The Hindu Business Line : Corporates and calendars

THEY'VE always been objects of desire. Hung on walls, propped up on desks or tucked away in wallets, calendars are things of beauty, worship and increasingly, social consciousness. They are collectibles too, given that the pictures are often saved to be framed and adorn interiors. For many corporates, they're an important element of their marketing or social responsibility programmes.

The themes of corporate calendars this year include rain, water conservation, architectural heritage of India and unity. Rain is the leitmotif of housing finance major HDFC's calendar for 2005. To make the imagery more meaningful, the company is circulating a booklet called Shower of Blessing on the importance of conserving water along with the wall calendar. Says R. Anand, General Manager (Communications), HDFC, "Our calendars have always been provocative, they make you think." For the corporate, these calendars are a way of standing out from the crowd as well as a reflection of its concern for the larger world. Which is why "it's not a commercial activity, and that's why we don't have houses in our calendars," says Anand.

The booklet, apart from urging everyone to save water, has interesting titbits for the reader. Did you know that Cherrapunji, which has the heaviest rains in the country from June to September and is the world's second wettest spot, faces drought the rest of the year and people have to pay up to Rs 20 for a can of water? Or that the Japanese own seven umbrellas per person on an average? Or what is responsible for that heavenly smell the earth gives off during the first rains? According to Anand, this year's calendar and booklet have been a big hit. A calendar on water shortage by itself or a booklet on rainwater harvesting will not appeal to too many people, but nice images combined with a message will speak to a wider audience, says Anand.

The calendar is produced in various formats — for the walls, for the desktop, as a strip for the kitchen — and is a very important part of HDFC's activities.Says Chand Das, Chief Executive (Greeting Cards) of ITC Ltd, "Our cards, calendars and even notebooks reflect our corporate social responsibility." ITC also makes customised calendars for various firms and organisations. The proceeds from this business go to child welfare organisation SOS Children's Village, and the calendars help spread awareness about it. Some corporates say they don't sell their products or services through their calendars but ITC uses them to build equity for its own products. This year's calendar, for instance, has food as its theme. The pictures are all classical paintings by renowned painters — still life, vegetable sellers — and the back of the page carries information about ITC's food products.

Pizza Hut has designed a calendar which "puts the international brand's Indian heart in focus." Pizza Hut's connection to good times is shown through the theme of dance. Incorporated in the line drawings of the dancers are wedges of pizza — one serves as the folk dancer's veil, another as the Kathakali dancer's headgear and so on. Says Pankaj Batra, Director (Marketing-Indian Sub-continent), Yum! Restaurants International, "The dance forms used in the calendar of are a reflection of Pizza Hut's pan-Indian presence."

Like ITC, Tanishq calendars also support a child welfare organisation, CRY. For the last three years, the jewellery company has put children's paintings on its calendars and donated the sale (to its franchises) proceeds to CRY. The company organises painting competitions and the best 12 make it to the calendar, with a mention of the painters, their age and location.

"It's a noble task, not an arbitrary one — it's very easy to put some jewellery on a model and feature her but that doesn't quite make sense. This way, we're doing something meaningful," says Madhumita Dutta, National Brand Manager, Tanishq. The calendars are highly prized, much in demand, participation is growing — this year, 2,000 children from various cities took part — and the relationship with CRY is going from strength to strength, she adds.

In 2000, ABN Amro Bank and Sanctuary Magazine instituted wildlife awards to honour Earth Heroes — individuals who have striven to protect India's vanishing wildlife. This initiative sees a whole lot of collaterals such as picture postcards and calendars.

Says Romesh Sobti, Executive Vice-President and Country Representative (India), ABN Amro Bank N. V, "Good ecology is good economics. Our aim is to support and encourage individuals and groups fighting to protect India's natural heritage." The calendars this year carry award-winning wildlife photographs taken in different parts of the country. January's theme photograph, `Cicada Transformation,' features a cicada coming out of its old skin, to denote renewal of spirit in the new year, while May features `Flight of an Angel', where a small red bee eater, with its wings outstretched and holding its prey in mid-flight, is meant to announce the arrival of summer - the season of plenty.

Exide Industries is known for its calendars, says the company's Chief Public Relations Officer, Sudipto Roy. In the '70s, they used to be imported from the UK and were collectors' issues; they could even be turned into a book at the end of the year. This year's theme is the country's architectural heritage and has buildings that represent all parts of the country, from a monastery in Ladakh to a temple in Coimbatore, as Roy puts it. "There is no stark message that we've given but if you look at it deeply, the message is that of unity in diversity," he adds. Exide still issues wall calendars, which are losing out to desktop ones in the popularity stakes.

"Many companies have stopped producing calendars as it's an expensive affair," says HDFC's Anand, adding that his company spent nearly Rs 40 lakh this year on 10 lakh calendars. "It's difficult to measure the effect but the vision in these is important," he states. "We're more traditional, and there's a certain pride in doing them," says Exide's Roy.

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