Festival marketing: Companies go all out to loosen consumers’ purse strings

The festival season in India proves to be a win-win occasion for consumers and companies alike. For consumers it is a time to pick from an array of attractive offers, while for companies it rings in the cash registers. Despite the economic downturn this year, there has been no let down in buyers. exchange4media takes forward the consumer durables festival marketing story.

Following an earlier report (‘Consumer durables offer ‘real value’ vis-à-vis freebies this festive season’; dated October 3), more consumer durables majors have come forward to share their plans for this festival season. These include Videocon, Sony, Bose, JVC and Voltas.

Sharing Videocon Group’s plans for the festive season, Sandeep Tiwari, Head - Marketing, Videocon, said, “This is our first Diwali after Videcon Group realigned its position as an umbrella brand of Videocon, Kenstar, Akai, Sansui, Electrolux and Kelvinator. Instead of competing with each other, these brands now complement each other. Taking into account the sentiments that Diwali holds for the Indian populace – from small cities to the rich man’s club – we have rolled out various offers for our consumers.”

Tiwari added, “We are reiterating Videocon’s visual identity of ‘Eco Logic for a sustainable life’. Customers will experience the ‘Kalpvriksha Uphaar Varsha’, which symbolises a wish-fulfilling tree that would be gifted to customers on purchase of a Videocon product. The Kalpvriksha is a party popper, which when twisted, will burst into confetti and will reveal a plastic plant on the leaf of which the details of the gift won would be written. This would not only add to the mood of the festivities but also influence buying decisions of potential customers. The gifts from the Kalpvriksha include a list of branded items like a Videocon 21 inch LCD TV, Kenstar mixer grinder, Reebok and Adidas T-shirts or bags, and Numero Uno Sunglasses.”

‘Kenstar Big Bang’, ‘Sansui Diwali Dhamaka’, ‘Electrolux Dazzling Diwali’, ‘Kelvinator Diwali Ki Dhoom’ and ‘Akai Diwali Dhamaal’ are propositions of a scratch card on purchase of these brands. The consumers are promised assured branded gifts under the scratch area. The gifts include a branded range of home theatres, LCD televisions, DVD players, microwaves, sunglasses, T-shirts and bags. Reebok, Adidas, Numero Uno, Fastrack, Yera, Jaipan and Milton are the brands being given out as gifts.

On the investment in promotional activities, Tiwari remarked, “We have invested approximately Rs 70 crore in BTL activities and another Rs 40 crore in ATL activities. A TVC on Kalpvriksha has also been conceptualised for the festive season. Saatchi is the ad agency behind the TVC. The promotional activities will be in full swing for a month from October 29 to November 28.”

Commenting on Bose India Corporation’s plans, its General Manager, Ratish Pandey, said, “We have launched some wonderful offers keeping with the spirit of the season. Bose adds to the excitement of festivities by giving its customers a reason to buy today. However, we aren’t coming up with a new ad campaign. As part of our ongoing print campaign, we will roll out a higher density of ads during this period, focusing on the promotions running at our outlets.”

Elaborating on the product-mix for the season, Pandey said, “We have launched the Bose Lifestyle 48 DVD home entertainment system, which provides a new home theatre experience. With this, we would gift a Bose 321 Series II DVD home entertainment system. We have also launched the Bose Wave Music System in a new Titanium Silver colour. This apart, on the purchase of a Wave Music System during the festive season, a leather carry case is being given out free. Also, on the purchase of Bose QuietComfort headphones, we are giving a free gift of a 1 GB iPod Shuffle.”

Speaking on Sony India’s plans, Cyril Mani, Head - Marketing Communication, said, “For this season, we have centered all our products on the upcoming Bond movie, ‘Quantum of Solace’. We are giving out twin-pack DVDs of ‘Casino Royale’ and another DVD of special footage and trailers. In addition to this, we are also facilitating lucky draw coupons, wherein the first prize is an all expenses paid business class trip for 10 lucky couples to the Sony Pictures Studio in Los Angeles. The second prize includes 50 Vaio notebooks, while the third prize consists of 100 Sony Ericsson phones with the Bond application.”

Mani further said, “On the advertising front, we have embarked on a multimedia campaign for the festive season inclusive of print, TVC, radio and shop-floor activities.”

Sony India had rolled out a marketing blitz for the festive season with a 360 initiative to promote its Cybershot, Handycam, Bravia and Vaio brands in September. However, contrary to the industry optimism, some consumer players are lying low this festive season. This is being attributed to the cliché – ‘The rest of the world catches a cold when the US economy sneezes’. The awry rupee-dollar balance is taking a toll on some consumer durables players.

G Ravindran Reddy, Assistant Manager - Marketing, JVC, said, “We are just resorting to demo activities at branch levels. We are in a negative profitability stage, so to speak, and hence, we are concentrating our resources on the awareness of the JVC technology amongst our prospective customers. We are roughly investing 1.5 per cent of our marketing budget on the festive season. We intend to launch a new series of camcorders during the New Year.”

Pradeep Bakshi, VP - Operations, Voltas Ltd, said, “We are coming up with an exchange offer for our 3-Star split AC. Priced at Rs 28,490, the AC will be available for Rs 19,990 in the exchange offer.”

Also read:

Consumer durables offer ‘real value’ vis-à-vis freebies this festive season

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