consider specific guidelines of that corporate entity and industry. You would never want it to appear as a favor.
3. Just reverse the roles. What if you receive an over-expensive gift? Talk to the giver in person if you think that the gift is too costly, too personal or not really suitable to the occasion or the relationship you share with the person. However, never discuss these things in public with the person concerned.
4. Corporate gifts can serve various roles like Thank You gifts for clients and colleagues; motivational gifts; recognition gifts for employees; new client acquisition; retention of business clients; building brand awareness; promotional products; holiday gifts for clients; trade show giveaways; premiums incentives and incentive programs; award programs; advertising specialties; service and safety awards; and general purpose business gifts and awards.
5. One discreet way to place your logo is leather portfolios. It is normally de-bossed on the cover. Some people prefer to customize with the recipients initials. If you believe you have selected a gift that will make a lasting impression on the recipient, there is absolutely no need to place your logo on the gift. The person will remember you by the gorgeous gift itself.  Also work out how you will distribute it - in person or by courier mail.

In other words, sourcing, packaging and dispatching the gifts demand an on-time and high quality solution providers to manage the specialized gifting related tasks on continual basis.

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In its special Diwali gifting series, The Mint focused on families giving away some unique Diwali gifts for friends and relatives. Anindita Ghose in an essay made mention of such off-beat gifting ideas. 

“What do you gift those who almost have everything they might need?” the writer asked, referring to the Sharmas - Jyotsana and Arjun – who decided to buy potted basil plants in lemon, camphor and tulsi varieties as Diwali gifts.

Their festive gifting plans reflect the austerity debate. But for them it’s more a practical option since the two increasingly find extravagant gifting a pointless exercise. Jyotsana testifies to the undesirable phenomenon of gift recycling. One gift she would though, never pass on is an orchid a friend gifted her. Nurturing it has become an engaging experience, which is why she chose to the green gifting idea.

She approached a local herb store to source their plants from a wide range of medicinal and exotic herbs. The couple opted for basil for its sociological ties with Indian tradition. In fact, the family has almost done away with the whole concept of gifting since the last couple of years. Instead it donates to charitable foundation.

Diwali is an occasion that prompts more donations, which would go to each family member’s chosen charity. Arjun supports Chintan, an NGO that is part of Project Arman. His mother, a doctor by profession, manages a charitable dispensary. Wife Jyotsana supports two animal shelters. A foundation named after Arjun’s father funds a hospital, temple and school in their native village. Every year, the dotting donors throw a party for the rag picking children after Diwali.

Instead of lavish gifting, the family tries to revive the tradition of get-togethers to strengthen the bonds of love. The message here is that, you can celebrate Diwali not just by splurging, but also by donating to charities, and going green. 

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In the previous post, we suggested options for gym membership as an offbeat but highly effective mode to build a ‘healthy’ bond with friends and colleagues who really matter to you and to whom exercise matters owing to their hectic and stressed lifestyle.

You can help them in their quest to maintain themselves that much more with a ‘healthy’ gift. In this post, we shall consider an interesting Yoga-related gift idea. Patanjali’s Yoga Sutra is indeed a fine body of work.

In a short but sweet compilation, the magical personality offered insight into basic tenets of mysticism and various methods for experiencing altered states of consciousness; setting on a path to absoluteness.

Their website states: “Yoga stimulates the parasympathetic system and thus works against stress. Regular relaxation exercises help in developing the witness attitude and help one, to distance oneself from the apparent causes of stress.

Patanjali yoga, if carried out, true to its original spirit as mentioned in the yoga sutras, can truly calm you in body and mind. Right since 1918, the renowned Yoga Institute in the city of Mumbai (located in the serene suburbs of Santa Cruz) has been disseminating disciplined and graded lessons on

Yoga and has been publishing them in pocket editions. These act as a guide on Yoga and meditation practices. There are popular publications such as the ‘Yoga Asanas Simplified’.

It offers a perfect course of Yoga tenets for daily practice. The books, written by authorities like Shri Yogendra, have given a contemporary touch to the ancient science of Yoga.

The valuable offerings like books, VCDs and cassettes at the Yoga Institute present a balanced course of Yoga and techniques of rhythmic breathing during yoga. You can get books, VCDs and cassettes at the Yoga Institute, which make a timely gift under the circumstances.

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Facing a stiff competition from the Internet, television and other distractions, the Indian toy industry is trying to bring about revolutionary changes in its mindset. A prime example of this is Funskool. A joint venture between Hasbro Inc. and MRF, this leading toy company, is also among the largest in India.

Hasbro, a worldwide leader in the domain of children’s and family leisure time entertainment, provides vital inputs for India-centric gaming products and services. This includes the design aspect, precise manufacturing and smart marketing. Here we provide a glimpse of games on offer courtesy Funskool website:

Action based games: Your passion for never ending, fast paced action finds its right match here. The action games pump energy in your system and are bound to raise your adrenaline level to unmatched highs. These games demand involvement of both your mental and physical faculties. 

Children’s games: There are so many different ways to make your Children develop an attachment for you and love you the most. Here is a fabulous series of games that matches your child’s imagination and energy level.  

Disney games: Get engrossed with your favorite Disney characters, Donald Duck, Micky, Mouse and spend time playing a wide variety of mesmerizing games and puzzles! Enter the world of Disney – the one of endless joy and laughter.

Family games: Here is a way to make your bond with your family even stronger. Enjoy the inquisitive series of games for the whole family. ’s family games can be played at any time and will be cherished all time.

Memory Games: Ask a child where he buried his marbles and he will immediately point out even years later! Mysterious memory games help develop their visual recall, object color and shape related recognition faculties. The games can develop their memory skills if played without parental supervision.

(Information and image courtesy: Funskool)

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It’s not just in India but almost all across the globe that board games are clawing their way back into the popular party circuit. They are grabbing newspaper headlines and drawing everyone’s attention.

Even Hollywood is fast realizing the immense potential of scripting tales around such traditional games. Ridley Scott will be working on a film along the lines of popular Monopoly.
On the other hand, Universal is also keen on scripting a saga around Battleship, it is rumored. Research has shown that parents who played any board game at least once every week with their children during spare time tend to develop strong relationships later.

The board game loving fathers tend to bond better with their children than those who didn’t. All these are good enough excuses to jump onto the board game bandwagon. You can bond better with your family members, colleagues and friends through board game. Gifting them will add value to your relationship.

One fantastic resource for accessing a wide range of wonderful in house entertainment is Funskool. It offers among the most exciting options towards complete child and family entertainment. Their website describes the venture as ‘a world of Happy Kids & Happy Families.”

Outlining their business philosophy, it adds: “We at Funskool uphold the highest standards of excellence and quality. We believe fun and education form a natural alliance. Infants, toddlers, pre-schoolers and schoolchildren, all can learn as they play. The wide range of our toys help children across all age groups to improve creativity, logical thinking, hand-eye-co-ordination, auditory discrimination, vocabulary, problem solving skills, and even general-purpose academic intelligence.”

Funskool’s vice president (sales & marketing division), R Jeswant, asks, “How can board games make a comeback? In fact, they never left us.” He adds that the company has registered a good 40 percent growth in the current financial year in the popular board games category alone. Funskool recently tied up with IIT Mumbai for developing a host of ‘homegrown’ games for consumers.

Students made board games as part of their industrial design course and Funskool opted to distribute them. Jeswant explains that the fascinating family games demand skill and aptitude. With its large customer base the company continues to offer well researched and time-tested toys.  Importantly, their products are safe and durable. They provide children with excellent play value.

Know more about Funskool

Tags: , business gifting, corporate gifting for employees, gifting etiquette, corporate gifts companies, Gifting occasions, Business Gifting
Corporate gifting, Best business gifts, promotional products, Gifting events

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In the previous blog, we glanced through some interesting games on offer from Funskool. Here are some more vivacious variants of board games.

Fun Carrom: A game of carroms with 9 white coins, 9 Black coins 1 Red coin set as per the game rules, ready to strike and pocket… But hey! Who shrunk the board? Yes, this is one of the smallest carroms you can find with all similar features of the regular board. It’s a never ending fun playing on this Fun Carrom!

Twister: This one is a real bodybender! Twist bend stretch and perform a whole lot of tricks to stay in the game! A hilarious game with loads of fun and a great way to stay fit.

Littlest pet shop game: These little pets are on an adventure to win the blue ribbon at the Pet Show. The first pet to collect its 3 items and get to the Pet Show wins the blue ribbon.

Tom & Jerry game: The game is all about running and chasing through the party.

Taboo: The game where the players have to try to get their team to guess the secret word, without using the five Taboo clues. If the secret word is ‘kitten’, they can’t say ‘meow’, ‘cat’, ‘purr’, ‘furry’, or ‘animal’. If they do, they will be unceremoniously ‘buzzed’ by the opposing team. Participants have 60 seconds to get their team to guess as many words as possible. But clues need to be chosen carefully because they might be Taboo.

Yahztee: It’s America’s all time favorite dice game. Since 1956 players have been rolling classic dice combinations like full house. Large straight and five of a kind - that’s Yahtzee. The object of the game is to score the most points by rolling five dice to make certain combinations. The dice can be rolled up to three times in a turn to try to make one of the thirteen possible scoring combinations.

Check more Funskool games here
(Information and image courtesy: Funskool)

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