Festive Season ‘OR’ A Discount Carnival

Festivals in India are celebrated with élan and heighten consumer spending. So, it is true to say that the October-November-December quarter is, undoubtedly, the most important period in the whole year as consumer buying sentiments are supposed to be buoyant during the festive season. In order to boost sales, various companies offer discounts and freebies with their products during the festival season. Everyone looks forward to some special treat during festivals. Like every year, even this festive season, buyers are flocking to grab some of the best deals. Atul Jain, Senior Vice-President & Business Head, Samsung – Consumer Electronics Division, comments, “People buy extensively during the auspicious festival season in India. To add to these celebrations, Samsung has planned multiple celebratory offers for consumers. Some of the exciting offers include assured gifts, instant cashback, free installation and service to delight consumers.” 

Atul Jain Senior VP & Business Head, Samsung – Consumer Electronics Division

Ranjivjit Singh Head – Marketing, PPS HP India

Ritesh Chopra Country Manager, Norton by Symantec

Amitabh Jacob Channel Director, India and SAARC, Symantec

Vineet Taneja Country Head, Samsung Mobile & IT

Banking on the opportunity of getting better sales and earn more revenues, Hewlett-Packard India has announced attractive offers on its select models of Notebooks and Desktops during this festive season. The Notebook series includes HP Envy (Windows 8 models), HP Pavilion 11/14/15 TouchSmart, HP Split x2, HP Slate x2 and HP Pavilion 14/15 (Windows 8 and DOS models). The Desktop series includes HP Envy, HP Pavilion TouchSmart, HP Pavilion, HP 18 Windows 8 models, H9, HP 500, HP 110 Windows 8 models.

With the commencement of the festive season when gifts and freebies make a comeback, ASUS understands the cultural potential of Indian festivals and has an amazing offer to showcase. To spread happiness and cheer this festive season, ASUS India introduced its “Khushiyon Ki Diwali” limited period offer for the festive season. With this offer, consumers got to win assured gifts with their purchase of select Intel-powered ASUS notebooks. Lucky buyers get a chance to win a brand new Tata Nano car which is also the bumper prize. Other lucky buyers can win Bikes, LCD TVs, ASUS Padfone and Gift vouchers from ASUS.

Symantec has also tried to understand the needs and wants of the consumers as well as channel. Ritesh Chopra, Country Manager, Norton by Symantec informs, “The ‘Norton Maha Rewards’ is a national programme, especially conceptualized for channel partners across India. The Maha Rewards offer entitles any Channel Partner (after registering on the Norton Champs programme) to win incredible rewards on the purchase of Norton Consumer Retail Products.

Channel partners, during the programme period, can purchase products from any of the two Norton Authorized Distributors (Fortune Marketing and Rashi Peripherals) and Norton Premier Partners across the country. This offer is valid for purchases made during the period of October 7, 2013 and May 28, 2014. For Symantec’s enterprise product offering, Amitabh Jacob, Channel Director, India and SAARC, Symantec, says that the company has rolled out “Stack up your Backup”, an offer for channel partners catering to enterprise customers. This is a special offer on Symantec Backup Exec 2012. With this offer, Symantec partners can buy a BE 2012 media server licence + any three agents (Linux, Mac, Application & Database pack, Windows server and Library Expansion option) along with maintenance licences for 12 months for a fixed price of US$2,000. This offer is valid on orders placed through Ingram Micro India Ltd and Redington India Ltd from November 1, 2013 to December 25, 2013.

According to S. Rajendran, Chief Marketing Officer, Acer India, the company has joined hands with ICICI bank that provides consumers additional benefits such as bundled gifts, cashback offer and extended warranty on the purchase of any Acer notebook/ convertible. Through this attractive offer, consumers stand to gain the best deals while they make the purchase. Under the Festive Frenzy offer, consumers can avail cashback worth Rs.8,000 on the purchase of one of the Acer’s flagship products. Consumers can buy one of the Aspire series of Notebooks and Ultrabooks and take home a Denon AH-D340 Music Maniac Lifestyle Headphone worth Rs.9,999 at a special price of just Rs.1,999. S. Rajendran comments that Acer has introduced a number of special offers. We expect this to bring in the necessary cheer in the market, spurring consumer purchase.

Understanding the sentiments with which Indians celebrate the festive season, ECS has made every possible attempt to make shopping an enjoyable experience for its customers. ECS just announced a marketing promotion to appreciate the partner’s efforts by launching a Diwali Special Scheme where lucky partners stand a chance to win Samsung 32” LED TV. Along with the grand prize, ECS along with Rashi Peripherals provides a chance to win 2 Nokia cellphones, 15 cash vouchers and 30 backpacks. Karen Chen, Sales Manager, Pan India Sales Department, Sales & Marketing Division, ECS, adds, "Even the economic is not stable and keeps changing but India market is still the focus of ECS; the company still place heavy resources to strengthen its competitiveness  in pricing, branding , promotion and product refresh , So our expectation is to grow at least 25% by giving the fresh product and technology in 2014."

Economic Volatility is impacting sales

The market has been a mixed bag, with the Rupee depreciation impacting the product prices and inflation riding high. Agreeing to this, Jaideep Rathore, COO, Digiworld, opines that an average Indian household plans and saves for big buys and other products during the festive period. Shopping during the festival period is considered auspicious and the additional benefits provided by the manufacturers and retailers add to the joy. The ecstasy of shopping in this period is unsurpassed for the shopper. Keeping this in mind, Digiworld launched “Khushiyan Hazaar Muft Uphaar” offer. Through this promotion, the company targeted more than 100% sales growth over the same period last year and has been successful to achieve the same.

Unaez Quraishi Director Sales & Distribution, ASUS India

S. Rajendran Chief Marketing Officer, Acer India

Karen Chen Sales Manager, Pan India Sales Department, Sales & Marketing Division, ECS

Jaideep Rathore COO, Digiworld

Sharath Santhakumaran Director – Lifestyle, HARMAN International (India)

B. Rajesh Manager – Corporate, Buffalo

Sanjay Sethi CEO & Co-Founder, ShopClues.com

However, despite a slowing economy and high inflation, consumers are loosening their purse strings as different companies and retailers are trying to woo them with special offers in the festive season. Here, it is noteworthy that, in the times of economic volatility consumers look for value-for-money the most while purchasing. Throwing more light on this, Ranjivjit Singh, Head – Marketing, PPS HP India, says, “People turn to brands they trust, they search out good quality and highly reliable products and take after-sales service more into account. HP has built its reputation on delivering high-quality products, offering best onsite warranty with a vast service and support network across India and is recognized as one of the country’s most trusted brands.”

Intending to deliver the value and volume, Asus has decided not to pass on the burden to the Indian consumers. Asus intends to retain the current market scenario and strategies for the company and is targeting to achieve a share of 10 per cent in the consumer notebook market. Unaez Quraishi, Director Sales & Distribution, ASUS India, opines, “We are anticipating a big traction in phablets (smartphones with tablet functionality) as this technological device collates the functionality of two devices into one, diminishing the requirement for having two separate devices.”

Regarding customer’s response on sales, Vineet Taneja, Country Head, Samsung Mobile & IT, comments, “Samsung has witnessed robust growth across the categories. In the mobile category, our new launches were received very well by customers. The sale of mobiles during Dhanteras was very good this year. It was almost double versus normal days.”

Last year’s market scenario

The market indicated positive growth last year. Consumers tend to purchase high-end consumer electronics during the season. Being optimistic for this year also, B. Rajesh, Manager – Corporate, Buffalo, expects, “This year, we hope to have good sales as we plan to continue with one or other schemes for the partners till November end. This will not only be beneficial for Buffalo but for our partners as well, to make good use of the scheme and take maximum benefit. We are very much confident and our expectations from the markets are high and we hope to get a good response. Agreeing to this, Sharath Santhakumaran, Director – Lifestyle, HARMAN International (India), says that he is confident that consumers will continue to invest in brands that provide the best value-for-money even during the times of uncertainty. Service and support is also a huge incentive in this market. Sharath further adds, “We are strengthening our support by introducing a toll-free number as well as opening various service centres across major cities in India in order to cater to our customers more effectively. We also hope to see the HARMAN brand become more prevalent in the market in the coming months. We will continue to make our products more accessible to our customers.”

The latest trend of shopping: Online purchase

As we all know, 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. Sanjay Sethi, CEO & Co-Founder, ShopClues.com, speaks, “In this festive season, even the thrifty customer has shown confidence in shopping online, where he enjoys the convenience, wide variety, attractive discounts and very competitive prices. When we do notice some change is that the price-conscious customer is seeking better bargains, is looking for product combos that offer cost-savings, and will buy even low ASP products online like costume jewellery, kitchenware, kids apparel and even consumables.”

Sanjay also added that online marketplaces will continue to ride the wave if they have attractive offerings and right efforts are made to grow the customer base.

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