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A gift offers us the chance to momentarily escape the mundane and enter into a world of beauty & rapture. A gift is the embodiment of all the care and affection intended for the lucky recipient. A well formed gift crystalizes these universal emotions and allows us to enchant, and to be enchanted again and again.

This is the whole point of the Gift ceremony.

The founder of Impression Originale touches upon our aesthetic sensitivity through an unparalleled experience:

« The Wrapping Ceremony transforms a mere object into the most desired gift. It is nothing more than the gift-wrapping paper and the bow with which it is adorned. The attention paid to the wrapping elevates the gift and reveals itself in a magical instant ».

Modern companies must meet multiple goals in order to sustainably succeed in the new marketplace: to ensure their growth while respecting the environment, by limiting their carbon footprint and by committing to acting as social responsible organizations, from sourcing materials, to logistics, and even to running their IT infrastructure on carbon neutral cloud providers. Companies in the new economy place their raison d’être at the heart of their business model, where the search for profit is no longer the sole objective[1]. Growth is no longer just a frantic race for capitalization, but it now requires an increased search for meaning, moral consistency and ethical actions. Entrepreneurs are usually the first customers of their own products. Starting from a fundamentally sustainable business model, entrepreneurs and their companies are able to initiate a virtuous cycle of success and respect for the environment which are proven as valuable commodities in the open, competitive, conscientious and modern marketplace.

By re-humanizing our clients and placing this relationship at the center of the market transaction, it is not only the relationship to one another that changes, but also a change in the time it takes to “do the right” thing. The customer experience becomes as important as the intrinsic qualities offered by the product. It is precisely this time taken to expound the characteristics of the product through showing sincerity, empathy and kindness that will ultimately influence the decision to buy. The customer, engendered by this dignified experience, rises to the status of a unique individual again, re-humanized at heart with a new responsibility: by consciously consuming, one chooses how one impacts their ecosystem. The customer is therefore no longer a passive consumer, they become an active and present co-creator of their world through conscious, ethical consumption.

The era of personalization is here. For a long time, tailor-made products were the sole privilege of an elite with purchasing access to craftsmanship and bespoke services. These privileges have slowly transformed to meet the expectations of the new generations in much greater numbers – a democratization of made-to-measure. In recent years, major corporations (Nike, Coca-Cola, Tesla) have released à la carte personalization options for their most iconic products. This personalization nevertheless remains rather standardized to allow mass production, limiting associated costs and allowing rapid manufacturing lead time. The fact remains that the customer develops and reinforces new expectations: personalization-as-a-premise and impeccable, human-centric service in a relatively short time are now must-haves for competitive companies.

To meet the required uniqueness of the consumer-actor[2] and to satisfy their ever-growing expectations for service, companies have reinforced their organisations by creating departments dedicated to “the customer experience”. Customer experience refers to the set of emotions and feelings experienced by a customer before, during and after the purchase of a product or service[3]. It is the result of all the interactions a customer can have with the brand or company. Each brand competes in ingenuity to surprise their customers and retain them, such as sensory experiences associated with the diffusion of perfume in clothing stores or luxury hotels, in order to stimulate the strongest memory: the olfactory memory. Other interesting examples are the setting up of ephemeral artistic exhibitions in the heart of high-end shopping malls to energize the place and surprise their customers. Purchase is no longer the only criterion for satisfaction, the focus is now on the holistic experience the customer is immersed in. At the heart of these experiential changes, the customer experience has recently seen the re-emergence of one of its key points: the wrapping experience.

The gift ceremony magnifies the very personal bond between the one who gives and the one who receives a gift, by esthetically embodying the emotions linked to this exceptional moment. Revisited by the founder of Impression Originale, the ceremony reinvents the art of gifting, re-enchanting the transformation of an object into a gift. In seemingly suspended time, carried by grace, the object will become the bearer of a desire to share, carried out by an individualized artistic expression.

Mathilde Nguyen, Founder of Impression Originale states: “There is a whimsical “je ne sais quoi” in the Wrapping Ceremony. With every step in the ceremony, wonder grows. It takes us back to our childhood when we were easily entranced by things and were easily lost in thought. The Wrapping Ceremony stands between the realms of magic and modern, refined etiquette.”

To stand out as a unique experience, each wrapping ceremony must respect technical and aesthetic codes that are informed by the history, iconography and symbols of the brand. The attention paid to the gifting ceremony is the last moment of exchange with the customer who witnesses the transformation of the gift. A choreography of the hands orchestrates this enchanted scene, like a ballet where the rigorous folds and knots are performed in a continuous flow, seemingly without effort.

1. The paper is cut to the exact measurement of the present to be wrapped
2. The gift is then positioned on the sheet according to the folding
3. Folding begins with special techniques like invisible folds and refined Ideally, the paper folding technique should not require the usage of tape
4. A knots or weaved ribbons complete the folding to hold the folds of the wrap
5. Small additional decorative elements can be added: small branches, a gift tag, mini-Christmas balls.
6. Mix 1 cup of creativity and 1 cup of care, best served sprinkled with love 😉

The Wrapping Ceremony is performed in a continuous and pliable gesture. Once adorned, the present is handed over with both hands.

Photo credits @Benoitphoto for Impression Originale

[1] https://www.eyrolles.com/Entreprise/Livre/l-experience-client-en-pratique-9782212572254/

[2] https://www.economie.gouv.fr/dgccrf/consomacteur-opportunites-et-risques

[3] https://www.definitions-marketing.com/definition/experience-client/