When the economic sentiment is gloomy, marketing efforts to package the iPod as an ideal corporate gift will not be music to one’s ears. This year too, Apple India has attempted to push the iPod as a corporate gift. Aside from print ads, there is even a dedicated website. Curiously, a search for ‘ipod corporate gift India’ on Google does not bring up this site on top but all the online shopping sites come through.
I doubt if the results are anything to write home about given the tendency to cut costs this season. Reports indicate that the gifting market in India was worth Rs.20 billion last year but will only be around Rs. 5 billion this year. From a company point of view, gift-giving may still continue but ‘expensive’ gifts like the iPod may not find favour. Dry fruits, anyone? The receiver would perhaps be thrilled to simply keep his job and not angle for gadgets like iPod this time around.
1 Comment
Well Bhat, there’s always 2 sides to a coin… while the US recession maybe rocking the IT & other sectors, the one sector that sees the US credit crunch as a mixed fortune is that of the BPO. While there is a temporary slump in off-shoring at the present moment, the BPOs expect the same factors to fuel, increased demands for outsourcing by year-end. And working at a BPO myself, we plan to… yes! may sound surprising… gift out ipods to our senior staff members for the holidays. Coz I strongly believe that more than ever, if there were a time for a company to spend more thoughts on rewards and recognition, it would have to be now during this time of crisis.
Even more curiously, a search for ‘ipod corporate gift India’ on Google does bring up your site right at the very top. And here you have promoted the ipod website with a well placed screenshot, I might add. And not to mention thier link – http://www.ipodyourlife.co.in/make_it.aspx?channel=lbhat as well.
From one ipod fan to another, the ipod still is one of the better gifting solutions around 🙂