THE INVITATION CARD MARKET IN CHENNAI

Chennaibest.com spoke to Shangara Lingam, Chairman and Managing Director of Menaka Cards, about the market for invitation cards in Chennai.

Weddings, engagements, housewarming occasions, first birthdays of children, Season’s like New Year, Pongal, Diwali, corporate occasions and other general programmes.

Business is good throughout the year. But the peak season is during the auspicious months of  “Aavani” (August 15th – September 15th) and “Thai” (Jan 15th – Feb 15th). 

Some people bring samples, so we have to design the card itself right from scratch. Design it on the computer and then create a new plate.  Others choose from the designs available at the showroom and then they give the ‘content’ to be filled in.  Then after a day or so, the final proof is given to the customer for inspection and after approval it is given for printing.  The normal process, where a customer chooses from the designs available, the cards will be delivered in 24 hours.  As for customised cards, they can be delivered within three to seven days, depending on the complexity of the designs.  Some cards may have to be printed through offset and screen-printing. 

Which are the most preferred designs and why?

There is no such thing as a few designs that are preferred over the others.  In a year there may be a 100 designs or so, which may be chosen by customers again and again.  But then these are regularly replaced with newer designs. There are a few designs however which have been a hit ever since our inception. But the popularity of a design cannot be explained.

Earlier, in 1980, when Menaka Card was just established, a majority of the designs were drawn by artists.  Now 50 % of the designs are done on the computer while the other half is done through artists and photographs.

Handmade Board, Glass coated, Tinted (coloured card), Art Boards, Special Colour Boards and also imported material. Nowadays, one can say that special colour boards are more in demand than the other varieties. 

What are the various printing options?

Screen printing, Offset printing, Hot foil stamping, Dye embossing and punching. Screen printing and Hot foil stamping are the most popular printing options.

Last year alone I visited nine countries over 45 days and I did a market study. My earlier study was confirmed when I found that the cards we produce are of international quality. I had earlier visited Singapore, Malaysia and a few other countries to study their market and also compare the quality of our cards with theirs. During my initial study itself I found out that the quality that we produce at Menaka is equal and sometimes even superior to the quality found in these countries. And the most important factor in our favour is that compared to their prices, we can offer the same quality at one fourth of their price. Shortly, we may be entering this market because many people are coming with requests for dealerships. I am planning to enter the international market in a big way.

What would you say are unique characteristics of Chennai customers?

A majority of the customers come in the evening. 60 to 65 % of them place the orders in the evening and take delivery the next day.  50 % of the people place their orders after 4.00 p.m. in the evening.  Around 30 % of the customers come in the morning.  While customers take 24 hours to receive the delivery, the actual order is executed in under 12 hours. 

Proof-reading is where the risk factor comes in.  It has to be 100 % correct.  Also this is where the customer is involved.  We have several orders daily; each for more than a thousand cards.  We cannot make sure of personal details in each invitation.  This is where the customer has to pay attention while proof-reading.  There have been a few cases where after the mistake has occurred we over-printed on the same cards.  But over-printing can be done only on certain varieties of cards. It is imperative that the customer should be very careful and thorough about the proof-reading.

Employee discipline is very important.  This is an industry in which if one person absents himself or herself without permission in a certain department; be it designing or the printing section, the resulting chaos may lead to the promised delivery not being made to the customer on time. 

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