What’s going to work this Valentine’s Day? Here are a few simple ideas that will warm the hearts and sure will work provided you customize them. Here are some tried and tested gift ideas for Valentine’s Day:-

A well-arranged bouquet of fabulous flowers:

A beautiful bouquet of flowers with a nice note is the safest bet. It always works. Find out about your lover’s floral preferences. Lilies and Tulips are among the more popular choices. And, of course, the rose! Keep in mind the connotations and meanings attached with colors before you pick the flowers.

• Red: Love, respect
• Two red roses joined together: Engagement or marriage (use it carefully)!
• Rose buds: Beauty, youth
• Pink: Grace, gentility
• White: Innocence, reverence, purity
• Yellow: Joy
• Red and White: Unity
• Orange: Desire

Silk flowers & plants make a good gift idea since they last forever just like your love for him or her.

Chocolates

This one invariably works since it spells out sensuality. Nothing indeed melts a heart like Valentines Day chocolate. Keep in mind the taste of your sweetheart and whether he or she prefers dark chocolate, milk chocolate, chocolate truffles or nutty chocolate. They all send a message of love.

Jewelry

This is an idea that will invariably work for making your lady love happy! Rings, earrings, watches, bracelets and necklaces all work! It may be a bit costly but nothing turns on the charm quite as much as a rich piece of jewelry. Opt for a simple pendant on a shining silver chain for an even more elegant look. Of course, high prices can prove to be a deterrent!

Even though these gift ideas may seem common, you can give a special touch to ubiquitous t objects with some imagination and an innovative approach. It’s not the price tag that makes a gift stand apart. The way you give a thought in terms of personalization and presentation is what bound to make it a unique. For example, a photo frame can be made to look special and memorable by inserting some of the most unforgettable moments of your relationship. This will sure please the person most dear to you!

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Technology is an integral part of today’s everyday life. Are you looking for some unique gadgets to gift for someone who is a real fitness freak? Here we pick an exciting idea dedicated to the concept, as recommended by tech writer Gopal Sathe of The Mint India.
Just to elaborate, Fitbit Ultra is a light and unobtrusive device that comes with an accelerometer built in, to count every step you take. An altimeter tells it how high you are, to measure the flights of stairs you climbed.

In it, a small LED notifier shows the number of steps you’ve taken, and the calories you burnt. Fitbit Ultra is actually a small plastic clip that looks like a Bluetooth headset.  The way it works is simple— switch it on, clip it to your clothes, and that’s about it. You also need to maintain a food diary, which you can enter into the Fitbit website. Here are its other features:

1. Data pertaining to your walking can be submitted to the website by plugging your Fitbit into the computer. The site then analyses your dietary entries and your walk data and gives you a detailed breakdown of how this is affecting your overall health.

2. The Web interface is easy to use and understand, but you need to be prepared to enter a lot of information manually. For people who already have a fitness routine and want a little help tracking the details, the Fitbit is an excellent option. The display also shows a clock and can function as a stopwatch.

3. Another handy feature of the Fitbit is sleep analysis. You need to press a button when you go to bed, and another when you get up, and the device will then be able to tell you how often you woke up during the night, and how restfully you were sleeping. It’s a nice touch, though it can’t really tell if you’re asleep, or just lying fairly still.

4. A problem area perhaps is that the food listings do not account for Indian cuisine— they cater specifically to Americans. Those here will have to make do without the calorie input and output analysis from the website, limiting one of the features. Another downside is it can’t track exercise outside of walking/running. The session you put in at the gym doesn’t reflect in the tracking charts, unless you enter it manually.

(Fitbit Ultra is priced at $100 (around Rs 5,300) plus shipping charges.)

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Contrary to the perception and predictions of gloom and doom for global economy, marketers are bullish on Asia and India in particular. They describe these as real exciting times, presenting a great business opportunity and hence are keen to open new stores across different cities this year. Sample this:

• Porsche Design has opened in New Delhi and already has chalked out plans to expand to other leading cities of the country. It tracks several luxury brands including Montblanc, Ferragamo and Prada; if eight of the 10 start in a particular city, it grasps the market is now ripe for it to make a foray.
• Louis Vuitton has recorded double-digit growth in 2011, albeit from a small base. It has been a star performer not just in India but globally,” states the chief representative (Asia) for LVMH (Moët Hennessy-Louis Vuitton), Tikka Shatrujit Singh, also an advisor to the Louis Vuitton chairman.
• Harley-Davidson has buyers from the North-east as well as Kanpur, Allahabad and other cow belt towns. Shreyans Group that retails Ferrari and Porsche claims to have sold 10 Porsches at least in Kanpur until now thanks to a discerning and affluent class there who appreciate luxury something that only the rich in top metros were known for in the past.
• Car marques such as Porsche, Maserati and Ferrari are witnessing an impressive upsurge in demand. If the former got around 20 orders for the last six months in 2011, Porsche delivered more than 310 cars - all are customized to the buyers’ demands - in 2011, more than twice the number in the previous year.

What is really driving this trend? One reason is that a Badge consciousness perhaps reigns high. There can be few better ways of flaunting your success or new-found status than by flinging out your captivating Canali wallet during an office meeting or click-clicking in your jazzy Jimmy Choos. This tendency is clearly going to have a positive impact on gifting industry as well, which is a much welcome development in today’s apparently tough times.

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Valentine’s Day is approaching fast, and you must be wondering what to gift to that someone special. But maybe, budget is a factor as you do not want to buy something very expensive. However, you also want the gift to look classy. How can you make this possible? Well, you should look to innovate to bring a pleasant surprise to your lover or your best buddy on the Valentine’s Day eve.How, you sure would want to know! Here are three off-beat gifts crafted out of routine objects with a touch of personalization and imagination.

Personalized CD: Burn a CD of her or his favorite love duets or solos or touchy poems. Do not forget to customize the CD cover. Do so with a nice picture of both of you. Isn’t it all romantic, albeit economical? Music CD with a personal love messages subtly sneaked between songs will also have a magical effect. Record your voice on a cell phone or a recider; transfer it onto your comp with a data cable and arrange it along with his/her favorite songs to be burnt. It cannot get simpler than this!

Personalized piece of art: Gift her or him a beautiful painting (if you are good at drawing and painting, nothing like it) or some intelligently scribbled conversation you cherish in a pretty frame.

Personalized mouse pad with a special message: A personalized mouse pad is a good gift idea. Many gift shops are willing to add sayings as well as photos on just about anything. If you do so, it will impart a personalized product. Come up with some lines that are touching and catchy.

If you wish to make it that much mushier, a love-filled poem could be considered. You could try this trick with a photo frame, mug, penholder, etc. A personalized gift is bound to touch your beloved’s heart! What you will get in return… well, we won’t ask to share the details with us. It must be something very personalized…

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Don’t assume things! Just because you like a gift idea doesn’t mean your recipient will! Think hard before you finalize a gift idea. Once you have done so, the task of choosing from a wide array of corporate gift possibilities is not so difficult. Let’s consider the pros and cons of some of them:

It’s great when a corporate gift has personality, but the core issue is whether it reflects the personality and interests of the receiver.
Is he or she a sports car buff? Does the person love art and craft? What’s her favorite color? What is that he or she avoids or dislikes?

It is necessary to discreetly find out all these things instead of randomly picking a gift. The gift can never be bigger than its recipient?
When you make a thoughtful choice, your gift invariably reflects your sensibilities, and gives the impression that you indeed care about the person beyond business relations and hence have taken the time and efforts to understand his or her style, taste and even moods. In other words, you need to be doubly sure of your client’s choices and preferences.

Tickets to live entertainment and sporting events can make great gifts. Scarce seats for a sold-out concert or show can enhance your standing in the eyes of a client. Office-related items like pen sets and desk blotters are the safest bets. Exercise caution when presenting art prints and other decorative pieces, since tastes in office decor can vary.

Gift cards are preferable, if you want to take out much of the guesswork of giving. They are available from a wide variety of FMCG companies, super stores, malls and book stores that offer the buyer freedom of choice. The only problem is the amount printed on the face, which, for some, can be discomforting. In essence, the key is treat your gifting program as a full-fledged target-marketing and relationship-building strategy

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Jawbone is known for its Bluetooth headsets. The USP, launched late last year (November 2011), is its first fitness device. What are its exclusive features that make it well worth gifting. Let’s check out:

1. Coming in the form of a small wristband, it carries a small LED light along with motor inside for vibrations for feedback. It comes with an easy-to-use app iPhone/iPod Touch users can install. When you plug the wristband into your phone, it uploads all the data into it.
2. When you plug it into your phone, you get a simple graph of the day, with three bars on it displaying how long you’ve slept, how much you exercised and what you ate. If you meet your goals on any, there are visual cues to praise you for that bar, and if you tap the bar you can get details about that field.
3. Its standout feature is the silent alarm that monitors if a user is in deep sleep or light sleep, and wakes him or her up by vibrating if and when the sleep is least restful, within a half-hour window around desired wake-up time. The benefit of this is you wake up easily and are able to get out of bed instead of pressing the snooze button. So, for instance, the sleep bar will expand to show details of deep sleep versus restless sleep, how long you took to sleep, how long you slept; this data can be compared across days.
4. The interface tracks how far you’ve walked every day, and there are charts for other activities like exercising in the gym. The system takes all this into account and tracks how many calories this helped you burn. The app requires you to take a photo of every meal. Instead of making a graph against a database to display calories, it asks you to rate the food on how it makes you feel, and gives an encouraging response when you eat the foods that make you feel healthier.
5. This gentle prompting, along with the accurate exercise tracking, is a good reason to buy the UP. The UP has a battery life of 10 days. Its exercise tracking is pretty thorough. It’s priced at roughly $100 (around Rs 5,300), plus shipping charges.

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Sunflowers, lilies, orchids, roses etc, they all seem be in full bloom on the streets of Mumbai. Well, we are referring to some trendy hair accessories that have given way to new ‘flower girls’ in 2012. You may be wondering what this piece of information has got to do with gifting…Read on!!!

The point this writer is trying to make that you cannot ignore the current trends and the in-things while deciding what to gift and in which form? Now a drop of hint here: As far as hair accessories are concerned, the ravishing retro look has found another expression in them as well. You might have noticed this if take a casual stroll down the city’s main fashion alleys.

You will get to see an array of fascinating floral hair clips, hair clutches and head bands - in feather, cotton, silk, or chiffon.  The fabulous floral hair accessories - large and small, minimalist or otherwise – are clearly the fashion du jour. Most experts and ardent fashion trend watchers reveal that a maxi dress coupled with a floral hair clip can make a perfect pair.

Tie-up head bands mixed with floral accessories is also a unique fashion statement. Floral pins can well be teamed up with an outfit as a befitting brooch or they can form part of your sizzling shoes, lending a feminine touch to the overall appearance. What adds to their popularity is the wide range of captivating colors in which they are available.

You may consider hair accessories like floral head bands of all kinds to suit your woman’s look and outfit, which jell with her personality. This, I am sure, will sure warm her heart. It makes her realize that you are taking efforts to make her feel special. If one of your friends or relatives is visiting a foreign country, you can ask them to get such accessories as a memento that you may opt to gift later.

Fashion is a way of expressing your attitude. And gifting some amazing accessories on an occasion or just casually is always a nice gesture.

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Has the slowdown interfered with the eclectic buyer’s appetite for high luxury? A recent article by Avantika Bhuyan & Priyanka Sharma (The Business Standard), gives an insight on the ground situation. The broad inference it draws is that there is no significant impact on the upper end of the market as far as sales are concerned.

It quotes a successful entrepreneur eager to flaunt her wealth, as saying: “I would rather buy an expensive handbag that I can carry with me through the year than a gold set for the same amount of money that I would only wear during a wedding. It is all about how you choose to spend on luxury.”

One reason for this trend could also be the fact that prices in India are now more or less the same as abroad. Three years ago, buyers would arm themselves with lists of Chanel lipstick shade numbers or Dior bag descriptions before going abroad. Today they prefer to purchase in India. The difference between Indian and global prices is kept at a bare minimum and is usually the value-added tax.

Listen to what another entrepreneur who markets luxury brands has to say on this particular issue: “The difference between Indian and international price range is rather quite small. A Louis Vuitton bag may be a bit cheaper in London, but the prices in Delhi and Bangkok are almost identical.” Same is the case with Dior handbags.

What’s holding this particular segment of the market together is the new dynamic, jet-setting generation of luxury products buyers in the age group of 21-35. As a retailer points out, this indeed is a very exciting segment, with the kind of consumer base with a fresh outlook, who is keen to show success, flaunts wealth. The young professionals are ambitious and self-driven.

As the news report mentions: “There’s the other kind of consumer segment - 37-plus, more mature and equally well established. They belong to the connoisseur category. It’s these two distinct demographics, which make Indian market an interesting one.” This is where the gifting industry needs to channelize its efforts, as well…

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The festival of Makar Sankranti and kites go hand in hand. It’s a perfect opportunity to spread cheer and generate some goodwill.
The festival of kites, til-gul laddoos (sesame and jiggery) and gacchak gives a good chance to align with the popular motifs. People of all ages, cutting across the cross-section of the society, pick up their favorite kite designs.

Bollywood star Amrita Rao quips in an interview: “The sport mirrors our aspirations and inspirations. Just like our dreams and ambitions, the kite soars higher and even after it’s cut, it will glide down gracefully.” So there’s a lesson to be learnt for all of us, as to always keep flying high, never give up, and accept failure graciously.

In a way, kites provide a good opportunity for branding. But instead of simply printing a ubiquitous logo of your company, why not keep in mind the popular trend, and accordingly design or gift kinds that are popular? Last year Bollywood symbols were in demand, whereas kites that flaunt tinselville stars seem to be grabbing for attention along with those bearing Anna Hazare and the World Cup winning Team India this year. Actor Vidya Balan in her ‘Silk’ avatar of The Dirty Picture also surfaces on the kites.

Kites bearing the social activist, cricketers, and those of the Bollywood beauties are very much demand. The kites made of PVC plastic in the range of Rs 10- Rs 250 are also popular because they are more durable. Why not organize a kite-flying competition for your staff, and give an award to the winner to create a sense of unity and build team spirit.

Festivals like Makar Sankranti provide a perfect opportunity to bring your employees, colleagues, business associates, clients and partners together, keeping aside professional relations and bonding in a more informal manner. This helps build a rapport with the people who matter to your business. Even popular celebrities can be invited to add a tinge of glamor to the event. This will be a good promotional activity and an apt, occasion based branding exercise.

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Some sleek services have recently emerged on the horizon to allow people to locate products as well as create wish lists, which can be e-mailed to your family, friends, colleagues and distant relatives, essentially to make sure that they get at least one cherished thing they aspire for. One among them is Svpply (pronounced ‘supply’). Here’s it what does or you!

What if you are in the market searching for a winter wardrobe, but not sure which puffy coat or motorcycle boots pair to add to your buying list? After signing up, this service, lets users find other like-minded users as well as friends, to check the products and items that they have ‘liked’ on the website.

Many brands, shops and boutiques do update their own items’ feeds – those they’re selling themselves or the ones they have recommended. As an introductory note on the site mentions: “Svpply is a fast-growing community of people discovering the products that they love. Use it to keep track of the things you wish to buy, or browse your own feed of products from all across the web, curated and filtered by other people and stores that you yourself find interesting.”

Users may key in generic terms such as wool scarf and gloves. They then can browse through the items those in their own network as well as others have added to their lists. The service also makes recommendations on basis of the tastes of the different people you follow. Once you happen to spot that near-perfect white leather gloves pair or camel-hair coat, you can add the items to a holiday gift list.

The website has a frequently-updated rotation of gift guides for all budgets, cutting across a wide range of categories, such as booze, women’s accessories and tech. Svpply allows shoppers to keep tab on drool-worthy products/ items that they see on other websites, bookmarking the same in their account for further perusal.

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