Noble gesture offers rewarding success

An international concept of corporate gifting is developing rapidly in India. Corporate sector these days try hard on relationships and networking to stand out and be better than the competition. This concept of corporate gifting solves two purposes together by pleasing employees and promoting the company through gifts. Most corporate gifts are embellished with the logo, name or the slogan of the company which helps them to boost their brand value and give a personalised touch to gifts.

Multinational companies have introduced this trend recently which has gained popularity in the Indian corporate sector immensely. The trend of gifting is more often seen on festivals and New Year’s. Hence the business has enormous opportunity for aspirants. Anil Kumar Gupta, Managing Director, Sparket Marketing Pvt. Ltd shares: “More and more companies are giving gifts and this has become round the year business with high peaks during festival times to New Year. Any entrepreneur whose strength is not investment should consider this business, as his success will depend on his learning and involvement and not on pure investment.”

With the major brands entering the corporate gifting sector the industry is emerging as a highly rewarding business opportunity for many aspirants. More over this sector is becoming highly organised via franchising. To capitalise on this rewarding opportunity, gift manufactures introduce innovative gifts in the market for different occasion.

Factors for growth

Corporate gifting industry has emerged as a lucrative business venture. Some of the factors leading to the growth of this business are:

MNC’s influence: The culture of corporate gifting in India is introduced by Multi-National Companies (MNC). Indian corporate world has got highly influenced by the various traits followed by MNC’s and thus giving birth to new business opportunities.

Thanks giving gesture: Corporate companies have started the trend of appreciating work of their employees by bestowing them with gifts to motivate them. Moreover these gifts by companies are used to welcome new employees or clients, thank existing ones, or flatter and impress potential clients with gifts.

Brand promotion: Corporate gifting facilitates the company to advertise and increase the brand value. Many corporate gifts are imprinted with company logo which allows companies to discreetly stay in the consciousness of clients and partners. In this way, corporate gifts facilitate customised promotional advertising requirements.

Retaining employees: Corporate gifting also helps a company to retain their loyal and hardworking employees. Giving employee’s gifts on festivals and other occasions make them feel their importance and motivate them to work hard for the company.

Brands offering franchise opportunity

Corporate gifting is a promising sector for many aspiring entrepreneurs who wish to start up with a unique business venture. Gupta tells: “We were looking for a destiny for ourselves and found this industry as fragmented but with big scope for a company who can organise it with national presence. Our initial success at Bengaluru and Kolkata encouraged us to appoint franchisees in other cities and towns.”

As the corporate communication is at its nascent stage many brand have entered the organised sector. Some of them are:

Presto: Presto has reinvented its identity and product positioning in the market since the year 2005. To open a Presto kiosk, a franchisee needs to have an area of 100 sq. ft with an investment of Rs 6 lakh. On the other hand, to open an exclusive store, a franchisee requires around 300 sq. ft area with the financial investment of Rs eight lakh. Presently, Presto Wonders operates 90 outlets across India, out of which 60 are franchised while the rest are company-owned.

Sparket: Started on October 29, 1986, the brand has established itself as one of the best organised companies, dealing with corporate world. Franchisees can start from their home and need investment budget plan of Rs five lakh, spread over a period of time to expand the business. Currently it has three franchisees at Mumbai, Delhi and Kochi.

Divniti: The brand offers a wide array of multiple occasion gifts such as corporate, social, religious, marriage ceremonies, personal gifting, etc. Diviniti, a corporate and religious gifting product brand is planning to open 15 stores in New Delhi via franchise route. The brand presently operates three franchise stores in the capital itself.

Hurdles in the path of success

Like any other business, corporate gifting industry too goes through a series of challenges. In order to cope up with challenges, franchisors extend their support to franchisees by offering them standard operating manuals for running the business. On providing solution, Gupta says: “Corporate gifting is ideal for a working people who are sure that they would like to be on their own given the first opportunity. Challenge is increasing customer and product base constantly which can be ideally done only if the team is big enough. One man operation fails to sustain challenge in long run due to need to constantly increase new customers with new products range. Here we support our franchisees by giving them hot enquiries and by constantly adding new products range to our portfolio.”

Requisites for aspirants

For a corporate gifting franchise opportunity the total investment required is of Rs 5 to 10 lakh with an area of 100 to 300 sq. ft. Some of the players also provide home-based opportunity to aspirants. Gupta tells in brief about the home-based business opportunity in the sector: “The business can be started from home with little investment and you can scale up the same as you learn the game and start earning within first three to six months. Margins on average are above 25 per cent and customers encourage new vendors as they constantly need new gifting products and ideas.”

To conclude it can be said that the industry is a promising sector for many aspiring entrepreneurs as it is an affordable business venture in terms of investment. The sector has lot of potential to grow enormously as it is becoming highly organised via franchising.