Hiding behind those colorful balloons are a number of business opportunities that range from manufacturing to decoration

Abdul Rehman sells his balloons on a bicycle. He migrated to Punjab from Bihar around 45 years back and had been selling balloons since then.

A typical balloon seller on the street may not grab your attention but the product he sells has more than just air. Balloons are used for decoration, in advertisements and for adventure sports, and this has led to a booming business of this product that was once only for children.

The Business
There are multiple types of balloons available in the market for different purposes. Celebration balloons, toy and novelty balloons, decoration balloons, and advertisement balloons are some of the categories in which manufacturers enlist them.

Naresh Kumar, a decorator and party supplier in Gurgaon, says traditional balloons made in India perform poorly for long-term use. The balloons that he uses for decoration are imported from Malaysia. When a shopping mall or some shopkeepers asks him for decoration, he guarantees the time for which those balloons would work. If some of the balloons get deflated, he has to provide their replacement. Balloons are used for decoration at weddings, showrooms, shopping malls, road shows, festivals, discotheques, parties, product launches and corporate events.

Water balloons are a favorite among children. They are thin and small rubber balloons, filled with water. These balloons are intended to be easily broken and extensively used on Holi—the festival of colors.

Fahim Maniar of Raj Trading in Mumbai says he manufactures balloons of 4, 6, 8 and 12 ft diameter. Bigger balloons can be made on order. These balloons are filled with helium or hydrogen gas to make them go high up in the sky. He says advertisement through balloons is becoming popular and also comes cheap. He says that an advertisement balloon put up in the marketplace of a big city like Delhi or Mumbai would ensure that 100,000 people notice the brand name in a day. This could go up to one million views per day.

An advertisement balloon put up in the marketplace of a big city like Delhi or Mumbai would ensure that 100,000 people notice the brand name in a day. - Fahim Maniar, Raj Trading

Giant-size sky balloons for outdoor advertising, publicity and public awareness campaigns, sky blimps for maximum visibility, life-size portable floor display balloons for product launches, and product and package replicas are some of the versions of these balloons.

There are new types of balloons that are made of foil and sold in events, fairs, shopping malls and festivals. These balloons are filled with helium gas. This helps the balloon to rise higher in the air but it increases the price of these balloons. Sanjeev Bali of Whaleman Advertising says they use foil balloons made by US companies because the quality of these balloons is superior to the balloons imported from China. These balloons come in the shape of animals, birds, cartoons toys, hearts, helicopter etc.

Toy or novelty balloons give a lot of space for innovation and new ideas. Missile toy balloons—rocket balloons that fly with a whistling sound—are manufactured under this category. There are color-changing balloons that are called magic balloons. Balloons in fluorescent, metallic, crystal colors and custom message printed balloons are some other variations. Naresh Kumar mentioned that with the help of sticks and foils, they prepare ‘car balloons’ for birthday parties, which is large enough to accommodate the ‘birthday child’ and its parents. This single balloon costs around Rs 5,000. He says like this, they can work on more thematic ideas for parties.

How it works?
Naresh Kumar takes order for decoration from various customers including shopkeepers, shopping malls, companies, and for parties. The price of one decoration balloon filled with air is Rs 2.5 and he takes a minimum order of Rs 250 with Rs 150 as labor charges. He says he has worked with almost all shopping malls of Gurgaon. These shopping malls order for decoration in the month of December due to Christmas and New Year celebrations. At one time, an order could range from Rs 30,000 to Rs 50,000. The decoration is monitored by a person every alternate day to make sure no balloon is deflated—the guarantee is taken for one month.

Talking about how they manage to fix those balloons on the walls, Naresh Kumar says he prefers using thread instead of tapes, because tapes spoil the paints of walls.

Fahim Maniar, a manufacturer and vendor of balloons, says the business dynamics works on demand. An advertising balloon could cost between Rs 6,000 to Rs 30,000. However, a balloon could cost around Rs 120,000 also given that helium gas is used—it inflates the price hugely and therefore, sometimes, customers prefer to have hydrogen gas which is cheaper.

Challenges
Kumar says there are no huge barriers to entry and to succeed in this business. Good management and quality assurance would ensure that you have greater market appeal. He says that getting skilled labor sometimes becomes challenging because it takes at least two months for a new person to get fully skilled in managing the work of decoration.

At the same time, Maniar says that excise duty and rise in the prices of raw rubber from Kerela pose some challenges for manufacturers because their investment cost goes quite high. He says that lack of awareness among the companies and corporate houses to use balloons for advertisement limits the market.

Comments (2)

Subscribe to this comment's feed

for help
written by mahipal singh, June 21, 2010

dear sir i read about balloons . can help in my self own very small business of corporate promotional gifting

report abuse

vote down

vote up

Votes: +0

Executive Director
written by Krishna rao, March 14, 2010

Good information

I am interested to explore the possibility of taking up this business at Chennai. May I know whom & how to contact.

Thanks

report abuse

vote down

vote up

Votes: +0