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Occasion-Specific Gifts Are the Fastest Growing and Largest Product Category in Today's Giftware Market

Gift shoppers likely to focus on impulse items that send a personal message to the gift recipient

Stevens, PA August 11, 2008 --  Christmas may still be months away,  but marketers and retailers have made their best guesses at the products that will be hot this gift-buying season and are now nervously awaiting customers to reward them -- or rebuke them -- for their selections. 

Occasion-specific gifts, that are gift items that deliver a message, are likely to be among the hot gift sellers this year.  In new research conducted by Unity Marketing into the $27.1 billion giftware market, occasion-specific gifts were both the fastest growing giftware category and the largest revenue-producing product category by far.

Giftware marketers need to focus on delighting both the customer and the gift recipient

Preparation and planning will be critical to success this gift season as the economic crisis threatens to throw a pall over retailers and marketers efforts.   "The key to success this year is to give shoppers an emotional boost," says Pam Danziger, president of Unity Marketing and author of Shopping: Why We Love It and How Retailers Can Create the Ultimate Customer Experience.

"The way to do that is to powerfully engage them in the shopping experience with delightful things to see and explore in the store. Shoppers will be looking for gift-giving ideas that are emotionally evocative and speak personally to the individual. This year the hot giftware categories, notably character-licensed merchandise, collegiate giftware, pet gifts, occasion-specific and personalized gifts, all share the ability to communicate emotionally and personally to the chosen recipient."

In a new study that encompasses both the gifts and decorative accents market, Unity Marketing investigated the keys to success for giftware marketers and retailers.  The driving force in this in-depth research study that combined both qualitative and quantitative insights was to discover what factors make consumers passionate about giftware items and how marketers and retailers can use these insights to grow their businesses.

"Unity's latest report provides marketers and retailers powerful information about what consumers value in the giftware products they chose to buy either for themselves or to give as gifts.  It provides guidance on the most popular price points for gifts, data that is especially critical today with consumers being more careful with their money.  It talks to how people chose the stores to shop when looking for gifts. 

"Specialty gift stores will need to be especially proactive this year to attract shoppers more inclined than ever to shop at the big discounters and mass merchants.  The report presents 12 business building tactics based upon research findings that will translate future success in giftware marketing and merchandising.  It is a report that no giftware marketer or retailer can afford to do without," Danziger concludes. 

About Unity Marketing's Gifts & Decorative Accents Report 2008: Who Buys Gifts and Home Decorative Accents, What They Buy and Why They Buy 

Unity Marketing's Gifts and Decorative Accents Report 2008 is the definitive study of consumers' buying and spending habits related to giftware and home decorative accessories, written by Pam Danziger, the nation's leading expert on the gifts market and based upon the kind of in-depth consumer research for which Pam Danziger and Unity Marketing are known. 

This report provides vital market size, growth and demographics for anyone and everyone that sells giftware and home accents, from marketers, advertisers, retailers, service providers. The Gifts & Decorative Accents Report 2008 an essential tool to understand the dynamics of this market, today and into the future.

This important new study of the gifts and home decorative accents market provides the results of a series of focus groups among highly active recent purchasers of various giftware and home accent products.  The focus group respondents were also people who enjoyed shopping for these items in specialty gift and home stores.

This report is compiles detailed statistics collected in a survey among 1,644 recent buyers of one or more of the 26 giftware and home accent products included in the survey. (See product list below) The average income of survey respondents was $75,100; average age 42.4 years; and 68 percent female/32 percent male.  Also included in the survey was a special investigation into the shopping preferences for consumers of these goods.

Special Investigation:  Consumers' shopping preferences for gifts and home decorative accents

The value of this report is enhanced for product marketers and retailers through its special investigation into the shoppers' preference and attitudes related to specific types of stores where gifts and home accents can be found.  Stores included in this special investigation are:

• Department stores
• Discount department stores, mass merchants, dollar stores and/or warehouse and membership clubs
• Direct selling and party plans
• Internet websites
• Jewelry stores and/or luxury boutiques
• Mail order catalogs and/or direct mail brochures
• Specialty card and gift stores
• Specialty home furnishings stores
• Television shopping channels

For more information, click here  http://www.unitymarketingonline.com/cms_gifting/gifting/GDA_2007.php

For Media:  Charts, tables and graphs are available upon request.

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