The festive season is the most vibrant and busiest time for brands across industries. It is a time, when people buy gifts for their friends and families as a token of their love and appreciation. The time is considered auspicious by people to begin new ventures, buy new goods, products and services for their homes and offices. It is the season of cheer and celebrations and people are out shopping to make themselves and others happy. It is, therefore, an apt time for brands to drive sales through festive offers, discounts, goodies, loyalty programmes, etc. Apart from increasing footfalls into the store, it also helps create a buzz around the brand and enhance long-term loyalty of consumers.
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HyunWoo Bang,
Chief Spokesperson,
Samsung Electronics
“The festival season for consumer durable business is the most important event in the annual marketing calendar as sales experience a spike across all the regions of the country.”
According to HyunWoo Bang, Chief Spokesperson, Samsung Electronics, “The festival season for consumer durable business is the most important event in the annual marketing calendar as sales experience a spike across all the regions of the country.” Samsung has been witnessing very encouraging growth across its portfolio in consumer durables, surpassing the industry growth rate which has started reflecting in growing market shares across the product portfolio. HyunWoo Bang is expecting further increase in its market share this festive season.
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Hitesh Shah,
Director – Channel Sales,
BlackBerry India,
“The festive season generally brings with it a noticeable shopper interest, with an uptick in consumer buying sentiment.”
Exerts, “The festive season generally brings with it a noticeable shopper interest, with an uptick in the consumer buying sentiment. Consumers are eager to get the best deals amongst a plethora of discounts and offers, be it online or in offline retail stores.” BlackBerry has recently launched its brand new flagship device – the BlackBerry Passport that is available on Amazon.in and its exclusive retail outlets with special discounts. So, the BlackBerry team is very positive about the surge in the demand.
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Agreeing to this, Sarthak Seth, Head – Brand & Marketing Communications, Panasonic India, says, “We are certain that this year will come as a relief for the consumer durable industry, and are therefore targeting a growth of around 25 % in our sales revenue during the festive season.” The sales during festivals are usually very high but vary from year to year depending on the macro-economic solidity and general flexibility in consumer sentiments.
“We are certain that this year will come as a relief for the consumer durable industry, and are therefore targeting a growth of around 25 % in our sales revenue during festive season.”
Festive season is “A Discount Carnival” in India
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“Festivals are time when families and friends come together and with the world going digital, a computing device has become a popular gifting option.”
Understanding the sentiments with which Indians celebrate the festive season, Rajkumar Rishi, Director, Consumer GTM, PPS, HP India, explains, “Festivals are time when families and friends come together and with the world going digital, a computing device has become a popular gifting option. The festival season usually sees a boost in sales as people spend on their loved ones.” At HP, he and his team are focussed on delivering products and services which provide the best possible experience to all the consumers. Diwali is one of the most widely celebrated festivals in India and for that reason HP has true to its Diwali campaign spirit – bent the rules – and have bundled HP devices with few a great offers including additional two years onsite warranty, one-year McAfee Internet Security subscription worth INR1,399, gift vouchers from Myntra worth INR2,000, 12 movie tickets from Book My Show worth INR3,000, etc. All these deals can be availed for a small redemption fee on the purchase of the HP Pavilion x360 (Hybrid), HP Pavilion 14 and HP Pavilion 15 (Notebooks) from September 19 to October 31.
Anticipating the same, Panasonic has unveiled its consumer campaign “My Celebrations, My Choices” to mark the arrival of the auspicious festival season in the country. The campaign has been created keeping in mind the flavour and zest of the Indian festive season. “The Ultimate Home Makeover Offer” under “My Celebration, My Choice” campaign gives the customers a chance to be eligible for Mega Home Makeover Jackpot (5 Winners) worth Rs.1,25,000 and Complete Home Makeover Jackpot (30 Winners) worth Rs.55,000. Also, 51 lucky winners will win Gold Plated coins every day. So far, we have announced 18 winners under “The Ultimate Home Makeover Offer”.
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Sunil Nayyar,
Head – Sales, Sony India
“We are confident of achieving our sales forecast of Rs. 5,100 crore for the festive season (Aug to Nov’14), a growth of 25% over corresponding period last year.”
Samsung has
introduced exciting promotional offers on home appliances and audio-visual products. The promotional offers include assured gifts, instant cash back, free installation and exciting service schemes to delight its consumers. This Diwali, it has launched “Samsung Maha Utsav” scheme for the range of televisions, refrigerators, washing machine, microwave ovens, dishwashers and air conditioners. The schemes are valid till October 31, 2014.
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S. S. Bassi ,
Country Manager – SAARC,
Sangfei Mobility
“While many consumers are leaning towards shopping for phones online due to their convenience, there are a large number of Indians who still prefer to buy their phones from retail stores.”
Philips also has a wide range of phones for consumers across all categories available on sale this festive season. As far as ASUS is concerned, it is all set to make the coming festival season special by announcing “Sapno ki Diwali” campaign. With this limited period offer for the festive season, consumers will get to win assured gifts with their purchase of select Intel-powered ASUS laptops. Lucky buyers will get a chance to win Bikes, LCD TVs, ASUS Zenfone, Canon Cameras, Xboxes, Denon Headsets and pen-drives from ASUS. Peter Chang, Regional Head – South Asia & Country Manager, ASUS India, shares, “With the country in the spirit of festivity, we are looking forward to spread further happiness and prosperity with this limited period offer. There are numerous exciting assured gifts that we have announced. We urge our existing and prospective users to make the most of our initiative.”
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Peter Chang,
Regional Head – South Asia & Country Manager,
ASUS India
“With the country in the spirit of festivity, we are looking forward to spread further happiness and prosperity with this limited period offer.”
Apart from IT companies, even the telecom sector is not behind in pleasing its subscribers with different discount offers free talk-time schemes. As part of its unwavering commitment to its customers, Aircel has launched a unique and exciting consumer engagement offer – Aircel ON, Gift ON. Anupam Vasudev, Chief Marketing Officer, Aircel, said, “As part of our ‘Extra’ proposition where we aim to give our customers something ‘extra’, we are delighted to launch this exciting festive offer ‘Aircel on, Gift on’ for our customers. It is a great platform for us to connect and engage with our loyal customers, especially the youth. We are positive that this will resonate well with our target audience as there are attractive prizes up for grabs and will help us strengthen our engagement with them.”
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P. Krishnakumar,
Executive Director & General Manager, Consumer & Small Business,
Dell India
“Dell’s “Dell Se” encouraging users to bring home or give the gift of technology and connectivity to their loved ones from Dell’s consumer range of devices, as part of the festive buying spirit.”
As far as another telecom operator, Tata DoCoMo is concerned, it has launched a new festive offer “Make your celebrations special with Assured Gifts” for its post-paid customers across India marking the onset of the auspicious season. Also, as a part of festive celebrations, the company will be offering its customers across voice and data services, assured gifts on activations across its brand stores. “In the spirit of the festivities this month, we are extremely pleased to announce the exciting promotions at our brand stores. Our range of post-paid voice and data plans allow our customers to avail personalized services to cater to their increasingly specific telecom needs. As we continue to provide customer-centric services, we also want to take every opportunity to show our appreciation for our customers and celebrate special occasions with them. With the latest scratch-and-win offer, we hope to make it possible for our customers to stay in touch with their loved ones and share the joys of the festivities,” Sandeep Singal, Head – Branded Retail & Strategic Distribution, Tata Teleservices Ltd, said.
Consumerization in IT and Digitization as a process are the success mantras this year
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S.Rajendran,
Chief Marketing Officer,
Acer India
“As a channel partner driven company, Acer’s festive offer scheme is aimed at boosting sales figures for our partners and adding value to the shopping experience of our end-consumers.”
Technology is evolving at a much faster pace than ever before and product refresh cycles have significantly reduced and products are getting rolled over, in a short span of time. Consumers, thanks to facilitators like the Internet and social media, are well informed with evolving technologies and aspire to own the latest gadgets. The drivers for ownership and refresh are factors such as productivity, efficiency, style, being contemporary and attendant cost of ownership. This phenomenon has played a vital role in increasing expectations during this festive season. S.Rajendran, Chief Marketing Officer, Acer India, says, “As a channel partner-driven company, Acer’s festive offer scheme is aimed at boosting sales figures for our partners and adding value to the shopping experience of our end-consumers.”
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Vishal Parekh,
Marketing Director,
Kingston Technology – India
“It is not only about expecting po
sitive business but also about improving and nurturing the channel relations from time to time.”
It is true that digitization has made sharing easier and faster and to cater to the rising demand in consumer markets. Given a suitable strategy, festivals offer a great platform to boost sales. As far as the IT market is concerned, it is witnessing a revolution in terms of product offerings at niche price points. It will be a fight in the consumers head while making a purchase. According to Sanjay Kumar Kalirona, Mobile Business Head, IntexTechnologies, “This year’s festive season looks promising. We are anticipating a good rush in the market. However, there is tough competition as well.”
Technology is becoming a permanent fixture in the consumers’ lives and households, and devices are becoming indispensable in their everyday lives. With this in mind, Dell is focussed on customer-centric innovation resulting in a robust product portfolio of connecting devices, which can help users to stay connected with their loved ones and family, regardless of the physical distance that may separate them. P. Krishnakumar, Executive Director & General Manager, Consumer & Small Business, Dell India, says, “In the same vein, Dell launched its festive campaign – ‘Stay Connected – Dell Se’ encouraging users to bring home or give the gift of technology and connectivity to their loved ones from Dell’s consumer range of devices, as part of the festive buying spirit.”
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Shankar Nath,
Senior Vice-President,
Paytm
“We are expecting a 2-4 times growth than our regular sales. This is of course also a result of our Great giveaway offer where we will be giving mobile phones, iPads and free shopping vouchers daily along with giving deep discounts on bestsellers.”
2014 has been a great year for Sony India, with the launch of several exciting and innovative products across categories, expansion of the distribution, service network and enhanced marketing spends. Commenting on festive season schemes, Sunil Nayyar, Head – Sales, Sony India, said, “We are confident of achieving our sales forecast of Rs.5,100 crore for the festive season (August to November 2014), a growth of 25% over the corresponding period last year. Sony will be investing a significant sum of Rs.250 crore towards marketing activities to support the festive season campaign.” Regarding customer’s response on sales, Shankar Nath, Senior Vice-President, Paytm, says, “We are expecting a 2–4 times growth than our regular sales. This is, of course, also the result of our Great giveaway offer where we will be giving mobile phones, iPads and free shopping vouchers daily along with giving deep discounts on bestsellers.”
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Sanjay Kumar Kalirona,
Mobile Business Head,
IntexTechnologies
“This year’s festive season looks promising. We are anticipating a good rush in the market, however there is tough competition as well.”
Intending to deliver the value and volume, Kingston, a lifestyle technology brand, has recently introduced quite a few new innovative products. Only recently, it introduced the HyperX Cloud which has been a hit, our DDR4 memory modules, MobileLite Wireless G2 and more superfast USB drives have also been appreciated. Being optimistic for this festive season, Vishal Parekh, Marketing Director, Kingston Technology – India, informs, “Every festive season gets us a very good spike in terms of sales, market share and positive consumer feedback. It is not only about expecting positive business but also about improving and nurturing the channel relations from time to time.” As far as the Korean giant Samsung is concerned, it is expecting to clock incremental sales during the festive season. With a host of celebratory offers and schemes across our product portfolio, the end of the third quarter and the beginning of the fourth quarter accounts for 40% of its annual business in the consumer electronics segment.
Consumer’s latest trend of shopping: Online Purchase
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Mihika Yadav,
Programme Manager,
Infibeam.com
“We have aligned with brands in the way that we can pass the maximum benefit to consumer and reap the benefit of online channel.”
Shopping online and e-commerce in general has taken the world by storm. It not only help users in finding a wide range of products, but it is convenient to check out how a certain product retails at different stores due to the online price comparison tools that most e-commerce stores are equipped with. A recent report by ASSOCHAM suggests that this year online shopping is expected to increase by 350% during the festive season, with a five-fold increase in festive revenues generated through e-commerce and online sites. Considering the increasing trend of online shopping, Panasonic will soon launch the “Panasonic’s E-Store”, where the company will showcase and sell its wide range of products.
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Anupam Vasudev,
Chief Marketing Officer,
Aircel
“As part of our ‘Extra’ proposition where we aim to give our customers something ‘extra’, we are delighted to launch the exciting festive offer ‘Aircel on, Gift on’ for our customers.”
Convenience, 24*7 customer service, price point, robust online payment facility and a wide spectrum of products to choose from are just a few reasons for consumer's increasing interest towards online shopping. With products being just a click away with high-speed delivery services has helped consumer shift from brick n mortar to online channel. Also, smartphone penetration has enabled consumer to do fast transaction, irrespective of place through various apps and mobile responsive sites. This revolution has also helped brands amplify their reach in the regions where they don’t have physical presence in the form of retail outlets and stor
es.
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Sandeep Singal,
Head – Branded Retail & Strategic Distribution,
Tata Teleservices Ltd
“In the spirit of the festivities this month, we also want to take every opportunity to show our appreciation for our customers and celebrate special occasions with them.”
Banking on the opportunity of getting better sales and earn more revenues, Infibeam has not only improved consumer experience of online shopping by many folds but has also enabled vendors and brands to reach out to their target customer seamlessly, communicating various offers and promotions. Putiing more light on this, Mihika Yadav, Programme Manager, Infibeam.com, says, “We have aligned with brands in the way that we can pass the maximum benefit to consumer. As part of our platform experience, we keep adding unique features to enhance customer and merchants experience and reap the benefit of online channel.”
Contradicting this, S. S. Bassi , Country Manager – SAARC, Sangfei Mobility, shares, “While many consumers are leaning towards shopping for phones online due to their convenience, there are a large number of Indians who still prefer to buy their phones from retail stores as it allows them to have a first-hand experience of the look and capability of the phone. While online shopping is a big area to watch out for, this is not our only area of focus.”
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At the end…
Finally, it is true to say that the economic slowdown, high inflation and the bad job situation are not deterring consumers from spending during this festive season.
Well! All I can say on this festive season to readers is: “Have a wonderful Festive shopping spree!”
satinder@varindia.com
