Recognised as a leader in the gifting & promotional products industries, Staples is one of the largest manufacturers and global distributors of gifts & branded merchandise. Its aim is to provide creative solutions and cost-effective pricing to a wide range of business for their gifting and promotional products requirements. Whether you are looking to enhance your corporate image through a managed program or just need that one-time order for an event or a trade show, you can count on Staples to say 'Work is Easy!'

Ms. Archana Biyani, Senior Manager (Corporate Gifts & Promotions), Staples Future Office Products Pvt. Ltd. spoke at length to Gifts & Accessories Magazine about the ways in which Staples has managed to focus their attention towards corporate gifting.

G. & A.: How do you define corporate gifting? What are the ways in which one can be involved in it?

Corporate gifting includes all the activities associated with building loyalty amongst a company's employees / customers / channel partners through the medium of a gift. It includes identifying products which suit the objective of why the gift is being given, designing the program to manage the entire exercise, and operationally carrying out the procurement, customisation and distribution of the gifts to the recipients. In certain cases it involves management of loyalty programs which are linked to certain point based redemptions (channel schemes etc.). One can be involved as a product manufacturer, importer, somebody specialising in customisations or decoration, in packaging or just the logistics. At Staples, our global expertise lies in being present across the entire value chain of the gifting business and giving our customers a 'one-stop solution for all their gifting and promotional products needs'.

G. & A.: How easy or difficult was it to enter the Indian market when we consider the corporate gifting / sales promotional scenario in the country, with so many other brands also competing with each other? How do you look at India as a potential market in terms of corporate gifting?

The market for corporate gifting in India is highly fragmented and served pre-dominantly by local players and individual entrepreneurs. This leads to a limited level of product and service standardisation, and in most cases results in a high degree of involvement from the customer itself to ensure mistakes are minimised and timelines are adhered to. Furthermore, there is an absence of product or category consolidators, poor adherence to company logo guidelines and limited orientation to quality checks. This creates a major challenge for large companies looking for a single vendor to manage a pan India gifting project.

At Staples, our experience of running successful corporate gifting programs across 26 countries makes us well suited to cater to the needs of large customers in India. Our experienced team, procurement strength (we have more than 27 factories in China alone working for Staples exclusively), online procurement systems and dedicated supply chain infrastructure give us a significant advantage to serve this market. We believe that going forward, a significant part of the gifting segment would look for a service partner like Staples, and we are confident of being the leader in this segment in India in the next couple of years.

G. & A.: How does Staples plan to change the purchase behaviour of corporate gifts across the country?

We would like to partner with our customers, understand their gifting objectives and ensure we provide them with products and solutions that will best suit their needs. At Staples, we do not look at gifting as a seasonal or one time activity. Therefore, we are always keen on providing a 'gifting in a box' solution, wherein once we have understood our customer's needs, we can take over all the requirements associated with it and ensure that it is done at the lowest possible cost.

G. & A.: What are the various value added services that Staples has been providing to its customers?

We have now been working with companies on global gifting programs. For instance, we work with some of the world's largest I.T companies to manage their program across multiple countries - this includes employee recognition gift shops, logo merchandise e-shops etc. Similarly we work closely with brand managers for many FMCG companies to provide them with innovative gifting ideas for their new product launches. Overall, with Staples, customers get the infrastructure benefits of a large company, but the service levels and responsiveness is similar to that of a small entrepreneurial company.

G. & A.: What according to you would the corporate sector be expecting in terms of innovation on the eve of New Year?

It is of immense importance to provide a gift which is of use to the recipient and communicates the company's message effectively. For the ongoing year, our 'Easy Button' has been very popular with corporates with some very interesting messages attached to it. Coming out with such innovative ideas has been our forte and we look forward to providing our clients with more of such ideas in the near future.

G. & A.: What is brand Staples' vision for the future?

Our vision is to define the way the gifting industry functions in India. Our aim is to build a strong recognition amongst our customers towards our orientation to quality, transparency and standardised processes. We want to ensure that our customers demand a similar level of service from all vendors in the Indian gifting industry and this will not only ensure that sour vision is achieved but will also maximise the potential of the entire industry.