Targeting the Rs 250-crore branded greeting cards and gifts market--dominated by Archies and Hallmark--Ceremony Arts has taken the first tentative steps with the opening of two franchise outlets called Ceremony World in August (in Delhi and Chandigarh) and the appointment of nine distributors in North India. Its target: a national tally of 45 distributors by year-end, and 200 Ceremony World outlets across the country as soon as possible.

The company has earmarked Rs 20 lakh for advertising on the electronic media. A TVC made by Film Vision at a cost of Rs 4 lakh, featuring Annie Thomas, is to be aired on Channel V and MTV sometime in October 1999. A jingle is also being aired on FMRadio.

Ceremony claims its products are competitively priced, with cards ranging from Rs 8 to Rs 150, gifts from Rs 150 to Rs 1,000 and pensets from Rs 50 to Rs 1,000. The range includes stationery items (address books, scribble pads, spiral notebooks), cards for all occasions, gift items made of rubberwood and ceramics and soft toys.

Simultaneously, in a move to gain a toehold in the Rs 45-crore institutional cards segment and also to get more visibility, Ceremony Arts has tied up with SOS Children's Villages of India and Helpage India to design theme-based and corporate cards. It is already designing Helpage brochures and publicity material. Says Shailendra Aggarwal, chairman, Ceremony Arts: ``The tie-up is on a no-profit basis. But it will act as an image-boosting measure and help us tap corporate clients.''

Besides institutional clients, Ceremony is targeting youth and college students by sponsoring college events and teenage parties, besides sponsoring gifts in popular programmes like `Master CardFamily Fortune' and Teen Do Ek on Star Plus.

Another key target audience is school kids. For Teacher's Day, Ceremony especially designed 27 cards which were bundled with free gifts; sponsored the Times of India Teacher's Day contest; and distributed gift packs to over 10,000 school children in Surat. It has also offered students in Surat the option to design cards for Ceremony, with the best designers getting cash rewards and gift hampers.

Adds Rinku Aggarwal, managing director of the company: ``We have an exclusive in-house studio, with five-colour machines, a 30-member team, including a dedicated team of eight computer artists and two free hand artists. We will produce designs and products catering to all age groups and price points.''

The company is aiming at a market share of 8 per cent, with sales at Rs 15 crore, in the first year. Archies' has a 30 per cent share of the cards and gifts market, currently. Hallmark, which is now foraying into the gifts segment too, has a 10 per cent share ofthe greeting cards market.