Calendars: A marketing tool

Calendar advertising is the cheapest mode of advertising, so says Arun Shah, the calendar man and chairman and managing director at Arun Art in Mumbai. Shah has been in the calendar business since 1963.

14 Jan 2015 | By Rushikesh Aravkar

Shah explains: 90% of recipients surveyed could recall the advertising message on their calendar; 65% of homemakers and business people said they note important appointments on their calendar and 99% of households and businesses use at least one calendar. It is the cheapest mode of marketing.
 
This is not only true for corporate houses but also for our very own government. On 17 December, union minister for finance, corporate affairs, and information and broadcasting, Arun Jaitley unveiled Government of India Calendar -2015.
 
This calendar was produced by Brijbasi Art Press in Noida. The director Apurv Garg confirmed that the company printed 3.5 lakh copies of GOI Calendar 2015. Based on the theme of ‘Clean India Green India’ with focus on ‘Swachhta’ and environment issues, the seven-sheeter calendar used 170gsm BILT paper and was wiro-bound.
 
Brijbasi and Arun Art are among the top calendar manufacturers in the country. According to Garg’s estimate, the calendar market in India is worth more than Rs 300 crore.
 
When PrintWeek India visited Arun Art in December, the calendar production was in full swing. It was peak time and calendars were being packed and despatched for FedEx and iBox solutions. During this time of the year, production rate is  about 10,000 calendars a day. This season the company produced over 300 calendar jobs and thus printed about 25 lakh calendars. 
 
Shah recalls the early days of his career. “We used to send initial copies and finalise orders by February. Days have changed, technology makes everything just in time” Today we accept orders even in the last week of the year.
 
The company has also launched a portal called calendarsfromindia.com to boost its calendar business. It enables it to accept orders from all over the world over the web.
 
In 2014, the company has tied-up with Navneet and Jeevandeep Prakashan for their book production work.
 
Shah says, “Unlike, the good old days, the number of orders are not enough to keep us busy for the entire year. This is because the technology has speedened up the process. Also because the print runs have reduced.”