Love In The Labyrinth Of Marketers

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: Some festivals are born with civilisation, but many are thrust upon consumers, conceived and finetuned in the boardrooms of card companies. Love and longing are packaged, praised and sold over the counter as much for the starry eyed 16-year-old as for the 50-plus couple.

You don’t need a particular day to express love for your beloved. But when caught up in the heat of life, February 14 brings with it the buoyancy of love, the urgency to celebrate and cherish every moment.

Days like Valentine’s Day, Father’s Day, Mother’s Day, Boss’ Day, Friendship Day and many others have become occasions for card companies, gift stores, jewellery houses, lifestyle stores and many others to market their products aggressively. But the question is: Are there enough takers?

No, say many marketers and consumers. Valentine’s Day may have caught up with the younger generation, but unlike in Europe and the US, Father’s Day, Mother’s Day and other similar days are just not finding takers in India.

Says Narendra Singh, director, Numero Uno, “Apart from Valentine’s Day, none of the companies have been able to sell products specially done for other days. These days are just too foreign for us.”

Agrees Pramod Arora, executive director, Archies Cards: “Mother’s Day is celebrated on the second Sunday of May and Father’s Day on the third Sunday of June. These occasions are somewhat more popular in metros than in small towns.” For Father’s Day and Mother’s Day, Archies make greeting cards, teaming them with gift items that convey and complement a child’s love and respect for his parents.

Like last year, lifestyle store Villa D’Este is offering a wide range of Mother’s Day gift items this year, too. Says Shaunali Nanda, director , director, Villa D’Este, ”On the anvil are finely embroidered table linen in various colours like pink, yellow, orange, blue and white. And to accompany this, there is also a range of chikan worked table linen and in white with tissue work (price Rs 1,000-3,500). For Father’s Day, we offer a range of Italian ceramic ashtrays, pipes, etc.”

Greeting card manufacturers look on V-Day, which is just around the corner, as an opportunity for reaping a fast buck. A pioneer in popularising V-Day and other days, Archies will celebrate Valentine’s Week from February 11-17.