For our next stop on our journey around the world, we’re visiting Brazil to learn what unique challenges balloon businesses face and what cultural differences they celebrate.
About Brazil
CURRENCY: Brazilian Real
CURRENCY CONVERSION: $1 USD = 5.76 Brazilian real
LANGUAGE: Predominately Portuguese
POPULATION: 212,559,417
FAST FACT: Brazil is the largest country on the continent and the fifth largest in the world. Its population is a diverse mix of race, religion, country of origin, and cultural heritage.
Questions and Answers
Would you say balloons are trendy and popular in your country/market?
Taynara and Nathaly: Balloons were trendy. They got more popular and commonly used at celebrations when we opened our shop and could show how a party decoration can get prettier with balloons. We think balloons appear less than they should in advertisements and TV shows.
Is balloon popularity growing or decreasing in your country?
Gislaine: The popularity is growing. We know that there is still a lot to be explored in the tracking of the balloons. We do not doubt that Brazil will become one of the biggest consumers of balloons.
What balloon trend have you noticed in your country?
Jéssica: Balloons are now being used for adult parties and events, contrary to what happened before. Besides that, balloons are now being used as a gift. Also, there has been an increase in demand for maternity hospitals. Rose Gold is always trendy, and it is the most requested color for women's parties. Tie-dye and Now United are the most popular themes for children's and teenager's parties.
Taynara and Nathaly: The trends we notice in our market are very colorful balloons, tie-dye printing, rocket, dinosaurs, and just released movies or tv shows as Frozen, Paw Patrol, PJ Masks, and Lion King. For social media use, such as Tik Tok, there are many requests for princesses, safari, farm, and circus.
What types of celebrations are popular for balloons in your business?
Gislaine: The most popular celebrations are birthdays, babies, wedding celebrations, Mother’s Day, and Valentine’s Day.
Taynara and Nathaly: First, we have birthdays as the most popular celebration, then we have gender reveal, newborn welcome, graduation, anniversary, and Baptism.
Jéssica: Birthdays, babies, weddings, baby showers, mesversaries (monthly baby photos), and genre reveals.
Some of Jéssica's Work
Jéssica Amanda Mazarella Paradelo
Jéssica Balões
Decorator and Retailer with physical storefront
Campinas, Brasil
When is your busiest time of year? What about the slowest?
Taynara and Nathaly: Busiest from October to December and slower in January and July, when we get school holidays.
Jéssica: The dates with a higher demand for balloons are: Mother's Day, Father's Day, Valentine's Day (celebrated in June in Brasil). No doubt, the most celebrated occasion is New Year's Eve. In my particular case, I have less demand for Children's Day (October). January business tends to be a bit slow, with less demand for balloons due to school vacation.
Gislaine: The busiest months are March, May, August, September, and October. The slowest months are February, June, and December.
Are there many independent balloon retailers (storefronts) in your country, or are mass retail chains more common?
Jéssica: In my area, there has been an increase in balloon shops, mainly due to the Coronavirus pandemic, and also because now party shops are also selling balloons.
Taynara and Nathaly: Independent balloon retailers are more common.
What is the craziest or most bizarre balloon request you have ever received?
Jéssica: I made a balloon bouquet in honor of a deceased person at his funeral. To me, it was the most unusual work as I have never done something similar before.
How/where do you do most of your business? Online or in-person?
Taynara and Nathaly: 50% each.
Jéssica: Most of the time, online.
What about marketing? How/where do you get most of your customers? Word of mouth? Social media? Foot traffic?
Gislaine: The customers come from social media, websites, expos, and retailers.
Taynara and Nathaly: Social media, our own, and also influencers, like bloggers.
Some of Taynara and Nathaly's Work
Taynara Gomes and Nathaly Petruceli
My Balloon Artigos de Festa / Nathaly Petruceli Decoração de Festas
Decorators and Retailers with two physical storefronts
Minas Gerais, Brazil
Who is your target market/common customer?
Jéssica: Target market: the majority are women, age group 25 to 40 years, high middle class.
What unique challenges do you face in your country?
Jéssica: I believe that small business has a lot of difficulties to start. I did not receive any financial incentives for my business.
Taynara and Nathaly: First, we have the most expensive taxes in our province compared with others in the country, after we have the unavailability of important products as decor bubbles on our distributor. Lastly, we have increasing dollar rates.
What unique cultural customs in your country create challenges or opportunities for you?
Gislaine: The Brazilian people are happy and enjoy celebrations as a culture. This natural factor creates many opportunities.
Taynara and Nathaly: Cultural celebrations as Carnival, Festa Junina, and Child's Day.
Jéssica: In Brazil, we have several occasions that are celebrated with balloons. We are still working on creating such a culture for these celebrations, such as for baby births for which more and more balloons are being used, and graduations. I still believe that New Year's Eve is still the most common occasion in our culture to have balloons. A unique type of celebration in Brazil is the tradition of celebrating St. John's Day, St. Anthony's Day, and St. Peter's Day throughout June and July, and there has been an increase in demand for balloons year after year. We have found that balloons are a universal language of joy that crosses all socioeconomic, cultural, and religious beliefs.
Do you have any stories or anecdotes you’d like to share that support that sentiment?
Jéssica: Recently, we had several cases of people who recovered from Covid-19 and for which we used balloons for such a celebration. Also, we had several occasions where a hospital ordered a Bubble with a beautiful message to give to each employee who has recovered from Covid-19 to bring joy and hope for each one.
Taynara and Nathaly: We are requested to print different languages on the balloons and requested for many different occasions we couldn't think to celebrate before, as one year before a wedding or one year after an engagement, or funerals. There is not one occasion we can not be requested. We also love to follow our customers’ children grow, since they are born, every experience they have to celebrate.
Gislaine: I've been working for Pioneer for more than a year. I didn’t have an idea about how the balloons can really transform any celebration and make any occasion even more beautiful. Now I can tell my vision about balloons has changed, and at every party that I go to, I have my eyes on the balloons. If they are not there, I miss them. Before my experience as an employee, I had my attention on the cake, but now I can just see balloons.
Anything else you think people should know about your country?
Gislaine: I would like to say that Brazil is a promising country, and our market will grow up a lot. People are still finding out how balloons can change everything in a celebration, and the Qualatex brand is responsible for this discovery.
