This document summarizes market research conducted on corporate gifting practices and the development of a marketing plan to target the corporate segment for an online chocolate gifting portal. The research identified that most companies gift during Diwali and New Year, prefer spending under Rs. 1000 per gift, and often provide vouchers. It was recommended the company offer vouchers, focus on companies that don't gift products, participate in NRI events to promote to the expatriate community, and improve their online presence.

1. Market Research on Corporate Gifting Practices and
Development of a Marketing Plan to Target Corporate Segment
VIJAY B
215113100

2. CONTENTS
• Introduction
• Research Objectives
• Research methodology
• Review of literature
• Data analysis
• Findings and solutions

3. INTRODUCTION
• Chocolateteddies.com is an online chocolate gifting portal which
offers personalized chocolates for individual consumers and logo
embossed chocolates for corporate buyers.
• Started in 2012
• Executive Director: Mr. Hari Nagendiran
• Location: Pondicherry and Coimbatore
• Website: www.chocolateteddies.com

4. INTRODUCTION CONTD….
Chocolates offered :
For Personal Gifting:
• Personalized chocolates
• Photo chocolate
• Petite
• Truffles
• Pralines
• Chocolate lollipop

5. INTRODUCTION CONTD….
For corporate gifting:
• Logo embossed chocolates
• Logo printed chocolates
• Logo printed wrappers
• Signature bars
• Chocolate gift box

6. RESEARCH OBJECTIVES
• To identify the gifting practices of different corporate in Chennai
and Bangalore.
• To develop a marketing plan to target the corporate segment for
chocolateteddies.com.
• To identify the market potential of NRI segment’s gifting practices.
• To develop different methods to target NRI segment.

7. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
• Research design: Descriptive research
• Sample size: 25
• Data collection : Primary data
• Statistical tools used: Percentage analysis was carried out using
excel 2007
• Sampling method: The sample included respondents who are
decision makers from different corporate located in Chennai and
Bangalore. Most of the respondents are HR executives.

8. REVIEW OF LITERATURE
Consumer behavior towards chocolates:
• Consumer learnt about chocolate from many sources, mainly from
friends and families, through advertisement and from their own
experience. Whether a promotion and advertising hurt or help a
brand is under-researched (Mela, Gupta & Lehman, 1997).
• In the long-run, advertisement help brands by making consumer less
price sensitive and more loyal. The purchase decision pertaining to
particular brand and loyalty is a result of various attributes of the
product.

9. REVIEW OF LITERATURE CONTD….
Study on trends in gift purchases:
• Marketers and retailers dependent upon the gifting consumer
market have a unique opportunity to get a read on the consumers
and their plans for gift giving throughout 2010 by sponsoring a new
multi-client study of the gifting consumer market.
• Unity marketing, a research firm conducted a market research about
the gift buying and giving behavior of American consumers. Unity
Marketing plans to conduct a survey among 1,000 recent gift buyers
in early 2010 in order to capture the latest information about gift
purchases for Christmas 2009 and plans for gift purchases through
2010.

10. DATA ANALYSIS
online
36%
offline
32%
Both
4%
Not
Applicable
28%
Mode of buying
FOR CORPORATE GIFTING:
MODE OF BUYING:
•36% of the respondents buy their gifts online.
•32% of the respondents buy offline.
•4% of the respondents buys either online or
offline depending upon the type of the gift.
•This question is not applicable to 28% of the
respondents.

11. DATA ANALYSIS CONTD….
0 2 4 6 8 10
only Sweets
Gift coupons
Products
Mixed
only Sweets Gift coupons Products Mixed
No of companies 4 9 7 5
Nature of gifts
NATURE OF GIFTS:
•36%of the companies prefer to
give gift vouchers or coupons
to their employees.
•16% of the companies give
only sweets to their employees.
•Products such as bags, t-shirts,
watches, crystal work, home
Appliances etc were given by
28% of the companies.

12. DATA ANALYSIS CONTD….
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
Below
500rs
500-1000rs 1000-
1500rs
Above
1500rs
Not
apllicable
No of companies 8 10 1 1 5
Noofcompanies
Average money spent per giftAVERAGE MONEY SPENT
PER GIFT:
•32% of the companies prefer to
spend below 500 for buying gifts
for their employees.
•40% of the companies prefer to
spend 500-1000 for buying gifts
for their employees
•Only 8% of the companies are
ready to spend above 1000rs.

13. DATA ANALYSIS CONTD….
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Only Diwali
Only New year
Both diwali and new year
Diwali, new year and Ayutha
pooja
Women’s day
Major gifting occasions
No of companies
MAJOR GIFTING OCCASION:
•28% of the companies gift their
employees on ayutha pooja.
•Only manufacturing companies gifts
their employees on ayutha pooja.
•36% of the companies gift their
employees on diwali.
•52% of the companies gift their
employees on New Year.

14. DATA ANALYSIS CONTD….
Market Potential Of NRI Segment’s Gifting Practices:
0
500000
1000000
1500000
2000000
2500000
NRI Population
NRI Population
0 1 2 3 4
facebook
twitter
linkedin
youtube
pinterest
Users in million
Socialmedia
Singapore
Series1
Facebook Youtube Twitter Linkedin Tumblr Pinterest
13
8
3.5
1 0.97 0.78
Malaysia
Users in million

15. DATA ANALYSIS CONTD….
Benchmarking:
• Benchmarking is the process of comparing one's business processes
and performance metrics to industry bests or best practices from
other companies.
• Comparison was made with 20 similar gifting companies.
• Helped to arrive at important conclusions.

16. DATA ANALYSIS CONTD….
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
Right corner Left Side Middle No tab Not
Applicable
Noofcompanies
Position Of CG On Website
Only choclates
chocolates&flowers
chocolates & cakes
chocolates &Gift cerfticates
Assorted
17
1
3
1
1
Types of gifts
No of Companies
22%
61%
17%
Enquiry Form
Available Not Available Not Applicable
Benchmarking:

17. FINDINGS
Corporate gifting practices:
• Preferred amount spent for gifts.
• Major Gifting occasions.
• Types of gifts.
• Sodexo and Gift vouchers were used by many companies to ensure
that, their employees’ buys according to their wish.
• Based on Nature of work.
• Prospect companies.(PayPal, Tcs, Hewitt associates)
• Preferred Mode of buying.

18. FINDINGS CONTD….
• Companies like Vodafone who look to promote their branding,
whatever products they buy as gifts, would like to print their
company name on it and issue as their own company products.
Products like tea cups, t-shirts, pen, note pad etc. which they issue to
their employees will have their company name printed on it. They
are our perfect targets for our logo chocolates.
• Role of

19. FINDINGS CONTD….
Market potential of NRI segment:
• UAE, UK & USA are the top three countries where NRI’s densely
populated.
• Most of the Indians in UAE don’t use online gifting portals to gift
their families since the awareness is less.
• In USA & UK most of the Indians do prefer buying online gifts
often for their friends and family in India.
• Singapore, Malaysia, Canada and Australia are the other countries
where NRI’s densely populated.
• Facebook, twitter, YouTube are the most used social media websites
by the NRI’s.
• LinkedIn are mostly used by the professional NRI’s.
• Tumblr and pinterest were famous in USA and Malaysia.

20. RECOMMENDATIONS:
• Focus on Companies like PayPal, Hewitt associates and Tcs which
do not gift physical Products, because they don’t have any other
option than sweets and Chocolates. So deal can be easily closed in
these types of companies.
• 36% of the companies prefer to give gift vouchers to their
employees to ensure that, their employees’ buys according to their
wish. So, chocolateteddies.com can come up with their own gift
vouchers to tap these Segments. It could be a novel method of
gifting employees.
• 92% of the companies gift their employees during diwali and New
Year. So the marketing towards corporate should be vigorous during
October to December. Only Manufacturing Companies gifts their
employees during ayutha Pooja, so it’s better to target only these
companies during September and October.

21. RECOMMENDATIONS CONTD….
• Most of the respondents say that they close the deal through
LinkedIn. So it is mandatory to open a premium account in
LinkedIn and to contact the decision makers directly through inmail
option. Through this option chocolateteddies.com can directly have
contact with the decision makers and it will be easier to close the
deal.
• 36% of the companies prefer to buy online since it makes the work
of the Procurement department easier. For companies which buy
offline, chocolateteddies.com should create awareness of online
buying and also the benefits of it.
• 72% of the companies prefer to spend either below 500 or 500-
1000rs for buying gifts for their employees. So the price range of the
products should be placed accordingly.
• Chocolateteddies.com should have an enquiry form in the website
which will help the customers to clarify their doubts.

22. RECOMMENDATIONS CONTD….
• Website has to be completely revamped to attract the customers.
• Participating and Sponsoring Events Conducted by NRI’s will create
awareness about chocolateteddies.com which will make them use
the portal to buy gifts for their family and friends in India.
• Chocolateteddies.com should be active in Facebook community
pages and twitter NRI groups.
• Chocolateteddies.com should post blogs and place ads in websites
like sulekha, sify, Times of India etc which are highly used by the
NRI’s.

23. CONCLUSION
• This study provides me an opportunity to gain in depth knowledge
in corporate gifting culture and the online purchase behavior of
NRI’s.
• Also I clearly understood that the buying behaviors of the customers
are inclining towards online purchasing. This in fact is a positive
sign for chocolateteddies.com which will increase their customer
base and sales.
• The company revamped their website based on the
benchmarking conducted by me and they also started a premium
account in LinkedIn to approach the corporate customers.