Arahner, a different presentation of handicrafts

One of the important factors in the effectiveness of a gift is its different packaging, so it should be in a way that delights the recipient. If it can be combined with a creative idea and personal tastes of the audience, it will be recorded in the memories. In this regard, Arahner was founded with the aim of supplying Iranian products with a new idea. This startup active in the field of creative industries has taken advantage of the capacity of domestic products and made handicrafts the focus of its services. Create an eMotive conversation with co-founders Arahner follow:

please introduce yourself.

My name is Mohsen Khanali, born in 1363, a graduate of Bachelor of Communication Sciences from Allameh Tabatabai University; He is also a graduate of Master’s degree in advertising and cultural communication from Sourah University. Before starting the Arahner collection, I have worked in journalism and public relations for 10 years. Since 1993, together with two of my friends, Atta, we have been working in the public sector, and by resigning from the public relations management of Raitel Company, we have started our new activity in the private sector.

From your point of view, define the creative industries.

Creative industries are industries whose main ingredient is creativity, intellectual capital and knowledge, which can earn money if focused and planned. These industries are rooted in cultural assets and potential.

What does your creative company do?

At Ara Collection, we are engaged in three areas of idea generation, design and production of advertising gifts, retail sale and export of handicrafts.

What happened when the Arahner company was born?

As I have mentioned, we have entered this field with a background of several years of activity in public relations. One of our concerns in the course of public relations management was the preparation and purchase of gifts that we needed in various situations, such as exhibitions, annual celebrations, and also gifts for the guests of organizations. Unfortunately, the offers presented to us by the market were very repetitive, often flash memory, power bank, hard drive, etc. were the products that we had to buy.

On the other hand, we knew that these gifts did not have the necessary effect, because the repetition of those products made the recipient give his gift to others and never face that gift. That’s why we started Arahner company in search of an answer to that need. We tried to use the capacity of domestic products as a gift and on the other hand, to increase the effectiveness of the gift by producing a creative, lasting and personalized package. For this reason, we chose handicraft products as the focus of gifts.

In Iran’s handicraft industry, luxurious, original and high-quality products are produced, but they have two basic weaknesses: first, they do not have proper packaging, so that even the most luxurious products are presented to the buyer in the worst possible form. and in that sense they do not have the possibility of becoming an organizational gift, secondly, their products do not have a birth certificate. While in today’s world, even the most basic products have production and maintenance certificates to meet short-term needs.

At the beginning, we tried to identify handicraft products that are of good quality and can be supplied in high circulation by traveling to different cities and villages. For this reason, during 2 and a half months, we traveled to more than 32 cities and villages and created the primary database of suppliers. In the next step, we tried to eliminate these two weaknesses, so on the one hand, we produced packaging for products that had the ability to be produced in high circulation, and on the other hand, we prepared a multilingual birth certificate for each of the products.

In the following, we designed and produced several products with a focus on handicrafts, but with a new identity that was rooted in Iranian culture and civilization. and packages of medicinal plants.

Also, we have made it possible for customers to put as many products as they want in a box and choose the products according to their taste. With the preparation of the initial products, the Arahner showroom was opened in January 2019, and luckily, it was very well received.

What feature in Arahner makes it considered a creative company?

From January 2014 to March 2014, when for the first time Ara products were chosen by organizations as organizational gifts, we received a lot of reception. In a way that was beyond our imagination and planning. Of course, it seemed natural, organizations that were concerned about providing their organizational gifts and were important to them what kind of gift they give to their customers, managers and employees, the variety and creativity of the products were attractive to them. In fact, we had offered an attractive option to the customers, which stood out due to the repetition of other options.

This issue caused our products to be chosen as corporate gifts by different organizations, and it seems that one of those gifts reached the hands of one of the directors of the scientific department, and they invited us to become a member of the creative ecosystem.

In what fields are the key people of your team working?

In fact, all the members of our team are key, but in relation to the organizational titles of our team, I must say that I am the co-founder and marketing manager of Arahner, Mr. Mahdi Shondi is the CEO, and the third co-founder is Mr. Hossamuddin Shirazian. We have a young team with an average age of 29 years, all of whom are extremely hardworking, responsible and creative. My colleagues at Arahner work in seven departments; Product design, supply, production, marketing, sales, finance and development departments. The export department and the store network related to Araman and Arahandmid brands should also be added to them.

How did you form your team?

The central core, who are the founders of Ara, are working in the collection. Apart from that, we have invited our friends and former colleagues to cooperate with the new works that were defined in the collection. In other cases, we benefited from active sites in this field.

What successes have you achieved in the domestic or foreign market?

In 1997, “Arahner” was selected as the first prize in the cultural gifts section by the jury of the 4th Firouze Award, and in 1998, it was among the selected and praised in the cultural gifts section by the jury of the 5th Firouze Award. took

In 1998, it was introduced as a selected creative company in the field of export, among knowledge-based and creative companies, and in 1999, the Arahner catalog won the best and prestigious work in the field of design and preservation of the Persian language in the 20th festival. It was printed nationally. The honors continued and in 2019, 12 products were nominated for the award and 4 products won the special award in the second national handicraft packaging award.

In 2016, he won a special award for entrepreneurship from the Astan Qods Razavi Entrepreneurs Festival, as well as a special booth award at the Shanghai Luxury Home Exhibition, and he was a special guest at the 2nd Chengdu Culture and Music Festival in 2019.

Although these honors are important and significant, for our team, especially in 2019, which was the year of the Corona pandemic, the most important honor was that, by the grace of God, we did not allow any of our suppliers’ workshops to close, and fortunately Everyone was able to produce even more than the previous year. By maintaining protocols and providing health in the workshops, in 2019, which was one of the most difficult economic years in Iran in the past 50 years, the main goal is the survival of small and large handicraft workshops and the protection of the supply chain, especially in rural areas. Was.

During this period, not only none of Arahner’s workshops were closed, but they also experienced a 42% growth in the order and supply of handicraft products and a 66.7% growth in sales. This growth was recorded in human resources by 32% and in infrastructure development by 14%.

Tell us about the strengths and weaknesses of creative industries.

Creative industries are still nascent in our country and are on the path of trial and error, however, the nature of the relationship between creative companies and the environment and the scientific deputy is not the relationship with other government bodies that the private sector usually wants to relate to. are not There is a two-way relationship between us and the ecosystem, which has been attractive to us so far.

Have you been supported by the ecosystem of creative companies?

In fact, we have not used financial support so far, although we have not made any request in this regard. However, during Mr. Sajjadi Neiri’s term and also during Dr. Karmi’s term, we have a very good relationship with the biosphere and we have always used the guidance of this center.

What vision do you have for the future of your business?

In the course of our development, we have entered the field of export and have been working extensively in China. From 2017 to 2019, when Corona did not exist yet, we have participated in major exhibitions in China, we have also launched the Arahandmaid brand in Shanghai and we were able to register an international company in China. In this way, we were able to open a store in Shanghai.

This year, we launched our products in Turkey. In fact, one of our most important visions is to have a more colorful presence in international markets, thus we have entered the field of retail sales by launching the Araman brand. Currently, a large store in Tehran market is active in this area, and the development of a chain store network is one of Arahner’s future plans.

What has been the feedback of those who have used your services so far?

Many customers are loyal to Arahner, and fortunately, a large part of new customers communicate with us through the introduction of old customers, and this means that Ara’s companions are satisfied with the services they receive. We have tried to improve our services to our customers by identifying key performance indicators such as product health, quality, authenticity, as well as on-time order delivery, warranty and support.

In which field of your products, have you been more welcomed?

The products that are the output of Ara’s creative team and product production department have definitely received more attention. The products that are produced and sold based on the cultural indicators and civilization of Iran, for example, Kaffa package, which is the recipe for preparing coffee in Yazdi style, Demnoush package, Persian line package and Iranian music are among the products that are welcomed. Are.

At the end if Do you have any advice?

Handicraft market and promotional gifts are both markets that are still pristine despite the activities that have been done in them and have a lot of space for creating work. I suggest to all those who are interested in these two fields, if they have creativity and ideas, they should work in this field and bring new and attractive services to their users.