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 the promotions offer in form of prizes or gifts. 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 be denoted as a ‘gift’, ‘reward’, ‘award’ or a similar term as long as the context does not get misleading to consumers. 

For example, promoters should not make a claim that respondents can get to ‘win’ a ‘reward’ because the terminology is improper, confusing and inconsistent. In other words, respondents get to ‘win’ a ‘prize’ but are ‘awarded’, ‘allocated’ or ‘given’ a ‘gift’. Let’s take a practical case. A few years ago, the UK based Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) mulled over a rather complicated 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.

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You might have been advised that you need to ‘think beyond the boundaries’, to make your gifting ideas work. But by no ways this would mean going overboard. Be creative and not careless.

Let me give a practical example. Say, you’ve decided to present food baskets. But You should not gift basketfull of yummy chocolates to a person on a strict diet or suffering from diabetes! It’s like indirectly mocking him. You need to know the person better before finalizing your choice, or else the whole idea will backfire.

Work out budget

Depending on your clientele along with your marketing budget, you can either go for elegantly designed high-end objects or basic ones. In effect, gifting should be planned in advance, there by having sufficient time for negotiating the rates for the gifts and also availing discount facilities

Know the intangibles

Apart from the tangible aspects, other intangibles are equally important. Try to ensure the appropriateness of any gift or favor you give or receive. Be grateful to the person who gave a gift to you, with a nice note like: “You have really understood my taste. Mention how you plan to practically use the gift.

Want to refuse a gift…

In certain circumstances, you might not be in a position to receive a gift. However, its giver would perhaps refuse to take the gift back. This can be other way round, and the client might show unwillingness to accept a gift. Maintain a proper record of your formal or official interaction with the person. Make sure the appropriate authority next in your chain of command is always kept in the loop if such a situation emerges.

Be discreet

Being discreet is another important aspect while gifting. If you decide to only give gifts to some employees who are your friends, do so out of the office. Last but not the least, remembering everyone while giving gifts can go a long way in building and maintaining relationships. When gifting to staff, accommodate even the lower hierarchy. This passes a message that each person is valued in your organization and is treated as a vital part of it.

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Artists belonging to the new-age, dynamic India, greatly influenced by global developments in contemporary art thanks to greater exposure to the international art world, now work in a diverse range genres, styles, subjects and mediums. Their works are worth collecting:

T.M. Azis: His work is figurative in nature. The paintings may revolve around what might be outwardly ordinary, everyday occurrences, deeply contemplated over.

Samit Das: Space or rather lack of it in the burgeoning cities is his primary artistic concern which he expresses through his visuals loaded with metaphors.

Murali Cheeroth: His involvement with theatre coupled with continuing interest in cinema helps him in presenting his images through dramatic ambiance for an unusual perspective.

Hindol Brahmbhatt: He treats his work as a documentation of historical reality in contemporary context, and looks for clues of social changes.

Nitish Bhattacharjee: His work is a documentation of his memories, his impressions, and perceptions of his surroundings.

Sudarshan Shetty:  He takes apart ubiquitous objects without dismantling them, and decodes them, by revealing their inherent mechanical being.

Bharti Kher: Her practice revolves around pangs of dislocation and transience, involving an autobiographical examination of identity.

Reena Saini Kallat: She is known to be deeply influenced by the never-ending cycle of life and nature, as well as the extremely fragile nature of the human condition.

Anju Dodiya: The self is often at the center of her work that explores various possibilities within it. Her practice is rooted in the figurative.

Rekha Rodwittiya: Her female protagonists are often elevated to iconic proportions. They can simultaneously occupy multiple avatars.

Navjot Altaf: Known for her multimedia work, largely interactive sculpture, photo and video based installations, she tackles varied themes of gender/memory/ history and loss.

Nalini Malani: Her artistic world, largely constituted by visible overlays, is fluid with everything in a constant state of metamorphosis.

Anita Dube: Her aesthetic language incorporates ubiquitous objects, everyday materials and images that together resonate with a meaning far beyond perceived local and prosaic associations.

Chitra Ganesh: While firmly rooted in a Western, postmodern discourse, the artist’s cultural references let her convey the principle of a multiplicity as a spirit, which draws together, and not breaks apart.

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With the sun just rising on the horizon of the Indian art world, it’s time to soak into the creative journey of emerging talent! We provide you a glimpse of some of the most promising artists from India, bound to be in limelight in the coming years…

Highly talented contemporary Indian artists have attained appreciation and applause on the international art scene for their propensity to express current concerns through quaint and recognizable motifs. In this context, the fascinating works by our female artists deserve a special and separate mention.

Here are some of the noteworthy female artists who have won the nod of collectors and critics…

Jayashree Chakravarty: For this sensitive artist, painting is a process and means of making sense of the chaos around her.
Mithu Sen: Known for unconventional themes and forms, she represents the new wave of talent in contemporary Indian art. She puts to use a wide range of media.

Schandra Singh: She mostly works in the medium of oil and gouache, touches upon shared social and political realities.
Meetali Singh: According to the artist, she treads a fine territory between real-life emotions and sheer imagination. Hence the images are surreal, dreamy in nature.

Heeral Trivedi: Looking at history and connecting past histories with present, the artist looks to draw parallels among women in different eras.

Anu Agarwal: Bold lines, stark contours and fantastic female forms are the hallmarks of her oeuvre.

Jignasa Doshi: She focuses on the showbiz for depicting the increasing showiness and shallowness, as she terms it, under the garb of sophistication.

Suhasini Kejriwal: At first casual glance, her beautiful works -tend to camouflage the more disturbing view one begins to notice after further analyzing it. Startling juxtapositions and unconscious associations, which transcend habitual thinking to reveal deeper alternate levels of meaning, emerge.

Sonia Mehra Chawla: Her work encapsulates and inculcates the ever-fluid essence of the organic. The ambiguous, hybrid forms often suggest the generative and the sensuous.

Parvathi Nayar: Her practice largely revolves around drawing and painting; conceptually it is rooted in ideas of narrative, at different ways of looking, perceiving and the privileging of sight.

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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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Easter is the historic day when Jesus came back to our land from the grave to vindicate his teachings and justify to the Romans the ideologies handed down to us. Those who opted to follow this ideology remember this occasion as one, which signals the end of Lent - a period of abstinence from material pleasures when one returns to the old adage of piety.

Easter is a great opportunity for a get-together and gifts! The first thing that strikes one’s mind when you are wished Happy Easter is a toss-up between Easter Eggs and Easter Bunny. Home-made Easter Eggs can be packaged prettily and presented to office colleagues wrapped in cute baskets.

Easter Eggs are wonderfully chocolate-y with a colorful (gold being the main color) surface. Arranged well they make for great decorative items for the desk. If your colleague is married, gift enough eggs for everybody.

Rope everybody else in the office and make a gift hamper for the boss. Make it complete with bunnies (either the soft toy variety or the edible variety), large eggs in a suitably big basket, with a dashing bow.

Keep the right colors and patterns in mind. Opt for a deep color for the bow and for the wrapping material – pick stripes and checks and muted colors.

Opt for an Easter hamper – a beautiful basket, two or three dozen eggs, depending on the number of people in office, confetti, popcorn, sponge balls, or your choice of filling. Get a small gift each for your colleagues and of course, the Easter Bunny. Order a bunny cake, too.

There are options in form of Le Meridien and Patchi for Easter Bunny! Almost every patisserie and cake shop will have its fair share of Easter goodies to select from for every budget.

Tags: Cheap corporate gifts, promotional gifts, Gifting occasions, gifting etiquette, Best business gifts, Best corporate gifts, low cost gifts, corporate gifts companies, Corporate gifting, Business Gifting
Corporate gifting

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It’s again that time of the year for the top hotel’s pastry chef to get into action. JW Marriott’s Savio Fernandes, like always, is looking forward to an enchanting tradition in the family – that of making Easter eggs with his parents.

A DNA news report quotes him: “There hasn’t been a single Easter ever without an Easter egg. We give them to our family friends and relatives. No one will ever leave our home without an egg on Easter.”

Savio, since becoming the Marriott chef started preparing new goodies along with the Easter eggs for his hotel guests. These include a rich fruit cake with luscious layers of marzipan, a traditional simmel cake - decorated with small marzipan balls – 11 of them to represent the of Jesus Christ’s 11 apostles (minus Judas who betrayed Christ).

A 7th Century Benedictine monk, Bede Venerabilis, wrote about how the occasion was celebrated during the serene Spring equinox, while coinciding with the celebration of the Resurrection by Christians. Pope Gregory the Great’s instructions given to missionaries to co-opt ‘Heathen’ places and Christianity’s festivals, gave rise to the term, Easter.

Different regions tend to have different patterns. In Germany, cute gifts are given with Easter eggs, to children as well as adults. It’s a tradition here to paint eggs green and have them on Maundy Thursday. In certain places, the yolk is taken out; the egg is painted attractively. Easter eggs are hollowed out to be filled with yummy chocolate gold coins in Dubai. Eggs are painted red as in Slavic cultures a symbol of the blood of Christ.

Besides chocolate, eggs are made of marzipan in India, and chocolate bunnies, chicks and hens find their way into gorgeous Easter baskets. Families usually exchange these Easter goodies on Easter Sunday.

Tags: Best corporate gifts, Best business gifts, low cost gifts, Cheap corporate gifts, Gifting events, Corporate gifting, Corporate gifting India, gifting to clients, Business Gifting
Corporate gifting, business gifting

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Is your marriage anniversary just round the corner? You obviously want to relive those golden moments with your partner. If you are still unclear about what to really gift him or her on this memorable occasion, there is no need to worry.

We offer you some simple albeit interesting gift ideas:

Giving your partner something he or she has been thinking to buy for a while is a perfect way to display your love. It’s showing that you care about his or her tastes and understand what makes him or her truly happy.

You can conceive a more personal gift like cuff links, a watch or locket engraved with his or her initials or a very special message. Consider making a scrapbook of photographs and mementos of your beautiful relationship.

A picture perfect photo frame will also work. All you require is a good quality photo frame. Pick one that jells well with her or his personality - not necessarily a mushy one. Rummage through your old photo albums to strike a memorable note on this romantic occasion!

Opt for any moment-defining like one on the birthday, anniversary or your first ever photo snapped together. Glass cube frames make a good choice, as they let you put three photos instead of one, as in a regular frame.

From the day you met your lover until today, you must have amassed some great memories. Jot them down with a touch of sentiment and gift it to him or her with a single red rose. Pick a classy leather trimmed diary, ideally with a buckle to close it.

And don’t forget to personalize your gift with some engraving. This will make your gift romantic and sweet.

Tags: Cheap corporate gifts, promotional products, Gifting occasions, low cost gifts, corporate gifts companies, Gifting events, gifting etiquette, Best business gifts, business gift baskets,

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Nearly eight in 10 Indians (77%) prefer Clothes, Sweets (including chocolates- 69 %) and Books (49%) as their preferred gifting items. Importantly, more than half of the people surveyed indicated they would shop online.

Following are the broad findings of a survey conducted by Nielsen India on gifting patterns research panel.

• Differences are there across different age groups in terms of gifting items, budgets and shopping channels.

• Sweets, Clothes and Books are universally popular, but more so with the mature group aged 45 and above

• The younger crowd (15-24 years) prefers to gift technology gadgets such as mobile phones and MP3 players.

• Holidays (travel and accommodation), travel tickets and tickets to amusement parks are popular new-age gift ideas.

• About 20 percent would like to give wine as a gift.

• More than half of the people surveyed indicated they would shop online.

According to N. S. Muthukumaran, Director, Online Panel, the Nielsen Company, India, the technology that has entered our lives in the last 10 years is deeply affecting young people in their twenties who have grown up with it. He says, “To many, it is cool to be seen with the latest model of phone or music system and giving one as a present is in the same league, albeit a costly option for these young folks.”

Look for more findings of the survey indicating the habits and beliefs of Indians regarding gifting in the next blog posts…

Pic Source

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Giving corporate gifts is the perfect way to encourage your employees to work hard and to remain loyal to your company. After all, if you treat people well and offer them gifts and incentives for their hard work, then why would they want to be anywhere else?

They are also a great way to encourage customers to remain loyal to your company and your brand of product or service.

The down side to offering incentives is the cost. Although these kinds of corporate gifts tend to pay for themselves over time in terms of loyalty earned and extra hard work on the parts of your employees, they can still be expensive to begin giving out

When we talk of cost involved, it is not essential that every corporate gift handed out has to be very expensive or fancy. Good corporate gifts can be purchased from a number of sites online which offer variety of gifts ranging from desk clocks, mouse mats to golf sets, safari trips etc. And very often, discounts can also be availed if bulk orders are made.

I wouldn’t deny that “Personalization is the key to effective corporate gift giving.” But personalization can be implemented when it comes to the really important gifts or the really big moments.

So if you are trying to entice your new client or mould your difficult boss in your favor or gift the person that was just hired to run your business for you, you can do so by giving them unique gifts.

You can find sites that offer exclusive and personalized corporate gifts that you want to give, and they do so at prices that wont drive you to bankruptcy without compromising with the quality of the gift

Spending carefully on corporate gifts could mean a world of difference to how well your business operates in the future, with the best employees remaining steadfastly beside you and your customers remaining loyal, even when the market gets a little competitive.

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