The Wikipedia explains that in many human societies, the act of mutually exchanging money, goods, etc. contributes to social cohesion. Economists have elaborated the economics of gifting – giving into the notion of ‘gift economy’. By extension the term gift can refer to anything that makes the receiver happier or less sad, it supports the goodwill, helps forgiveness and portrays kindness of the giver. Gifting is an art as well as a talent. Gifting signifies warmth, love, affection, liking, kindness, forgiveness etc. Gift makes anybody happy. The mankind cherishes giving and receiving gifts. From a child to aged all enjoy giving and taking gifts.

Why and how gifting plays an important role

Gifting is an integral part in commemorating an event or celebration. Events like weddings, birthdays, anniversaries usually necessitate gifts be given to the person concerned. While presence on the event or celebration is more important than the present, giving gifts appropriates the occasion confirming that we are indeed co-celebrating the joyous revelry with the host. More often than not, gifts explain its recipient the deeper emotions of the giver. We give gifts to people not only for the obvious reason that we love them but also for the joy of seeing them excited and delighted.

How big is the gifting market

Books and music are the new phenomenon for gifting. In the words of Mark Twain “The man who doesn’t read good books has no advantage over the man who can’t read them” According to the National Endowment for Arts (NEA) in USA, less than 50% of adults are reading literature.  The decline in reading has been termed as a “national crisis” in USA.  This most progressive and developed nation in the world is so concerned about the reading habits of its citizens. The decline in reading is across all strata. From 1982 to 2002 USA has lost 20 million potential readers due to lost interest in reading and this is due to television, the NEA reports. It further states that men are reading less than women. The worst hit reading group is those of younger ages, the loss is 28% among the younger generation.  It is really appreciable that this powerful country makes efforts of keeping a check on such a less-concerned factor of life. The rest of the world has to take some lessons because a well-read society has its far flung advantages. One of the best gifts is offering a book. 

One news article published in Economic Times, says that even during the recession of 2009 the book-and-gift retailing segment seemed to be the least affected. Leading book retail chains such as Landmark, Crossword and RPG Retail’s ‘Books & Beyond’ suffered a marginal impact on sales. Book retailing is emerging as a recession-proof segment in India. Tata group’s book-and-gift retail venture Landmark operates 25 stores across India and is witnessing a sales growth of 18-20%. Interestingly, most of these book stores have a strong merchandise mix of music, movies, toys and gifts.The lower income groups, middle income groups and higher income groups believe celebrating small and big occasions regularly.

Music’s impact on the society can be seen throughout history. Every known culture on the earth has music. Music seems to be one of the basic actions of humans. However, early music was not handed down from generation to generation or recorded. Hence, there is no official record of “prehistoric” music but instruments like flutes, dholes, sonic rocks are evidence of prehistoric music from the findings of historic researchers.

There are two responses to music. These responses are hard to separate because they are related, and one of these responses cannot exist without the other. These responses are (1) the actual hearing of the music and (2) the physical response to the music. Music stimulates physical movements and is integrally related to the human body. For example, the body contains rhythms in the heartbeat, drinking, eating, and breathing all of these. How can we overlook the ‘lub’ and ‘dub’ of our heartbeats? Heart sounds are the noises generated by the beating heart and the resultant flow of blood through it.

Gifting MP3, DVDs, and Cassettes is in vogue.  Young and old all prefer music. Archie’s, Planet M, Rhythm House, Satyam, Landmark in Mumbai are over flooded with customers during festive occasions such as Valentine’s Day, Diwali, Christmas, Eid, and many other festivals.  These days corporate have also joined the bandwagon of gifting music and books. The Pharma sector is famous for gifting music albums.  

How to master the art of gifting

Buying is such a complex procedure. Let it be any category of product or service; the buying process is difficult because it includes various strictures which are internal as well as external.  Today’s consumers are very particular about what they want, when they want and how they want and due to information being poured from various channels consumers are well informed and hence on their guard while shopping. But, when you go to buy a gift for someone, it is all the more difficult to purchase a gift. This is because there are so many intricacies involved while gifting of both of the giver and receiver of the gift; who, why, when, the occasion, price tag, packaging, the psyche the list can be big.

India is a big country with 28 states and 7 Union Territories, over one billion people and 120 dialects/languages. From the market perspective, people of India comprise different segments of consumers, based on class, status, and income. An important and topical development in India’s consumerism is the emergence of electronic media. The cultural diversity of India has paved the way to the celebration of a number of festivals, on most of the festivals gifting one and other is a compulsion. When it comes to gifting, the Indian philosophy believes in generosity of spirit while giving.  Gift giving is routine in India, and is seen as a sign of friendship it is also a symbolic way to show appreciation and to develop relationship.

Indian minds clutch their cultural and traditional values so much that it is difficult for marketers to disconnect the consumers from their traditional styles. Perhaps, only in India, one sees traditional products along side of modern products; eg hair oils and tooth powder existing with shampoos and toothpaste, traditional mattresses with modern sofa, traditional dresses with the latest tights and miniskirts. So, traditionally, the scope of gifts has a narrow choice.

Giving is receiving. In the words of Jarod Kintz “The only gift I have to give, is the ability to receive. If giving is a gift, and it surely is, then my gift to you is to allow you to give to me.”

Here are few world famous brands and their hidden meaning.

The name Adidas is derived from that of its founder, Adolf Dassler. The company’s logo has changed over time, but it’s always included three stripes. The current configuration is three stripes at an angle which together form a triangle. It symbolises a mountain, which in turn represents the challenges which all athletes need to face and conquer.

Rob Jenoff the designer who created with the world-famous Apple company logo, has explained how he came up with the idea: he bought a whole bag of apples, placed them in a bowl, and spent time drawing them for a week, trying to break the image down into something simple. Taking a bite out of an apple was part of the experiment, and completely by coincidence he realised that ’bite’ sounded exactly the same as the computer term ’byte’. A byte is considered as a unit of memory size of computer. Wow!! What a coincidence, and creativity that is.

Amazon has been using its current logo for 18 years. The logo illustrates that company sells everything from A to Z. The arrow in the logo points from the “A” to the “Z”.  The arrow at the bottom also symbolizes a smile, portraying that their customers are happy after using their service. The logo shows that Amazon can get anything for you at your doorstep; all you need is to log on their website.

The white and blue checker boxes represent a white/silver propeller blade spinning against a clear blue sky which portrays a happy drive on bright day. BMW logo also symbolizes the Bavarian flag colors which represents their origin. Also, it’s often supposed that the central part of the BMW logo symbolizes the rotating blades of an airplane, which are in line with the company’s earlier history of aviation technology.

The iconic Coca-Cola logo has changed many times over the past 126 years in design; however, you may be surprised to know the brand’s world-famous font of script and wave have always looked exactly as they do now. In the world-famous logo of the Coca-Cola Company, in the space between the letters ’O’ and ’L’, one can clearly see the Danish flag. The company has nonetheless used this as part of its marketing campaigns in the Scandinavian country. Just for the sake of the history of this brand, when it was introduced in 1885, it was marketed as a health tonic to cure a range of ills, including headaches, low sex drive and addiction. Coke started out with coca which is the extract of cocaine as a key ingredient, along with the kola nut. Hence it was named as Coca-Cola.

The FedEx logo was designed in 1994 by Linden Leader & Landor Associates, at first appears simple and straightforward. However, if you look at the white space between the “E” and “X” you can see a right-facing arrow. This “hidden” arrow was intended to be a subliminal symbol for speed and accuracy. FedEx assures on time and safe and sound delivery of courier.

The logo of Hyundai appears as “H” the first letter of the brand name. But, the South Korean conglomerate Hyundai’s logo symbolises two people: a client and a representative of the company shaking hands. People shake hands in contentment.

The logo of the South Korean electronics company LG portrays a person’s face, which is the central body region of sense. According to the company, the logo represents its aspiration to maintain everyday human relations with its customers intact. It believes in nurturing relationships with its customers which is a crucial part of growing a successful business.

The Pepsi logo portrays the globe with twirling red, white, & blue color design in a sphere-like shape. It is considered one of the world’s most recognizable corporate trademarks. It’s hard to believe, but Pepsi paid over a million dollars to create this special logo with its secret meanings. The new special design hints at mysterious and secretive themes, such as the Earth’s magnetic field, Feng shui, Pythagoras, geodynamics, the theory of relativity, and the golden ratio. The designer has explained that this logo also makes reference to the Mona Lisa, the Parthenon, and even René Descartes. The red, white and blue colors have always represented the American flag.

In 1990, Toyota debuted the three overlapping Ellipses logo on American vehicles. The Toyota Ellipses symbolize the unification of the hearts of our customers and the heart of Toyota products. The background space represents Toyota’s technological advancement and the boundless opportunities ahead.

I am sure many people like me must have wondered what the logo of Wikipedia means. Each piece bears a glyph (a character or a sign) symbolizing the multilingualism of Wikipedia. As with the Latin letter ‘W’, these glyphs are in most cases the first glyph or glyphs of the name “Wikipedia” rendered in that language. The empty space at the top represents the incomplete nature of the mission of Wikipedia; there are more articles and languages yet to be added. I find this logo most interesting. There are currently 301 language editions of Wikipedia. It is owned by Wikimedia Foundation.

We all are used to multi-tasking in our lives. We have so many responsibilities in life that we forget to take care of ourselves. And while it’s hard to prioritize activities, we tend to forget giving our health its due priority.

On the other hand, sometimes self-help can become an obsession. One can be overly involved with self improvement. People spend a lot of money on vitamins, fluids, fruits, all sorts of ‘health foods and health drinks’. These individuals keep checking their weight, BP, blood sugar – they exhaust their energies on minute details regarding their health. When they are in this fury; they visit all sorts of Gurus, Babas, astrologers, EFT trainers, Yoga trainers, exercise regimens. This is where we all need to be careful, not to overdo it. When we get obsessed with self help, our imaginations run wild and one of such wildness can be illustrated as self medication.

Why sel-care without the advice of a physician should be avoided

The medical dictionary defines self-medication as medication of oneself especially without the advice of a physician. This is the practice whereby individuals treat their ailments and conditions with medicines which are approved and available without prescription. In developing countries, private pharmacies are the major drug dispensers and “pres­cription only” drugs are available for sale in official pharmacies. Modern medicines though of prime im­portance to mankind are potentially hazardous when administered indis­criminately in the form of “self medication”. Many universities and consulting firms have conducted researches in this area. The drug store plays a vital role in the entire supply chain of medicines.

How self-care is enhancing societies

Self-care is enhancing in the societies due to a number of factors. These factors include socioeconomic factors, lifestyle factors, ready access to drugs, the increased potential of people to manage their own illnesses through self-care, increased awareness about deceases and their treatment on internet and magazines, and greater availability of medicinal products.

In the midst of decisive economies, ever stressed pharma sectors in most parts of the world, increased emphasis on R&D and many new entrants in the pharma business governments, healthcare sectors and individuals worldwide are struggling with escalating health care costs. Many countries are establishing mechanisms whereby these costs can be controlled and health care made more cost-effective.

Worldwide, self-medication is being promoted as a means of reducing the health care burden on the public budget. Structural changes including increased reliance on private sector delivery are also increasingly being put in place.

How is the role of pharmacist is changing in the era of self-care?

The role of the pharmacist has been changing over the past two decades. The pharmacist is no longer just a supplier of medicines, but also a team member involved in the provision of health care whether in the hospital, the community pharmacy, the laboratory, the industry or in academic institutions. For the purposes of this definition, medicines include herbal and traditional products. Pharmaceutical care is growing in importance with the challenges of self-care. For pharmacists, their greater involvement in self-care means greater responsibility towards their customers and an increased need for accountability.

This is a common scene for all of us; patients narrate their symptoms to chemists who in turn give them medicines by deciding themselves what medicine the patient should take. This is very dangerous as wrongly administered medicines can cause serious complications. The pharmacist must initiate dialogue with the patient and the patient’s physician (when necessary) to obtain a sufficiently detailed medication history in order to address the condition of the patient appropriately before dispensing the medicines. The pharmacist must ask the patients key questions and pass on relevant information to him or her (e.g. how to take the medicines and how to deal with safety issues). For doing this, the pharmacist must be prepared and adequately equipped to perform a proper screening for specific conditions and diseases, without interfering with the prescriber’s authority, when the patient comes with a prescription. Though today’s customers have more information, the drugstores need to educate the patients on the threats of self-medication, and it’s the drugstore which can inform the customers that taking drugs without medical advice is perilous.

This might sound outlandish but the drug stores should be a little strict in their transactions with the customers. It may be convenient to simply pop a pill for common health complaints but ignoring the fine print on packaging could lead to problems worse than one can think. Some of the common drugs are Crocin, Combiflam, antibiotics like Amikacin, Gentamicin, Neomycin, Dcold or Benedryl, and the sleeping pills, https://buyzolpideminsomnia.com. Medicines such as Codine, Pereton and other cough syrups can cause dizziness, nervousness or sleeping problems. They are not ideal if someone  has high blood pressure, diabetes, thyroid or heart disease. Oral contraceptives are an emergency measure; if they are used on a regular basis, they can cause hormonal imbalance and disrupt the menstrual cycle. Some medicines can also react with food and if taken improperly, hamper its absorption.  Don’t take medicine with alcohol; don’t take a higher or lower dose of the medicine than the label tells you to, or more frequently than suggested. Are you aware of your allergies? Don’t forget to keep track of your allergies, avoid medicines that have the same ingredients of your allergies. Discuss with your family members before you instantiate any self medication, keep them informed in case of any emergencies they must be prepared.

What are the concerns regarding self-care?

The other growing concern is medication adherence. It refers to whether patients take their medications as prescribed (eg, once daily, twice daily), as well as whether they continue to take a prescribed medication. Medication non-adherence is becoming alarming to clinicians, healthcare systems, and other stakeholders. Because of mounting evidence that it is prevalent and associated with adverse outcomes and higher costs of medical care. Till date, measurement of patient medication adherence and use of interventions to improve adherence are rare in routine clinical practice.

To conclude, life is precious; when you arise in the morning, think of what a precious freedom it is to be alive – to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love. Don’t take your life for granted, watch before you pop those pills thoughtlessly.